taken our MOOCs are outside 
the United States, representing 
over 200 countries,” Finholt 
said. “We also aspire to use our 
MOOCs to reach an important 
domestic audience, which are 
students in community colleges 
who are transfer candidates … 
And (use) MOOCs as a way of 
exploring alternative completion 
of a residential degree.”

Hilton 
then 
moved 
the 

conversation into a dialogue 
on MOOCs and their place 
at the University. Instead of 
a 
dichotomous 
relationship 

between 
offering 
completely 

online courses and face-to-face 
interaction 
with 
professors 

as implemented now, Videka 
said both teaching methods 
can be utilized to provide 
comprehensive educations.

The Masters of Social Work 

program only offers a full-
time option, which includes a 
mandatory 912 credit hours of 
field experience, and Videka said 
many people cannot commit to 
the full-time program. Even now, 
MSW students have demanded 
equitable pay for these field 
hours because they offset time 
students could be working to pay 
for school, rent or food for their 
families.

Videka said online courses 

could both include these students 
who could only complete a part-
time program that currently isn’t 
offered and spur new ideas in the 
full program.

“In some sense, (MOOCs) will 

open a slightly new market but 
the flipside of that is it’s requiring 
us to completely rethink the rest 
of our program,” she said.

Taking into account the field 

experience 
many 
programs 

require at the University, Finholt 
said some MOOCs in the School 
of Information lend themselves 
very well to an autograder 
that can check an assignment 
automatically and show whether 
the student got the question 
correct, but other courses require 
more thought in how to replicate 
a field position.

“How do we deal with this 

problem 
of 
assessing 
(our 

programs) online when so much 

of the pedagogical practice of 
my school is oriented toward 
experiential learning or engaged 
learning where people are doing 
field placements?” Finholt said.

Millunchick said the current 

tendency of MOOCs to be large 
classes can decrease diversity in 
ideas, especially in task-oriented 
fields. She said instead of putting 
one large class on a project, they 
could utilize small, private online 
courses, set 50 smaller classes on 
a project and see a large diversity 
of solutions to the same problem.

Many 
argued 
MOOCs 

puts 
quality 
education 
that 

is 
inaccessible 
to 
some 

communities in their hands, 
provided they had the technology 
to support it. Massey said while 
this is true, the product the 
University already offers, face-
to-face education, will become 
highly coveted.

“(MOOCs) 
democratize 

education but we will, in fact, 
reinforce the prestige value, the 
monetary value of face-to-face 
communities around campuses 
like this one because that will 
become the exception rather 
than the norm,” Massey said.

During 
a 
Q&A 
segment, 

Provost Martin Philbert asked 
the panelists what innovations 
they would take with their 
schools if they had no budgetary 
restrictions. 
While 
specific 

applications in their schools 
varied, 
many 
panelists 
saw 

common characteristics of higher 
education such as expertise 
and curriculums as worthwhile 
targets for innovation.

Finholt 
said 
academic 

institutions across the Big Ten 
conference and worldwide are 
not recognizing where their 
strengths 
are 
nor 
catering 

educational products to those 
strengths. With no monetary 
restrictions, Finholt said students 
could access professionals across 
the country digitally.

“It would be great if we could 

… stop having to teach the things 
we’re not very good at and 
recognize that there are other 
places in the world that are really 
good at teaching those things and 
let our students take those courses 
from those institutions and from 
those instructors,” Finholt said.

Millunchick said the way 

schools in the University such 
as the College of Engineering 

and the Taubman College have 
to 
structure 
their 
students’ 

curriculums so they can graduate 
on time includes taking classes 
certain semesters to align with 
course offerings. Millunchick said 
the University could be utilizing 
technology to help students 
explore their other interests, 
gather necessary knowledge for 
their concentrations and break 
out of locked-in curriculums.

“If 
we 
could 
somehow 

use technology to break that 
curricular demand so that … 
rather than having to follow these 
curriculum locks, students could 
take the curriculum a different 
kind of way,” Millunchick said. 

Rachel Niemer, director of 

the Gameful Learning Lab in the 
Office of Academic Innovation, 
said the summit was designed 
to gear the campus community 
toward thinking forward to what 
the University could achieve.

“I 
think, 
honestly, 
we’re 

heading 
for 
some 
really 

interesting, 
thoughtful 

conversation 
amongst 
the 

community about what our values 
are and how we’re going to share 
and co-create knowledge with 
the broader community,” Niemer 
said.

Philbert, during his segment, 

noted all of the panelists had come 
from professional backgrounds 
and professional schools and, 
therefore, have a bias toward 
preparing students specifically for 
the workforce.

Matt MacQueen, a lecturer at 

the Center for Entrepreneurship, 
attended the summit and found 
it encouraging to hear people 
critique longstanding institutions 
of higher education. He said while 
LSA was not represented at the 
final panel, the ideas mentioned 
are not limited exclusively to 
professional paths and these tools 
could be available to more liberal 
arts students and faculty.

“I think the opportunities 

in less professionally driven 
programs 
are 
just 
around 

different, more exciting ways 
to learn, less that it has to have a 
concrete, job outcome at the other 
end of it,” MacQueen said. “I 
would be bullish on people in LSA 
thinking about these tools as just 
more engaging ways to get more 
learners and get them thinking in 
different ways than it is, ‘Here’s 
your path to a profession exactly.’ ”

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Wednesday, November 15, 2017 — 3A

caught for cheating but then write 
a response and that being cheating 
… just seems really unfair.”

Harris, on the other hand, was 

asked by a friend if she could send 
her the homework answers. While 
Harris specified that her friend 
should rephrase the answers, her 
friend submitted them as is and 
both were flagged for academic 
dishonesty. 
Harris 
said 
while 

sharing her answer wasn’t a 
completely innocent action, she 
should not be punished to the 
extent that her friend who copied 
the answer was because Harris did 
the homework and her friend did 
not.

“I think that I did make an error 

in the fact that I sent my answer to 
someone,” Harris said. “However, 
I don’t think I should be getting 
the same punishment as someone 
who copied my answer because 
I explicitly stated that she did 
not have permission to copy my 
answer word for word. I do think 
that I kind of cheated, but I don’t 
think to the level of someone who 
just copies something.”

According to Esrold Nurse, LSA 

assistant dean for undergraduate 
education, common misconceptions 
like the ones in Stats 250 are 
reflected in data gathered by the 
Office of the Assistant Dean and 
the LSA Student Academic Affairs 
Office. Data provided by Nurse 
shows 159 of the 305 academic 
integrity violations reported to 
SAA in the 2016-17 school year 
were categorized as unauthorized 
collaboration. In addition, 170 of 
these violations were dealt with 
within the class structure instead 
of through SAA.

Brenda 
Gunderson, 
statistics 

senior lecturer, confirmed this 
large number of unauthorized 
collaboration reports was from 
Stats 250. Now, she said, the 
class utilizes an internal system 
consisting of an email conversation 
between the Stats 250 student and 
the lecturer, and an automatic zero 
when the first instance of academic 
dishonesty appears. She said this 
protocol is meant to teach students 
about the classroom’s expectations 
and then move on with the material.

“We want the students to grow 

from the experience,” Gunderson 
said. “In fact, our response to 
them when they come back and 
say, ‘We’re sorry’; we want it to 
be a teachable moment and so we 
internally say, ‘OK, well then what 
we’ll do is that homework will get a 
score of zero but we drop the lowest 
homework score in the class too, so 
in the end that can be no effect on 
their grade and I don’t keep track 
and have a list of students that have 
had this happen. … We want them 
to know we aren’t going to pass any 
judgement on them for the mistake. 
It’s done. It’s gone.”

For 
Bernstein’s 
situation, 

Gunderson said she encourages 
collaboration but in terms of 
actually writing short answers, 
wording would be different if 
written 
independently 
after 

understanding the concept.

“When you are sort of given an 

open-ended prompt of ‘Take from 
this output and write up a two or 
three or four sentence summary’ 
… those things would be maybe 
focusing on similar numbers but 
said in different ways and if a 
student is struggling, it’s easy to 
try to explain but then just let them 
look at your answer,” Gunderson 
said. “If you went through the idea 
of what a confidence interval means 
and you each got the good idea and 
went off in your own corners and 

wrote it up, it wouldn’t be identical. 
You would have your own little 
flair.”

The LSA Academic Integrity 

Statement is reportedly included 
in all LSA class syllabi, according 
to Nurse. This statement defines 
cheating as “creating an unfair 
academic advantage” for yourself 
or others in your class. This could 
involve cheating to offset a grading 
curve that negatively affects the 
rest of the class and many other 
scenarios like Bernstein and Harris 
experienced.

Official cases not dealt with 

internally, reach the desk of Nurse. 
From there, the student and Nurse 
enter a conversation about the 
situation. If an agreement cannot be 
reached, the case is sent to the LSA 
Academic 
Judiciary 
Committee 

for review and to determine if a 
student has violated the statement 
or not. In 2016-17, 104 of all 
academic integrity cases found 
the students responsible for the 
violation. Twenty-one were found 
not responsible.

Nurse 
said 
discrepancies 

between 
academic 
integrity 

protocols 
of 
different 
colleges 

such as LSA and the College of 
Engineering can be confusing, 
but as for LSA, uniformity among 
classes is key.

“The College of Engineering, for 

example, has an honor code,” Nurse 
said. “Students sign the pledge 
each time they take an exam. (LSA 
doesn’t) have an honor code but that 
doesn’t mean we’re less committed 
to integrity. How we manage it is 
a little different because we have 
more students and more cases to 
attend to, so we have a process 
which, we think, works well for us. 
It respects the educational aspect of 
it. We allow faculty to resolve cases 
for themselves rather than sending 
(students) to us for fear that we’re 
going to do something really bad 
which we don’t.”

The 
statement 
was 
written 

in conjunction with the LSA 
Student Honor Council, a group of 
undergraduate students who work 
with students and staff to promote 
academic 
integrity 
and 
create 

uniform procedures for reporting 
academic dishonesty cases. They 
also inform students of what 
their options are when accused of 
committing academic misconduct. 

However, LSA seniors Khyati 

Somayaji and Laura Donohue, the 
SHC president and vice president, 
respectively, make it clear they 
do not act as lawyers or defense 
for students. They attend LSA 
Academic 
Judiciary 
Committee 

sessions, but they do not take a side 
or vote in the verdict.

Donohue 
said 
the 
faculty 

presentations were implemented last 
year and allow the SHC to clarify 
some misconceptions about the 
reporting process and create a fair 
situation for the faculty and students.

“There’s 
a 
lot 
of 

misunderstanding about what the 
academic 
misconduct 
reporting 

process is and what exactly the 
hearing process means for students, 
so it’s really important that we get 
to go in and clarify that,” Donohue 
said. “I think it’s also valuable for 
faculty to see that there are students 
on campus who have an interest in 
integrity.”

Somayaji said academic integrity 

is important to promote because it 
affects the lives of students once 
they graduate through them having 
good morals and representing their 
work as their own.

“These values really play out 

into not only professional lives but 
social lives and being a responsible 
community 
member,” 
Somayaji 

said. “We do a lot of work that really 
puts our values and ideals into 
perspective farther down the road 

than just academics.”

Nurse 
echoed 
Somayaji’s 

sentiments and said if people 
practice good academic integrity 
in school now, they will feel a much 
larger sense of accomplishment 
once they graduate than if they had 
cheated and got away with it.

“There was a student who 

graduated and became a doctor 
who wrote to me 30 years later as 
his kids were in high school and 
admitted to me that he had cheated 
not once but three times while he 
was here as a student and wasn’t 
caught,” Nurse said. “He got away 
with it because no one knew but 
here it is, 30 years later, that his 
conscience is beginning to (wear 
thin). … When you’ve earned your 
degree, you earn your degree and 
that’s something you should be 
proud of. You shouldn’t have any 
regrets later on.”

This 
year, 
Stats 
250 
has 

implemented the M-Write program 
into the course to encourage 
students to think critically and 
be able to write about statistical 
concepts. 
Previously 
an 
LSA 

honors credit option, the writing 
assignments are now officially 
part of the curriculum. With these 
new 
longer 
essay 
assignments 

comes the worry of students 
passing and selling their essays 
through what Nurse calls “essay 
mills.” With one search on a 
University class Facebook page, 
sites like eHomework can be found. 
EHomework offers “a high quality 
paper” and encourages students to 
“NOT BE AFRAID” because the 
site has “NEVER had a student get 
in trouble for ordering an essay 
from (them).”

Gunderson said she’s not looking 

for students sharing essays or 
utilizing essay mills because the pros 
of giving students experience with 
writing in statistics outweigh the 
cons of a longer written assignment.

“The 
ability 
to 
write 
and 

communicate is so much more 
important these days, and even 
more so in STEM disciplines,” 
Gunderson said. “We’re bring this 
into the course because there’s a 
very useful learning experience 
through that process and … a 
student is going to get so much 
more out of it if they indeed to that 
writing experience than if they just 
take something off the internet and 
submit it. It’s not worth those three 
points.”

Nurse said these essay mills are 

just another difficulty in the current 
age of technology that professors 
have to watch out for.

“The internet has expanded the 

availability of information related 
to almost anything conceivable 
that you’re trying to find so there 
are times students take shortcuts,” 
Nurse said. “Professors have had to 
work very hard to design homework 
and exams to reduce the incidents 
of plagiarism, and I think they’ve 
done a good job. Having students do 
drafts, for example, are key.”

With so many elements of 

cheating to monitor, Bernstein 
said she had never heard of essay 
mills. However, she said she hopes 
most University students don’t 
use mills or other students’ work, 
but the University should better 
understand the difference between 
accidentally having similar answers 
and directly stealing work.

“There are some ways of cheating 

that you just know are wrong. You 
just know you don’t buy a paper off 
someone else,” Bernstein said. “You 
know you don’t submit another 
student’s work, but there are 
definitely these gray areas when it 
comes to working with students or 
citing something wrong where you 
didn’t purposefully, intentionally 
try to disrespect the Code of 
Academic Integrity.”

CHEATING
From Page 1A

SUMMIT
From Page 1A

AYUSH THAKUR/Daily

Dicks and Janes A Cappella rehearses for their upcoming concert, themed around The Office, this Saturday in 
Angell Hall Auditorium B. 

PITCH PE RFECT

evoked by Kaepernick.

Hackett 
and 
Tagliabue 

spoke about kneeling boding 
the question of whether or not 
NFL players should be given the 
platform to voice their opinion 
on political matters while on the 
field.

Tagliabue, who served as 

commissioner of the NFL from 
1989 to 2006, expanded the 
league from 28 to 32 teams and 
was heavily active in social 
justice movements. Tagliabue 
moved 
Superbowl 
XXVII 

from Arizona after the state 
refused to establish a state 
holiday in honor of Martin 
Luther King Jr. and has also 
been honored for his work 
with LBGTQ rights group 
Parents, Friends and Families 
of Lesbians and Gays. 

“It’s 
complicated,” 

Tagliabue 
said 
on 
the 

connection between sports 
and public policy. “Sports 
have had an enormous impact 
on diversity and inclusion and 
on our relationships with each 
other — race, color, creed, 
etc. Athletes and sports can 
have an enormous positive 
effect on communities; we 
are all woven together in the 
best of circumstances that is 
the melting that that is our 
society.”

Hackett served as interim 

director of Michigan athletics 
from Oct. 31, 2014, to March 
11, 2016, and served on the 
Ford School Committee from 
2006 to 2017, making his 
involvement in sports and 
policy 
extensive. 
Hackett 

recalled his time on and off 
the field.

“There is no line between 

racism and patriotism, they 
are just your teammates,” 
Hackett said. “The highest 
percent of participation on a 
team is when you don’t think 
of yourself, you think of the 
person next to you. My dream 

was that the young people on 
campus would understand the 
underpinnings of diversity 
and inclusion meant when 
it was not mediated and was 
highly controversial.”

Tagliabue emphasized the 

fine line between protest and 
action. He questioned what 
societal change this protest 
could enact and how players 
can move forward with their 
message.

“I think you’ve got to fight,” 

Tagliabue said. “But you have 
to do it in the right way. If 
your goal is to galvanize the 
public in support of a point of 
view that you’re advocating, 
you need to pay attention 
to not only those who are 
already with you, but those 
who are not yet convinced. 
That means you have to 
strike a balance, you have 
to understand what it takes 
to grow your constituency. 
You need to recognize the 
limits of a sports institution. 
However, leadership is at all 
levels at the institution.”

Public 
Policy 
graduate 

student Jai Singletary also 
emphasized the link between 
social 
justice 
movements 

and athletics, and believes 
it beneficial to continue this 
conversation.

“By tapping into the social 

aspect of what’s going on in 
the country and how it relates 
to the athletes not just within 
the NFL but within the sports 
world, protesting and voicing 
their opinions gives a little 
bit of insight about where 
protests and social change 
will come within the sports 
arena,” Singletary said. 

Traci 
Carson, 
a 
Ph.D. 

candidate 
in 
the 
School 

of Public Health, said she 
attended the event to expand 
her knowledge of the debate 
surrounding kneeling.

“This is a topic that I have 

been going back and forth on, 
and I think each individual 
regards the topic of kneeling 
and the First Amendment 
right differently, and I think it 

is really important to ask why 
they are doing it, and to get 
that individual’s response and 
not generalize everybody into 
one group; it is their choice to 
or to not kneel,” Carson said.

LSA senior Kyle Lefkowitz, 

however, 
questioned 
what 

comes next after kneeling for 
the anthem. 

“This is such an important 

platform for the players — 
allowing them to be able to 
fight for what they believe. 
Now we just have to continue 
with actions and not just 
words,” Lefkowitz said.

Tagliabue later urged the 

students to try to understand 
why 
people 
protest. 
He 

believes it is imperative to 
acknowledge 
why 
people 

are fighting and, even if the 
president demands a halt in 
the discussion of policy, people 
continue the conversation.

“You won’t gain respect 

if you think that ‘the only 
solution is mine,’ ” Tagliabue 
said. “You have to understand 
who 
these 
people 
are. 

Everyone should understand 
that we do have a First 
Amendment right in America, 
and 
that 
the 
government 

should stay the hell out of 
regulating speech. You should 
be able to say what you think. 
He cannot shut us down. That 
is not America.”

Tagliabue left University 

students with advice on how 
this controversy can teach 
values and unite the next 
generation.

“Men 
and 
women 
are 

better prepared in society to 
be leaders than ever before. 
We need to make sure they 
have the research and the 
institutions to give them the 
opportunity to do what they’re 
doing 
in 
an 
environment 

where celebrity is not always 
an asset some people learned 
in last presidential election. 
Celebrity is not the key to 
the kingdom. Hard work, 
good ideas and institutional 
support is the key to the 
kingdom.”

AWARENESS
From Page 1A