U-M website for Social Integrity promotes digital citizenship
A new U-M website launches today at SocialIntegrity.umich.edu — just in time for Social Media Day June 30.
Category Archives: Campus News
DeMonner & Whyte recognized for leadership at IMS Global Learning Institute
Sean DeMonner, ITS executive director of Teaching and Learning (TL), and Anthony Whyte, ITS-TL IT program manager, each received leadership awards at the 2018 IMS Global Learning Impact Leadership Institute held in Baltimore in May. DeMonner was recognized for leadership in higher education, while Whyte received his fourth consecutive IMS leadership award for his work leading the Caliper… Read More »
What’s the deal with Bitcoin?
A Bitcoin boom could make millionaires, but a bust could just as easily destroy the cryptocurrency. So what exactly is Bitcoin and how does it work? LSA researcher Lynette Shaw provides insights about new forms of digital currency—and what actually makes something worth anything. According to Shaw, an assistant professor in the Center for the Study of Complex Systems,… Read More »
Blockbuster MOOCs support teaching and learning efforts
Some “blockbuster” massive open online courses (MOOCs) generate large revenues for universities, which then often distribute the funds in a variety of ways. U-M typically gives a third of its revenue from MOOCs to central administration, a third to the department offering the course, and a third to the professors teaching it. Charles Severance, a clinical associate professor in the School… Read More »
Report finds sexual harassment policies in academia lacking
Lilia M. Cortina, Timothy R.B. Johnson, and Anna Kirkland are U-M professors who participated on a 21-person committee to change the culture around sexual harassment policies in academia. The report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine finds that academic institutions can do more to prevent sexual harassment, especially in historically male-dominated STEM fields. According to… Read More »
Crowdsourcing in milliseconds
Walter Lasecki, assistant professor in the College of Engineering and in the School of Information, has co-authored a paper introducing the “look-ahead approach,” a hybrid intelligence workflow that enables instantaneous crowdsourcing systems that can return crowd responses within milliseconds. According to the published paper, “Bolt: Instantaneous Crowdsourcing via Just-in-Time Training:” …real-time crowdsourcing has made it possible to solve… Read More »
Lampe elected to ACM SIGCHI Executive Committee
Cliff Lampe, U-M School of Information associate professor, was elected Executive Vice President of the Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (ACM SIGCHI), a significant honor. In his wide-ranging research on social and technical structures of large-scale technology-mediated communications, Lampe has worked with Facebook, Wikipedia, Slashdot, and Everything2. He also has helped create multiple social… Read More »
Dearborn ITS team wins staff award
A team from Dearborn’s Information Technology Services were among more than 75 staff members honored with Chancellor’s Staff Recognition Awards. Rex Chang, Chundao Che, Emily Hamilton, Sherie Modelski, and Jerry Van Couwenberghe from the Facilities ELB Hub won the exceptional team award. The award recognized their work with the Engineering Lab Building construction and renovation. The team led the effort… Read More »
U-M researchers strive to keep confidential data safe
“Virtually all human activity in the modern world creates digital traces. It is our responsibility to ensure that the resulting data is protected and managed responsibly,” said Margaret Levenstein, director of the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research at the U-M Institute for Social Research. Levenstein is leading a project team working to create a “System of… Read More »
AI program detects malnutrition in children
A Kenya-based company, Kimetrica, has developed a new AI program called Methods for Extremely Rapid Observation of Nutritional status (MERON), that might have the ability to identify malnutrition from a photo, which makes it easier to assess nutrition problems in volatile regions. Andrew Jones, a public health nutritionist at U-M, says he can see the role for technologies… Read More »
New instructional technology for Flint’s radiation therapy program
Julie Hollenbeck, radiation therapy program director, shared the benefits and significance of UM-Flint’s recent purchase of leading-edge simulation equipment in a Q&A with the Flint’s Communications and Marketing team. Out of 85 programs in the U.S., 23 have a Virtual Environment Radiotherapy Trainer (VERT) for its students. UM-Flint us the only program in Michigan to purchase the system. This… Read More »
Free Coursera certifications for faculty, staff, and students
Coursera for Michigan includes more than 65 courses and 14 teach-outs, with more being offered each month. These resources are useful for those who want more business experience in a new field or more training within their own field. James DeVaney, associate vice provost for academic innovation, states that with offering this service U-M is “able… Read More »
Online tool helps ease burden of dementia caregivers
Helen C. Kales, a U-M professor of psychiatry, leads the Program for Positive Aging (PPA) that is working to create innovative options for dementia caregivers, providing reliable information and training, developing support and online tools, and studying to improve self-care. Kales, with the PPA and Johns Hopkins University collaborators developed a web-based support tool called the WeCareAdvisor. The… Read More »
Mingyan Liu named 2018 Distinguished University Innovator
Mingyan Liu, professor of electrical engineering and computer science, was awarded the Distinguished University Innovator Award for her work in helping develop a new approach to enhance cybersecurity. She and her colleagues achieved this by using technology that predicts with up to 90 percent accuracy the likelihood that a company will be exploited by cyber criminals within the next… Read More »
Older adults don’t use health care patient portals
The National Poll on Healthy Aging determined that about half of people 50 to 80 years of age have an online account for their health care, and people over age 65 were less likely to use a computer in regards to their health information than those between 50 and 60 years old. U-M’s Sarah J. Clark, M.P.H., co-associate… Read More »
Effects of cellphones at summer camp
Recent studies have shown that the use of cellphones has been beneficial and detrimental to summer camps for both the campers and the staff. “As a society, we spend a tremendous amount of time on screens and with digital media, but we don’t understand the full impact that it is having on children,” states lead author Ashley DeHudy, M.D.,… Read More »
Videoconferencing improves liver disease care
U-M gastroenterologist Grace L. Su believes providing the option of videoconferencing for liver disease patients who are unable to make multiple office visits to specialists improves the provided care. Su and her team determined in a study that patients of primary care physicians who used video consultations with liver disease specialists had a 54 percent higher survival rate than… Read More »
Message from the interim VPIT-CIO
I will stay available to our new VPIT-CIO Dr. Ravi Pendse, ITS, and the Michigan IT community through the month of August to assist in making this transition as smooth as possible.
Online portal creates central hub for U-M digital learning
As U-M continues to expand its digital learning portfolio, the Office of Academic Innovation announces a new gateway for one-stop access to online courses and learning experiences created by Michigan faculty and instructional teams. Called Michigan Online, the portal brings together more than 120 massive open online courses (MOOCs), teach-outs, specializations, MasterTrack certificates, XSeries, MicroMasters and professional certificate programs… Read More »
$783k raised to support gaming outreach to Mott, others
More than 1,500 gamers from all over the world participated in person and online in a momentous weekend fundraising event held at the EMU Convocation Center in April. Their purpose: raise money to provide entertainment devices for kids at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, and other hospitalized children across the United States. The event was hosted by Gamers for… Read More »