The comments of Forum participants were recorded to guide the Faculty Assembly, and General Administration, Academic Affairs and Information Resources divisions, in faculty development initiatives. In the first section, the comments are presented in the order in which they were made. In the second section, the comments are described in a summary statement and organized by themes.

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Section I: Comments recorded in the order they were made.

Prompt: “What would you like to learn about in this forum?”

· Ensure the technology keeps the “human” dimension in education and the necessary skills.

· Machines don’t teach; teachers teach – maintain the appropriate balance.

· Plans for system-wide course management

· Issues of copyright and other legal issues

· System-wide intra-disciplinary database (tie to national and international sources)

· Mechanism for recognizing new technology and filtering it to the faculty

· Standards for course development

· Assessment tools and standards, assessment for outcomes

· Learning outcomes when using technology

· Assessment of instruction for distance education courses

· Strategies for instructional design in different disciplines

· Budgeting strategies, i.e., how to get the money you need

· Academic affairs coordination

· Effective models for supporting faculty use of IT

· GA’s plans in distance education and its relationship to campus plans

· Infrastructure for smaller institutions (physical, financial, organizational, training)

· Develop or buy -- how do you know which to do?

· Recognition and rewards

Later in the agenda, participants were invited to add comments or queries that had occurred to them during the course of the forum.

· What is the role of faculty in policy/strategies on campuses?

· Can we accelerate the planning process for graduate programs?

· What is the status of coordination between UNC and the CCs on IT in administration?

· Why not have UNC engage in common hosting (distributed network hosting)?

· Can we plan to enhance and utilize all 16 campuses?

· Does IT strategy affirm the role of teacher?

Section II. Comments organized by theme

Themes 1 and 2 express concern about negative effects on teaching and learning caused by the use of technology. In theme 3 faculty request the tools and training for becoming successful in IT-mediated teaching and learning. Theme 4 illustrates the cognizance of faculty that IT strategies cannot be financed by traditional budgeting mechanisms or sources, and that the faculty reward structure needs to be responsive to the demands of IT teaching and learning. Theme 5 calls upon GA to provide coordination and ensure that constituent institutions are involved.

1. The role of the teacher