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The Chronicle T H E I N D E P E N D E N T D A I LY AT D U K E U N I V E R S I T Y
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2016
WWW.DUKECHRONICLE.COM
ONE HUNDRED AND TWELFTH YEAR, ISSUE 42
Bre Bradham The Chronicle When Vincent Price, provost of the University of Pennsylvania, takes over Duke’s top office in July, he will bring with him his wife, decades of experience in academia, two dogs and a passion for online learning initiatives. Coursera is an online platform that allows faculty at institutions like Penn and Duke to teach massive open online courses. Price served as the founding chair of Coursera’s University Advisory Board from 2012 to 2015 and was influential in Penn becoming one of the first four universities to start using the platform in 2012. Duke currently offers 50 MOOCs on Coursera, up from 42 in Fall 2015. Penn currently offers 80 MOOCs—the highest number of any U.S. institution using Coursera. “Having Provost Price become your president promises that Duke will continue to be a leader in online learning and, more importantly, in ways in which online learning can improve learning on campus,” said Ed Rock, former director of online learning initiatives at Penn and current professor of law at New York University. “That was really the hallmark of Provost Price’s leadership on Penn’s online learning initiative.” During his time at Penn, Price secured a large grant from the Association of American Universities to use technology to improve STEM teaching. He used his knowledge of the faculty governance structure, as the former chair of the faculty senate, to gain support for initiating the University’s relationship with Coursera in January 2012, Rock explained. “I don’t think we had any outcry, problems
Annie Yang | The Chronicle
Coursera connections: Examining online education
or resistance from faculty as we moved forward, which I think clashed with the experience of other universities,” Rock said. “This is really because Provost Price believes in shared governance and the consultation of faculty.” In contrast, Duke’s Arts and Sciences Council, the faculty governing body of Trinity College, has previously voted against joining an online education company known as 2U to provide online courses. In Fall 2013, the Council voted down a proposal 16 to 14 that would contractually engage them with 2U. Although the vote did
involve online learning, Thomas Robisheaux, chair of the Arts and Sciences Council at the time and a professor of history, said that it “was more complicated than that.” The faculty had numerous concerns regarding the agreement, ranging from the flexibility of the online format to issues involving details of the contract. One important issue, however, was that the proposal faculty voted on would have made the courses offered through 2U count for credit at Duke—a procedural irregularity that many faculty members took issue with, Robisheaux explained.
Regular courses at Duke have to go through an extensive approval process and appear before a standing course committee, but the agreement with 2U would not have subjected the online courses to the same rigorous process. “There were many faculty members who were very uneasy about a blanket agreement that did not clearly articulate the process of approving credits,” Robisheaux said. As it stands, the University’s policy towards online courses and whether or not See COURSERA on Page 6
Durham Police investigate Swift Ave. sexual assault Cara Leigh Downey The Chronicle
Ivy Shi | The Chronicle Students expressed concern about a reported sexual assault on Swift Avenue last Wednesday.
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When a recent DukeAlert indicated that a reported sexual assault had occurred in broad daylight very close to campus, students were shocked. Last Wednesday, an individual told police that as she was walking on Swift Avenue at 10:10 a.m., a male subject took her into the woods and sexually assaulted and robbed her at knife point. The case is currently being investigated by the Durham Police Department, and according to the incident report the attack happened on the 600 block of Swift. No charges have been filed at this time and DPD has no new information for release, wrote Kammie Michael, public information officer at DPD, in an email. According to the report, the assault and robbery were reported to the police at 5:18 p.m. The DukeAlert was not sent out until approximately 9:16 p.m. John Dailey, chief of the Duke University Police Department, wrote in an email that DUPD has increased the number of officers patrolling the area of the incident since last Wednesday, but did not provide any more details. He also
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wrote that there are “layers of protection” in the area, in the form of patrols from both DUPD and DPD. “Some of these patrol efforts are noticeable and some are not,” he wrote. Sophomore Katy Grant, who lives on Central Campus, said that the sexual assault has intensified her feeling of insecurity when walking around certain areas. “This is definitely going to exacerbate it a little bit for me and I know for other people as well,” Grant said. Senior Tierney Marey, who lives at the University Apartments on Duke University Road, noted she has changed her walking route in response to the incident. Senior Katie Becker also said she was disturbed by the violent nature and timing of the incident. Becker, who lives in Ubuntu section on Central Campus, also expressed hope that the incident would act as a call-to-action for the Duke administration. “It is my hope that this incident would bring to light, both for women and for everyone, the considerations that women have to take when planning for our safety,” Becker said. She added that there are currently obstacles that prevent women from feeling fully safe on campus, noting the unreliable
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