The doctorate is nearly nine centuries old. The credential emerged from the medieval universities of Bologna and Paris, while the research dissertation was invented in Germany in the nineteenth century and reached America in 1861. The dissertation proposal and defense have been essential in the assessment of candidates’ skills, knowledge, critical thinking skills, and more to determine the award of a doctorate. Artificial intelligence is becoming part of everyday academic life, yet most of the field’s attention has gone to undergraduate teaching and coursework. Graduate education has received far less scrutiny, and the provenance of thesis and dissertation writing has received almost no attention. When a polished chapter arrives, how do we know whose thinking it reflects- the candidate’s or AI? The integrity of the doctorate is a foundation of higher education’s authority and expertise in a vast array of disciplines.
The question lands at a pivotal policy moment. Federal and accreditation frameworks are shifting from inputs to outcomes, asking institutions to produce objective, reliable, and comparable evidence that graduates reached the competencies the degree certifies. Saying “trust us” is no longer enough; institutions must show evidence of students’ technical skills and critical thinking.
Leaders disagree about how urgent this is. Some are confident that the advising relationship and the oral defense already protect doctoral rigor; others worry we can no longer verify that the thinking behind a dissertation is the student’s own. Both views deserve serious hearing, and this town hall provides the opportunity for the academic community to explore these issues.
The session will begin with a presentation about the ways AI can be used to produce dissertation proposals and completed dissertations and its intersection with the doctoral supervision process. Academic leaders attending (e.g., deans, faculty, provosts, accreditors, and policy voices) will be invited to participate in live audience polling and facilitated breakout groups to discuss issues and then share back with the entire audience. Capturing the challenges, issues, and possible strategies for higher education to ensure the integrity of the doctorate will be an outcome.
Presenters
Gerry Hanley | Executive Director, MERLOT-SkillsCommons
Gerard L. Hanley Ph.D. is the Executive Director of MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching) and SkillsCommons for the California State University, the Director for the Center for Usability for Design and Accessibility, and Professor of Psychology at California State University, Long Beach. At MERLOT and SkillsCommons, he directs the development and sustainability of the international consortium and technology strategy to provide open educational services to improve teaching and learning and continues to develop the US Department of Labor’s open repository of educational resources for workforce development. Gerry’s previous positions include Assistant Vice Chancellor for Academic Technology Services at the CSU Office of the Chancellor, and Director of Faculty Development and Director of Strategy Planning at CSU, Long Beach.
Jim Lani | CEO, Intellectus360
Jim Lani, PhD, is CEO and Chief AI Learning Officer of Intellectus360, a doctoral research platform built on a simple premise: students should use AI fully, and the degree should still prove they did the thinking. AI has severed the link between a finished dissertation and the reasoning behind it, and a credential that cannot show that reasoning loses its value. Intellectus360’s answer is The Thinking Record. Jim has worked with doctoral candidates since 1997 and founded Statistics Solutions in 2003; together, these firms have supported more than 15,000 researchers. He holds a PhD in clinical psychology from Miami University and a BSEE from Cal State Fullerton, and he is a coinventor on a US patent for natural language statistical reporting.
Dylan Barth | Assistant Vice President of Learning, Online Learning Consortium
Dylan Barth is the Assistant Vice President (AVP) of Learning and a Co-Director of the Institute for Emerging Leadership in Online Learning (IELOL). Dylan provides strategic vision and oversight for professional development, research and publications, and the Quality Scorecard Suite at OLC. He has 20+ years of experience teaching in higher education and 12+ years working in faculty and instructional development. Dylan holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with an emphasis on masculinities in contemporary post-apocalyptic fiction.