Comments on: Meet the I Team

By: Ben Chamberlain

Ben Chamberlain — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:14:26 +0000

Thanks, Erica. We have our Nutrition Education 123 online course on Angel right now. Of course, with the possibility that MSU may move away from Angel, we were thinking of trying it out with Moodle. However, it contains a lot of MSUE developed documents and video presentations that we would want to only be on a secured server under MSU’s control. So, as you get a better idea of how this could be arranged, please keep me in the loop!

By: Erica Ciupak

Erica Ciupak — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:01:15 +0000

Ben,
Thanks for this question. MSU does have a cloud computing policy, which outlines some ground rules for using non-MSU owned servers, including Google Docs. The most important thing is that we read and understand any End User License Agreement (EULA) before putting MSU Intellectual Property (IP) in the “cloud”. Since this is an ever changing area, ANR Technology Services has been reviewing needs and requests to help determine what is safe and what is not. In Molly’s case, no MSU IP was being uploaded, so it is a very good use of Moodle. I (and others) will be reviewing the MSUE contract with eXtension to see how Moodle might work with our IP in the future. Please let me know if I can be of further help in clarifying.

By: Bill Shane

Bill Shane — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:55:21 +0000

Thanks for the contact information for Jerry. The issue is that the areas of expertise topics are too broad for my specialty–I am suggesting via Jerry the addition of more subcategories.

By: Michelle Rodgers

Michelle Rodgers — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 03:08:01 +0000

Bill:
By chance, did you attend either of the eXtension adobe connect sessions last week. Jerry Thomas showed some details about ask the expert and how you can set it to further screen what questions you will answer. Jerry can be reached at Jerold Thomas [thomas.69@cfaes.osu.edu]

By: Michelle Rodgers

Michelle Rodgers — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 03:03:29 +0000

Thanks, Linda. I’m glad that this has been positive and useful. It is my understanding that the Managing in Tough Times information is a collection of information from extension all over the country and is not necessarily peer reviewed but is available particularly to help internally educator to educator . Hopefully, this leads to other great resources you can use.

By: Coral Beth Rowley

Coral Beth Rowley — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:24:07 +0000

I needed to edit my comment: I used eXtension to give an inquirer information on whether some tomatoes with “spots” or perhaps blight could be safely canned as long as they were not “spoiled”. I believe the sweet potato question was answered by entering a general search on computer which brought up some extension sites in other states.

By: Bill Shane

Bill Shane — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:59:59 +0000

This comment has perhaps been stated by others. I have participated as an “expert” answering questions from the public. My biggest frustration is that the categories of expertise are too broad–I will answer questions about fruit, my area of expertise, but am not qualified to answer questions about growing herbs, cold frames, etc. If I am sent a question out of my field (which happens frequently), I supposedly have the obligation to find someone else who can. I suggest that “experts” be allowed to specify in detail with a one or two line description what categories of questions they will answer.

By: Coral Beth Rowley

Coral Beth Rowley — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:48:49 +0000

I just used eXtension in the last couple of weeks to look up information for some people who called for information that I could not find using the MSU Extension Portal “knowledge base”. One was a question on how long eggs gathered right from the chickens on his farm could be kept and since I was not sure whether this time was different from the times we teach when they are purchased at the store I used eXtension to find out. Another was a question on harvesting of sweet potatoes. I got excellent answers with additional helpful material from other Extension services. The service is very easy to use; it was easy to figure out where I needed to go and what I needed to do to get answers to my questions.

By: Ben Chamberlain

Ben Chamberlain — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:12:47 +0000

Hi Guys,
I attended Molly Frendo’s lunch meeting on Moodle and have been playing a bit. During the discussion she mentioned Google.docs (sp?) is not appropriate because the documents get hosted on a server that is not owned by MSU and is out of our network. I understand if we use Moodle with eXtension, our data is not hosted on an MSU server and is outside of the MSU network. Aren’t we in risk with Copyright issues??? How are we getting around not hosting our data on a Non-MSU owned server? Thanks!!

By: Dennis Pennington

Dennis Pennington — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:51:47 +0000

I am the leader of the feedstocks team for the Sustainable Ag Energy Community of Practice. Our team is developing pages on bioenergy including ethanol, biodiesel, production practices, processing, energy conservation and biogas. Sign into eXtension, then go to http://cop.extension.org/wiki/Sustainable_Ag_Energy_Content. Let me know if you have any questions or would like to be part of the team.