MIT celebrates National Nano Day with a colouring-in book, highlighting its nano researchers, “working to make our world a better place, starting at the nanoscale.”

Just the way to attract next gen researchers when they are eight. So why not one for here, say for quantum information science?

In Features this morning

All the cyber bells and IT whistles do not rate unless everybody in a university can use them. “Products should meet the needs of intended audiences across a broad range of human variance including vision, hearing, speech, dexterity, neurological triggers, neurodiversity and cognition,” ADCET argues. It’s a new selection by Commissioning Editor Sally Kift, for her celebrated series Needed now in learning and teaching.

and in Expert Opinion

Elissa Newall on how 107 HE providers around the world handle first contact from prospective students – Australia and New Zealand do it well, (ep 18) HERE.

A new run of the U Tasmania Wicking Centre’s Understanding Dementia starts today

It follows Wicking’s “Understanding traumatic brain injury,” which ran in August and will repeat in March.

Wicking’s work to explain issues in brain health to a mass audience makes it a national, strike that, international treasure.  In 2020 MOOC aggregator, Class Central rated “Understanding MS” from Wicking and the Menzies Institute of Health Research at Uni Tas, number in the world for user-reviews (CMM January 29).

How Conducting a Mixed-mode Class is Similar to Hosting a Late-night Talk Show from Faculty Focus

There is a theatrical element to good teaching in person – using the space, varying your vocal dynamics and timing, and building engagement through interactions with learners. Many educators can find the performative aspect more challenging when the teaching mode changes – as is the case with hybrid/hyflex teaching with a mixture of live in-person and on-line learners. This useful piece from Randy Riddle from the Duke University Learning Innovation team suggests treating the experience more like a late-night talk show and offers some valuable suggestions for unlocking your own Stephen Colbert.

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A Synthesis of Research on   Mental Health and Remote Learning: How Pandemic Grief Haunts Claims of Causality from OTESSA Journal

As with many aspects of the pandemic, wild claims abound about the changes it has led to in learning and teaching. The impact of online learning on student mental health in this time has been flagged by some people in pushing back against the growing use of education technologies and shifts in learning and teaching practice. Stephanie Moore and colleagues explore the literature around this relationship, finding that there was little conducted before 2020 and that as much as 75 per cent of research in this space overstates causal relationships.

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2022 Students and Technology Report: Rebalancing the student experience from Educause

Educause’s survey of 820 US higher education students reflects some of the findings of the larger JISC survey in terms a growing acceptance of on-line learning and students generally having access to the technology that they need. This research has more of a focus on the technology side of things and does not speak to satisfaction with how technology enabled learning and teaching is designed or conducted. It does note a relationship between challenges with ed tech and mental health.

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Agile and the Long Crisis of Software from Logic

Software development workflow models may not at first glance seem entirely relevant to higher educators but you can be assured that they shape the work of your institutional IT departments when it comes to implementation and changes to uni ed tech systems. Many of the component parts of Agile methodology, including sprints, stand ups and Kanban boards are also increasingly finding their way into wider project management. This informative piece explores where Agile has come from, how it is useful and some of its challenges.

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Is using someone else’s #AltText plagiarism? From Karen Costa

Alt text is descriptive information that should always be added when images are used on-line. This is a vital part of supporting blind and vision-impaired people using screen readers – software that speaks the content on a page. This interesting Twitter thread explores where Alt text sits in terms of intellectual property, landing on it as being a public good and “authorless.”

Colin Simpson has worked in education technology, teaching, learning design and academic development in the tertiary sector since 2003 at CIT, ANU, Swinburne and Monash University. He is also one of the leaders of the ASCILITE TELedvisors Network. For more from Colin, follow him on Twitter @gamerlearner

 

Euro open access Coalition S has a new “journal comparison service” where publisher can set out their production prices and conditions and what subscription costs

Information is due at month’s end.

They may hate it, but as Coalition S states, it helps libraries and research funders “better understand if the fees they pay are commensurate with the publication services delivered.”

But publishers that don’t participate will send a signal.

Uni Sydney staff have elected Anna Boucher discipline head of Government and International Relations

 Sandra Connor becomes campus head of La Trobe U Mildura, after an external search. She has acted since December.

Ngaire Elwood (Murdoch Children’s RI) is elected a director of the Cord Blood Association.