CURRENT_MEETING_REPORT_ Reported by Ellen Hoffman/Merit Minutes of the Network Training Materials Working Group (TRAINMAT) Agenda o Review of Updated Charter, Introduction of Chairs. o Review and Discuss Catalog of Training Materials. o Top Node-style Template for Collecting Training Information. o Identify Documents/Materials that Need to be Produced. o Liaisons with Other Groups. o Training Activities by Working Group Members. Thirty people attended the Working Group session to discuss training. This is the first official meeting of the Group following a BOF at the last IETF. Review of Updated Charter, Introduction of Chairs Jill Foster described changes to the Charter based on the discussions at the BOF held during the previous IETF meeting. Dates for production of a guide to training materials were adjusted to represent current projections. The Group agreed to continue to use the us-wg@nnsc.nsf.net mailing list rather than creating a new one. Jill described her role heading ISUS in Europe and its relationship to this Working Group, which is a joint RARE/IETF initiative. She also described the ITTI Network Training Materials Project which she supervises, and distributed copies of their latest efforts. These are available via Anonymous FTP from mailbase.ac.uk in the /pub/itti-networks directory. Jill also described a two-year project to train subject specialists and tailor training materials for that Group. Ellen Hoffman described projects discussed at the Coalition for Networked Information meeting in the working group on Teaching and Learning, noting that end user training had recently been added to this Group's responsibilities within CNI. Review and Discuss Catalog of Training Materials The ITTI Training Project cataloging effort is over, but Jill recommended that it become the basis for this Group's document on training materials. The Group will focus on developing an FYI RFC on training materials, and agreed to work with the User Documents Revisions Working Group so as not to duplicate efforts in documenting materials. Jodi Chu and Jerry Martin agreed to assist in this cataloging effort. CNIDR agreed to house a database of training materials to make it easier to maintain and update the listings. 1 Top Node-style Template for Collecting Training Information Jill noted she had been working with the CNI Top Node project as well as others (NIR, IAFA) to further develop a template for describing training materials. She showed a recent version, and comments were made to improve the template. Jill will make these changes. The template will become an appendix to the FYI RFC so others can use it. One area the Group agreed to work on was a controlled list of ``Subject Headings.'' Lenore Jackson and Jennifer Sellers volunteered to help finalize these by looking at other projects, such as ERIC, that catalog training materials. Identify Documents/Materials that Need to be Produced Jill described the latest developments of the ITTI training project, which include a survey that was distributed, a basic training program done in PowerPoint that was available through the mailbase.ac.uk server along with speaker notes, and evaluation sheets. These can be used and modified by others doing training. Michael Mealling described several examples where MUDs are being used for training. He gave an example of one for biochemists which includes a link to Gopher. Jennifer Sellers described MUSE based training projects. Jane Smith is collecting examples of MUSE based teaching projects. Jill led a discussion of current needs for network training, which focused on the need for on-line training. Also discussed was the problem of overloading network resources when a large class tries to access a server en masse. Suggestions were made for client/server based training programs as one solution to this. This area was identified as one for potential future focus of the TRAINMAT Working Group. Jill also discussed the potential of Internet Talk Radio as a possible means of distributing training. Liaisons with Other Groups The Group discussed methods for distributing training information, noting that often mail groups become ``noisy'' so it becomes hard to sort out information. Susan Harris and Jane Smith volunteered to work out ways to summarize discussions and use the mailing list to send it out to the Working Group members. Training Activities by Working Group Members The Group discussed a project at the University of Newcastle, UK, to catalog training materials and agreed to use this work as the basis for an informational RFC on training materials. Jill Foster lead the discussion on a template to be used to catalog the materials. The template has been developed based on input from several other projects, including the Networked Information Retrieval and Internet Anonymous FTP Archives Working Groups, and the Coalition for Networked Information's 2 Top Node. The Group had open discussions on what is needed in training materials and what projects are being worked on. The Group agreed to work on an informal posting system to the User Services Working Group mailing list to share information about training aimed at trainers. (This Working Group is a joint project with RARE ISUS). Attendees Robert Beer r-beer@onu.edu Al Broscius broscius@bellcore.com Susan Calcari calcaris@cerf.net Corinne Carroll ccarroll@bbn.com Jodi-Ann Chu jodi@uhunix.uhcc.hawaii.edu Naomi Courter naomi@concert.net Brent Curtiss bcurtiss@magnuss.ocs.ohio-state.edu Mark Davis-Craig mad@merit.edu Dale Dougherty dale@ora.com Sallie Fellows sallie@ed.unh.edu Jill Foster Jill.Foster@newcastle.ac.uk Marcello Frutig frutig@rnp.impa.br Jim Fullton Jim.Fullton@cnidr.org Maria Gallagher maria@nsipo.nasa.gov Greg Gicale gicale@ohio.gov Martyne Hallgren martyne@nr-tech.cit.cornell.edu Susan Harris srh@umich.edu Ellen Hoffman ellen@merit.edu Susan Horvath shorvath@merit.edu Lenore Jackson jackson@nsipo.arc.nasa.gov Ronald Lanning lanning@netltm.cats.ohiou.edu Hock-Koon Lim lim@po.cwru.edu April Marine april@atlas.arc.nasa.gov Jerry Martin jerry+@osu.edu Michael Mealling michael@fantasy.gatech.edu Cynthia Mills cmills@bbn.com Mark Prior mrp@itd.adelaide.edu.au Joyce K. Reynolds jkrey@isi.edu Francois Robitaille francois.robitaille@crim.ca Jennifer Sellers sellers@nsipo.nasa.gov Jane Smith Jane.Smith@cnidr.org Craig Todd ctodd@desire.wright.edu Chris Weider clw@merit.edu Richard Wiggins wiggins@msu.edu 3