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The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
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Tuesday, March 10, 2015 — 3

Pollack said in conjunction 

with this pilot, DIAG is also con-
ducting discussions about Can-
vas with University academic 
units in anticipation of a more 
formal recommendation.

“At the end of the winter 

semester, (DIAG) will make 
a recommendation about the 
scope and about the pace of 
moving forward,” Pollack said. 
“And then we’ll have more pilots 
over the summer.”

DIAG’s February report on 

the Fall 2014 pilot found that 
most users reported positive 
outcomes.

Among the 33 instructors 

and 3,000 students in the fall 
pilot, 75 percent of faculty and 
58 percent of students involved 
in the pilot preferred Canvas to 
CTools, according to the report.

One issue with larger classes, 

namely Statistics 250, was cited: 
the size of the class caused the sys-
tem to freeze, and in some cases, 
instructors were unable to upload 
grades for every student. How-
ever, the report concluded that the 
concern could be resolved.

Information Prof. Barry Fish-

man, DIAG co-chair, said there 
were several key distinctions 
between CTools and Canvas.

CTools runs through servers 

that are housed at the Univer-
sity. Canvas, on the other hand, 
lives in the cloud computing sys-
tem and is managed externally 
by a consortium of universities 
called Unizin, of which the Uni-
versity is a founding member.

Unizin is designed to create an 

open platform for universities to 
work together on furthering digi-
tal education initiatives and shar-
ing content — the first step being 
Canvas. Universities pay fees to 
keep the platform running.

“It’s sort of a priority shift 

for the institution I think — to 
say yes, we’re going to be in the 
business of great teaching and 
learning, supported by great 
technology, but not necessar-
ily in the business of keeping 

that technology running every 
day, which was the case with 
CTools,” Fishman said.

He added that when another 

group is managing a school’s 
learning environment and tech-
nology, an issue of ease versus 
control arises. Because of the 
collaborative nature of Unizin, 
this concern is less of an issue.

“When 
you’re 
purchasing 

services from someone else, you 
automatically have less control 
over that environment,” Fish-
man said. “That’s where Unizin 
comes in. So if we’re one cus-
tomer of infrastructure using 
Canvas, then we’re just one 
customer — and we’re a big cus-
tomer — but we’re not a majority 
customer.”

Pollack said through Unizin, 

and tools like Canvas, more col-
laboration is possible.

“Unizin was created in large 

part to be sure the universities 
lead and influence digital edu-
cation in the future,” she said. 
“(It’s) being created in such a 
way that we can use tools like 
Canvas, but with interfaces so 
we’d own the data and they 
pass through these interfaces to 
these other tools.”

She added that the choice to 

consider alternate options to 
CTools wasn’t motivated by fis-
cal reasons.

For faculty, Fishman said, 

there were several advantages to 
Canvas — namely, additional fea-
tures, such as SpeedGrader, which 
he said streamlined grading far 
beyond CTools’ capabilities.

“We look for seamlessness,” 

he said. “You want the differ-
ent pieces of the environment to 
feel like they were built to work 
together and that it’s easy for 
you to integrate various tools, 
and Canvas seems to support 
that as well.”

He added that there were also 

other possibilities beyond the 
direct features, such as the capa-
bility to partner with other Big 
Ten schools or other institutions 
around the nation to share data, 
or use Massive Open Online 
Courses.

However, not all students see 

the need for the updated learn-
ing platform.

LSA 
sophomore 
Krysten 

Dorfman said unless there is an 
advantage she has not found, 
CTools and Canvas are fairly 
similar.

“I never had any issues with 

CTools, so I don’t see any partic-
ular need for Canvas right now,” 
Dorfman said. “The design is 
cleaner and the interface is a lit-
tle more organized, but nothing 
noticeably special. It keeps all 
of our assignments in one place 
and lets us know when they are 
due, but so does CTools.”

Engineering 
junior 
Brian 

Esch said while the interface of 
Canvas is nicer, it doesn’t seem to 
do anything that CTools can’t do.

“The only thing that annoys 

me is having to switch between 
the two sites for all of my cours-
es,” Esch said. “I would prefer 
that one site would have all of 
my courses.”

So far, Fishman and Pollack 

said, the pilot processes have 
been smooth. However, both 
noted that there will be some 
transition concerns.

“One of the things I need to 

worry about in any transition 
is for faculty. If you invest in a 
lot of energy in building your 
course material on CTools, how 
could we make that transition 
from CTools to Canvas as easy 
as possible or completely auto-
matic,” he said.

Pollack said there were plans 

to aid faculty’s transition, should 
the switch occur, especially 
when it comes to moving mate-
rial stored on CTools to Canvas.

Overall, Fishman said a suc-

cessful transition requires that 
instructors make the most of 
any new platform.

“Learning management sys-

tems don’t lend themselves to 
feats of derring-do,” he said. 
“They’re the plumbing. Good 
teachers are doing the normally 
good things that they’re doing 
around here. Particularly excit-
ing teachers, I have seen no way 
in which Canvas is holding them 
back. It’s not about Canvas, it’s 
about what you do with it.”

CANVAS
From Page 1

RITA MORRIS/Daily

E. Royster Harper, vice president for Student Life, opens the floor for discussion at the March Fireside Chat with 
University President Mark Schlissel in the Michigan League on Monday.

DAVID SONG/Daily

Kinesiology sophomore Kamaria Washington practices actively internalizing her day during the Dance and Identity 
workshop at the Trotter Multicultural Center on Monday.

“I think everything we do 

here should be educational,” 
Schlissel said. “But, when you 
cross some kind of line to behav-
ior that I think would be char-
acterized as criminal behavior, 
then the balance between pun-
ishment and education changes 
a little bit. And I think that’s an 
important aspect of education, 
too.”

Schlissel said there has been 

discussion about delaying rush 
by at least one semester to allow 
students to form friendships 
outside of Greek life. However, 
the idea has been met with resis-
tance from those who say it will 
encourage more open parties 
during the first semester.

LSA sophomore Matt Fidel, 

The Team’s candidate for CSG 
vice president who attended the 
chat, said he thought the prob-
lem of students struggling to 
form a broad array of friendships 
stretches beyond Greek life.

“I think the problem here is 

that people come to campus and 
they immediately self-select, so 
it’s very easy to put the blame on 
Greek life and frats in general,” 
Fidel said. “But I think that, like 
you said, 80 percent of students 
aren’t in Greek life, but they still 
self-select.”

Fidel also presented questions 

to Schlissel about what student 
leaders could do to foster a more 
diverse campus.

“As student leaders what can 

we do to help increase minority 
enrollment?” Fidel said. “I know 
things like on-site admissions 
and pipeline programs get talk-
ed about a lot … I want to hear 
what your opinions on programs 
like that are.”

Though Schlissel acknowl-

edged that outreach programs 
are important, he said student 
leaders should focus on creating 
a more welcoming campus.

“What else can we do togeth-

er so that you can honestly say 
to a student from an underrep-
resented group, ‘Hey, you could 
fit in here, you could learn here, 
you could be respected here,’?” 
he said.

However, Schlissel said it is 

important for the University to 
reach out to in-state students 
who come from communities 
that do not see the University 
as accessible. He said he plans 
to visit high schools in places 
like Detroit, Grand Rapids and 
Kalamazoo to invite local stu-
dents to apply to the University.

“This is their university, this 

is the state of Michigan’s uni-
versity, and they should feel as 
much ownership and as much 
right to apply, and be considered 
and to come here as anybody 
else,” he said.

Several students voiced con-

cerns about the quality of life 
on North Campus, a complaint 
which Schlissel said he has dis-
cussed at nearly every fireside 
chat to date.

“The residential life is in the 

midst of a 10- or 15-year effort 
to really upgrade residential life, 
living and eating on campus,” he 
said. “The next frontier is the 
North Campus.”

Schlissel said the next meet-

ing of the University’s Board 
of Regents will devote time to 
focusing on how to improve resi-
dential life on North Campus.

“The ultimate goal is to make 

the North Campus as dense and 
vibrant as the Central Campus, 
and to have the businesses sur-
rounding North Campus sort of 
grow up in a way that living up 
there won’t require you to be 
down here to socialize,” he said.

E. Royster Harper, vice presi-

dent for student life, who also 
participated in the discussion, 
addressed the on-campus hous-
ing shortages that have plagued 
the University for several years 
due to large incoming freshman 
classes.

Harper said the renovations 

to residential communities on 
campus are part of the effort to 
alleviate the housing shortage 
problem.

The problem tends to affect 

upperclassmen who want to 
live on campus after their fresh-
man year. In recent years, many 
upperclassmen applying for on-
campus housing are given the 
Northwood apartments as their 
only residential option.

“The design is not to have 

anyone 
in 
Northwood 
that 

doesn’t want to be in Northwood 
because it doesn’t create the 
sense of community,” she said.

FIRESIDE
From Page 1

of the dance company to interact 
with a variety of students off the 
stage.

“We 
wanted 
Abraham.

In.Motion to be able to interact 
on a level that extends beyond 
the typical performance audi-
ence, which is usually comprised 
of only performing arts majors” 
she said. “We wanted to make 
sure the rest of the student body 
could also benefit from the com-

pany’s visit.”

She also said thinking care-

fully about one’s identity is a key 
element to success at college and 
in the years that follow.

“The University is fostering 

the next generation of leaders,” 
she said. “We call ourselves the 
Leaders and Best, and in order 
to be the best leaders, we need 
to have a strong sense of who we 
are.”

Neal also said understand-

ing your own identity is vital to 
understanding others.

“I don’t think you can real-

ly tell somebody else about 
themselves unless you know 
yourself,” he said. “If we take 
more time to look at ourselves 
and gain a clear understanding 
of our own ideas, we can then 
navigate the perspectives of 
others.”

Overall, Neal said he hopes 

participants left the event with a 
story to pass along to others.

“Even if they leave and share 

negative experiences with oth-
ers, bringing up these types of 
issues is important in building a 
better society,” he said.

DANCE
From Page 1

in an e-mail interview.

Co-clinical 
directors 
David 

Keren, professor of pathology and 
director of the Division of Clinical 
Pathology, and Scott Owens, asso-
ciate professor of pathology and 
medical director of professional 
practice evaluation, worked with 
Blue Cross Blue Shield for approx-
imately 18 months to develop the 
program.

“We want to see how genetic 

tests are currently being conduct-
ed by physicians around the state 
of Michigan, how they compare 
with national guidelines around 
the state and working with hospi-
tals around the state,” Keren said.

The collaborative is one of 21 

Collaborative Quality Initiatives 
at the University that help teach 
hospitals and clinics how to pre-
vent complications and improve 
patient outcomes.

Blue Cross Blue Shield devel-

ops the CQIs to help hospitals 
save money and improve their 
surgical and testing procedures. 
Keren said he believes the pur-
pose of the CQIs is to respond to 
problems physicians might face 
around the state.

“The idea isn’t to tell the people 

of Michigan what to do but listen 
to what’s going on,” Keren said. 
“It is to sit together and listen to 
people across the state and cre-
ate guidelines. Then we look at 
outcomes to see if adherence to 
those guidelines actually makes a 
difference.”

Blue Cross Blue Shield con-

tacted the University Department 
of Pathology and collaborated to 
create the consortium. Owens 
said he believes the collabora-
tion lays the foundation for how 
people will continue to do genetic 
testing in Michigan.

“Ideally, it’ll benefit patients 

and make sure that the right 
tests are being done for the right 
patient at the right time,” Owens 
said. “Then once they get the test 
done, they can get the right fol-
low-up help for both themselves 
and their families.”

Keren and Owens traveled 

around Michigan to collect infor-
mation on how clinicians perform 
genetic testing. They inquired 
how often the physicians con-
ducted testing and how they 
would use the results. While their 
research found large discrepan-
cies from clinic to clinic, Keren 
said he hopes this initiative will 
help testing become more uni-
form throughout the state.

“The goal is to make it ratio-

nal so that everyone is following 
the same guidelines that have 
been established,” Keren said. 
“Hopefully it’ll rein in the costs 
of testing, and give opportunity to 
people to see what is the best way 
to help people clinically.”

The collaborative will start 

with the breast cancer associated 
BRCA gene testing, which detects 
mutations in breast cancer sus-
ceptibility genes. Owens said 
since the test is well-known and 
performed often, it will be a clear 
test of where discrepancies lie in 
the system.

“We’ll use BRCA to set up our 

process of gathering this infor-
mation,” he said. “The physician 
organizations and laboratories 
and so on that join the collabora-
tive will be the ones that together 
have meetings and decide how to 
move forward from there.”

Owens said the results will be 

used to improve the initiative for 
future gene testing.

“We’ll be looking at evidence 

with an eye to figure out if it tests 
exactly what we think its going 
to test, and then we’ll look at the 
clinical validity,” he said.

Physicians will then use this 

information to critically look at 
and develop new guidelines for 
genetic testing.

“We’re going to start with this 

test and ask: what is the current 
practice across the state?” Keren 
said. “We will work together with 
national organizations to create 
educational material to see if we 
can improve the practice across 
the state.”

After experimenting with the 

BRCA test, the collaborative will 
focus on other types of genetic 
testing.

“We’re going to be doing this 

with many different tests over the 
years,” Keren said. “What these 
hospitals are going to be doing 
that are working with us is sitting 
on our committees and deciding 
which tests we should be looking 
at. They help us decide how to 
create educational materials that 
would be appropriate for physi-
cians in hospitals or practices.”

GENETICS
From Page 1

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