As we wrap up the 11th year of our Summer Reading Contest, we’re seeking student voices on what it has meant to you to participate.
Use the form below to share your reflections on reading and reacting to The New York Times this summer. We plan to use some of your comments in an upcoming post.
Hexuan, 15, from The Governor’s Academy in Byfield, Mass., chose an article from the Style section headlined “The Phantom Handbag” and wrote:
Even in my most distant memory, Mama always carried this one bag. Covered in black and tan stripes, the Burberry tote looked more like a lunch box than a handbag.
I hated it.
For one thing, it was constantly overflowing—used tissue paper, bandages, hair ties, foundation, random files from work. After years of nagging my mom to get a lighter, more organized bag, the ‘leather-lunch box,’ with its increasingly fuller belly, stayed.
In “The Phantom Handbag” Lou Stoppard reminisces about the time when a fashionable handbag was a necessity, and questions whether it will be relevant after all the suffering. In today’s time, handbags seem altogether impractical: too tiny for the grocery store, too dangly for cycling, too bothersome for protesting. Coupled with the fact that new normals often create shifts in buyer trends, the future of bag buying doesn’t seem all that promising. Like Ms. Hillier said, “there are other things they can spend money on.” Indeed, as people realize there are more to bags than “a status thing,” high-street bag sales might plummet, but the things carried in these luxurious containers will endure.
Though my mom’s bag was a quixotic choice, I now know that within the countless frivolous objects is the wholehearted love of my mother: Tissues for my frequent water spills, bandages for cuts, and ties for my long hair. Whether handbags will see their destiny no longer matters, as the love that was carried with the nitty-gritty will remain constant.
In alphabetical order by the writer’s first name.
Seek. You’ll be surprised by just how many creatures you can find, once you really begin looking. And this entertaining app from iNaturalist, an initiative of the California Academy of Sciences and the National Geographic Society, encourages users to do just that. Take a photograph with your phone, or choose one from your library, and Seek will use it to instantly identify animals, plants and fungi — and applaud you if you observe a particular creature through the app for the first time. (Observations also earn you virtual badges.) During a nature walk in New York’s Central Park, this reporter snapped a photograph of something as it emerged from the underbrush and up popped a message on Seek: “You observed a new species! Brown Rat. Rattus norvegicus.” The app also noted, somewhat unsettlingly, that another 283 brown rats had been observed nearby. Moments later, after taking a photograph of a small orange-winged butterfly, Seek identified it as an eastern comma. According to the app, there were far fewer eastern commas observed in the vicinity than brown rats. Cost: free.
WWF Together. Swipe through photographs and get bite-size stats on big creatures like elephants and other endangered animals (giant pandas, tigers, sea turtles) with this app from the World Wildlife Fund. You can also learn about conservation efforts and get news about wildlife. Available for iOS only. Cost: free. (The Fund also offers a free online biodiversity tool kit to help students learn about the connections among all living things.
PictureThis. This app is terrific at identifying in real time the plants, flowers and trees you photograph. Recently, shots of a day lily, cup-plant, white wood aster, sweet gum, even trichaptum fungus on a log, were identified in less time than it took to say “I know what this is!” The app also provides additional photos, descriptions, facts, the story behind the name and the symbolism of the things you photograph, adding a touch of romanticism to the practice of plant identification. Cost: free; annual subscriptions for a premium version, which includes features such as unlimited plant identifications, are also available.
PlantSnap is another plant identification app that also allows users to take or upload photos. There’s an augmented reality option, too, so that you can just aim your phone at the plant and receive suggestions. And if you know what you’re looking at, but want to learn a little more, you can type, say, “French rose” to search the app’s plants database for details. Cost: free; premium ad-free subscriptions that include additional features, like access to botanists, are available.
At the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, with travel restrictions in place worldwide, we launched a series — The World Through a Lens — in which photojournalists help transport you, virtually, to some of our planet’s most beautiful and intriguing places. This week, Randy Harris shares a collection of images from the shores of Cape Cod.
When I first met Chris Crobar, he was a half mile from the shore, on the tidal flats that stretch far out into Cape Cod Bay. It was 5 a.m., and I was out for a walk at low tide. From a distance, I saw what looked like little black sails in the water.
Chris was a spectacle: alone with his boat and table in the middle of the bay — like an artist with his easel, painting a fiery sunrise. He stood there fastidiously scraping the barnacles off his oysters, then tossing them back into the cages where they’ll sit for a couple of years on the floor of the bay.
Before the arrival of the Europeans, the native people of Cape Cod, the Nauset tribe, had an abundant supply of oysters. Crassostrea virginica, known as the American oyster (or the eastern, Wellfleet, Atlantic or Virginia oyster), was naturally flush in coastal areas and estuaries, where the rivers meet the sea. Oyster reefs were America’s coral reefs; oysters filtered the water — some adult oysters can filter 50 gallons a day — and fed a range of other sea life.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, new technologies — including developments in dredging, canning and transportation — began to transform America’s oyster industry. By the 1870s, a single schooner in Wellfleet Harbor could harvest 1.5 million oysters a day. Companies, including Sealshipt Oyster System, were commercially shucking, sealing and shipping oysters in vast quantities all over the country. The intensity of the industrial harvesting was unprecedented — and unsustainable.
Today, because of pollution, development, overharvesting and disease, America’s natural oyster habitat is greatly diminished. Estimates in the last decade have placed the wild oyster population at some places in the country at just one percent of historical levels.
Modern-day aquaculture has changed the game. A company called Aquacultural Research Corporation, founded around 1960, produces shellfish seed — tiny juvenile oysters, also called “spat” — and sells it to local shellfish farmers. Chris Crobar is one of those farmers. A native of Eastham, Mass., he grew up working on his father’s clam boat. Today, he sets his hours not by the clock, but by the tide. He has been raising oysters for five years on his two-acre farm in the Cape Cod Bay — just beyond First Encounter Beach, the location of the first meeting between the Nauset people and the Pilgrims.
Cape Cod is as unique as its oysters. Depending on the location, the high tidal waters flush the oysters with a varying mix of freshwater and saltwater. This helps create nuanced flavors.
Wellfleet, which juts farther out into the bay, is famous throughout the world for its briny oyster. In Barnstable, Chatham and Orleans, the fresh tidal water and sweet marsh algae combine to create a sweet and earthy flavor profile. Eastham oysters are known for being both mildly briny and earthy.
Paul Wittenstein, the general manager of A.R.C., explained how the hatchery produces its seed: In midwinter, the hatchery places adult shellfish in warm water that’s rich with algae, which causes the shellfish to spawn. The hatchery then catches the eggs, hatches them and grows them in their tanks until spring, when they’re moved into the A.R.C.’s nursery system. From there, they continue to grow before being measured, counted and sold to farmers.
After obtaining his oyster seeds from A.R.C., Chris initially grows them in mesh bags, using the French rack-and-bag system. Later, the oysters are transferred into metal grow-out cages, where they sit on the bottom of the bay from one-and-a-half to two years — until they reach 2.5 to 3 inches, to be marketed as “petite” or “cocktail” oysters, or 3 inches or more to be marketed as “select” oysters. (He also digs for wild razor clams and quahogs.)
Lately there has been a surge in aquaculture farming, especially with oysters. But yields can vary significantly from year to year. This past winter was mild, with little to no ice. Seed did well. Many farmers were expecting a good year. But with water temperatures increasing to over 80 degrees at high tide, both algae blooms and crashes can result, leaving the oysters with nothing to eat.
Oyster farming, in other words, has always been an unpredictable business. And the coronavirus pandemic has hit the industry hard: With fewer people dining out, farmers are sitting on their inventory. Some have feared a collapse of the market.
But Chris is more hopeful. “It’s important to me to be optimistic about the future,” he said. “For now we have to keep planting and raising shellfish, hoping that things will eventually get back to normal.”
“Fisherman adapt,” he added, “and always find a way to keep moving forward.”
Randy Harris is a photographer based in New York. You can follow his work on Instagram.
In the world of COVID-19, video conferencing has become commonplace. Many of us spend our days on back to back video calls and find ourselves exhausted by the end. This phenomenon has been dubbed “zoom fatigue” but applies to any type of video conferencing. At its foundation, zoom fatigue is a cognitive issue, which presumably has implications for learning. In today’s digest, we provide a collection of sources that talk about the various causes of zoom fatigue as well as some practices for reduction.
Our 11th Annual Summer Reading Contest enters its eighth week!
This contest is open to students 13-19 from anywhere in the world. To participate, submit a response by 9 a.m. Eastern on Aug. 7 that answers the questions “What got your attention in The Times this week? Why?”
If you are 13 or older and live in the United States, or 16 or older from anywhere else in the world, post your response in the comment section. If you are 13-15 and live in another country, see the bottom of this post for details on how to submit.
Responses must be 1500 characters or fewer.
What should you choose? Well, as you know from the rules we’ve posted, you can pick anything published on NYTimes.com in 2019 or 2020, including articles, essays, Op-Eds, videos, photos, podcasts or infographics.
So what did you read, watch or listen to this week?
We hope you’ll click around NYTimes.com and find your own great articles, features and multimedia. But we also know that not everyone who participates has a Times subscription. Because all links to Times content from the student features on our site are free, every week we’ll try to help by posting interesting pieces from a variety of sections.
We Lost the Battle for the Republican Party’s Soul Long Ago
Trump Is Dog-Whistling. Are ‘Suburban Housewives’ Listening?
How Do You Know a Human Wrote This?
I Cured My Pandemic Anxiety By Making Tiny Food Out of Clay
My Torture at the Hands of America’s Favorite African Strongman
Whatever caught your eye, tell us about it.
Need more details? The contest rules are all here, and you can read the work of last year’s winners here. A quick overview, though:
You can choose from anything published in the print paper or on NYTimes.com in 2019 or 2020, including videos, podcasts, graphics and photographs. (In your response, please include the URL or headline of the piece you pick.)
We’ll post this question each Friday from today through Aug. 14, and you’ll have until the next Friday morning to respond with your picks. Then we’ll close that post and open a new one with the same question.
We’ll choose at least one favorite answer to feature on our site each week. Winners from this week will be announced on Aug. 18.
Feel free to participate each week, but we allow only one submission per person per week.
The contest is open to students ages 13 to 19 from anywhere in the world. If you are 16 or older from anywhere in the world, you can post your response in the comments section. If you are between the ages of 13 and 15 and live outside the United States, use the form below to submit your entry. All entries from the comments section and the form below will be judged together.
Where do you start? How do you explain why these three vendors were selected, how the process for analysis was conducted, and what are the results?
How do you provide enough information, without writing the next War and Peace?
Here is how.
What is this?
It is a first for me. Well, not the first time conducting an analysis such as this, rather the first time it has been conducted specifically for a blog post, and the first time, three vendors are in one blog with comparison and assessment as the key cornerstones.
Why these three vendors?
Simply due that when a consumer is looking at an LXP, or say Degreed or EdCast or Fuse, the other two vendors are part of the final process. I hear this from readers. From the vendors themselves and even in conducting my own research into vendor comparisons.
I see it in FindAnLMS too.
Key Terms to know here – as it relates to NexGen Tier 4 and presented in a few sections on the post.
Video Assessment – A video assessment is based on speech patterns/words used when practicing a scenario, sales training techniques, customer service techniques to the coach/mentor/manager. A VA component will always include a listing of overused words, words that are difficult to understand, a transcript with highlighted words (so the learner knows), and a form of metrics visual via data visualization on the learner screen.
vILT – The instructor/presenter/trainer appears via a web conferencing tool through the system, or on some other virtual tool/system, and conducts the session online. It is a new term in the e-learning space.
UI – The term refers to user interface which is not a new term, but as it relates to NexGen Expands the capabilities, every vendor will tell you they have a modern UI, the latest capabilities with UI in T4, will explicitly tell you, how true that statement really is.
Weaknesses
No system is perfect, and every system has a weakness, some of those will eventually change (due to the feature being on the roadmap), others won’t.
Among these three vendors, despite the hype, here are there weaknesses
Fuse
Skills development features are nearly non-existent. Of the nine I specifically looked at (NexGen Tier 3/4), Fuse had only one.
We are not talking about skill items that are so out of the ballpark that vendors wouldn’t have them, already. Sure, a couple make sense on the roadmap, but others?
Skill Features that Fuse does not have (they are all on “the roadmap”)
It should be noted, that the above would exist if the system has the job application capability or along those lines in the system. Overwhemingly, the latter is not common, albeit, the ability to tie Skills to job roles and job profiles is on the upswing as a feature.
Degreed offers the entire Skills tied to job roles/profiles which can be used to submit thing, but it is an additional cost – known as Career Mobility (aka as Opportunities). EdCast is similar, an additional cost known as Career Mobility.
The skill feature that Fuse does have?
When comparing Fuse to Degreed and EdCast, and the skill management (of which skills development exists within), Degreed and EdCast scored far better.
Degreed lacks only the following
EdCast
The “Administrator can create, edit, delete skill ratings” – is a high tier 4 feature, so the majority of vendors lack it. Some can edit the skill rating – the administrator that is, but the other items, still a work in progress, expect that to change by mid-2021.
Fuse Weakness(es)
Degreed Weakness(es)
Four areas stand out.
EdCast Weakness(es)
Video Assessment is seriously lacking, with “on the roadmap” common. Video management has a few “on the roadmap” as well.
The Video Assessment section is a higher level Tier 4 NexGen feature set, so it is not surprising that it lacks across the board with all the systems. Very few systems in the entire industry (globally, learning systems) offer it, but that will change by the end of 2021, where I am projecting at least 15% offering it. That may not seem like a lot, but right now we are around .01%, for a market that is more than 1300 systems worldwide. Those that do offer it, will clearly have an advantage in the entire learning system space, it is that important.
Comparision Time.
Best way to show is well, show via a table. I picked out a couple of specific areas.
The first column is the features under a specific category, the next column is EdCast, then Degreed in the third column and Fuse in the fourth column.
| Learning Environment | EdCast | Degreed | Fuse |
| Ability for development paths or curriculum/learning paths to have contents placed in a specific order/hierarchy of learning | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Individualized learning plan (including required courses and optional courses selected), to-do list or similar appear on the same screen | Yes | Yes | On Roadmap |
| Customizable homepage that is a different look/appearance/theme based on the learner who logged into the system | On Roadmap | Yes | Yes |
| Ability to search by TAG and/or Click a TAG to see other/similar content with that TAG | Yes | Yes | On Roadmap |
Big Pluses are the TAG feature in the learning environment, and the ILP features. The ILP capability is a must, and the TAG is something each system in the industry should strive for, as it makes a huge difference, after all “Search” isn’t utilized as most people think.
The customizable home page is a nice plus, but none of the vendors have the “Theme” option”, which to me, is the key, and allows the end-user to have a different and personal theme if you will (the system has pre-set templates with colors, hence theme). When you think about people who want a system now and do not want to wait months, a theme is a plus.
Development paths is a must feature.
Playlists/Channels – Systems today, should offer this type of UI/UX capability.
| Playlists/Channels | EdCast | Degreed | Fuse |
| Assigned learning playlist | Yes | Yes | No |
| Learners can add Podcasts to their playlist | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Learning System vendor creates curation content playlists | Yes | Yes | On Roadmap |
| Learner can create their own content playlist and share it with others (who may subscribe depending on system) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Learner can create multiple playlists | Yes | Yes | No |
| Manager can create playlists for their direct reports | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| System can use job roles and/or skills to identify and present recommended or suggested content (constantly updated) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Every system does extremely well here. The Podcasts is a sweet offering to have, plus in my book. For skill development, all are pluses. Personally I am not a fan of assigned learning in the LXP market, which is why many vendors are ditching the term, after all, you can’t be learner driven (a pitch often used in the LXP early days), and then offer assigned learning.
Content Curation
All the rage, and every vendor offers it, but in the table below, please note this is the next evolution of CC in learning systems, again, NexGen Tier 4. One area to watch by the way with CC is the demand from the market for learners to become content builders/creators if you will. This will be a hot feature in 2021, and when you are creating your own content, uh, content curation is an important component.
| Content Curation | EdCast | Degreed | Fuse |
| System offers contextual actions | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| System can generate recommended content via the machine learning algorithm | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Client can create their own courses (via system or 3rd party) and sell them on vendor’s course marketplace – to other clients in the vendor’s system | Yes | Sort Of | No |
| Content excluding courses can be listed in the trending/Most Popular and/or Recommended | Yes | Sort Of | Yes |
Degreed and “Sort of”
To deliver the capability of the client being able to create their own courses and sell them on the vendor’s marketplace, you have to be an Extended Enterprise (aka as customer training/education, partner training, and in some cases an association), and it will require a custom integration with a third party provider.
For the “content” excluding courses can be listed in the trending/most popular and or recommendation, with the Degreed system, the administrator achieves this via custom links available only for appearance on the home page.
Machine learning often referred to as A.I. or AI in the learning system industry continues to improve. The feature sets below are NexGen Tier4, and I’d recommend that you want your system to either have any of the following on their roadmap or in existence. In 2021, you can expect to see many of these showing up in more and more systems.
| Machine Learning | EdCast | Degreed | Fuse |
| AI in system can scan documents, courses, content, audio and video files and produce text results in a transcript or similar items | Yes | No | Sort Of |
| Recommends courses/content based on job role, skill and/or additional variables | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Can create a learning path based upon recommendations using algorithm over a period of time | On Roadmap | Yes | No |
| Recommends content/documents/videos/etc. based on in progress/completed courses or content | On Roadmap | Yes | Sort Of |
| Ability to include other items to enhance recommendation of courses/content | Yes | Yes | On Roadmap |
The AI scan is one of the most popular filters in FindAnLMS by consumers. It is also a capability that is already showing in quite a few learning systems, and one that you want to tell your vendor you want. Trust me, on this.
Skills recommendation for machine learning is a must as well, and each vendor above offers it.
Anyone in L&D, training, even HR ideally wants to have more and more automation, well, the ability to create a learning path based on recommendations using the algorithim is a huge plus in this direction. That said, as with anything there are “caveats” here.
Fuse Sort Of
Microsoft Teams Integration and Capabilities within MS Teams
If there was any one item that took off in 2020, it is Microsoft Teams and from the learning system standpoint, what features/capabilities could someone do, if they stay in Microsoft Teams and work/access learning without having to leave to go to the learning system itself.
| Microsoft Teams | EdCast | Degreed | Fuse |
| Connector to Microsoft Teams (client only needs to know their username and password for access into MS Teams) | Yes | On Roadmap | No |
| View content by end-users (any type) | Yes | No | No |
| Mimics the learning system, within the end-user appearance on MS Teams. Example: (shows playlists, etc.) | Yes | No | No |
| Ability to stay in MS teams, take/complete any type of content, surveys, assessments, and never have to login to the learning system (Data is automatically pushed into the learning system) | Yes | No | No |
| Learner Data is captured and tracked from MS Teams into Learning System. Ability for administrator to view MS Teams metrics. | Yes | No | No |
| Manager capabilities that mimic what is seen in the learning system (never has to login to the learning system) (data is automatically pushed into the learning system) | Yes | No | No |
| Instructor capabilities that mimic what is seen in the learning system (never has to login to the learning system) (data automatically pulled into learning system) | Yes | No | No |
| Ability to connect MS Teams learner data into any 3rd party HCM/HRIS/Talent Mgt (Push data in, pull data from these systems back into MS Teams) | Yes | No | No |
| Ability to mimic learning system through the MS Teams mobile app | Yes | No | No |
The EdCast capabilities within MS Teams mobile app is the most impressive capabilities I’ve seen so far in the entire learning system space. It looks fresh, easy to navigate around, and offers the exact same UX that you would see in the EdCast platform.
Microsoft Teams is going to continue on the upswing. This not going to be a blip on the radar here.
Virtual ILT (vILT) is a necessity in today’s new business environment. The days of attending a physical ILT F2F session are gone. Even after companies offer employees to come back into the office, the majority won’t, highly unlikely in 2021, and even thereafter not the masses by any stretch.
Remote workers are tapping into vILT, and as a company, if your learning isn’t using or leveraging vILT, then I ask you, what are you doing instead?
Please note these are all Tier4 NexGen feature sets, but are ones you will want in your system definitely before mid 2021.
| vILT | EdCast | Degreed | Fuse |
| Schedule Virtual Learning Training Sessions | Yes | On Roadmap | Yes |
| Can limit number of learners/attendees to session | Yes | No | No |
| Instructor can generate surveys/polls while session is live | Yes | No | No |
| Instructor can verify learners in attendance, and those who did not login | Yes | No | No |
| System allows for pay or free options to attend the session | Yes | Yes | No |
| Schedule multiple sessions ahead of time (day, week, month) | Yes | On Roadmap | No |
| Built-in video conferencing solution (not through API) | Yes | No | No |
| Show Content (PPT, Video, other) during session | Yes | No | No |
| Learning Paths can be tied to vILT sessions | Yes | No | No |
| Learners can share content with other learners (P2P), during or after the session | Yes | No | No |
| Session is automatically recorded and stored in the system for future access as content that is viewable to learners | Yes | No | No |
| Ability to track a set of data related to attendees and view (Admin, Instructor, Manager) as a report either on-screen or download | On Roadmap | On Roadmap | No |
| Ability to push data from web conferencing solution (via API) back into the learning system | Yes | No | No |
Other Takeaways
A comparision analysis can be quite extensive, so rather than pin point every single item, here are few that stood out.
Analytics and Segmentation
Each of the systems offer BI tool integration and EdCast and Fuse offer a very nice set of analytics and data visualization with segementation. Fuse’s metrics, analytics and robust segmentation is due to the GoodData BI integration that exists as the back-end in this area for Fuse. It is included at no charge in the system, and so when you select analytics/metrics/reporting you will see it. Here is a screen shot. Again, this is in the system, no charge. Fuse refers to it as Universal Analytics.
Fuse
Overview
Content Consumption
The system is setup for a tad over 100 metrics for you to choose from, although there are more than 300 metrics that are doable (you just need Fuse to turn them on).
EdCast has a nice analytics page for the clients, and if you want a BI capability, you can get it – for an additional cost, and the solution is Domo. It is quite popular with EdCast’s large enterprise customers.
EdCast Analytics – That comes with the system (i.e. included at no-charge). EdCast includes a very nice and detailed Skill Graph, listing by skills and users – however, I did not add a screen here, simply because with the demo I was using, I didn’t have enough data to present.
Analytics Home Page
Analytics Options you can choose from
My personal favs were knowledge graph tied to topics of interest/expertise (for everyone, by subject) and/or you can search by end-user and see their specific knowlege topics/expertise
User Performance – I left out the name of the folks and their email address, which appear on the screen.
For those Large Enterprise customers who want to the EdCast Analytics through Domo (it appears within the EdCast platform), here are two screens, one of many I should add.
Degreed Analytics
The Learning side – is the section that needs a mass overhaul. Bar charts reign surpreme here, including this one:
The nice pluses are the Top 10 data on the Learning side, but even then – update design please.
Now, the Skills area in “Insights” which is Degreed’s analytics, has gone through an revamp and is really nice. Other charts include Skills growth. Ignore the dark grey you see with each screen, that is due to my capture tool. The view is a white background.
Learner Homepage (the main page)
EdCast uses what is called Smart Cards, Pathways, Journeys and Groups. I found it to be very easy to use and nav friendly. You can create your own content – whether it is through the “Create Content” button in the system OR via MyGuide extension – i.e. known as Content Creator. The extension is an additional cost to use – downloadable in Chrome and will work in Edge too, and is for Enterprise and Extended Enterprise clients only, i.e. if you are using Spark, it is not doable. However, I found the “Create Content” button more than enough to offset the extension.
MyGuide is extremely robust you can create guides following a “how to”, “show me”, “let me do it” angle – for any site that is on net, regardless if you use it for EdCast or not. I liked using it with EdCast personally. The other part of the extension, once added is that regardless of the browser you are using, content recommendations/suggestions will appear on the top of the browser page – all tied to what you are searching for. I really loved that. Then you select it and bam – goes right into the EdCast platform. By far, that was my favorite part.
Degreed’s home page which has gone through a nice update, is very UX friendly as well. If you purchase “Career Mobility”, you will see “Opportunities” as part of your screen, with the skills you have compared to the total skills you need. For example, Project Manager would be skills 6 of 21, which means you have six of the skills needed, but are missing 15.
Degreed’s bookmarklet extension, available in Chrome as well, allows you capture a lot of content off whatever web site you are looking at. Once it “captures” the content – which is really the article or web page or whatever you are looking at, it goes back into the system.
Fuse does not offer a bookmarklet extension, however their home page is very fluid and UX is solid. It has some nice pieces to it, but I felt that an update is needed to keep pace with the overall design in general.
Administration Side
EdCast dominates here, with Fuse and Degreed close behind. Degreed has done a nice job with their updates, but the analytics page needs a mass overhaul, as it doesn’t provide enough information IMO, especially with segmentation of data visualization. At this time, Degreed does not have an LRS, which is a shame. EdCast and Fuse do.
Skill UI/UX for Degreed and EdCast are different in many ways, regardless they both worked for me. Fuse lacks (as noted earlier).
The Latest
Degreed – a couple of new product lines are in the works, okay let’s go with a new branding for the product lines.
Degreed will remain the name of the system, but you will have three product lines under the main name.
As of today (August 2020), DLE will be launched the branding of product – by later this month. Skill Analytics is in early access mode, with the plan to go further in November, and a projected launch to everyone in Q1 2021. Career Mobility is in a second phase of access for a select group of clients, with a possible launch for everyone either in November 2020, or Q1 2021.
Premium BI connectors will also be available when SA is launched.
EdCast
The system comes with nearly everything you will need. If you want their career mobility, it is available today, but is an extra cost. Domo the BI tool is also available as well. EdCast sees themselves as a talent experience platform, but do not be scared off, if you think this is talent management focused, it isn’t. Learning/Training is still the king of the system, but there is a trend among very large enterprises to seek a TXP, thing all in one angle.
This trend is not appearing in SMB, mid-market, although it is a mixed bag with the 5,000 to 10,000 employee crowd. I will talk about this trend and others in a future post (in case you are wondering).
The EdCast platform also comes with something called EdCampaigns another very cool feature. Any one who is in L&D and many in Training too, are not known as marketers, let alone have the skill sets of marketing that so many of us need, to attract an audience of learners and have them use the system in some fashion. Hence EdCampaigns.
With EdCast user data and event data, EdCast customers can configure and enable very personalized and targeted campaigns to drive engagement. I like that, a need in the industry.
On the BI tool side, if you are an EdCast customer, you can choose any of the following
Fuse
Extensive set of connectors are available for you to use, somewhere around 100 or so. The content marketplace (where the client purchases premium content) is solid, but could use a few more providers. The real power of this system is with the communities area, and there is a lot to like here, engagement is the driver and using the community angle brings about higher utilization of the system.
Calling your Remote Workforce
With so many people working from home, knowing the minimum requirements from a browser standpoint, bandwidth (what is the min. net speed you need for video content, and other content for example) is crucial and yet it is rarely, okay beyond rarely, asked in any RFP/RFIs.
Internet bandwidth speed
EdCast and Fuse both say 10mbs is sufficient for video content viewing including streaming. Degreed does not have any specific numbers at this time.
Browsers (Minimum version you need)
People ignore this, even before COVID which really was a bad idea. Because if your browser didn’t support or work with the system, then regardless how wonderful the system is, your employee(s) couldn’t access it.
With remote workers in the new business environment, and with so many browsers out there, knowing this information is crucial.
Fuse
EdCast
Degreed
To update your browser –click this link – it will provide you with the latest browser versions of Edge, Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Opera. IE ended with version 11, so if you are a die-hard IE fan, upgrade to Edge, you will thank me for it.
Bottom Line
Edcast offers Spark, which is suited for SMB, and is quick to setup and go. A little configuration, skinning, branding, included. The EdCast platform allows you to go two routes, either a basic config with skinning, branding, and then any add-ons you may wish OR heavily configurable – which takes a lot longer to build, but it is by far in the learning system space, massively configurable – and not at any additional cost. This way, you may start right to go and then decide you want to go extreme with configurability, OR you can say, I want it this way, then add that way, and then etc.
Degreed is what I refer to as pre-packaged. Nothing wrong with that, but if you are seeking configuration beyond what any other system offers as well (the basics as we call them), it will not be happening with Degreed. Unless of course, you choose to buy the any of the add-ons, and even then, it is an add-on, not mass configuarable.
Fuse is similar is a hybrid, with some configuration going beyond what you can get out of the gate, but by no means at the level of configuration you can do with EdCast.
If I was to publish my 2021 rankings today (as of August, 2020), EdCast would be #1 in the entire industry, Degreed would be #4 and Fuse would slide in at #8.
E-Learning 24/7
Downloadable publication will be available on Monday (see please check back to this post, as the link for DL will be listed, as well as a link out on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Every school day we choose an important or interesting Times article to feature in our Lesson of the Day and pair it with a warm-up, critical-thinking questions and a going-further activity. The activities and questions are intended to help students understand the article, contextualize it within current and historical world events, and connect the content to their own lives.
As you might expect, many of our Lessons of the Day respond to major news events. While the spring was certainly dominated by the coronavirus pandemic, the year had many other big news stories as well: the impeachment of President Trump, youth-led climate change marches, the Democratic primary race, wildfires in the Australian outback, and, most recently, protests for racial justice following the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis.
But this collection of lesson plans doesn’t include those breaking news stories; instead, it highlights the 100-plus articles we featured during the 2019-20 school year that are in some way evergreen. For example, one lesson plan linked below is about the rush to stop “murder hornets” from spreading in the United States. Another is about how political divides shape the nation’s history textbooks. These articles draw from Arts, Sports, Science and other sections across The New York Times.
On Sept. 8 we’ll begin publishing new daily lesson plans for the 2020-21 school year, but until then and beyond we hope you find articles in this collection that feel interesting and relevant to your curriculum and your students’ lives.
Almost half of Americans do not brush their teeth enough. This unlocks for a germs intrusion, resulting in dental caries and gum illness. Even even worse, you may increase your threat for problems like kidney illness and dementia. The following is a records of the video.
Meet Streptococcus mutans. He’s a germs and … a little bit of a slob. However this isn’t really simply any mess. It’s exactly what’s on your teeth! You see, “Strep” and all his roomies live inside your mouth, feeding off the sugar and protein in your food. When they’re done they excrete a slimy compound all over your teeths.
Completion outcome is a bacteria-ridden pigsty, called biofilm. Now a little biofilm isn’t really going to harm you. It’s just when you stop brushing it away that things can get unsightly. And not just for your teeth. It so occurs that “Strep” and his buddies are a downright danger to your life.
Almost half of Americans do not brush their teeth enough. When food develops in those nooks and crannies, you’re welcoming a host of germs to the celebration– including your gum line. The ideal location for germs to camp out in even higher numbers! Which irritate and irritate your gums, triggering inflammation and bleeding.
However that’s simply the start! Quickly enough, that infection will activate your body immune system. Which sends out fighter cells to fight the germs. This develops a hostile environment for the germs, which is exactly what you desire. However it can likewise harm the cells in close-by tissue and bone.
6 months to years later on, that tissue and bone will ultimately pass away. At this moment, you do not have gingivitis any longer. You have something much even worse: gum illness. No more tissue and bone implies no structural assistance. So, your gums different from your teeth forming pockets that rapidly end up being additional area for “Strep” and his buddies. Which additional contaminates your gums, triggering your teeth to fall out.
Now, you might believe this might never ever take place to you however about 10% of Americans in between ages 50-64 have actually lost not simply a couple of, however ALL their teeth! And to make matters worse, “Strep” and his friends might enter your blood stream, where they’ll ruin your organs, too.
For instance, in one research study, individuals with gum illness were 4.5 times most likely to have persistent kidney illness than individuals with healthy gums. And another research study discovered that individuals in a retirement home who didn’t brush their teeth daily, had up to a 65% higher threat of dementia. Finally, there’s the increased threat of establishing particular cancers:
To be reasonable, these dangers can likewise be the outcome of bad health in basic, however the message stays clear: Brush. Your. Teeth. It deserves the additional 4 minutes a day.
Almost half of Americans do not brush their teeth enough. This unlocks for a germs intrusion, resulting in dental caries and gum illness. Even even worse, you may increase your threat for problems like kidney illness and dementia. The following is a records of the video.
Meet Streptococcus mutans. He’s a germs and … a little bit of a slob. However this isn’t really simply any mess. It’s exactly what’s on your teeth! You see, “Strep” and all his roomies live inside your mouth, feeding off the sugar and protein in your food. When they’re done they excrete a slimy compound all over your teeths.
Completion outcome is a bacteria-ridden pigsty, called biofilm. Now a little biofilm isn’t really going to harm you. It’s just when you stop brushing it away that things can get unsightly. And not just for your teeth. It so occurs that “Strep” and his buddies are a downright danger to your life.
Almost half of Americans do not brush their teeth enough. When food develops in those nooks and crannies, you’re welcoming a host of germs to the celebration– including your gum line. The ideal location for germs to camp out in even higher numbers! Which irritate and irritate your gums, triggering inflammation and bleeding.
However that’s simply the start! Quickly enough, that infection will activate your body immune system. Which sends out fighter cells to fight the germs. This develops a hostile environment for the germs, which is exactly what you desire. However it can likewise harm the cells in close-by tissue and bone.
6 months to years later on, that tissue and bone will ultimately pass away. At this moment, you do not have gingivitis any longer. You have something much even worse: gum illness. No more tissue and bone implies no structural assistance. So, your gums different from your teeth forming pockets that rapidly end up being additional area for “Strep” and his buddies. Which additional contaminates your gums, triggering your teeth to fall out.
Now, you might believe this might never ever take place to you however about 10% of Americans in between ages 50-64 have actually lost not simply a couple of, however ALL their teeth! And to make matters worse, “Strep” and his friends might enter your blood stream, where they’ll ruin your organs, too.
For instance, in one research study, individuals with gum illness were 4.5 times most likely to have persistent kidney illness than individuals with healthy gums. And another research study discovered that individuals in a retirement home who didn’t brush their teeth daily, had up to a 65% higher threat of dementia. Finally, there’s the increased threat of establishing particular cancers:
To be reasonable, these dangers can likewise be the outcome of bad health in basic, however the message stays clear: Brush. Your. Teeth. It deserves the additional 4 minutes a day.
