Please consider the following potential charge:

Examine the various types of online instructional software (courseware) being utilized by different departments and units at the University.  What are the consequences of using a growing number of different courseware products--sometimes even within an individual course--for faculty, staff and students?  Determine whether the University should decide upon and use a standard courseware product.

Rationale: This charge comes on the heels of a growing use of online courseware by various departments and units within the University.  For example, the Rutgers Army ROTC, FAS language departments, and the SMLR uses Digiclass (http://digiclass.rutgers.edu/), which complements another web-based program, WebCT (http://webct.rutgers.edu).  Other departments use Rutgers Online (http://www.rutgersonline.net/) or WebAssign (http://www.webassign.net/).  Faculty are being encouraged to develop their own courseware on their webpages.  I am concerned that if the University does not take steps now to examine these practices that it could quickly get out of control to the detriment of faculty, staff and students.  There are already departments that have two different courseware products that everyone must learn how to use, and it is not hard to imagine that everyone will increasingly be forced to deal with multiple programs for individual courses, each more cumbersome than the last.  It is time for the University to take pre-emptive action and decide upon some standards, whether those be custom, self-designed systems or external products.

Thank you.

Tom DeRosa