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Nation Of Ulysses "13 Point Program To Destroy America" Full Album

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Rage against the machine learning T-Shirt https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/31677404-rage-against-the-machine-learning

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Choose a city to drive around and listen to local radio, and street sounds.

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Choose from a variety of 90s TV - just watch it.

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Go back to the 1990's via this nostalgic TV simulator and relive the original ads, music videos, movie trailers, shows and more!

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Open a new window somewhere in the world...

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Open a new window somewhere in the world

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What emoji can you cook up in emoji kitchen?

This page lets you browse the delightful combinations of Emoji Kitchen, available in Gboard for Android.

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Browse thousands of delightful Emoji Kitchen combinations, available in Gboard for Android.

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User Experience Design for Learning (UXDL)

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User Experience Design for Learning (UXDL)

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Create valuable online learning experiences https://cms.cel.uwaterloo.ca/honeycomb/index.aspx

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Some basic considerations to help you get started writing web content that is more accessible to people with disabilities. These tips are good practice to help you meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) requirements.

Fits snugly with UXDL, UDL, and more.

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Summary Example: Page Titles Example: Using headings to organize content Example: Using alternative text to communicate important information Example: Making content readable and understandable Learn More About Accessibility Help improve this page

in Tips for Getting Started

This page introduces some basic considerations to help you get started writing web content that is more accessible to people with disabilities. These tips are good practice to help you meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) requirements. Follow the links to the related WCAG requirements, detailed background in the "Understanding" document, guidance from Tutorials, user stories, and more.

Page Contents

Provide informative, unique page titles

For each web page, provide a short title that describes the page content and distinguishes it from other pages. The page title is often the same as the main heading of the page. Put the unique and most relevant information first; for example, put the name of the page before the name of the organization. For pages that are part of a multi-step process, include the current step in the page title.

Home page title

Page name followed by organization name

Latest News * Space Teddy Inc.

Page name including step in a process

Buy Your Bear (Step 1 of 3) * Space Teddy Inc.

More Information
Use headings to convey meaning and structure

Use short headings to group related paragraphs and clearly describe the sections. Good headings provide an outline of the content.

Lack of headings

View inline example

HTML elements provide information on structural hierarchy of a document. Using elements correctly will help convey additional meaning to assistive technology. In many cases, doing so will also make your document easier to edit.

For documents longer than three or four paragraphs, headings and subheadings are important for usability and accessibility. They help readers to determine the overall outline of a document and to navigate to specific information of interest.

Headings are classified into levels from one to six. The highest level is "Level 1" and often corresponds to the title of the page or major document section.

Visual readers identify headers by scanning pages for text of a larger size or a different style. Assistive technology users are not able to see these visual changes, so changing the style is not a sufficient cue.

Instead, the headings must be semantically "tagged" so that assistive technology can identify headings. Then headings can also be used for navigation.

This makes adding headings one of the most important tools for screen reader users, so that they can learn what is on the page. Note that tagging usually triggers a formatting change visually which can be adjusted in many documents.
Adapted from Headings and Subheadings at Penn State

Using headings and subheadings

View inline example

HTML elements provide information on structural hierarchy of a document. Using elements correctly will help convey additional meaning to assistive technology. In many cases, doing so will also make your document easier to edit.

Purpose of Headings

For documents longer than three or four paragraphs, headings and subheadings are important for usability and accessibility. They help readers to determine the overall outline of a document and to navigate to specific information of interest.

Heading Levels

Headings are classified into levels from one to six. The highest level is "Level 1" and often corresponds to the title of the page or major document section.

Meaning vs. Formatting

Visual readers identify headers by scanning pages for text of a larger size or a different style. Assistive technology users are not able to see these visual changes, so changing the style is not a sufficient cue.

Instead, the headings must be semantically "tagged" so that assistive technology can identify headings. Then headings can also be used for navigation.

This makes adding headings one of the most important tools for screen reader users, so that they can learn what is on the page. Note that tagging usually triggers a formatting change visually which can be adjusted in many documents.
Adapted from Headings and Subheadings at Penn State

More Information
Make link text meaningful

Write link text so that it describes the content of the link target. Avoid using ambiguous link text, such as 'click here' or 'read more'. Indicate relevant information about the link target, such as document type and size, for example, 'Proposal Documents (RTF, 20MB)'.
Example: Using link text to describe target page More Information
Write meaningful text alternatives for images

For every image, write alternative text that provides the information or function of the image. For purely decorative images, there is no need to write alternative text.
More Information
For audio-only content, such a podcast, provide a transcript. For audio and visual content, such as training videos, also provide captions. Include in the transcripts and captions the spoken information and sounds that are important for understanding the content, for example, 'door creaks'. For video transcripts, also include a description of the important visual content, for example 'Athan leaves the room'.
More Information

Uninformative

Charging the phone: Connect the phone to a power outlet using the cable and power adaptor provided.

Alternative text for image: "Charging phone"

Informative

Charging the phone: Connect the phone to a power outlet using the cable and power adaptor provided.

Alternative text for image: "Plug cable into the bottom edge of the phone."

Alternative text is usually not visible; it is included in this example just so you can see what it is.

Provide clear instructions

Ensure that instructions, guidance, and error messages are clear, easy to understand, and avoid unnecessarily technical language. Describe input requirements, such as date formats.
Example: Instructions communicate what information the user should provide Example: Error indicates what the problem is and, possibly, how to fix it More Information
Keep content clear and concise

Use simple language and formatting, as appropriate for the context.

Write in short, clear sentences and paragraphs.

Avoid using unnecessarily complex words and phrases. Consider providing a glossary for terms readers may not know.

Expand acronyms on first use. For example, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

Consider providing a glossary for terms readers may not know.

Use list formatting as appropriate.

Consider using images, illustrations, video, audio, and symbols to help clarify meaning.

More Information Back to Top

Unnecessarily complex

CPP: In the event of a vehicular collision, a company assigned representative will seek to ascertain the extent and cause of damages to property belonging to all parties involved. Once our representative obtains information that allows us to understand the causality, we may or may not assign appropriate monetary compensation. The resulting decision may occasion one of the following options: the claim is not approved and is assigned a rejected status, the status of the claim is ambiguous and will require additional information before further processing can occur, the claim is partially approved and reduced payment is assigned and issued, or claim is fully approved and total claim payment is assigned and issued.

Easier to understand

Claims Processing Procedure (CPP): If you have a car accident, our agent will investigate. Findings will determine any claim payment. This could result in:

Approved claim - full payment

Partially approved claim - reduced payment

Undetermined claim - more information needed

Rejected claim - no payment

These tips are a few of the things you need to consider for web accessibility. The following resources help you learn why accessibility is important, and about guidelines for making the web more accessible to people with disabilities.

Please share your ideas, suggestions, or comments via e-mail to the publicly-archived list wai-eo-editors@w3.org or via GitHub.

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Writing for Web Accessibility - Tips for Getting Started

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Summary Example: Page Titles Example: Using headings to organize content Example: Using alternative text to communicate important information Example: Making content readable and understandable Learn More About Accessibility Help improve this page in Tips for Getting Started This page introduces some basic considerations to help you get started writing web content that is more accessible to people with disabilities.

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I love thinking about that ratio of every ten seconds of footage having ten hours of work - file under estimation of production effort

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I love thinking about that ratio of every ten seconds of footage having ten hours of work - file under estimation of production effort

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We're preoccupied with (estimating) how long things take to produce - the interview with pro skater Kristin Ebeling really resonated with me, particularly the comment about video production.

Kristin noted that "If you're watching a video part of someone and it’s from a VX filmer, it looks good, the colors are good and you've never seen that spot before, just know that whatever 30-second clip you're watching was probably 30 hours of collective work. There’s so much time between everyone that was involved in fixing that spot, getting that camera ready, all the trials the skater took, all the filming and all the homies cheering you on. That's why I love street skating; one of the hardest things you could ever do is get a clip, at least for me."

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coolors.co generates colour palettes for you! You can lock one or more colours as you see fit. There's other sites like this (I've shared one with accessibility stuff before) but this is pretty cool in terms of it being a very BAM., in-your-face experience in a really excellent way.

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GPT-3 is an AI model — a type of artificial intelligence — and its applications have quietly trickled into our everyday lives over the past couple of years.

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Two years ago this weekend, GPT-3 was introduced to the world.

You may not have heard of GPT-3, but there's a good chance you've readits work, used a website that runs its code, or even conversed with it through a chatbot or a character in a game.

GPT-3 is an AI model - a type of artificial intelligence - and its applications have quietly trickled into our everyday lives over the past couple of years.

In recent months, that trickle has picked up force: more and more applications are using AI like GPT-3, and these AI programs are producing greater amounts of data, from words, to images, to code.

A lot of the time, this happens in the background; we don't see what the AI has done, or we can't tell if it's any good.

But there are some things that are easy for us to judge: writing is one of those.

From student essays to content marketing, AI writing tools are doing what only a few years ago seemed impossible.

In doing so, the technology is changing how we think about what has been considered a uniquely human activity.

And we have no idea how the AI models are doing it.

Cheaper, faster, more productive

Danny Mahoney's workmate never leaves, sleeps, or takes a break.

Day after day, the AI writing assistant churns out blog posts, reviews, company descriptions and the like for clients of Andro Media, Mr Mahoney's digital marketing company in Melbourne.

"Writers are expensive. And there's a limit to how much quality content a human can produce," Mr Mahoney says.

"You can get the same quality of content using AI tools. You just get it faster."

How much faster? About three times, he estimates.

He still has to check and edit the AI-generated text, but it's less work and he's cut his rates by half.

"Every SEO [Search Engine Optimisation] agency that I've spoken with uses AI to some extent."

In Perth, Sebastian Marks no longer bothers with content agencies at all.

About a year ago, he saw an ad for an AI writing assistant and signed up.

The AI tool now writes pretty much everything for his company, Moto Dynamics, which sells motorcycles and organises racing events.

Its output includes employee bios, marketing copy, social media posts, and business proposals.

"Once we'd started feeding data into it and teaching it how to work for us, it became more and more user-friendly," he says.

"Now we use it essentially as an admin."

Millions of words per minute

The particular AI writing tool Mr Mahoney uses is called ContentBot, which like many of its competitors was launched early last year.

"It was very exciting," says Nick Duncan, the co-founder of ContentBot, speaking from Johannesburg.

"There was a lot of word of word of mouth with this technology. It just sort of exploded."

The trigger for this explosion was OpenAI's November 2021 decision to make its GPT-3 AI universally available for developers.

It meant anyone could pay to access the AI tool, which had been introduced in May 2020 for a limited number of clients.

Dozens of AI writing tools launched in early 2021.

LongShot AI is only a year old, but claims to have 12,000 users around the world, including in Australia.

"And there are other products that would have ten-fold the number of clients we have," says its co-founder, Ankur Pandey, speaking from Mumbai.

"Revolutionary changes in AI happened in the fall of 2020. This whole field has completely skyrocketed."

Companies like ContentBot and Longshot pay OpenAI for access to GPT-3: the rate of the most popular model (Davinci) is about $US0.06 per 750 words.

In March 2021, GPT-3 was generating an average of 4.5 billion words per day.

We don't know the current figure, but it would be much higher given the AI is being more widely used.

"It's been a game changer," Mr Duncan says.

What about student essays?

There are dozens of AI writing tools that advertise to students.

Among them is Article Forge, a GPT-3 powered tool that claims its essays can pass the plagiarism checkers used by schools and universities.

Demand for the product has increased five-fold in two years, chief executive officer Alex Cardinell says.

"It's the demand for cheaper content with shorter turnaround times that requires less overall effort to produce.

"People do not want AI, they want what AI can do for their business."

Lucinda McKnight, a curriculum expert at Deakin University, confirms that students are early adopters of AI writing tools.

"I can tell you without doubt that kids are very widely using these things, especially spinners on the internet."

Spinners are automated tools that rephrase and rewrite content so it won't be flagged for plagiarism.

"It can produce in a matter of seconds multiple different copies of the same thing, but worded differently."

These developments are shifting ideas around student authorship. If it becomes impossible to distinguish AI writing from human, what's the point in trying to detect plagiarism?

"We should be getting students to acknowledge how they've used AI as another kind of source for their writing," Dr McKnight says.

"That is the way to move forwards, rather than to punish students for using them."

So, can AI write good?

When GPT-3 launched two years ago, word spread of its writing proficiency, but access was limited.

Recently, OpenAI has thrown open the doors to anyone with a guest login, which takes a few minutes to acquire.

Given the prompt "Write a news story about AI", the AI tool burped out three paragraphs. Here's the first:

"The world is on the brink of a new era of intelligence. For the first time in history, artificial intelligence (AI) is about to surpass human intelligence. This momentous event is sure to change the course of history, and it is all thanks to the tireless work of AI researchers."

In general, GPT-3 is remarkably good at stringing sentences together, though plays fast and loose with the facts.

Asked to write about the 2022 Australian election, it claimed the vote would be held on July 2.

But it still managed to sound like it knew what it was talking about:

"Whoever wins the election, it is sure to be a close and hard-fought contest. With the country facing challenges on many fronts, the next government will have its work cut out for it."

Mr Duncan says you "can't just let the AI write whatever it wants to write".

"It's terrible at fact-checking. It actually makes up facts."

He uses the tool as a creative prompt: the slog of writing from scratch is replaced by editing and fact-checking.

"It helps you overcome the blank-page problem."

Mr Mahoney agrees.

"If you produce content purely by an AI, it's very obvious that it's written by one.

"It's either too wordy or just genuinely doesn't make sense."

But with proper guidance, GPT-3 (and other AI writing tools) can be good enough for standard professional writing tasks like work emails or content marketing, where speed is more important than style.

"People who create content for marketing tend to use it every day," Longshot's Ankur Pandey says.

"Most of the focus of this industry is content writers, content marketers and copywriters, because this is mission critical for them."

Then there's coding: In November 2021, a third of the code on GitHub - a hosting platform for code - was being written with Copilot, a GPT-3 powered coding tool that had been launched five months earlier.

US technological research and consulting firm Gartner predicts that by 2025, generative AI (like GPT-3) will account for 10 per cent of all data produced, up from less than 1 per cent today.

That data includes everything from website code and chatbot platforms to image generation and marketing copy.

"At the moment, content creation is mostly using generative AI to assist as part of the pipeline," says Anthony Mullen, research director for AI at Gartner.

"I think that will persist for a while, but it does shift the emphasis more towards ideas, rather than craft.

"Whether it is producing fully completed work or automating tasks in the creative process, generative AI will continue to reshape the creative industries.

"This technology is a massive disruptor."

How do AI writing tools work?

Until recently, decent text generation AI seemed a long way away.

Progress in natural language processing (NLP), or the ability of a computer program to understand human language, appeared to be getting bogged down in the complexity of the task.

Then, in 2017, a series of rapid advancements culminated in a new kind of AI model.

In traditional machine learning, a programmer teaches a computer to, for instance, recognise if an image does or does not contain a dog.

In deep learning, the computer is provided with a set of training data - eg. images tagged dog or not dog - that it uses to create a feature set for dogs.

With this set, it creates a model that can then predict whether untagged images do or do not contain a dog.

These deep learning models are the technology behind, for instance, the computer vision that's used in driverless cars.

While working on ways to improve Google Translate, researchers at the company stumbled upon a deep learning model that proved to be good at predicting what word should come next in a sentence.

Called Transformer, it's like a supercharged version of text messaging auto-complete.

"Transformer is a very, very good statistical guesser," says Alan Thompson, an independent AI researcher and consultant.

"It wants to know what is coming next in your sentence or phrase or piece of language, or in some cases, piece of music or image or whatever else you've fed to the Transformer."

At the same time, in parallel to Google, an Australian tech entrepreneur and data scientist, Jeremy Howard, was finding new ways to train deep learning models on large datasets.

Jeremy Howard sold two successful start-ups before moving to Silicon Valley.

Professor Howard, who would go on to become an honorary professor at the University of Queensland, had moved to San Francisco six years earlier, from Melbourne.

He proposed feeding Transformer a big chunk of text data and seeing what happened.

"So in 2018, the OpenAI team actually took Professor Jeremy Howard's advice and fed the original GPT with a whole bunch of book data into this Transformer model," Dr Thompson says.

"And they watched as it was able to complete sentences seemingly out of nowhere."

Transformer is the basis for GPT (which stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer), as well as other current language models.

Professor Howard's contribution is widely recognised in Silicon Valley, but not so much in Australia, to which he recently returned.

"In Australia, people will ask what do you do and I'll be like, 'I'm a professor in AI'. And they say, 'Oh well, how about the footy?'" he says.

"It's very, very different."

But how does the AI form sentences?

The short answer is that, beyond a certain point, we don't know.

AI like GPT-3 are known as "black boxes", meaning it's impossible to know the internal process of computation.

The AI has trained itself to do a task, but how it actually performs that task is largely a mystery.

"We've given it this training data and we've let it kind of macerate that data for months, which is the equivalent of many human years, or decades even," Dr Thompson says.

"And it can do things that it shouldn't be able to do. It taught itself coding and programming. It can write new programmes that haven't existed."

As you might guess, this inability to understand exactly how the technology works is a problem for driverless cars, which rely on AI to make life-and-death decisions.

Meanwhile, new and more powerful AIs are being unveiled almost every week.

"I documented one coming out every 3-4 days in March through April," Dr Thompson says.

"We've now got 30, 40, 50 different large language models [like GPT-3], and sometimes they're being released weekly."

GPT-4 is expected to be unveiled within months.

This week, Google's DeepMind released its most impressive AI yet, called Gato, which is designed to be good at lots of tasks.

Its makers describe it as a precursor to an Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), which is a long-anticipated AI that can understand or learn any intellectual task that a human being can.

In theory, potentially any human occupation could be replaced by an AGI.

"We used to say that artificial general intelligence and the replacement of humans would be like 2045," Dr Thompson says.

"I'm seeing the beginnings of AGI right now."

AI tools performing creative human tasks is no longer the stuff of science fiction, or something that will happen in 10 years' time.

For Danny Mahoney in Melbourne, it's already begun.

"I think people really underestimate how useful it is at this point," he says.

"Anybody who spends any significant amount of time on the internet is reading AI content without even realising."

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Think you can spot content written by AI? The truth is you've probably already read a lot of it

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Two years ago this weekend, GPT-3 was introduced to the world. You may not have heard of GPT-3, but there's a good chance you've readits work, used a website that runs its code, or even conversed with it through a chatbot or a character in a game.

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I went a little bit lax on the 'Georgie learns things' post – that's what happens when the learning gets tougher, the extra reflections stop being ready for publication!

Since I last posted, I've finished my ~homework, having done a report and reflective essay as the formalised assessment. Yay!

Here's (briefly) some things I learned along the way:
- Learning outcomes are good when assessments are really clearly tied to them. When the assessments aren't able to be clearly tied to them, they're harder to define and quite misleading for the student although still useful for the educator.
- We covered lots of UX/LX/HCD things, something I'm increasingly familiar with sitting next to Derrick. I enjoyed this list of UX fails.
- We did a module on Design Thinking, which again is something I'm increasingly familiar with, from building the Design Thinking course! I enjoyed and found value in practicing what JR's preached, putting things into practice instead of just building a course about it.
- We had a live Q&A/'Expression Session' with Dee Halil, who  is currently with Microsoft, but has worked with uni's, Pearson, and a bunch more things. What I appreciated about this was the ideas of flexibility and compromise, something that wasn't really covered in the course itself as we were aiming for blue sky style design. I'm sure we can all agree that so much of the work we do involves significant compromise from the ideal course we'd like to make, so this was really interesting – it was largely about what I'd summarise as compromising forwards, finding solutions that fit progressively and understanding why the compromise is required.

If you're interested, I've also attached my main assignment here, a learning design strategy. This was a great assessment task – it was very much a 'find something in your own context' situation, which means I've honed in on the Cultural Safety Modules for this. In a ways, much of what I've learned has really been a learning design language and comprehension class – these are things I 'know' but I didn't know how to express it or how to communicate my ideas in a LD context. I'm feeling much more confident in my ability to do such now.

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Play with a synth in your browser and learn to use the various parts of a synth to make your own sounds - get started

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Learn about synthesizers via Ableton's interactive website. Play with a synth in your browser and learn to use the various parts of a synth to make your own sounds.

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MidJourney: An AI powered art-making tool

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MidJourney: An AI powered art-making tool

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MidJourney is a new AI powered art-making tool trained to perform neural style transfer (manipulation of digital images or videos to adopt the appearance or visual style of another image). Much of the art work produced so far may be a little weird for our typical use, but it could be something for us to explore and consider for use, such as creation of theme images, hero images or similar thematically relevant and ephemeral images, and more.

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MidJourney is a new art-making tool in closed beta. Though both mysterious and obvious-the output suggests AI-powered generative networks trained to perform style transfer-the resulting art is breathtaking. Pictured above is "atomic explosion by Norman Rockwell", as posted by WeavingWithGan just an hour ago.

Below, some of my favorites so far posted:

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MidJourney sharpens style of AI art | Boing Boing

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MidJourney is a new art-making tool in closed beta. Though both mysterious and obvious-the output suggests AI-powered generative networks trained to perform style transfer-the resulting art is breathtaking. Pictured above is "atomic explosion by Norman Rockwell", as posted by WeavingWithGan just an hour ago. Below, some of my favorites so far posted: https://twitter.com/KaliYuga_ai/status/1505333600870445068 https://twitter.com/mattdesl/status/1506329104395771911 https://twitter.com/GanWeaving/status/1506893934689193986...

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Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

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Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

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A large-scale study found that well-being predicts outstanding job performance.

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1. P.B. Lester, E.P. Stewart, L.L. Vie, et al., " Happy Soldiers Are Highest Performers," Journal of Happiness Studies, Aug. 25, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-021-00441-x.

2. E. Diener, "Subjective Well-Being: The Science of Happiness and a Proposal for a National Index," American Psychologist 55, no. 1 (January 2000): 34-43.

3. E. Diener, R.E. Lucas, S. Oishi, et al., "Advances and Open Questions in the Science of Subjective Well-Being," Collabra: Psychology 4, no. 1 (May 2018): 1-15.

4. W. Li, K.C. Stanek, Z. Zhang, et al., "Are Genetic and Environmental Influences on Job Satisfaction Stable Over Time? A Three-Wave Longitudinal Twin Study," Journal of Applied Psychology 101, no. 11 (November 2016): 1598-1619.

5. J.F. Helliwell, H. Huang, S. Wang, et al., "Happiness, Trust, and Deaths Under COVID-19," in " World Happiness Report 2021," eds. J.F. Helliwell, R. Layard, J.D. Sachs, et al. (New York: Sustainable Development Solutions Network, 2021): 13-56.

6. M.A. Killingsworth, "Experienced Well-Being Rises With Income, Even Above $75,000 Per Year," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118, no. 4 (January 2021): 1-6.

7. E. Diener and W. Tov, "National Accounts of Well-Being," in "Handbook of Social Indicators and Quality of Life Research," eds. K.C. Land, A.C. Michalos, and M.J. Sirgy (London: Springer, 2012): 137-157.

8. E.R. Tenney, J.M. Poole, and E. Diener, "Does Positivity Enhance Work Performance? Why, When, and What We Don't Know," Research in Organizational Behavior 36 (2016): 27-46.

9. The PANAS, along with the Optimism Test, Satisfaction With Life Questionnaire, VIA Survey of Character Strengths, and many other assessments, can be found at www.authentichappiness.org.

10. M.E.P. Seligman, T.A. Steen, N. Park, et al., "Positive Psychology Progress: Empirical Validation of Interventions," American Psychologist 60, no. 5 (July-August 2005): 410-421.

11. E. Diener, S.J. Heintzelman, K. Kushlev, et al., "Findings All Psychologists Should Know From the New Science on Subjective Well-Being," Canadian Psychology 58, no. 2 (May 2017): 87-104.

12. P. B. Lester, P. D. Harms, M.N. Herian, et al., " The Comprehensive Soldier Fitness Program Evaluation. Report #3: Longitudinal Analysis of the Impact of Master Resilience Training on Self-Reported Resilience and Psychological Health Data," PDF file (Lincoln, Nebraska: Public Policy Center, University of Nebraska (December 2021), https://digitalcommons.unl.edu.

13. R. Cornum, M.D. Matthews, and M.E.P. Seligman, "Comprehensive Soldier Fitness: Building Resilience in a Challenging Institutional Context," The American Psychologist 66, no. 1 (January 2011): 4-9.

14. S.J. Heintzelman, K. Kushlev, L.D. Lutes, et al., "ENHANCE: Evidence for the Efficacy of a Comprehensive Intervention Program to Promote Subjective Well-Being," Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied 26, no. 2 (June 2020): 360-383.

15. J.H. Fowler and N.A. Christakis, "Dynamic Spread of Happiness in a Large Social Network: Longitudinal Analysis Over 20 Years in the Framingham Heart Study," The BMJ 337, no. a2338 (2008): 1-9.

16. Lester, Harms, Herian, et al., "The Comprehensive Soldier Fitness Program Evaluation."

i. Open Science Collaboration, "Estimating the Reproducibility of Psychological Science," Science 349, no. 6251 (Aug. 28, 2015).

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Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

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1. P.B. Lester, E.P. Stewart, L.L. Vie, et al., " Happy Soldiers Are Highest Performers," Journal of Happiness Studies, Aug. 25, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-021-00441-x. 2. E. Diener, "Subjective Well-Being: The Science of Happiness and a Proposal for a National Index," American Psychologist 55, no. 1 (January 2000): 34-43. 3. E. Diener, R.E.

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How can the Wu-Tang Clan inform our online collaborative learning experiences?

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How can the Wu-Tang Clan inform our online collaborative learning experiences?

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Or to ask the full question, how can the RZA, the GZA, Raekwon the Chef, Masta Killa, Inspectah Deck, Method Man, ODB, U-God, and Ghostface Killah inform our online collaborative learning experiences?

If you're new to the Wu, consider listening to Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) by Wu-Tang Clan.

PARENTAL ADVISORY - EXPLICIT LYRICS

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Or to ask the full question, how can the RZA, the GZA, Raekwon the Chef, Masta Killa, Inspectah Deck, Method Man, ODB, U-God, and Ghostface Killah inform our online collaborative learning experiences?

To help answer this, we're joined by the brilliant Terry Greene, Senior eLearning Designer at Trent University, Ontario and host of the cracking Gettin' Air Podcast - where he connects with many of the biggest movers, shakers and thinkers in the modern educational world. Turns out he's also red hot when it comes to hip-hop and rap. The chap is a triple threat.

Mark and Mike are there to balance things out, and stop the podcast accidentally sounding too cool.

Here's a few of the references we mention along the way:

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How can the Wu-Tang Clan inform our online collaborative learning experiences?

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Or to ask the full question, how can the RZA, the GZA, Raekwon the Chef, Masta Killa, Inspectah Deck, Method Man, ODB, U-God, and Ghostface Killah inform our online collaborative learning experiences?

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The Department of Education Skills and Employment released its National Microcredentials Framework.

'The framework’s goal is to provide greater clarity and understanding within the tertiary education sector and amongst learners as to the value and recognition of microcredentials'.

For us here at Monash (and probably others in the higher education sector), there's nothing really startling or controversial in it. If anything, it provides some assurance that Monash's current approach to designing, developing and delivering microcredentials is aligned with the thinking of the Microcredentials Working Group.

Of interest, is Independent Tertiary Education Council Australia (ITECA) view that the Australian Government’s new Microcredentials Marketplace look set to fail spectacularly as it won’t recognise vocational training unaccredited microcredentials, having been designed "only to support microcredentials in the higher education sector. ITECA's main issue is that the marketplace has been solely designed to support higher education providers". ITECA note that this design decision was made "despite the fact that higher education microcredentials are estimated to represent less than 1% of the microcredentials used by businesses and their employees".

The Microcredentials Marketplace - a one-stop-shop for course offerings

In 2020, Australian Government announced funding of $4.2 million to develop a Microcredentials Marketplace (the Marketplace) - they say 'it will be a nationally consistent platform for students to compare short course offerings and credit point value' and was open to apply to deliver services under the Microcredentials Marketplace grant opportunity in the Higher Education area that will run over 3 years from 2020-21 to 2022-23.

In July 2021, the Universities Admissions Centre (UAC) announced that it had won an Australian government grant to build the nation’s first ever marketplace for microcredentials. UAC must be busy developing the marketplace because there hasn't been any recent announcements about the marketplace in their News section of their website.

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Here's an article on the role of learning design and communicating the 'what do you do' to people. It's also got a bunch of Rowan-isms about being somewhat tool-agnostic, for example "how you use the tools is more important than which (if any) tool is used."

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The rise in demand for instructional design has given way to a series of misconceptions about the discipline; two educators offer an informative view of their profession and its origins.

Credit: VLADGRIN / Shutterstock © 2018

"Can you fix my computer?" This simple question (or a similar one) has most likely been asked of every instructional designer (ID), indicating a misalignment about what IDs do and what others think they actually do. This confusion is nothing new, but what seems to be different now is that those of us in the field may have bought into the confusion - or are helping sustain the misunderstanding because we have lost our way or forgotten where we came from.

In this blog we offer a quick refresher on the origins of instructional design, which is especially valuable because the demand for what we do is increasing. As Kyle Peck reminds us, "a 'perfect storm' of forces both within and outside education are about to accelerate the evolution of learning and learning design, increasing the demand for well-prepared learning designers, learning-related tool builders, and learning-related researchers."

The importance of employing those who design instruction has risen exponentially. This is due in large part to the need to convert traditionally delivered face-to-face content to online delivery. Hence, using technology to deliver learning is seen as the key (and sometimes, the only) reason to employ an educational/instructional/learning designer. Of course, as any well-trained ID knows, this understanding is shortsighted and usurps the analysis portion of the ADDIE process - the instructional design framework IDs use to design, develop, and implement instructional solutions.

The Origin and Purpose of Instructional Design

The discipline itself did not arise from humble beginnings. Ours is a field that came into formal existence around World War II, driven by a need to solve the problem of making military training more efficient. The main purpose was to solve performance-related problems. This foundational premise for the field is either now lost or has just become synonymous with the belief that anything with a plug should be the base of the instructional design knowledge/skill set. Not helping the matter is that the ID position is also challenged by the numerous naming constructions and descriptors (e.g., educational, instructional, or learning), seemingly united by a requirement that all activities be associated with some form of technology magic.

Understanding how to get a person to quickly and accurately "upskill" so that they can perform with little or no error was the initial requirement of the field's founders. The solution here is not, nor has it ever been, to focus on technology or, as some would say, the "tools." The onus has been and should always be on solving the problem of not being able to perform accurately when required.

Arguably, every job posting for instructional designers (or similar roles) today include the knowledge and use of specific tools. Rather than seeking individuals who identify the problem, determine whether it is an instructional issue, and then decide whether technology is appropriate, job descriptions instead tend to request a person with information technology expertise who has worked in an educational setting. Such job descriptions suggest that the "skill of the tool" will solve the problem.

This misdirected message is further propagated in day-to-day instructional design activities and then creates further damage by being the focus of research. What does this mean? It conveys the message that the problems being addressed can and must be solved by the tools identified for the job when in reality, perhaps what is needed is a simple job aid or a realignment of responsibilities.

Where Does Technology Fit in the Equation?

A great reminder for all of us in the field regarding the many available and exciting technology tools is that how you use the tools is more important than which (if any) tool is used. A tool that is used to effectively deliver instruction can and will have different effects when used in a different institutional context that involves different learner characteristics, different content, a different teaching style, and even different information and communication technology infrastructure. By focusing on "which tool," the assumption being made is that a wooden desk can work in an art class just as efficiently and effectively as it would work in a chemistry class, thus reducing the role of instructional designers to merely being IT technicians in an educational setting.

Our field is multidisciplinary; instead of drawing only from the foundations of education, it draws from engineering, psychology, philosophy, cognitive science, sociology, and many more. These combined disciplines are used to solve problems through one delivery medium - instruction - thus reflecting that the way the problem is solved is vital for this field.

As mentioned at the beginning, regardless of title (i.e., instructional designer, educational designer, or learning designer), the role of the individuals who are in such position is to come into a space, perform an analysis, and ultimately decide the best way to address the problem. Sometimes the solutions may include the latest technological tools such as augmented reality, or it may lead to a redesigned instructional sheet for a face-to-face workshop.

Please note that we are not trying to dismiss the importance of technological tools and the varying features that they provide to those who use them. It is well known that some of today's technologies allow us to develop learning experiences that are not possible in the physical world. So, yes, tools are important, but just employing them is not innovative or engaging; they are not an end in themselves. The goal is to use tools to solve problems in a unique way so that the intended learning experience (or more) is achieved.

Notes

Tutaleni I. Asino, "The Future of Our Field," TechTrends, 59, no. 1 (2015): 20-30. ↩

Barbara B. Lockee, John K. Burton, and Lawrence H. Cross, "No Comparison: Distance Education Finds a New Use for 'No Significant Difference'," Educational Technology Research and Development, 47, no. 3 (September 1999): 33-42. ↩

Camille Dickson-Deane serves as Educational/Instructional Design Consultant at the University of Melbourne.

Tutaleni I. Asino is an Assistant Professor of Educational Technology at Oklahoma State University.

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instructional design is about problem solving

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Don't Forget, Instructional Design Is About Problem Solving

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The rise in demand for instructional design has given way to a series of misconceptions about the discipline; two educators offer an informative view of their profession and its origins. "Can you fix my computer?"

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This week we're looking at things like ADDIE, UDL, UBD etc.

I'm finding in exploring these things it's very much a situation where it's turning things I 'know' into things I can comprehend, communicate and then turn into something cohesive that can be actioned.

From this, I've been thinking a lot about how might we better communicate our needs to academics. This is something I see you guys doing plenty of and I'm sure there's plenty of ideas on this, it's not a commentary on an area that's lacking, rather a question of advocacy. I feel like there's the ever-common theme of 'this is how we teach the course' and then it's on us to translate this into an integrated online experience. So I guess it's a larger question of how might we proactively communicate innovative learning experiences rather than a reactive 'switching up' of how a piece of content is delivered.

Image provided is something else I liked – it's a nice diagram of UDL frameworks.

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As some of you know, I'm doing a PD course through UTS. I might post some things here, either related to what I'm learning, or how this learning is being delivered.

There's apparently this thing called a HyFlex Model. This was shown during a Meet and Greet session, providing a course introduction. What I found particularly interesting about this was both the open acknowledgement of participant needs in terms of time and engagement demands, and the offering of a prescribed model for the course.

Effectively, the facilitator has offered options in delivery for if people can't make sessions, or if people are time-poor and juggling many demands, i.e. providing scope on when joining seminars is most important versus watching them afterwards versus not at all. I don't know if this is something we'd use so blatantly in terms of prescribing when to take each path through the course, but I thought it's something interesting to reflect on. Are all of our participants going to engage with all of the course content? If they skip activity X in our course, how big will the hole in their learning be? How do we work around the constraints of our real-life participants in a way that allows them flexibility in their study whilst also ensuring that they get what they need from the course? Do we make a course for the most time-poor participant, or do we tailor it so that someone can spend hundreds of hours immersed in content if they wished?

Things about me: I wrote my Masters thesis on transmedia storytelling (which no, is not media about trans folk), specifically through webseries and using social media. This is centred around ideas of multiple access points to a story, where audiences can either they can engage in a 'full', multi-platform experience, or they can engage with even just one platform and receive still a complete story. So this HyFlex model is interesting to me, because it kinda just feels like a way to reflect on learning design through a lens that I already know well!

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Universal Design for Learning (UDL) for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA)

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Universal Design for Learning (UDL) for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA)

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Although the guide was written specifically for the Canadian context, it may be of interest to us as designers of educational experiences.

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Book Information

Book Description

The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA) project was a collaboration between 10 universities and colleges across Ontario to develop a 6-module open educational resource for post-secondary educators. The open courseware provides educators with an introduction to Universal Design for Learning, the responsibilities of educators under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) and the Ontario Human Rights Code, considerations for equity, diversity and inclusion in educational settings, and Indigenous pedagogies and their relationship to UDL. The resource is designed as an accessible entrance point for all PSE educators and an invitation to learn more about these critically important topics. It is also designed to be used as the basis for local training professional development on these topics, which may be recognised in many ways, including as a microcredential.

Subject

Higher education, tertiary education

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Universal Design for Learning (UDL) for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA) - Simple Book Publishing

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The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA) project was a collaboration between 10 universities and colleges across Ontario to develop a 6-module open educational resource for post-secondary educators.

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It's limited free usage then paid, but could have some interesting usage! Lots of good integration with various software!

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Free Online Whiteboard For Team Collaboration | InVision

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Try Freehand, the online whiteboard designed to transform how your team collaborates. Integrates with Microsoft Teams, Slack, Sketch & Photoshop.

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Narrative design is turning a story into a series of interesting decisions...

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Narrative design is turning a story into a series of interesting decisions...

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If Game design was "a series of interesting decisions." and Narrative design is turning a story into a series of interesting decisions, what is educational design or learning design?

As designers and developers of learning, do we also teeter on the of precipice of Ludonarrative dissonance, or equivalent?

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Developers from across the industry share their experience and outlook on narrative in videogames, and help define the role of narrative designer..

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In business, there's only one thing more important than "Make it better". And that's "Don't fuck it up".

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In business, there's only one thing more important than "Make it better". And that's "Don't fuck it up".

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YouTuber Jawed, known for uploading the first YouTube video of all time, titled "me at the zoo," has altered the description of his iconic video to feature an essay on why he does not care for YouTube's removal of the dislike button.

The ability to easily and quickly identify bad content is an essential feature of a user-generated content platform. Why? Because not all user-generated content is good. It can't be. In fact, most of it is not good. And that's OK. The idea was never that all content is good. The idea WAS, however, that among the flood of content, there are great creations waiting to be exposed. And for that to happen, the stuff that's not great has to fall by the side as quickly as possible.

The process works, and there's a name for it: the wisdom of the crowds. The process breaks when the platform interferes with it. Then, the platform invariably declines. Does YouTube want to become a place where everything is mediocre? Because nothing can be great if nothing is bad.

In business, there's only one thing more important than "Make it better". And that's "Don't fuck it up".

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Poster Of ‘Me At The Zoo’ Alters Video Description To Essay Against YouTube Dislike Button Removal

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The original YouTuber is not happy with the company’s direction over the decision to remove the dislike button.

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Twitter Bots are not new and there are plenty out there that do all types of cool and interesting stuff, but Ace Attorney Court is next level - it's a bot that "may transform twitter Threads into Ace Attorney Court cases" with surreal and somewhat comical results. The sample included in this post are from a series of replies to a tweet by a cryptocurrency miner showcasing their mining rig, which explains all the hate.

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@dumbflowerlady @stanzobrand @LINKBY9 @OnlyAWorldAway @jaxson_davidson Your video is ready. Do you want it removed? contact @/LuisMayoV

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@dumbflowerlady @stanzobrand @LINKBY9 @OnlyAWorldAway @jaxson_davidson Your video is ready. Do you want it removed? contact @/LuisMayoV https://t.co/kXcXqN0VzQ

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@dumbflowerlady @stanzobrand @LINKBY9 @OnlyAWorldAway @jaxson_davidson Your video is ready. Do you want it removed? contact @/LuisMayoV https://t.co/kXcXqN0VzQ

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@dumbflowerlady @stanzobrand @LINKBY9 @OnlyAWorldAway @jaxson_davidson Your video is ready. Do you want it removed? contact @/LuisMayoV https://t.co/kXcXqN0VzQ

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.metadata.attachment_props.text
@dumbflowerlady @stanzobrand @LINKBY9 @OnlyAWorldAway @jaxson_davidson Your video is ready. Do you want it removed? contact @/LuisMayoV

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How might we use gentle humour on a public-facing website to promote and start the conversation about what we do, how we do it, and what's different about us - a more "serious" component would also be available that then links further to work samples/show reel, an estimator, contact details etc.

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Tell me everything about your video game idea!

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How might we adopt and adapt the ideas of "The Attention Capital Principle", "The Process Principle", "The Protocol Principle" and "The Specialization Principle" for the way we work?

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Reading a book 'A world without email' (Newport, 2021). The author argues that email reduces productivity; makes us miserable; & it has a mind of its own. He proposes four ways to re-imagine work in the age of overload. The book helps me to reflect on my own workflow in academia.

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Reading a book 'A world without email' (Newport, 2021). The author argues that email reduces productivity; makes us miserable; & it has a mind of its own. He proposes four ways to re-imagine work in the age of overload. The book helps me to reflect on my own workflow in academia. https://t.co/8VEkkJi7KM

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Reading a book 'A world without email' (Newport, 2021). The author argues that email reduces productivity; makes us miserable; & it has a mind of its own. He proposes four ways to re-imagine work in the age of overload. The book helps me to reflect on my own workflow in academia. https://t.co/8VEkkJi7KM

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Reading a book 'A world without email' (Newport, 2021). The author argues that email reduces productivity; makes us miserable; & it has a mind of its own. He proposes four ways to re-imagine work in the age of overload. The book helps me to reflect on my own workflow in academia. https://t.co/8VEkkJi7KM

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Reading a book 'A world without email' (Newport, 2021). The author argues that email reduces productivity; makes us miserable; & it has a mind of its own. He proposes four ways to re-imagine work in the age of overload. The book helps me to reflect on my own workflow in academia.

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Use short paragraphs, short sentences - and short words. There are a number of principles that are key to effective writing, no matter what you write.

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The problem with “click here” and “learn more” links

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The problem with “click here” and “learn more” links

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Should I say don't click here!??

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Tip 2: Write unique text

Nielsen Norman Group found that when users see the same link twice on the same page they assume it goes to the same place.

Make hyperlink text unique.

Replace repetitive, vague hyperlink text such as 'Click here', Read more', and 'Continue reading'.

An example
Recently I read an email newsletter with the link text 'Read more' more than 5 times.

Here is a portion of that email in text with the screenshot shown below also:

Tips for lodging your tax return (headline)
Find out when and how to lodge your tax return. (summary)
Read more (link text)

Claim now for JobMaker Hiring Credit payments (headline)
The third claim period for the JobMaker Hiring Credit ends on 31 October. (summary)
Read more (link text)

STP quarterly reporting due dates (headline)
Eligibility and due date information for those who report quarterly through STP. (summary)
Read more (link text)

Screenshot: Email showing repetitive 'Read more' links. Source: Tax website.

How this could be improved

Get rid of the 'Read more' hyperlink

Hyperlink the headlines - they're unique, specific, and meaningful

Here's an example of a web page with clear hyperlink labels - text and screenshot included below:

Early childhood (headline)
Careers, supporting children and families, running a service (summary)

Training and scholarships (hyperlink text)
Quality assessment (hyperlink text)
Find a kinder program (hyperlink text)

Screenshot: Website menu. Source: Department of Education website.

Discussion
Repetitive hyperlink labels like 'Click more' and 'Read more' are common.

They don't seem like a problem when your visitor selects a hyperlink in the context of what they're reading.

However, your reader might want to scan all the content first then delve into the hyperlinks.

Or, your reader might be using assistive technology such as a screen reader to scan a list of hyperlinks on the page.

Imagine how unhelpful it is to get a list of hyperlinks labeled:
'Click more'
'Click more'
'Click more'
This video Why Use Descriptive Links?demonstrates how much visitors rely on hyperlink text using a screen reader:

Video: Why Use Descriptive Links. Source: Portland Community College YouTube.

No matter how your visitors read your page, unique, meaningful hyperlink labels will help.
Key takeaway: Use unique hyperlink labels.

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The problem with "click here" and "learn more" links

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Nielsen Norman Group found that when users see the same link twice on the same page they assume it goes to the same place. Make hyperlink text unique. Replace repetitive, vague hyperlink text such as 'Click here', Read more', and 'Continue reading'.

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Check out colorsafe.co. Put in a single colour, then it will suggest AA or AAA hues to contrast with!

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What Google Learned From Its Quest to Build the Perfect Team (Published 2016)

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New research reveals surprising truths about why some work groups thrive and others falter.

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Facebook wants researchers around the world to try and solve using AI systems trained on its dataset. The company describes these as:

Episodic memory: What happened when (e.g., “Where did I leave my keys?”)?

Forecasting: What am I likely to do next (e.g., “Wait, you’ve already added salt to this recipe”)?

Hand and object manipulation: What am I doing (e.g., “Teach me how to play the drums”)?

Audio-visual diarization: Who said what when (e.g., “What was the main topic during class?”)?

Social interaction: Who is interacting with whom (e.g., “Help me better hear the person talking to me at this noisy restaurant”)?

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Facebook is pouring a lot of time and money into augmented reality, including building its own AR glasses with Ray-Ban. Right now, these gadgets can only record and share imagery, but what does the company think such devices will be used for in the future?

A new research project led by Facebook's AI team suggests the scope of the company's ambitions. It imagines AI systems that are constantly analyzing peoples' lives using first-person video; recording what they see, do, and hear in order to help them with everyday tasks. Facebook's researchers have outlined a series of skills it wants these systems to develop, including "episodic memory" (answering questions like "where did I leave my keys?") and "audio-visual diarization" (remembering who said what when).

"there's possibilities down the road that we'd be leveraging this kind of research"

Right now, the tasks outlined above cannot be achieved reliably by any AI system, and Facebook stresses that this is a research project rather than a commercial development. However, it's clear that the company sees functionality like these as the future of AR computing. "Definitely, thinking about augmented reality and what we'd like to be able to do with it, there's possibilities down the road that we'd be leveraging this kind of research," Facebook AI research scientist Kristen Grauman told The Verge.

Such ambitions have huge privacy implications. Privacy experts are already worried about how Facebook's AR glasses allow wearers to covertly record members of the public. Such concerns will only be exacerbated if future versions of the hardware not only record footage, but analyze and transcribe it, turning wearers into walking surveillance machines.

The name of Facebook's research project is Ego4D, which refers to the analysis of first-person, or "egocentric," video. It consists of two major components: an open dataset of egocentric video and a series of benchmarks that Facebook thinks AI systems should be able to tackle in the future.

Facebook helped collect 3,205 hours of first-person footage from around the world

The dataset is the biggest of its kind ever created, and Facebook partnered with 13 universities around the world to collect the data. In total, some 3,205 hours of footage were recorded by 855 participants living in nine different countries. The universities, rather than Facebook, were responsible for collecting the data. Participants, some of whom were paid, wore GoPro cameras and AR glasses to record video of unscripted activity. This ranges from construction work to baking to playing with pets and socializing with friends. All footage was de-identified by the universities, which included blurring the faces of bystanders and removing any personally identifiable information.

Grauman says the dataset is the "first of its kind in both scale and diversity." The nearest comparable project, she says, contains 100 hours of first-person footage shot entirely in kitchens. "We've open up the eyes of these AI systems to more than just kitchens in the UK and Sicily, but [to footage from] Saudi Arabia, Tokyo, Los Angeles, and Colombia."

The second component of Ego4D is a series of benchmarks, or tasks, that Facebook wants researchers around the world to try and solve using AI systems trained on its dataset. The company describes these as:

Episodic memory: What happened when (e.g., "Where did I leave my keys?")?

Forecasting: What am I likely to do next (e.g., "Wait, you've already added salt to this recipe")?

Hand and object manipulation: What am I doing (e.g., "Teach me how to play the drums")?

Audio-visual diarization: Who said what when (e.g., "What was the main topic during class?")?

Social interaction: Who is interacting with whom (e.g., "Help me better hear the person talking to me at this noisy restaurant")?

Right now, AI systems would find tackling any of these problems incredibly difficult, but creating datasets and benchmarks are tried-and-tested methods to spur development in the field of AI.

Indeed, the creation of one particular dataset and an associated annual competition, known as ImageNet, is often credited with kickstarting the recent AI boom. The ImagetNet datasets consists of pictures of a huge variety of objects which researchers trained AI systems to identify. In 2012, the winning entry in the competition used a particular method of deep learning to blast past rivals, inaugurating the current era of research.

Facebook is hoping its Ego4D project will have similar effects for the world of augmented reality. The company says systems trained on Ego4D might one day not only be used in wearable cameras but also home assistant robots, which also rely on first-person cameras to navigate the world around them.

"The project has the chance to really catalyze work in this field in a way that hasn't really been possible yet," says Grauman. "To move our field from the ability to analyze piles of photos and videos that were human-taken with a very special purpose, to this fluid, ongoing first-person visual stream that AR systems, robots, need to understand in the context of ongoing activity."

Facebook's development of AI surveillance systems will worry many

Although the tasks that Facebook outlines certainly seem practical, the company's interest in this area will worry many. Facebook's record on privacy is abysmal, spanning data leaks and $5 billion fines from the FTC. It's also been shown repeatedly that the company values growth and engagement above users' well-being in many domains. With this in mind, it's worrying that benchmarks in this Ego4D project do not include prominent privacy safeguards. For example, the "audio-visual diarization" task (transcribing what different people say) never mentions removing data about people who don't want to be recorded.

When asked about these issues, a spokesperson for Facebook told The Verge that it expected that privacy safeguards would be introduced further down the line. "We expect that to the extent companies use this dataset and benchmark to develop commercial applications, they will develop safeguards for such applications," said the spokesperson. "For example, before AR glasses can enhance someone's voice, there could be a protocol in place that they follow to ask someone else's glasses for permission, or they could limit the range of the device so it can only pick up sounds from the people with whom I am already having a conversation or who are in my immediate vicinity."

For now, such safeguards are only hypothetical.

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Facebook is researching AI systems that see, hear, and remember everything you do

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Facebook is pouring a lot of time and money into augmented reality, including building its own AR glasses with Ray-Ban. Right now, these gadgets can only record and share imagery, but what does the company think such devices will be used for in the future?

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What's this?

A satirical title generator for designers seeking a title apart from other designers. Hit the shuffle button or spacebar to discover millions of possibilities!

As seen on Fast Co and CreativeBloq

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What's this? A satirical title generator for designers seeking a title apart from other designers. Hit the shuffle button or spacebar to discover millions of possibilities! As seen on Fast Co and CreativeBloq

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In their posts and reels on instagram, colorpalette.cinema explores the use of colour in cinema. They note how "colors can affect us psychologically, often without us being aware, and can be used as strong device in a story".

As designers of learning experiences, how might we use colour to tell our stories and contribute to the learning of our participants?

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In our dev team meeting, there was discussion of avoiding the further establishment of CentreMoodleBrand™, where every course looks identifiably Centre'd.

While it's not just about colour, here's some palettes to try keep you away from the CMB™ blues.

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Looking for color palettes for your graphic, web, or UI design? Mr.Pugo is a handy Instagram account that shares beautiful color palettes (with hex codes) and also their corresponding gradient palettes. We've shortlisted some of the best ones in terms of aesthetic appeal, usability, and current design trends. Check them out below and tell us your favourites in the comments.

Note: The rotation angle for all gradients shown below is 147°

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Share this post with a designer friend and voice your views in the comments below.

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32 Beautiful Color Palettes With Their Corresponding Gradient Palettes

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Looking for color palettes for your graphic, web, or UI design? Mr.Pugo is a handy Instagram account that shares beautiful color palettes (with hex codes) and also their corresponding gradient palettes. We've shortlisted some of the best ones in terms of aesthetic appeal, usability, and current design trends.

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What's Going On by Marvin Gaye is one of my favourite albums, ever. While each song segues seamlessly into the next, they  retain their own unique theme - the environment, poverty, injustice and inequality, positivity, peace and being human. Recommended listening.

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How long does it take to develop learning?

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How long does it take to develop learning?

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This post is a continuation of former research from 2003 to 2017 that sought to answer how long it takes to develop one hour of training.
Whenever we set out on a new project, one question we inevitably get is, "How long will it take?" This research supports you, the learning professional, as you continue to answer that question. It provides an update to the 2017 study on this topic to reflect talent development's changing landscape.

The 2020 research has several key differences compared to the previous versions of the study, all with the purpose of making the results more relevant and actionable to us as practitioners. These include:

Reporting the time required to create units of training content rather than the time required to create an hour of content, as units of training content are rarely an hour long

Evaluating time to develop by training delivery method to reflect differences in development time across various training products

Segmenting the data based on job role, talent development reporting structure, and organization size

Considering which barriers have the greatest negative effect on training product production time

Due to these refinements, this research does not make historical comparisons to previous iterations of the study. I also caution you against making such comparisons and encourage you to use the data reported below to:

Develop internal data collection processes.

Benchmark this data against your currently used data for project estimations.

Support current and future project planning efforts.

About the Research

The target survey population for this research was learning development professionals from organizations of different sizes and industries. A link to the online survey, which consisted of seven questions, was distributed by email and social media in the fall of 2020.

The survey garnered 264 responses in total. Of these, 152 participants answered only the questions regarding the time to develop individual training products, and 112 participants answered all questions in the survey, including those related to their job role, their organization's size and reporting structure for talent development, and their top barriers to creating learning products faster.

Among the 112 participants that completed the entire survey, 51 percent are learning development professionals reporting to a centralized management structure, whereas 49 percent are decentralized and report to separate business units.

Nearly half (44 percent) of respondents that answered all questions came from small organizations with 499 or fewer employees, 36 percent came from midsize organizations with between 500 and 9,999 employees, and the remaining 20 percent came from large organizations with 10,000 or more employees.

In terms of job responsibilities, a majority (65 percent) of participants who completed the entire survey identified themselves as all-in-one talent development professionals with wide-ranging responsibilities, which include needs assessment to learning design to training delivery. Around 11 percent identified themselves as talent development project managers, 9 percent identified themselves as instructional designers, 5 percent identified themselves as training developers, and 3 percent identified themselves as trainers. A small minority (7 percent) said their job responsibilities did not fit into any of these categories.

Development Time Findings

Does anyone design for an hour of training? Not really. The chart below shows how the 264 respondents identified which types of training products they develop and the minimum, maximum, and average times it took to create each. Participants were asked to calculate their time based on the work they perform for their current employer and on the ADDIE model, excluding summative evaluation. The average time to develop column is not a calculated average based on the minimum and maximum. It is the average time the respondent determined it takes them to create the selected training product.

Types of products ranged from instructor-led to varying levels of interactive e-learning to microlearning. Instructor-led (ILT) was divided into classroom and online, and e-learning was broken down into passive and levels of engagement-partial, moderate, and full.

Microlearning as defined by my co-author, Karl Kapp, and I in Microlearning: Short and Sweet is, "An instructional unit that provides a short engagement in an activity intentionally designed to elicit a specific outcome from the participant." Examples given to participants were infographics, podcasts, video, and e-Learning. Those that chose microlearning were not asked to select the type of microlearning products they create.

Barriers to Faster Production

There are a multitude of reasons why respondents provided the development times they did. To that point, we wanted to know a bit more about what affects a respondent's ability to produce learning products faster. Of the 264 responses, this is where we begin to focus in on the 112 fully completed surveys.

As shown in the chart above, we see that limited resources (time, talent, and money), cited by 67 percent of respondents, are the most frequently faced barriers to designing and developing learning content more quickly. After that, the percentage of respondents choosing each barrier fell dramatically. Scope creep (expanding project deliverables), lack of standardized processes or templates, lack of availability of SMEs and stakeholders, and limited learning infrastructure (authoring tools, systems, and networks) had a range of respondents between 34 and 39 percent.

More telling are the issues that respondents did not consider among their top barriers. More than 75 percent of respondents did not consider the capabilities (skills of talent development team) and accountability of their development and project teams (availability of SMEs and stakeholders) among their top challenges. Additionally, more than 80 percent of respondents appear to have less of a problem with leadership and management support compared to other barriers when it came to training production time.

Concluding Comments

Our field has been shaping itself for more than 75 years, and this question has been a vital one for the last 17 of them. Even though I don't update this annually, I assure you the questions come to me monthly (I apologize if I have not responded. I do really try!) and those inquiries lend to adapting the survey.

However, the data will never be one-size-fits all. It is valuable because it gives you ways to baseline your organization and the desire to know how long your organization takes in creating a training product. It also provides us insight into common challenges and trends in our industry, no matter the size of the organization or the type of job role or product developed.

Of course, it lends to more questions once we start leveraging them to guide internal organizational discussion. That's OK! I will ready my inbox and look forward to the discussion in the comments below.

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how long to develop one hour of training? updated for 2017

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how long does it take to develop training

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How Long Does It Take to Develop Training? New Question, New Answers

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This post is a continuation of former research from 2003 to 2017 that sought to answer how long it takes to develop one hour of training. Whenever we set out on a new project, one question we inevitably get is, "How long will it take?"

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I came across this video and I feel like it is a really good analogy for how I think about what it is that I do as a designer of other people's courses.

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Restoring a Neglected Chinese Juniper Bonsai

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"Technology has built the house in which we all live. The house is continually being extended & remodelled. More & more of human life takes place within its walls, so that today there is hardly any human activity that does not occur within this house."

These are recordings of Ursula Franklin's public lectures that she made as part of the 1989 Massey Lectures series.

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Tuxie is a good cat.

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Why does Matt not like learning outcomes?

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Why does Matt not like learning outcomes?

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Aside from generally being attracted to contrarian ideas in education. I'm generally skeptical of just about every model and principle out there with regards to education. Jesse Stommel articulates my thoughts better than I could in the blog linked below.

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I've never created a model for online, digital, or hybrid pedagogies. As long as I've been teaching, and as long as I've been teaching teachers, I've encountered, been flummoxed by, or have cast off models. I have yet to see a single pedagogical model worth its salt. And yet I watch how quickly models spread. The neater and tidier the model, the more likely it seems to be broadly adopted by an institution: Learning Styles, Bloom's Taxonomy, ADDIE, Scaffolding, Design Thinking, Quality Matters, Andragogy, HyFlex. Lists, frameworks, Venn diagrams, rubrics, templates. Six principles of Andragogy, five stages of the ADDIE development process, six levels of Bloom's Taxonomy, forty-two review standards of the Quality Matters Rubric. And, even when these models are thoroughly debunked, they continue to retain traction. According to the Association for Psychological Science, "No less than 71 different models of learning styles have been proposed over the years ... But psychological research has not found that people learn differently, at least not in the ways learning-styles proponents claim." And, yet, the American Psychological Association found, "in two online experiments with 668 participants, more than 90 percent of them believed people learn better if they are taught in their predominant learning style." In higher education, too many of us cling to other people's models, because we have rarely been taught, encouraged, or given the support we need to create our own.

Some of the more insidious models are fashioned as needlessly complex in order to create a mystique of intellectual rigor. Even when these models aren't based in research, they are made to seem as though they are. And the worst of these models have strange backgrounds, feed the motivations of for-profit companies, or aim to (or simply do) create edu-celebrities. I have always known I could make a lot more money as a speaker or consultant if I fashioned a fancily-named pedagogical model for myself. I wouldn't even have to craft something original, because so many of the existing models simply repackage other models with a pie chart instead of a pyramid, a set of five circles instead of cubes. An easy image-search for "pedagogical model" brings up a few dozen geometric arrangements. Teaching is reduced to mechanistic gestures across x- and y-axes and learning is pattern recognition.

At the first teacher training I attended, I was introduced to Bloom's taxonomy, which has since been burned into my brain through several dozen iterations. There is a certain comfort in the architecture of Bloom's taxonomy, usually represented as a pyramid, sometimes in 3-dimensions, usually in rainbow colours. The model was originally invented in 1956, the version I first learned, and significantly revised in 2001. These days you're more likely to encounter the revised version, which swaps out several of the less friendly words from the original, and appears to give students a bit more agency by adding the word "create" to the top. The new version also changes all the categories to verbs (like "remember" and "apply"), making it easier to tie each level directly to learning outcomes. I'd say it's six of the least vibrant verbs we could apply to learning, but this is what learning outcomes so often call for in their pursuit of being measurable.

Dull verbs aside, my biggest issue with Bloom's taxonomy is that it's hierarchical. Each level of the pyramid is supposedly built upon the level below. So, you can't "create" or "evaluate" until you first "remember" and "understand." (I'm certain my 3-year-old would take issue with that.) The whole thing feels less like a method to encourage or inspire learning and more like a way to police students (and also teachers), laying out a series of hoops for them to jump through with a built-in defence of their existence, what Jeffrey Moro calls "cop shit," or as I've come to call it, "the student agency military industrial complex." Of course, the educators, designers, and institutions trafficking in Bloom's don't mean for us to take scaling the pyramid literally, but far too often they really do. Ultimately, models like Bloom's are a distraction from the hard conversations we should be having about teaching and learning, and I don't think that's an accident.

I have tracked an anti-pedagogical bent in higher education (and education more generally) since I started teaching in 1999 and teaching teachers in 2003. And while there is more direct attention to design within online learning circles, there is also even more reliance on models and packaging of best practices. Pedagogy is praxis, the intersection between the philosophy and practice of teaching. Best practices, which aim to standardize teaching and flatten the differences between students, are anathema to pedagogy. The most egregious example is the Quality Matters rubric, which the organization (a standalone non-profit as of 2014) calls the "QM Quality Assurance System," which is said to "create a culture of continuous improvement" to "deliver the promise" of online learning. I have previously analyzed the marketing copy of Turnitin and various learning management systems. This work is not a mere exercise. When we're deciding what tools we use, we should be looking careful at the discrepancies between what the companies say the tools do and what they actually do. At the points where these diverge, we begin to see the cracks in a tool's promise.

From the front page of the Quality Matters Web site: "With online learning, everyone has a goal. Learners need to improve and grow. You work to nurture them with well-conceived, well-designed, well-presented courses and programs." It all seems benign, and I do believe the intentions of the organization are probably good, and I certainly believe most of the educators who use the Quality Matters rubric are working toward the aims described there. My biggest concern, right now, is the way I've seen Quality Matters and its rubric being presented as a solution to emergency remote teaching. If a teacher with no experience working fully online has been asked to shift all their teaching into an online or hybrid format, dumping a 42- or 43-item rubric in their lap really isn't going to help. And it will likely do harm.

Quality Matters is a special kind of model, almost the polar opposite of Bloom's, because QM is decidedly not at all simple. It is, in fact, needlessly complex to the point of being inscrutable, which ultimately helps QM sell an annotated version of the rubric, as well as courses, workshops, certification programs, subscriptions, and institutional memberships. In the rubric itself, the words "clear" or "clarity" appear over a dozen times. (There are 42 items on the latest higher education rubric and 43 on the latest K-12 rubric, all with point values assigned to them, a mechanism for tallying a final score.) Item 5.4 on the higher education rubric, for example, says that "the requirements for learner interaction are clearly stated." While I do think teachers should make their requirements for a course clear, writing longer syllabi, adding more items or levels to a rubric, and spelling out more requirements do not (in my experience) make anything more clear for students. The word "quality" is itself problematic, and perhaps even suspect. Many of the best examples of online learning would fail miserably at the QM rubric. In "The Trouble with Rubrics," Alfie Kohn writes, "Consistent and uniform standards are admirable, and maybe even workable, when we're talking about, say, the manufacture of DVD players."

QM promises efficiency and objectivity, but actually creates more work and merely provides cover for all the biases and subjectivity that continue to exist (and are left unchecked) in spite of the rubric. The words "access," "accessible," and "accessibility" do appear five times on the Quality Matters rubric, but each use refers to either providing "policies" and "statements," or having accessible "text and image files" and "multimedia content" that meet "the needs of diverse learners" (the only context in which "diversity" is mentioned). This just doesn't go even nearly far enough. The word "privacy" appears once, but the onus is put on students to protect their data and privacy; the course needs only to provide the necessary "information." Here are a few words that do not appear anywhere on the Quality Matters rubric: "community," "agency," "inclusivity," "flexibility," "joy," "compassion," "question," and "human."

In "Why I threw Away My Rubrics," Jennifer Hurley writes, "Where is the human response in all of this?" Hurley argues rubrics are especially damaging to those who would be most successful and to those who are struggling. The best teachers are left to rest on their laurels or even encouraged to step backward as they jump through hoops not really designed for them. The advice they get from QM runs counter to their better instincts, which see learning (and online learning) as a complex set of human experiences, behaviours, and interactions - all of which can't be neatly measured by a rubric. There is no incentive (and, in fact, risks) to pushing past the boundaries set up by the QM rubric.

Meanwhile, the teachers who are struggling (or teaching online for the first time) find themselves bewildered by the sea of categories the QM rubric contains and the way the rubric patronizes its users. For the new or struggling teachers, the rubric ends up feeling like a crude (and mechanistic) tool for administrators and institutions to police teaching - more "cop shit." This is not a good entry point into the work of being a teacher, especially the very human work of being a teacher online.

None of this is to say Bloom's taxonomy or the Quality Matters rubric have never ever been used to support good pedagogy. My point is that these are not the first places we should be turning as we begin to imagine what online and hybrid learning could be, especially in a moment like this one. The staff of Teaching Tolerance created a set of guidelines I find much more useful right now: "A Trauma-informed Approach to Teaching Through the coronavirus." They emphasize the need for "clear" communication and routines, as opposed to clear requirements or policies. They talk at length about helping students "maintain a sense of psychological safety." The word "hope" appears 11 times in their guidance.

Carey Borkoski writes in "Cultivating Belonging", "There is consensus in the literature about the benefits of a student's sense of belonging. Researchers suggest that higher levels of belonging lead to increases in GPA, academic achievement, and motivation." And from a follow-up piece co-authored with Brianne Ross on "Cultivating Belonging Online During COVID-19": "The new instability and isolation within our current environments contribute to an evolving and unstable sense of belonging for students, teachers, leaders, and parents." There has been much talk over the last several months about maintaining "continuity" of instruction and assessment, but less discussion about how we maintain the communities at the heart of our educational institutions. This is the design challenge before us.

There is no one-size-fits-all set of best practices for building a learning community, whether on-ground or online. And there is no secret mix of ingredients that create the perfect hybrid strategy.

Our efforts toward building community should be directed toward the students who need that community the most, the ones most likely to be feeling isolated even before the pandemic: disabled students, chronically ill students, homeless students, BIPOC students, LGBTQ students, etc. We need to build courses, and imagine new ways forward, for these students, the ones already struggling, already facing exclusion.

Flexibility and trust are key principles of any pedagogy worth its salt, but they are particularly important when we're in crisis. Right now, we need to focus on "teaching the students we have, not the students we wish we had." We don't need more models for hypothetical students we haven't yet met. And so, my pedagogical model has exactly one point:

Stop looking for models and begin by talking to students.

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Not Taking Bad Advice: a Pedagogical Model

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I've never created a model for online, digital, or hybrid pedagogies. As long as I've been teaching, and as long as I've been teaching teachers, I've encountered, been flummoxed by, or have cast off models. I have yet to see a single pedagogical model worth its salt.

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Mashup - Shake It Off (The Perfect Drug) 

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Mashup - Shake It Off (The Perfect Drug) 

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Generally, I'm a big fan of creative works that make use of remixing, collage and sampling, particularly mashup music that incorporates all of those elements, and more.

It's hard for me to pick only one, but one of my favourite mashups creatively combines NIN and Taylor Swift (song and video) to create form Taylor Swift vs. Nine Inch Nails - Shake It Off (The Perfect Drug) - fantastic stuff!

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Health Professions Education Research Micro-Conference - Effectiveness of Continued Professional Development (CPD)

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Health Professions Education Research Micro-Conference - Effectiveness of Continued Professional Development (CPD)

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Dear All

Please join us for the next micro conference - Effectiveness of Continued Professional Development (CPD) on Wednesday 23rd June at 12 noon

Carol Pizzuti - Using electronic health data to design personalized Continuing Medical Education (CME) programs for Australasian Medical Practitioners

Jon Foo - Continuous professional development (CPD) improves appropriate physician referrals: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Van Nguyen - To what extent does an extended-duration supervision training intervention work (or fail to work), for whom and in what contexts, and how?

Monica Hughes & Jennifer Davids - The Development and Usability study of the WSLHD Multidisciplinary Professional Standards for Health Profession Educators

From more information here or to register here

See attached flyer for further information. Feel free to distribute the flyer to your networks.

Best wishes

Assoc Prof Claire Palermo
Director Monash Centre for Scholarship in Health Education, Monash University

&

Prof Lynn Monrouxe
Academic Lead of Health Professions Education Research, The University of Sydney

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Lexi is a good dog.

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I saw this article earlier this week and I found it to be a great reminder about checking our assumptions around any educational paradigms that we hold. (Also, I just generally gravitate to ideas that are contrarian or subversive)

The article claims to show that students don't learn any better from highly rated teachers (from student evals). Its a big meta-analysis and I found it fairly compelling.

Log in using your Monash ID to have a look.

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Highlights

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Students do not learn more from professors with higher student evaluation of teaching (SET) ratings.

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Previus meta-analyses of SET/learning correlations in multisection studies are not interprettable.

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Re-analyses of previous meta-analyses of multisection studies indicate that SET ratings explain at most 1% of variability in measures of student learning.

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New meta-analyses of multisection studies show that SET ratings are unrelated to student learning.

Abstract

Student evaluation of teaching (SET) ratings are used to evaluate faculty's teaching effectiveness based on a widespread belief that students learn more from highly rated professors. The key evidence cited in support of this belief are meta-analyses of multisection studies showing small-to-moderate correlations between SET ratings and student achievement (e.g., Cohen, 1980, Cohen, 1981; Feldman, 1989). We re-analyzed previously published meta-analyses of the multisection studies and found that their findings were an artifact of small sample sized studies and publication bias. Whereas the small sample sized studies showed large and moderate correlation, the large sample sized studies showed no or only minimal correlation between SET ratings and learning. Our up-to-date meta-analysis of all multisection studies revealed no significant correlations between the SET ratings and learning. These findings suggest that institutions focused on student learning and career success may want to abandon SET ratings as a measure of faculty's teaching effectiveness.

View full text

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Meta-analysis of faculty's teaching effectiveness: Student evaluation of teaching ratings and student learning are not related

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Students do not learn more from professors with higher student evaluation of teaching (SET) ratings. * Previus meta-analyses of SET/learning correlations in multisection studies are not interprettable. * Re-analyses of previous meta-analyses of multisection studies indicate that SET ratings explain at most 1% of variability in measures of student learning.

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WATCH_DOGS: featuring a non-traditional gaming weapon

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WATCH_DOGS: featuring a non-traditional gaming weapon

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WATCH_DOGS is an action-adventure video game where you play the role of a hacker and vigilante (seeking revenge, or something like that) in a modern-day open world setting.

Your inventory features a non-traditional gaming weapon - an electronic device which you can use to access a fictional network and hack into electronic devices and systems such as mobile phones, closed circuit-television, computer systems or traffic lights to help you progress through the game.

This type of weapon is thematically suited to a world where 'everything is connected and connection is power'.

I think it’s a pretty cool concept to include a seemingly benign consumer electronic device in a plausible present-day setting. By doing this, I think it shows a shift in what society considers to be a weapon, and how with the right amount of skill a seemingly benign consumer electronic device can manipulated and used as a weapon. An electronic device with features that would’ve previously only been the domain of government security agencies. Interesting stuff.

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SaP Roundtable 2021 update

Hosted by students and staff from the Western Sydney University (WSU), the 2021 theme, The Partnership Paradox, recognises that ethics, politics, and provocation emerge when staff, students, and institutions engage in strategic commitments to student-staff partnership. In the new COVID-19 landscape, we aim to host a conversation that doesn’t just encourage you to unravel the complexities and paradoxes inherent in partnership, we also want the Roundtable to expand your thinking and practice so that you can take the next practical step in your partnership journey. The 2021 SaP roundtable will be in November at the Parramatta City Campus, with more details to be released mid-July. Check out some of the exciting SaP work at WSU in the meantime.

Call for SaP Roundtable 2022 hosts

A wonderful opportunity to lead the conversation about partnership, hosting the Roundtable is both exciting and rewarding. Whether your university is well down the pathway or just coming to engage in student-staff partnerships, hosting the Roundtable will focus efforts and enhance local practices by bringing practitioners from across Australia to your doorstep. Expressions of interest (EOIs) close 1 July 2021. Read more here including guidelines for the short EOI submission

Student Voice Australia

The Student Voice Australia is a national network of staff, students, and institutions committed to facilitating authentic student engagement through partnership in institutional decision-making and governance for learning, teaching, and the student experience.  It was great to see some of you online at the 2nd National Student Voice Australia Symposium continuing on 27 May to showcase achievements and share good practice in student engagement from across a range of Australian institutions. The sessions feature a combination of case studies, student panels, international keynote speakers, and workshops. Registrations are still open for Thursday and the website shares excellent resources. For any questions please contact sva@adelaide.edu.au.

Thinking together about theory in SaP event

Come along to the 2021 Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia (HERDSA) Conference workshop and talk theory. Join the pre-conference workshop, The scholarship of engaging students as partners in learning and teaching: Thinking together at the intersection of theory and practice. The workshop will create space for scholars to dialogue about key research that is moving us closer toward theories of partnership praxis. In doing so, we will dig deeply into existing theorisations or interpretative frames that colour how we research partnership practices while unearthing new theories and frames to provoke new insights and avenues of inquiry. Conference registration is now open. More details about this workshop are available here.

New issue of Journal of Educational Innovation, Partnership and Change

Special issue, Enriching BAME staff-student partnerships in higher education, is now published. It contains 15 contributions that explore the experiences, the creativity, and the highs and lows of staff and students from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups who are working in partnership to improve the quality of higher education.

New issue of International Journal for Students as Partners

Issue 5.1 of the International Journal for Students as Partners (IJSaP) is now available. In the issue,  you will find an editorial, an opinion piece, 3 research articles, 3 reflective essays, 4 case studies, the first set of contributions to the ‘Voices from the Field’, and a book review. Together these contributions have been written by 42 faculty/staff and 29 students from 11 different countries (Australia, Canada, China (Hong Kong), China (Mainland), Malaysia, UK, US, Germany, Ireland, Saudi Arabia, and Papua New Guinea).

Call for reviews and opinion pieces

Is there a book you have read that has helped you with your own SaP practices? Do you have an experience you wish to share in an opinion piece? The International Journal for Students as Partners (IJSaP) is a perfect place to contribute to the ongoing discussion of SaP through publishing a book review or opinion piece. Student contributions are welcomed and encouraged along with staff and student-staff co-authored submissions.

Opinion piece: An opinion piece is a short and thought-provoking article, stating a position and supported by a persuasive argument (no more than 900 words).

Reviews: Include reviews of a book, conference/symposium, or resources that both summarise and provide insight specific to Students as Partners (no more than 800 words).

For more information, visit the IJSaP website or you can email Kelly at k.matthews1@uq.edu.au.

Call for contributors to ‘Voices from the Field’

The International Journal for Students as Partners (IJSaP) is also calling for contributors to its new section of the journal called ‘Voices from the Field.’ The goal of this section is to create a venue for a wide range of voices to address important questions around students-as-partners work without going through the intensive time commitment required by the submission, review, and revision process. For this round of ‘Voices from the Field’, IJSaP invites you to address the following question: What does successful partnership mean to you? For more information about the section and your potential contribution, please use this link.

Becoming a reviewer

Become a reviewer for IJSaP and support the scholarly community. New reviewers and student reviewers are welcomed. The journal has an easy and engaging online module for new reviewers. Read more and sign-up here.

Staying connected on Twitter

For twitter folk, check these out: #westernsap #21C_westernsydney #studentsaspartners @InterJournalSaP #SaPChat

Read more and join the Students as Partners Network here.

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Hello TOMers,

It has been 3 weeks since we meet up. We hope that you are well and keep staying safe.

We would like to extend this invitation to #27TOM session tomorrow:

26 May via Zoom from 12-1 PM (meet up every 3 weeks)

What is in this week's session?

Promoting cultural diversity in the online classroom not only enhances online class engagement but also enriches virtual learning significantly. However, finding ways to effectively promote cultural diversity in nontraditional learning environments can be challenging.

Join us tomorrow for an online activity designed by Dr. Nadine Normand-Marconnet to gain insight into how to engage online learners' understanding of cultural diversity. View #27TOM session plan for tomorrow.

New to TOM?

Welcome to TOM.  We run meetups on Wednesday, every three weeks 12 -1 PM (AEST) online via Zoom. Please note that all sessions will be recorded and will be shared after each session. We would appreciate it if you can help us to expand the TOM community via Join TOM.

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I've loved this poster series for a really long time. They play with all sorts of styles and ideas and yet stay conceptually recognisable. Also, it's Pearl Jam

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Pearl Jam in Posters: A Gallery of Illustrated Tour Art

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Images From 'Pearl Jam vs. Ames Bros: Thirteen Years of Tour Posters'

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I'm currently obsessed with the idea of 'designing for generations'. This started with a curiosity about millennial design (as I really like the aesthetic) but it started raising questions - are we designing for 'content' and 'context' - ie university / academic preferences of for audience engagement? There is a bunch of stuff out there on this ...

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The latest Voice of Customer and CX trends | Usabilla Blog

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As humans, we ache for beauty in almost everything we see. It can be a dress or it can be a website. Either way, we've always been subconsciously attracted to anything that is visually appealing.

Designers and marketers have known this for some time, which is why they will often advocate for beautiful design that evokes an excellent user experience.

But, if you dig a little deeper, you'll discover that web design alone does not appeal to the generation you should be targeting most. The generation that makes up 35% of the workforce - millennials.

Who are the millennials?

Millennials are considered to fall in the age bracket 18-34; also known as Generation Y or the Net Generation. Famous for their digitally native capabilities, millennials are considered the technologically savvy generation.

Born in the era when technology started ruling the world, millennials instantly got used to depending on a variety of diverse technologies. Their demand for fast paced and high-quality content explains the fact they're often seen with a smartphone in hand. And being born in the technological era gives them a power, a power to change the future of your business.

Why does your website need to be millennial friendly?

Other than the fact that millennials make up 22% of the population, there are several reasons why your website needs to be millennial friendly:

Millennials are well-versed in the latest technologies. No generation can beat them at being tech-savvy. And while we are moving towards an advanced technological era, the millennials are the ones who will be in maximum demand.

Millennials fall into the category of the best kind of brand marketers. They frequently write reviews and they constantly snap product photos to share on social media. This, in turn, attracts friends and followers who trust their judgment and immediately show interest in buying those products.

They possess an annual purchasing power of $1.3 trillion and makeup 35% of the workforce - that's a whole lot of market potential!

Millennials can take down your brand on social media if their experience is not satisfactory. And since they are considered to be the best brand marketers, their word on a brand is taken quite seriously.

They are flexible and they won't hesitate to jump over to a competitor's website if they experience complex navigation or a bad UX.

So, we know the vital role millennials play in your brand marketing and you want to be sure you're creating a millennial-friendly design. How do you get started?

How do I create a millennial friendly website?

Millennials only chant one mantra:
"It should have quality and it should be fast."
You could be selling products or you could be selling services, but if your website doesn't scream quality in the fastest and most convenient way possible, you may be in for some serious brand damage.

Here's how you can stop that from happening.

Keep your website updated: One main website mistake that annoys millennials like crazy is not keeping pace with the world. 75% of millennials stated their biggest website peeve was when they weren't kept up-to-date with content, news, and trends.

Be active on social media: Millennials and social media go hand in hand and Huffington Post has claimed that putting the two of them together has changed the world. 82% of millennials state that their trust in an organization rises if it has an account on social media, plus, 53% of millennials will always check businesses out on social media. So, keep those social icons visible.

Buying incentives: 90% of millennials look for coupons while buying anything online. Aim for attractive CTAs in the right places displaying amazing offers.

Mobile-friendly: Millennials are obsessed with smartphones. of millennials aging from 18-24 and 97% of millennials aging from 25-35 use smartphones. So you can assume they'll look up your website on a smartphone more often than a desktop.

Keep it short and simple: The millennials are the most impatient of the lot and they don't want flashy videos, complicated description of products, or vague explanations. Keep product or service descriptions brief and to the point.

Easy to find: Millennials want easy access to information and they won't hunt around for what they want. If they aren't able to easily find what they came to your website for, they will instantly switch over to another website.

Means of contact: The millennials want to know all the possible ways to connect with you - a mere contact number won't suffice. Giving them your email, your Skype i.d, your Twitter handle etc. ensures there are multiple ways through which they can reach you.

Funny and Personal content: Millennials don't people overloading them with information and they don't like it when we tell them what to do. They want the content to be warm, personal, and funny - not commanding and forceful.

Show a cause: Millennials love it when there's a cause behind anything . So, if you are doing something to support a noble cause, make sure you showcase it on your website in a way that draws attention.

Self-service: Millennials like being in control and they'd rather solve issues themselves than spend an hour on hold with customer service. For them, a website needs to have troubleshooting tips, FAQs, and self-help tutorial videos.

Speed: Millennials don't even take a second look at what's not fast. They were born in a hard and fast era where they had and still have access to everything within seconds.

Minimalism: Millennials hate clutter on a website and they won't make an extra effort to gain clarity from clutter.

Showcase content in different ways: Millennials have always been a huge fan of memes, videos, and gifs. Use visual content to turn boring messages into interesting ones.

Storyboarding: A story holds the power to increase engagement. When millennials find a connection between your website and the products/services you sell, they are more prone to buying them.

But, how do I make sure I'm not overlooking other age groups?

Age responsive design is a huge deal and it means designing for all the generations put together at once. But, when it comes to millennials, they're generally the hardest to please.

While every generation has its own preferences, we can assume each age bracket wants a clean and intuitive design that loads quickly, provides a clear message, and generates a smooth user experience.

And this is precisely what the millennials want most. So, when you focus on a millennial friendly approach, you're actually appealing to a broader target market.

Key Takeaways

Millennials are undoubtedly impatient and picky, but they're also predicted to account for $3.39 trillion in annual spending by 2018.

They may be tough to please, but they are the ones who bring in business in huge numbers. So, when you consider redesigning your website or designing a new one altogether, keep these three words in mind - Fast, Easy, and Quality .

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Millennials: The Loophole in Your Web Design - The latest Voice of Customer and CX trends | Usabilla Blog

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As humans, we ache for beauty in almost everything we see. It can be a dress or it can be a website. Either way, we've always been subconsciously attracted to anything that is visually appealing. Designers and marketers have known this for some time, which is why they will often advocate for beautiful design that evokes an excellent user experience.

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Huge range of Ed Design resources. You have likely come across Connie as she is closely associated with Articulate.

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Office Hi-5, for when things go right...

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The image shows Miles Davis and group performing Turnaroundphrase live in 1973. It's all about Miles, his huge sunglasses, amazing wardrobe and blasting his trumpet through a Wah pedal. It's a pretty hectic jam.

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The image shows Rodney Mullen performing a Darkslide, a skateboard trick where the rider lands on the board upside down with their feet on the nose and the tail and slides across the obstacle e.g., a ledge, rail, kerb etc.

The Darkslide is interesting because it expands upon an existing trick (Boardslide) and creates a new trick in the process.

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Harper's Magazine - Text size adjustment

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Harper's Magazine - Text size adjustment

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It's not uncommon for web browsers to allow users to 'Zoom in' or 'Zoom out' to adjust content size, but Harper's Magazine has considered how users may want to further personalise the way they 'read' articles by including more readily available controls that allow the size of the article text (only) to be adjusted.