Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - April 15, 2020, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE A4 A 4 WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15, 2020 ? WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COMNEWS I COVID-19 PANDEMIC U NIVERSITY of Manitoba inter-national students who remain on campus are feeling the crunch as the school's residence move-out date nears and Canada's borders remain closed. The U of M will require international students who have not yet been able to return home to leave its residence fa- cilities by April 30; they are expected to move out within 48 hours of their last assignments. Domestic residents had been asked to move by March 25. While most have since left the coun- try and are finishing the term online, some remain on campus. Ishaanee Didwania is an international student from Oman studying criminol- ogy, and acts as a residence adviser. She was also in the same position, but was able to find a roommate off-campus. "I know the other students are all looking for places to move out because living on campus is so isolating right now, we're all just in our tiny dorm rooms," she said. In a statement Tuesday, the Univer- sity of Manitoba Students' Union said those with a need to stay longer than April 30 can apply for an extension on- line. "Right now, there is a process in place for people to apply for an extended stay, and I would recommend that those who wish to attempt that option first," UMSU president Jakob Sanderson told the Free Press. "If that's unsuccessful, I would wel- come them to come to us and we'll do everything we can for them." U of M student residences director Barry Stone said the school is "in the process of responding to all of our ex- tension requests and some additional spaces will be made available for both short- and long-term." "Some need a few extra days, and others are asking to stay for the en- tire summer. Given this, we are going to attempt to support as many of these students by being as flexible as possible in terms of occupancy after April 30," Stone told the Free Press in an email Tuesday. "Ultimately, we are attempting to balance student support and the need to mitigate the numbers of students in a community living environment-like residence - where social distancing and isolation requirements can be very challenging." In the meantime, affected students wait for the final word. "I can sum the whole thing up with the word 'uncertainty,'" said Melika Zamani, a second-year international student from Iran who is studying busi- ness. "Because nothing is for sure. "Since the classes moved online, I really wanted to go back home and study there, but the borders are closed so I cannot go back home for at least a month," she said. "I haven't found a place yet because the places are, either the rent is high, or it requires you to go see the place and because of the coronavirus situation, it's not possible." malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca AS exams get underway on virtual campuses across the province, instruct- ors are implementing new measures to deter cheating on finals that would typically put students under intense in- person supervision and scrutiny. Honesty declarations, timed multiple choice questions and appeals for good faith are being used to promote aca- demic integrity in e-learning exams at both the University of Manitoba and University of Winnipeg. Instructors are wrestling with ways to prevent cheating since the COVID-19 pandemic response escal- ated so quickly there has been little time for the U of M to organize ex- ternal proctoring services, said Janet Morrill, president of the university's faculty association. "There are more opportunities (to cheat) and fewer controls," Morrill said, adding that academic integrity is also being challenged because the pivot online means professors aren't neces- sarily able to use assessments they feel are the most appropriate for their courses. By Tuesday afternoon, biology stu- dent Jess MacPherson had already completed three online exams, as well as pre-exam quizzes that require stu- dents to review academic rules. "It's a privilege for us to still be able to carry on education during this time. I'm just glad I can finish my semester, so why take advantage of an opportun- ity to learn?" said MacPherson, who heads the U of M Biology Undergradu- ate Students' Association. Students who are found to have cheat- ed on a test - for the first time - face penalties ranging from receiving a mark of zero to a 12-month suspension from taking courses in the faculty in which they cheated. Students can be expelled for repeated and severe mis- conduct. Last year, MacPherson saw the im- pact of penalties first-hand when she was on a disciplinary committee tasked to review a student's misconduct. The accused was suspended from all sci- ence courses for a year. If academic penalties aren't enough to dissuade such activity, MacPher- son said she thinks the most effective method to promote integrity is timed tests. Meanwhile, U of M Students' Union president Jakob Sanderson said that if there have been any controversies sur- rounding the new practices, it's that some students want time to browse all exam questions rather than being forced to answer each timed question before moving on to the next. "The vast majority of students aren't going to be going into their exam and looking at ways to cheat," Sanderson said. "A lot of folks have a lot of test anxiety and having to do an exam is al- ready quite stressful." Mark Torchia, vice-provost of teach- ing and learning, said there has been a move to encourage U of M instruct- ors to lessen the weight of finals so students can show their progressive learning throughout a semester and are dissuaded to breach academic codes of conduct due to stress. "Academic integrity doesn't just fall on the student; it falls on the instruct- or to provide the best ways to learn," Torchia said. U of M has a proactive educational approach on academic integrity, he said - but at the same time, breaches can result in "life-changing" conse- quences. A total of 706 academic discipline incidents involving 644 students were reported at the Winnipeg university during the 2018-19 academic year. Last year, approximately two per cent of the student population was involved in aca- demic misconduct of some sort. maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @macintoshmaggie JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Melika Zamani, an international student from Iran at the U of M, cannot fly home and faces a difficult search for housing in the city. FLORENCE Schluep's time abroad isn't going as expected. When the 30-year-old from Switzer- land landed in Winnipeg at the end of February she was looking forward to studying English, making new friends and taking a trip to the United States this summer. Instead, Schluep and her boyfriend have been holed up in a rented apartment for the last month, isolating against the rapidly spreading coronavirus. "We left and everything was normal," she said. "It was unreal; you never would have thought that it could come to Europe or come to Canada." Schluep is one of 65 Heartland Inter- national English School students who are effectively stuck in Winnipeg while the global pandemic plays out. Heartland, a private language school on William Avenue, has successfully moved its curriculum online, but found- er and president Gary Gervais is con- cerned about the future of his industry. "If you wanted to be in a business that was going to be devastated by some- thing like this, we've got it," Gervais said. "Students getting on planes, need- ing visas, gathering together in class- rooms, it checks all the boxes of things that are pretty instantly destroyed by the COVID-19 pandemic." Heartland runs full- and part-time classes and English proficiency tests for as many as 130 students at a time from around the world - in 2018, the bulk of students were from Brazil and China. During their time in Winnipeg, stu- dents can lodge with a home-stay family or arrange their own accommodations. Gervais says all of Heartland's current students have stable living situations where they can isolate. While the language teachers have been able to deliver lessons virtually, the tourism side of the program has hit a stumbling block. "Part of what we're offering is this cultural and Canadian and Winnipeg experience," Gervais said. "This is what we've lost in the transition." The school usually organizes class outings to museums, galleries and mov- ie theatres on Fridays. To fill the gap, Heartland has been hiring local artists to run online workshops, the first of which was a private concert with Win- nipeg Symphony Orchestra viola player Marie-Elyse Badeau. For Schluep, the learning is going smoothly, but the lack of social contact with her classmates is difficult. "When you're going to another coun- try and learning a language there, you're expecting to meet some people, go for a beer maybe on Friday after your classes," she said. "That's kind of missing at the moment and that's very sad." Schluep is trying to stay positive and keep in touch with family back in Switz- erland, where there have been 25,834 cases of COVID-19 and 900 deaths, to date. "My dad is over 70, so I'm kind of scared about him but I know he's do- ing a pretty good job of staying at home and (not having) contact with other people," she said. Olufemi Oshinowo, 49, is a recent graduate of Heartland who came to Winnipeg in January from Nigeria. He is planning an extended stay in the city while his 11-year-old son finishes school here. Moving to a new country has been a strange experience so far. "I'm the kind of person (who loves) to know my community," he said. "But because of this coronavirus you have to be careful, so the only place I actually go to is the mall." Oshinowo has been managing his con- cerns about the virus by staying in constant contact with relatives back in Nigeria where, as of Monday, there had been 323 cases and 10 deaths. "The numbers stay significantly low, but it's still something," he said. "Everywhere is locked down too, people are not allowed to go to work or go any- where." Despite living in isolation and the city's unpredictable spring weather, Oshinowo says he has had a good first impression of Winnipeg. "People are loving here," he said. "I've had a good experience with people." eva.wasney@freepress.mb.ca EVA WASNEY Foreign students make the best of strange time in a strange place Clock ticking for U of M international students MALAK ABAS Virtual exams prompt new cheating safeguards MAGGIE MACINTOSH LOCAL JOURNALISM INITIATIVE REPORTER BU exams going online BRANDON University is ramping up remote proctoring efforts as students take their final exams online due to disruptions caused by COVID-19. Faculty members are supervising and recording exams via live streams and using educational platforms to encrypt questions, time their release and jumble questions so students receive the same tests in different orders. University spokesman Rob Henderson said software used by the Brandon post- secondary school also allows instructors to track IP addresses and activity. "We believe that students are taking their coursework and their responsibilities seriously as they prepare for their next term and their careers, as we have not seen any unusual trends in terms of aca- demic integrity since we moved to remote learning," Henderson said in an emailed statement Tuesday. The exam surveillance measures are in action months after the university disciplined an entire class of second-year nursing students in connection to a "compromised" final exam. Neither the dean of the faculty of health studies or the instructor who taught the course in question responded to a request for comment about their academic integ- rity measures for spring exams. - Maggie Macintosh Students required to leave dorms by April 30 JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Left: Florence Schluep came to Winnipeg in February with her boyfriend to study English, and is now in isolation. Right: Recent English graduate Olufemi Oshinowo and his son Damisi are settling into life in Winnipeg amid the pandemic. A_04_Apr-15-20_FP_01.indd A4 2020-04-14 10:09 PM ;