On a recent evening, the University of Virginia’s president quietly slipped into an online classroom in the middle of a lively discussion about trust and disinformation.
The students in “Knowledge in the Digital Age,” taught by professor Chad Wellmon, barely noticed. They were talking about how to evaluate and verify facts, a relevant topic for an era in which everyone is a Google search away from opinions disguised as fact.
The student discussion stretched from the French philosopher René Descartes to so-called “deep fake” videos on the Internet, fabrications that appear to show people saying and doing things they never did. When video evidence can be faked, how do you find good sources? How do you identify experts in a sea of disinformation? When should you trust, and when should you be skeptical?
Then a student noticed that President Jim Ryan was in the virtual classroom.
“Wonder if that’s the real Jim Ryan or a deep fake? Now I’m doubting everything!” she wrote in the group chat.
A moment later, Ryan replied:
The students were the first cohort of UVA Edge, a new program for working adults to develop the digital and human skills needed for career success and earn 20 undergraduate credits toward a degree. The first group of students includes UVA staff from every corner of the University, from Facilities Management to UVA Health, as well as Charlottesville community members.
“I feel like this whole program involves trust,” one student said in the discussion. “It involved us trusting ourselves. And it involved trusting UVA.”
They are earning 20 college credits part-time over one calendar year, taking UVA classes taught by faculty members from the College of Arts & Sciences, which partnered with the School of Continuing and Professional Studies to create UVA Edge last fall.
Soon, these first students will be joined by the program’s second class, which is enrolling now. Applications are open until May 1 to start in the summer, and eligible UVA staff can use their education benefit for the program. Students who start this summer will pay only $300 total out-of-pocket for the program, after using any available employer benefits.
