The CSU Center for Distributed Learning (CDL) and the Community of Academic Technology Staff (CATS) are pleased to announce the 2002/2003 round of TIGERS grants:

Participants	Title
Rachel Smith    CSU CDL Jay Rees    CSU San Marcos	IDEA Group Part II: Evaluators & Evaluations Abstract: This proposal is for continued funding for the Interface Design Evaluation & Assessment (IDEA) project funded in last year's TIGERS cycle. That funding supported the training of more than 20 CSU academic technology staff in heuristic design (websties and software) and the development of training and other materials. The project team has been awarded additional funding to develop specialized training for a core group of evaluators that will be available to assess designs submitted from throughout the CSU, and to creat online materials to support this group.
Candace Egan    CSU Fresno Paul Nozicka    CSU Sacromento Joan Van Duzer    Humboldt State AnneMarie Johnson Univ. of Wisconsin,Oshkosh	Web Accessibilitity Learning Modules Abstract: Web accessibility is a real and growing concern to the CSU campuses, which are relying more and more heavily on the Web for providing courseware and campus information. Making web pages accessible requires training. This project will develop modular training materials that can be used directly by faculty, staff and students, or by campus trainers on how to integrate accessibility into their web pages.
Tonia Malone    Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Crista Copp    CSU Long Beach Shari Shelton    San Diego State Terry Smith    CSU Hayward	Training and Support Materials for Blackboard Version 6.0 Abstract: Currently 18 CSU campuses license the Blackboard course management system software. Version 6 is being released this summer, necessitating that campuses change their training and support materials. Creation of new training materials is time consuming and, due to the late release date, some campuses may not be able to complete the process before the start of fall semester. This multi-campus project team will create standardized training materials for the upgraded software for use by all campuses, including Tutorials, What's New, and FAQs for both faculty and students.
Jeniffer Wellington    CSU Hayward Anne Judd    CSU Hayward Penny Peterson    CSU Long Beach Jeff Senge    CSU Fullerton Mary Cheng    CSU Hayward	E-Text Website Research Project: A Collaborative Effort of Information Technology and Disability Services Professionals Abstract: There is an increasing need for testbooks in e-text to accomodate students who are visually impaired or have other learning or physical disabilities that preclude them from using standard print texts. Federal and state laws mandate that enrolled CSU students with print disabbilities must be provided equal access to instructional materials, which can require the production of textbooks in e-text, Braille or large print. In addition to the expense involved, individual campuses have expressed concern that such production is not in a coherent or strategic fashion vis a vis operations, planning and budgeting. This multi-campus project will research the feasibility of establishing a secure website to archive and distribute e-text files of text books across the CSU system.
Jeniffer Wellington    CSU Hayward	Mining California's Gold: CSU's Student Assistants: Information and Instructional Technology's Best Kept Secret Abstract: Supporting Information and Instructional Technology on all of the CSU campuses is a challenge. Budget cuts to already traditionally-under-funded technology support programs have impacted the ability of adademic technology staff to develop programs and applications, complete projects and meet deadlines. AT staff have come to rely on the contributions of technology student assistants. Ms. Wellington will conduct regional workshops to address issues regarding the "care and feeding" of student assistants in the Instructional or Information Technology areas.
Laura Hudson    San Diego State	Building a Community Portal of Library Learning Resources Abstract: Librarians hav e veen involved with categorizing and organizing Web resources since the advent of the technology. At the same time, they have become increasingly concerned that information competence skills be taught in the undergraduate curriculum, which is being addressed on the campuses as well as at a systemwide level.This project will explore current and future use of MERLOT by CSU librarians under the assumption that MERLOT shows prmoise as a portal for organizing Web resources as well as being a tool to promot information competence.
Candace Egan    CSU Freson	Web Accessibility: Know Your Users Video Abstract: A key component to the development of expertise in making accessible Web pages is an understanding of how disabled users experience the Web and the assitive technologies they use. Without such understanding, Web developers are limited in their ability to effectively address the real problems and concerns of the disabled. This project will help Web developers gain this understanding. The grant will help fund the completion of a video featuring disabled users demonstrating how they use assistive technologies to access the Web and provide examples of problems they face with Web pages. The intended audience for this video include CSU Web developers, IT staff, faculty producing online learning materials, staff, and students learning Web design.