February 26, 2025

Minutes

New Discussions, Projects, or Initiatives

• Learning Management System (LMS) Review
  • Melba presented to the group on the LMS review that is under way. The contract with Blackboard (BB), our current LMS vendor, is ending, providing NECC with an opportunity to review other LMS platforms. If NECC were to renew with BB, we would be forced to adopt their new Ultra Platform, which would be the equivalent of migrating to a new vendor.   
  • The review is focused on the three major platforms that represent the LMS market: BB Ultra, Canvas, D2L Brightspace.   
  • The Core LMS review team (IT, IR, MIS, CIT) has been looking at each platform closely and is now asking the college at large to provide feedback on the demos which are available on CIT site in NECC One.   
  • The Teaching and Learning team (faculty, library, support staff) will be evaluating the utility of each platform for working directly with students. Anyone interested in learning more about this group or signing up should visit the CIT site in NECC One or reach out to Melba directly. 
  • The Core LMS review team is focusing on the technical specs to look at how the platforms work and how they will integrate with our existing structures.  
  • The goal is to decide on a platform by late April (early May) so that the migration/professional development/onboarding can begin in late summer and continue through the fall and spring semesters. This way, when classes start for AY26/27 the new LMS is in place, and everyone knows how to use it. 

• Americans with Disabilities Act Web Accessibility Requirements
  • Susan and Melba presented on the federal ADA Title II Rules that require public institutions to ensure their services, programs, and activities are accessible to individuals with disabilities. 
  • In April of 2024 new guidance, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG- 2.1), was issued to address accessibility for web content and digital materials. 
  • The new requirements go into effect in April of 2026. 
  • These guidelines will apply to all of the digital content (current and archived) that the college owns and maintains, including both internal and external materials, as well as any third party content (e.g. faculty using course-packs). 
  • There are very few exemptions with specific rules to how they can be utilized. Some examples are archived web content, documents no longer in use by the college, third-party content that is posted independently (e.g., reply on a social media post), password protected documents, pre-existing social media posts, and legal inability due to privacy. 
  • The Accessible Media Team is focused on raising awareness, identifying key stakeholders, and shifting the mindset about inclusion and accessibility to be proactive and not an accommodation after the fact. They have also made a recommendation to hire a specialist who can ensure compliance and offer expert guidance. 
  • Danny gave an example of how IT and procurement are proactively preparing for the new requirements. They have collaborated to add a new process that requires anyone who is looking for new software or vendors to request the vendor’s voluntary product accessibility template (VPAT) as part of the vetting process.  
  • Keith let the group know that Brian H. in MarCom is certified to support content editors with accessibility. Users can work with Brian to make sure that web pages are accessible, and he can help make changes as needed.

• Data Literacy Program
  • Andrew presented an overview of the data literacy trainings that IE, in collaboration with CPD, will be offering this spring with added sessions in the fall.  
  • The trainings are still in development but will likely cover topics such as what data assets are available, practical data tasks, and data-driven decision making.  
  • As part of this initiative, IE will be developing a central data repository for available data assets.  
  • The group suggested that LinkedIn Learning courses could be a resource for people to further their data skills. Andrew confirmed that CPD is looking at curating classes for that.  

Standing Updates

• Cross Campus Data Forum (CCDF)
  • Mike informed the group that there will be a discussion internally at NECC to consider changing the freeze date from early September to November after the Session II no-show date. The freeze refers to a saved snapshot of student data at a certain point in time. This “frozen” data is then used for state and federal reporting.  
  • This change is necessary because of the growth that has occurred in Session II. 
  • The hope is that if the change is made it can go into effect for fall 2025.  
  • Someone asked if there could be two freeze dates. It is possible, but only one can be used for IPEDS and other external reporting for comparisons and assessment over time. 

• IT Update
  • SoftDocs Update
    • Danny informed the group that there is now a SoftDocs page on NECC One off the main IT Services page. This page provides an overview of the progress that IT is making with onboarding departments and form development.
    • This page is an initial step towards a SoftDocs Community Group once more areas are using the product regularly. 
    • Hillary and Joan were a part of the implementation team and were able to help FA get onboarded quickly. Danny hopes to bring more departments in soon. 
    • Hillary is a skilled programmer who is currently developing employee facing forms. There are student facing forms ready for deployment when the time comes, and all the bugs have been worked out. The forms can currently pull information from Banner. They have the capability to put information into Banner also, but that will be further down the line because there are too many unknowns currently.  
    • Danny is hopeful that the forms will work very similarly to DocuSign for contracts, etc. There are still several hiccups that were not anticipated in how the software works. Those hiccups need to be addressed, and Danny is currently trying to sort it out with the vendor. 

• Lifelong Learning Extended Education (EE)/Noncredit Update
  • The non-credit registrar will start on March 10th. 
  • The noncredit group is still having regular meetings with a consultant from Modern Campus about EE, and those meetings have been productive.  

• NECCi and NECC One
  • The process of migrating Data Governance content to NECC One has started. Kirsten will let the group know when it is complete.

Ad-Hoc Group Updates

• HR Data Cleanup 
  • Out of time – tabled until next meeting.

• Software Inventory Group
  • Out of time – tabled until next meeting.

• Texting Platform Research
  • Out of time – tabled until next meeting.

Tabled

• Pre-requisite Cleanup

• Secure Data Sharing and Transfer Practices/Policy

• Veteran Affairs Data Cleanup