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Policies and Procedures

 

 

Below are recommendations for an initial set of Policies and Procedures for the NANSLO RDN.  It is the NANSLO Board's (NB) responsibility to put these and other Policies and Procedures in place through a majority vote of the NB.  Only then will these Policies and Procedures or whatever version of them that the NB sees fit to pass come into effect.

 

 

NANSLO Policies (recommended)

 

1) NANSLO supports the free and open dissemination of educational course-ware and materials.  A condition of the funding that created RWSL and NANSLO in the first place was that all educational products must be openly licensed under the Creative Commons.  Therefore all products of the NANSLO RDN will continue to be produced under a Creative Commons License (The type of CC license should be defined more precisely when this policy is passed.)  To this end, the NANSLO team will maintain Creative Commons information and provide help to participating institutions in licensing their curricula and RWSL related products with a Creative Commons license.

 

1a) NANSLO will maintain a thorough and up-to-date website detailing every aspect of the NANSLO organization including its policies, procedures, the services it provides, and contact information.

 

1b) The NB will support an annual conference and meeting to be hosted on a rotating basis at one of the NANSLO participating or interested institutions each year.  This conference and meeting will:

i) serve as a venue for annual face-to-face meetings of all NANSLO Governance bodies (See Governance and Management)

ii) serve as a venue to showcase the various accomplishments and activities of NANSLO RDN participating institutions

iii) serve as a venue to explore changes and advances in the field of remote lab delivery.  All institutions and groups world wide that are engaged in remote lab delivery are encouraged to attend and present their activities here.

iv) serve as a venue to explore changes and advances in the field of remote lab pedagogy.  All institutions and groups world wide that are engaged in remote lab delivery are encouraged to attend and present their activities here.

Conference and meeting schedules and content will be maintained on the NANSLO RDN website.

 

 

2) Based on recommendations from participating institutions, the NB may levy a membership fee for all participating institutions.  The amount of the fee may be graduated depending on the Tier that an institution is participating at.  This fee will be used to cover the NANSLO RDN consortium's operating and administrative costs.

 

3) Based on recommendations from participating institutions, a per hour usage fee may be levied for the use of the NANSLO RDN Remote Lab Services (RLS).  This fee will be used to cover the cost of serving RLS to user institutions.

 

4) Based on recommendations from participating institutions, a per hour compensation price will be set by the NB so that serving institutions can be paid for the RLS they provide to the NANSLO RDN and its members.

 

5) The NANSLO Discipline panels will maintain a set of lab learning outcomes designed to ensure articulation and transfer of all NANSLO produced lab exercise curriculum.  It is recommended that Participating institutions make sure their lab exercise curricula meet these learning outcomes as a minimum standard.  The learning outcomes developed by each DP will be maintained on the NANSLO RDN website.

 

6) The NANSLO RDN welcomes new institutions to join the network in a way that suits their needs,  There will be a clear Procedure defined and maintained that will facilitate the inclusion of new NANSLO RDN partners.

a) Contact and Orientation information must be made available through the NANSLO website and be available to easily e-mail to interested people and institutions along with instructions for scheduling lab demos and Sandbox tours.

 

7) Based on recommendations from participating institutions, the NANSLO RDN will maintain a set of technical standards that all participating institutions will adhere to so that support across the network is congruent with the equipment and software used. 

 

8) The NANSLO RDN will maintain a centralized scheduling system that will allow students from participating institutions to schedule with other institutions (depending on remote lab service availability and the agreements their institution has made with the NANSLO RDN) to seamlessly serve RLS to students across the network regardless of the RWSL node they connect to.

 

 

 

Procedures  (recommended) 

Each Procedure here relates to the policy of the same number above:

 

1) No particular procedure is foreseen here

1a) This will require maintaining the staff to support the website.

1b) This will require maintaining the staff to organize this conference.

 

2) Membership Fee Schedule:

Tier 1 Membership Fee: $0.00

Tier 2 Membership Fee: $xxxx.xx*

Tier 3 Membership Fee: $yyyyy.yy

Tier 4 Membership Fee: $yyyyy.yy

 

*It is suggested that Tier 2 institutions should pay a significantly smaller membership fee than Tier 3 and 4 institutions.

 

3) The RLS hourly usage fee will be $iii.ii/hour to be paid to the NANSLO RDN for RLS received from the network.**

 

4) The NANSLO RDN will pay serving institutions $jjj.jj/hour for RLS they serve to the network.**

 

**NOTE - These hourly fees could be adjusted according to the type of lab being used or served.  However it is recommended that $iii.ii/hr > $jjj.jj by some 'small' differential to maintain a positive balance in favor of the NANSLO RDN.  In April we discussed an hourly usage fee ($iii.ii) of $100.00/hour to $120.00/hour.

 

5) No particular procedure is foreseen here

 

6) Procedure to explore and join the NANSLO RDN:

a) Contact and Orientation :

An individual or institution contacts the office of the RDN Coordinator  and makes their wish to learn more about NANSLO RDN remote lab services.  The RDN Coordinator's Office responds with information as described in the:

Process for Becoming a Member of the NANSLO RDN

The RDN Coordinators Office also extends an invitation to take part in an RWSL lab demo and a Sandbox Tour.

 

b) Exploration (Tier 1):

With a request to Explore from an institution the RDN Coordinator's Office will respond with additional information as described in:

Process for Becoming a Member of the NANSLO RDN

The RDN Coordinator's Office will also offer to schedule hands-on access to an RWSL Lab and the Sandbox for faculty and IT people.  The institution will be expected to pay the hourly usage fee to cover the cost of operation for these services.

 

c) Pilot and Small Scale Usage (Tier 2):

The institution will request a Tier 2 Pilot and Small Scale Usage Membership. For this they will sign an appropriate Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and be charged a reduced membership fee and receive the services and privileges outlined in:

Process for Becoming a Member of the NANSLO RDN

 

d) Network User (Tier 3):

The institution will request a Tier 3 Network User Membership.  For this they will sign an appropriate MOU and be charged a full membership fee and receive the services and privileges outlined in:

Process for Becoming a Member of the NANSLO RDN

 

e) Network Provider (Tier 4):

The institution will request a Tier 4 Network Provider Membership and demonstrate its ability and capacity to serve remote lab services to the NANSLO RDN.  For this they will sign an appropriate MOU and be charged a full membership fee and receive the services and privileges outlined in:

Process for Becoming a Member of the NANSLO RDN

 

f) RWSL Lab Developer:

The institution will demonstrate its ability and capacity to develop new RWSL Labs.  The RDN Coordinator's Office will place the institution on a list of RWSL Lab Developers.  The institutions on this list will be solicited with calls for proposals to develop new RWSL Labs as needs arise and funds become available.  RWSL Lab Developer institutions will compete for the contracts to develop new RWSL Labs for the NANSLO RDN.  All work done under these contracts will be done 'in the open' with the requirement that all products will be distributed freely under a creative commons license. (See policy 1 above.)

 

7) No particular procedure is foreseen here

 

8) The procedure to integrate an institution's scheduling system with the NANSLO RDN central Scheduling System:

This procedure will have to be established when a central scheduling solution is implemented.

 

 

    

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