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Learning With: ‘Lil Nas X Added Billy Ray Cyrus to “Old Town Road.” Is It Country Enough for Billboard Now?’

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Learning With: ‘Lil Nas X Added Billy Ray Cyrus to “Old Town Road.” Is It Country Enough for Billboard Now?’

Before reading the article:

Listen to the three-minute song, “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X, below.

(Note to teachers: This video contains depictions of violence. Please preview the entire video before sharing it with students to make sure it is appropriate for your class. You can find a lyric-only version of the song here.)

In which genre do you think this song belongs and why? Consider its musical elements — rhythm, beat, tempo, form, melody, tone, instruments — as well as the imagery and themes explored in the lyrics.

(For help categorizing, you might refer to this music map that describes the characteristics, history and genealogy of each musical genre.)

When Lil Nas X first released “Old Town Road,” the song made three different Billboard charts: the Hot 100, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot Country Songs. Billboard then decided to remove it from the country chart. Why do you think they made this decision? Do you think it was justified? Why or why not?

Now, read the article, “Lil Nas X Added Billy Ray Cyrus to ‘Old Town Road.’ Is It Country Enough for Billboard Now?,” and answer the following questions:

1. Why did Billboard decide to remove “Old Town Road” from their country chart?

2. Why did Billboard’s decision to drop the song prompt a debate about race and country music?

3. Where did Lil Nas X get the inspiration for this song? What does he see it as a metaphor for?

4. Lil Nas X posted the song online in December along with an observation: “country music is evolving.” What do you think he meant by that? How is his song an example of that evolution?

5. Ben Sisario, the reporter, writes: “The blending of country music and black American forms is certainly nothing new.” What evidence does he give to support this claim? What does it add to the discussion about race and country music?

6. How did Lil Nas X’s collaboration with Billy Ray Cyrus on a remix come about? Why might the contribution of Mr. Cyrus’s vocals help the song’s chances on country stations and charts?

Finally, tell us more about what you think:

After reading this article, how do you feel about Billboard’s decision to remove “Old Town Road” from the country chart? What role do you think race played, if any? In your opinion, is the remix any more country? Why or why not?

This decision has stirred a discussion about race and music genres. In general, do you think white artists are given more leeway than artists of color to explore and find success in different genres? What examples from the industry can you offer to support your opinion?

Ask a Data Engineer: Warby Parker Edition 👓

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Ask a Data Engineer: Warby Parker Edition 👓

wp-header

Codecademy’s very own Nick Duckwiler (left) and Ryan Tuck from Warby Parker (right) in our office. (📷: Mitch Boyer)

Last month, Codecademy and Warby Parker came together to work on a special Learn SQL from Scratch Capstone Project. It was during this time when I met Ryan Tuck, a Data Engineer at Warby, who played a major part in this partnership. So when he decided to drop by our office for the final QA round, I had to break out my notebook and ask some questions. Enjoy.

Hey Ryan, let’s start off with a question I’ve had for a while — what is a Data Engineer? (Is it similar to a Data Analyst or a Software Engineer?)

At Warby Parker, data engineers are responsible for creating and maintaining the plumbing required to support the data and reporting needs of the business. We use software engineering practices to automate the work of data cleaning, normalizing, and model building so that data is always ready to be consumed by data analysts in every department.

What languages/frameworks do you use at Warby?

On data engineering, we use Python as our general purpose programming language, as do most of the other teams in our Technology department. When it comes to databases, we use PostgreSQL for the majority of our SQL needs, and are beginning to use Amazon Athena and Google BigQuery for some of our larger datasets. We use Looker as our exclusive business intelligence entry point to all of this data.

What are some of the projects you worked on?

I’ve had the privilege of working with a lot of of smart people in every department at our company to help them solve their varied data needs, from reconciling financial data with the Accounting team to automating and modeling standardized performance metrics for our team of over 200 customer experience advisors.

As part of a team of five supporting the data needs of a rapidly growing company, I’ve tried where possible to focus on helping our analysts solve their own problems. This includes helping people learn Python and commit to our codebase, guiding the creation of data models in SQL, and encouraging people to submit pull requests to add features in Looker, our BI tool.

Seeing dozens of otherwise “non-technical” colleagues opening up PRs on a daily basis, and consequently being part of the democratization of tech that we value at Warby Parker, is probably the most rewarding “project” I’ve been a part of.

One project finished recently during our first annual “Hackweek” is called Pipes, which allows anyone at the company to easily move large amounts of data from wherever to wherever (Looker, Google Sheets, PostgreSQL, BigQuery, etc) on a regular cadence, or manually through a simple one-line chatbot interface. The adoption has been overwhelmingly positive and we’re looking to grow this sort of tooling out even more.

“We use software engineering practices to automate the work of data cleaning, normalizing, and model building so that data is always ready to be consumed by data analysts in every department.”

What got you into the data field?

I’ve always been drawn to analytical fields like math, and became pretty proficient in Excel during some internships in college. Once I had learned to program and learned more about data science and its applications in artificial intelligence, I knew that anything I could do to immerse myself in the world of data would be a step in the right direction.

Three and a half years ago, I landed a job as a junior software engineer at Warby Parker not fully knowing what I was in for, but am so glad I got the opportunity to help build tools to support an interesting and ever-changing data-driven culture here.

Where did you learn SQL and Python?

I had a background in C++, and was exposed to Python through an Intro to Data Science course. When Warby Parker hired me onto the Data team in 2015, I had never written a SQL query in my life, but picked it up quickly and within a few months started up internal SQL training classes, which I still teach on a monthly basis.

What does your tattoo say?


The ultimate cheatsheet.

This is Bayes’ Theorem, which is an equation that describes how to update probabilities given new evidence. Two summers ago I worked on building a tool to help predict weekly fantasy football performance. Some colleagues suggested a Bayesian approach would be appropriate, since there aren’t really enough data points in an NFL season to be able to use statistical approaches that require larger datasets, and I’d want to regularly update my predictions after each player’s latest performance.

I did a deep dive into understanding the (simple) math underlying Bayes’ Theorem and came out of that experience with a whole new worldview, understanding my entire knowledge of the world as a big and intricate probabilistic model that I was continuously updating with every experience I ever have. It was pretty transformative, and I figured that was worth a tattoo.

What is a concept in SQL/Python that’s essential to your work?

Donald Knuth said, “Premature optimization is the root of all evil.” I’ve generally found this to be true, and try to live by it in my work. For example, I’ll generally prefer to keep a data model simple by rebuilding it for all time on a daily basis using a single SQL query instead of making a more complicated model that requires iteratively adding to a table, keeping track of state, updated timestamps, when something last ran, etc.

A wise man once said, “Duplicating data makes things go fast,” but databases are already impressively fast to begin with, without implementing anything to improve performance. Ultimately, I almost always approach a problem thinking about optimizing for my time over machine time, for readability over performance, and for introducing as little cognitive overhead as is required by the problem at hand. Only once performance issues or readability issues present themselves will some code be worth a rewrite.

Last question! Since you wrote Warby Parker’s internal SQL training courses, I know there gotta be some inner Curriculum Developer in you. Can you teach a SQL concept in 2 minutes?

Sure! Have you ever written a query that yields some result set and you think, “I’d love to query the stuff I just produced like it was a table?” Enter the WITH clause.

Suppose I have a mega query that gives the transaction summaries:

select
    transactions.date as transaction_date,
    sum(items.price) as total_cost,
    count(*) as number_of_items
from
    transactions
inner join
    customers
    on
    customers.id = transactions.customer_id
inner join
    transaction_items
    on
    transactions.id = transaction_items.transaction_id
inner join
    items
    on
    items.id = transaction_items.item_id

Using WITH, I can create a temporary table within my query that I can SELECT from and treat it just like a regular old table.

I will put everything from the previous query in a parentheses and use WITH to give it the name transaction_summaries.

Then I’ll apply the date and customer filtering down below for a more readable query, to separate out all the JOIN logic from the actual WHERE filters that I want to apply on that data.

with transaction_summaries as (
  select
      transactions.date as transaction_date,
      sum(items.price) as total_cost,
      count(*) as number_of_items
  from
      transactions
  inner join
      customers
      on
      customers.id = transactions.customer_id
  inner join
      transaction_items
      on
      transactions.id = transaction_items.transaction_id
  inner join
      items
      on
      items.id = transaction_items.item_id
)

select 
        * 
from 
        transaction_summaries
where 
        first_name = 'beyonce'
        and 
        transaction_date > '2018–01–01'
order by 
        total_cost desc
limit 
        5

If you’re familiar with subqueries, this does a similar thing but makes the SQL far more readable, even if your query isn’t quite as performant as it would have been. This is essentially an implementation of the mantra “Don’t Repeat Yourself” that’s common in the world of programming.

Incredible. And love the SQL styling! 😍

Huge shout out to Ryan and the whole Warby Parker team for making this partnership happen. Special hat tips for behind-the-scenes support from:

  • Lon Binder, Chief Technology Officer, Warby Parker
  • Maddie Tierney, Executive Assistant, Warby Parker
  • Kayla Robbins, Executive Assistant, Warby Parker
  • Kaki Read, Senior Communications Manager, Warby Parker
  • Isabel Seely, Senior Brand Manager, Warby Parker

It’s been an absolute pleasure. And of course, the fam at Codecademy. You know who you are. Couldn’t do it without you.

Word + Quiz: verbosity

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Word + Quiz: verbosity

: an expressive style that uses excessive or empty words

_________

The word verbosity has appeared in two articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on Jan. 19 in “John Bercow, Shouting for ‘Order’ Amid Chaos, Is Brexit’s Surprise Star and Villain” by Ellen Barry:

Even in the hyper-loquacious environment of British politics, Mr. Bercow stands out for his love of ornate language and withering insult.

“He could never say, ‘It’s great to see you’”; instead he would say, ‘It gives me inestimable pleasure to meet you for the finest condiments created by Mrs. Twinings,’” a colleague told Mr. Friedman, his biographer. A sitting lawmaker told The New York Times in 2013, “It’s as if he goes to bed every night, reads a thesaurus, inwardly digests it and then spews it out the next day.”

… He found his tribe in politics, a profession where his verbosity was an asset.

_________

17-Foot Python

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17-Foot Python

What story could this image tell?

The 17-foot, 140-pound Burmese python pictured above was recently found at Big Cypress National Preserve in the Florida Everglades.

How did it get there? How did these people find it? Why were they looking for it in the first place? What would you do if you came across it?

Use your imagination to write the opening of a short story or poem that responds to one of the prompts above.

Or, come up with your own tale inspired by the photo.

Post it in the comments, then read the related article to find out the real story behind this image.

Weekly News Quiz for Students: Historic Mayor, Final Four, Deadly Germ

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Weekly News Quiz for Students: Historic Mayor, Final Four, Deadly Germ

How well did you follow the news this past week? How many of these 10 questions can you get right?

Is Horse Racing Ethical?

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Is Horse Racing Ethical?

What do you know about the world of horse racing? Have you been to a horse race or watched one on TV? If yes, do you have a favorite horse or race?

Did you know that horsing was once one of the most popular sports in America and nearly every newspaper had a horse racing page? In fact, three horses (Secretariat, Man o’ War and Citation) and two jockeys (Willie Shoemaker and Eddie Arcaro) were included in ESPN’s 100 greatest athletes of the 20th century.

While the sport’s popularity has declined in recent years, nearly $12 billion is bet annually at North American racetracks, and the Dubai World Cup has a winner’s purse of $12 million.

Late last month, a horse was euthanized after a terrible fall during a race at Santa Anita Park in California — the 23rd death there in just over three months, igniting a longstanding debate:

Is horse racing ethical?

In “Death of Another Horse at Santa Anita Rocks the Racing Industry,” Joe Drape writes:

Horse racing is among America’s oldest sports and perhaps the only one ever run out of the White House: Andrew Jackson operated a stable there during his presidency. Yet the multibillion-dollar industry is reeling as the Kentucky Derby approaches, with the death of yet another thoroughbred at the premier Santa Anita Park in California amplifying anxiety over whether the sport will continue in the state.

On Sunday, a gelding named Arms Runner fell during a race, sustaining a catastrophic injury to its right front leg that required the horse to be euthanized. It was the 23rd equine fatality since Dec. 26, and it came on only the third day of racing at the track since it had halted competition on March 5.

“I’m concerned about the publicity we’ve been getting,” said Bob Baffert, the Hall of Fame trainer who won the Triple Crown with American Pharoah in 2015 and with Justify last year. “This is our March Madness. But we’re having the wrong kind of madness. We feel like we’re all under the gun. We should be under the gun. You can’t defend a horse getting hurt.”

The track, in Arcadia, Calif., northeast of Los Angeles, had been closed to study why it had become so deadly, as well as to begin putting in place aggressive, wide-ranging drug and safety protocols. The spike was startling considering that in 2017, there were 20 deaths in a total of 8,463 starts over a span of 122 racing days at Santa Anita, according to Jockey Club data.

The racetrack, however, will remain open after the most recent fatality and on Saturday will host one of its signature races, the Santa Anita Derby, an important steppingstone for 3-year-old horses hoping to line up for the Kentucky Derby on May 4.

“We know what the stakes are and understand that we might be the place that kills horse racing in California,” said Tim Ritvo, chief operating officer of the Stronach Group, which owns the track. “Yes, we are worried, but we are confident that the track is safe and have gone the extra mile on rules that put us more in line with the rest of the world. We got to keep our doors open.”

The horse deaths have become a rallying point for the animal rights movement, which is particularly strong in California, where it would take 600,000 signatures on a petition to prompt a ballot initiative on whether horse racing should continue to exist. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has asked Gov. Gavin Newsom to form an independent panel to investigate how the track, breeders, owners, trainers, jockeys and veterinarians treat the horses.

“The veterinarians and trainers and track have not done all that they can to protect the horses,” said Kathy Guillermo, a PETA vice president.

The article concludes:

For decades, horse racing has experienced spikes in fatalities without adopting significant changes. The Horseracing Integrity Act of 2019 was introduced in Congress last month by Representatives Paul Tonko, Democrat of New York, and Andy Barr, Republican of Kentucky. The bill would create a private, independent authority responsible for developing and administering a nationwide antidoping and medication control program for horse racing.

“I think it has a better chance to pass today,” Janney said. “Every sport, every industry, has to change with the times. This is a scary time, but every undertaking is a result of getting a glimpse at the downside of staying where you are.”

Students, read the entire article, then tell us:

— Is horse racing ethical? Make the case for or against the morality of the sport.

— What is your relationship to horses? Have you ever ridden or cared for a horse? How does your experience affect your views on the sport of horse racing?

— In a related article, Lord Teddy Grimthorpe, the owner of Enable, who was named the European Horse of the Year for 2017, said:

All the good trainers will tell you that a horse has to have certain levels of athletic ability. There is no question of that, but I think the real X-factor is having the mind to actually want to do it and having that joy of wanting to gallop. Enable does. She wants to be out, and she wants to be running. That’s her natural way. She doesn’t like being left in the stable.

What is your reaction to Lord Grimthorpe’s statement? Do you think it can be said that a horse enjoys its role as a racehorse?

— What do you think could make the sport safer? If you believe horse racing is unethical or should be banned entirely, what do you think about the use of animals in other sports like rodeos or bull fighting?

— Are you a fan of horse racing? Have the recent deaths at Santa Anita Park changed your views? Will you watch the Kentucky Derby next month?

Learning With: ‘A Mysterious Infection, Spanning the Globe in a Climate of Secrecy’

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Learning With: ‘A Mysterious Infection, Spanning the Globe in a Climate of Secrecy’

2. Why is the fungus C. auris so tenacious and so difficult to eradicate, according to the article?

3. Explain, in your own words, how the overuse of antibiotics can lead to drug-resistant bacteria and fungi like C. auris? How do germs evolve defenses to survive modern medicines?

4. Who is most vulnerable to “superbugs” and why?

5. How many people in the United States contract resistant infections annually and how many die? Without sharply curbing the unnecessary use of antibiotics and without more effective new medicines to fight resistant infections, how many global fatalities are projected, according to one study commissioned by the British government?

6. What theories about the growth and spread of C. auris have health experts proposed? Which do you find most persuasive?

7. Why are hospitals and local governments reluctant to disclose outbreaks of drug-resistant germs? How do they respond to critics who say the public has a right to know about outbreaks?

Finally, tell us more about what you think:

— How concerned are you about Candida auris and about drug-resistant germs in general? How serious of a public health threat do you believe them to be?

— Look at the map of C. auris cases. What do you notice? What can we learn about the challenges of combating its spread and growth?

— What do you think should be done to address the dangers of drug-resistant germs? Do you think you will be more or less likely to use antibiotics after reading the article?

— Do we have a right to know when there is a drug-resistant bacterial outbreak in hospitals or in cities? Is it right for hospitals and health officials to limit information about C. auris? What is the value of an article like this one? Is it informing the public or unnecessarily scaring them?

— In a related article, “In a Poor Kenyan Community, Cheap Antibiotics Fuel Deadly Drug-Resistant Infections,” Andrew Jacobs and Matt Richtel write:

Antibiotics, the miracle drugs credited with saving tens of millions of lives, have never been more accessible to the world’s poor, thanks in large part to the mass production of generics in China and India. Across much of the developing world, it costs just a few dollars to buy drugs like amoxicillin, a first-line antibiotic that can be used against a broad range of infections, from bacterial pneumonia and chlamydia to salmonella, strep throat and Lyme disease.

Kibera residents are prodigious consumers of antibiotics. One study found that 90 percent of households in Kibera had used antibiotics in the previous year, compared with about 17 percent for the typical American family. …

Antibiotic resistance is a global threat, but it is often viewed as a problem in rich countries, where comfortably insured patients rush to the doctor to demand prescriptions at the slightest hint of a cough or cold.

In fact, urban poverty is a huge and largely unappreciated driver of resistance. And so, the rise of resistant microbes is having a disproportionate impact on poor countries, where squalid and crowded living conditions, lax oversight of antibiotic use and a scarcity of affordable medical care are fueling the spread of infections increasingly unresponsive to drugs.

What new information about the global threat of drug-resistant germs did you learn? What does this show you about the interconnectedness of the problem and possible solutions?

How to build an effective online course

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How to build an effective online course

I thought it would be easy.  Easy to find information on how to build an effective online course (aka as WBT).  I thought a few pages into Google and something would be viewable for everyone to understand.

Then I did the search.  And repeated it six months later.  And what I saw, was poor.  Theory was everywhere.

Gagne? Uh, yeah right.  Kirkpatrick? Who is still doing this – I know a few vendors have it, but still – most folks are unaware of all the steps, etc.  ADDIE?  I am never surprised on the number of people who do not know what this is – every day folks I am referring to, not an instructional designer or e-learning developer.

In the past few weeks, I’ve had quite a few readers ask me whether or not there is a book they can buy to learn how to build a course.  And while there are plenty, I find most of them outdated as soon as they are published.

Plus a few seem to be out of right field in terms of building, thinking everyone is an instructional designer.  There are some that forget that the term “content” means more than just an ebook, or a PDF or a document or even a video.  Yes, content can be a course.

Then there is the continued push of micro-learning as if a course being short means great.  Or that micro is something new that no one has done before. 

The worst part of all of this is that the new pitch I see with more than a few vendors is the angle that a “traditional LMS” (which is just a marketing spin that no one would say, if you were to look at a house – “hey, that has a widow’s peak, that is so traditional), doesn’t show content i.e courses well or effectively.

I had a recent call with one vendor who was explaining that SCORM is the reason why people build linear-based courses with the next button (i.e. click, click).  That is 100% not true.  A course standard does a lot of things, but it is not a factor in terms of you either building a linear course (which is awful) or non-linear (which is why WBT is so effective over ILT). 

Nor is it true that LMSs were designed for compliance or regulatory.  They weren’t and even today, most folks use them for soft skills training, B2B selling of content, some compliance and soft skills and a host of other things. 

The interesting point is that there are plenty of people out there who blame their LMS or learning system in general because people are either waiting to the last minute to take their course/content OR are not returning to it.

I am hear to tell you, that isn’t because of the system.  It is because who ever built that course, designed it in a poor manner.  And the topic can play a role – especially with compliance.  Compliance is a cover yourself from being sued angle, so folks wait to the last minute take it, and then the company says, “see they completed this, so we shouldn’t be at fault that Peter cut off his toes due to putting the chain saw next to them while it was running.”

Building 101

Before diving into how to build an online course, I want to note that you can build a micro-learning course in the same fashion and approach.  Too many of us have learned the time angle because of our days in attending school.  This is something that shouldn’t be pushed upon by content providers or systems as a key factor.

What takes one person five minutes, may take someone else 45 minutes.  Duration is not an exact science and is based on whomever at the company timed it at – based on how long they or multiple people completed the content.  I have no idea if this person was a graduate of a speed reading or just was in a skip read angle and click. 

Plus it opens up a door that swings toward creating linear content because of the whole time angle.  If you have a Table of Contents (as you shall learn is a must), and a few other items (to be presented shortly) that whole duration can be tossed out the window along with a couch someone probably will do when they leave college/uni in a few weeks.

Steps To Remember

Regardless if you are building a micro course or not, there are a couple of key steps to remember and it is all tied to terminology.

The hierarchy is as follows

– Title – What is the title of the course? 

  • Chapter(s) –   After a title, you will have chapters with sub-titles
  • Pages – In each chapter you have pages
  • Scenario or Lesson or Assessment –   I’m a fan of Scenarios as the way to verify and help people retain the information they are learning or bring trained upon, more so than an assessment which validates nothing – except the ability to memorize or guess.  Some folks like a lesson approach – which I can’t think of any adult learner that wants  to see that.  I still cringe at freshman year in HS with my Algebra teacher and his lessons. 

That’s it.  Uh, not my awful Algebra teacher, but the hierarchy to building an effective online course.

Where do you put this information?

In a TOC – Table of Contents.  If there is anything you take away from the post is the TOC.  It is the most important thing you will need to do, and should do, regardless of length of course.

I’ve had ones in a short course, where someone who went linear (yuck) and needed that duration time, could achieve it in 10 minutes, over the breakdown of four mini modules – so in essence a few minutes per mod if they just did a read and couldn’t care to learn or retain approach.  Which I see a lot of today in online content.

Every course you build or you buy should have a Table of Contents. Every single one.  Ignore how the vendor pitches the terminology in their authoring tool (because many do not use the actual terms). 

I’ve seen the word “slides” in authoring tools.  Shame on them!  This isn’t PowerPoint.   Nor is PowerPoint an authoring tool.  Yes, folks use it as such, but folks use word documents too, and neither are effective in synthesis, which is what you really want.

Linear or Non-Linear

The terms can get a bit confusing, so here is what each of the terms mean, and you want – always want to offer non-linear as the default.  IF someone wants to go linear so be it, but non-linear is the most effective way to comprehend, retain and synthesize the information.

Linear = BAD way to train and Learn

Non-Linear = BEST way to train and learn

Linear – Think of attending a class in a classroom. Think of attending a seminar.  See how the instructor posts an agenda and everyone in the session follows that agenda. Now imagine sticking that online.  Whalla!  Linear-based courses.

From an asynchronous stanpoint (asynch in basic forms means the entire course is online, including scenarios, etc. – it is all self-contained), linear is the easiest way to never see folks come back to take the course.  It is also the easiest way to hear people gripe about e-learning and despise it. 

Synchronous which is heavily used in education is taking this linear approach to the extreme, in other words – reliving your days in school.  You get a syllabus. You have to go step by step (with that agenda in essence). Assignments can come your way – Yippee! I’m confident you have seem this type of design in action.  MOOCs use it.   Which explains why completion rates are awful and synthesis is equally horrible.

Let me do Linear

I want you to look at your trash can.  See all the papers in there?  Now, write on a piece of paper the words, “Linear is boring. Linear will bore me. I will never enjoy a linear course because I am likely to know something that will appear in it. I will fight for my right to party (wait, that’s from a Beastie Boys song), so ignore that part. ” Now take that piece of paper and toss it into that wonderful trash can.

Linear is an A to B to C approach.  You go in a line – just like you would in any ILT course or seminar.  You cannot jump to Chapter three, page five for example, when you are in chapter one, page two.  You must go in a linear – straight fashion.  Thus, even if you already know how to fry a burger, you still have to go thru that chapter, because you are in a linear mode. 

Some folks do “lockdown”, which means while you are in the course even if you wanted to jump to somewhere else in it, you can’t because you have to complete the entire section or chapter or the course for that matter before you can move onto the next piece.

I see this a lot.  Especially with compliance and it is another reason why folks and just clicking along.  They are not paying attention, nor will then retain that in six months.  Synthesis isn’t going to happen.  

Do you know what else uses lockdown?  That classroom you attended in K-12 and higher education.  That syllabus your instructor gave you.  A prison. 

Now, who wants to be in an online course that is following prison protocol? Anyone? Anyone?

Non-Linear

Do any type of research related to the benefits of online learning and you will see some impressive data.  All of it, is tied to content and specifically content that follows a non-linear approach.  Ignore the self-paced thing, online learning is designed to do this, even when you watch TV nowadays with the pause button is self-paced.

Non-Linear follows this approach

  • TOC is a must
  • People can jump around the course, anywhere they want to go, as often as they want, and go back and back to it
  • It pushes the idea of learner-centric modality because it ensures that the person will go to areas of interest that they want to learn, which increases retention – comprehension and synthesis
  • It eliminates the step by step approach you enjoyed so much in school or at that seminar you attended where you surfed the net, waiting to get to the area you are only interested in
  • It allows you to learn on your time, if it takes you days or months to learn so be it, it is about training and acquiring knowledge not time watching or click by click
  • You can still have your navigation bar to move to next pages, or with your TOC, a person can just click that page and go to it – or swipe it and go to it

Every authoring tool on the market offers a TOC (again, their terminology may be different).  Can you have a TOC with that word doc or PDF? Yes, you can. 

I’m sure you have seen them plenty of times, what you often do not see is the ability to hyperlink to that page, so you have to scroll or read the entire thing.  I’d rather eat licorice gum drops than deal with that.

If someone wants to go step by step they can, non-linear offers that option, but it gives you options as the learner, which people want.

Think of linear and non-linear in this way.  If you read a newspaper or a magazine, regardless if it paper or online, you are unlikely to read the entire thing cover to cover. Maybe you do, but nowadays most people only go to the sections they are interested in or the pages or the topics.  Now, by jumping around, you are going non-linear.

If you were to go by each page and read every article that is linear.

Think of a video you see on YouTube.  Most follow a linear approach.  This is why with more LMSs and other Learning systems out there, you are starting to see a TOC approach or a search approach to eliminate the linear aspect.

A linear video is the video when you were hired they forced you to watch in a room, while HR went for burger.

Course Design

In your opening section before you even jump into the information you want to present, you will have an introduction.

The introduction should be in your TOC – it is the first section. 

An introduction should provide the following

  • How the course is presented. This includes your nav bar if you have one. It should explain how to take the course, using the TOC and how to jump around.  It should use icons as well as text (if you have icons you are including).  It should be clear so that anyone can understand the basics.
  • Some folks list two or three objectives and/or a summary – but I’m not a fan of that, because the usage of non-linear changes those objectives.  The objectives are based on the person or persons who created the course or the training or L&D exec who sees it in that way.  If I only want to learn how do labels in Excel, the objective of you will learn how to do the basics of Excel, isn’t relevant to me.  A summary is just objectives listed in paragraph, often redundant and rarely retained. 
  • If you do not require people to complete the entire course state that.  Sometimes learners think they do because they are thinking from an ILT standpoint
  • If they need a PDF reader or some other ancillary items, have that in the introduction with a direct link to where they go to download it.  Never assume.
  • If you have additional materials folks can download as part of your course, state that and show them where to find it.  A simple screenshot will do the trick with an arrow pointing to it, or however you go about it.
  • An introduction should be at max two pages in length, although you can easily go three. But no more than that.   I normally do one page, with how to navigate and move around the course and that you can jump around.  

Course Part Two

Any course can be interactive and engaging. Any course. Micro or not.  All text or text and a couple of pictures or a video embedded won’t be as effective, in fact, it borders on boring and the click-click let me out of here approach. 

Scenarios work the best because it offers the learner the ability to take what they just learned and apply it into a real-world scenario.

Example:

Think of call center tech support or customer support training.  I can’t tell you the number of times I see courses on how to answer a call, steps they follow in a call center and other items.  What I rarely see is a scenario that is more realistic – that of someone who is angry and upset.

Who calls tech or customer support?  Someone who is frustrated and can’t get whatever they are doing to work. They are already irritated and can get even more upset if the person is not answering their questions or following a script.

So, with your online course, you present the information on how to handle this, and then have a real-life scenario where the learner applies that information with an interactive experience or engaging manner.

With authoring tools today, most have those avatar or characters which opens up the door to more and more scenario based approaches.  Heck, just the other day, I saw an authoring tool that is all about scenarios, a true scenario sim. 

Something else you can do

Find out who is your target audience, who is going to take this course. I once had a course built for folks who are working a counter at a retail location.  Doing some basic gap analysis, I learned that most of the people were between 17-23, had a high school education and were fans of animation.

Thus the course was built with that in mind.  We didn’t have folks dressed in suits, nor business attire, because our target audience didn’t wear those types of clothes.  We had it in an animated style, with a lot of scenarios. We added a mentor if they needed it, but in each scenario there was no mentor.  We used an adaptable approach so that if the learner did one thing, then character in the course would follow suit.  Thus applying everything they learned.

A scenario existed right after they learned the info, so they could go back as often as they wanted to reinforce what they learned.

The Kicker

What we heard back was that counter staff loved the course. They went back often, and used it as part of our e-learning approach.  We also learned that sales managers and managers were going into the course as well, re-learning some things and in case of managers, some new items.

Sales at the locations increased.  Employee turnover dropped.  

In other words, the course worked because it was built to do.  It was fun. It was engaging. It was real-world and it presented information in a format that allowed each employee to bounce to the area of their interest. 

Bottom Line

Creating an online course can be frustrating. I get it.  But the rewards to building one with a TOC, following non-linear with a lot of scenarios, will more than make-up for the time it takes you to build the course.

Instead of griping on how people are not coming back into the course. Rejoice on how many times they do.

And they will.

E-Learning 24/7

Additional note – On Findanlms.com numerous vendors are offering discounts when you purchase a system thru the platform.  Simply log-in (register first if you have not done so), contact the vendor within the platform or schedule a demo. If you decide at some point to by the system, the vendor will then apply the discount.

Here are the vendors offering discounts

  • eLogic Learning (ranked #3 in my Top 50 for 2019)
  • Biz Library (Top 50)
  • 360Learning (LXP) (Top 50)
  • THRIVE (LXP)
  • Brainier (Top 10)
  • Asentia (Top 50)
  • Inquisiq R4
  • ePath Learning
  • Create LMS
  • Spoke (Top 20) – Spoke is offering a 50% discount off the first year (requires a three-year deal).

 

 

Ask a Data Engineer: Warby Parker Edition 👓

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Ask a Data Engineer: Warby Parker Edition 👓

wp-header

Codecademy’s very own Nick Duckwiler (left) and Ryan Tuck from Warby Parker (right) in our office. (📷: Mitch Boyer)

Last month, Codecademy and Warby Parker came together to work on a special Learn SQL from Scratch Capstone Project. It was during this time when I met Ryan Tuck, a Data Engineer at Warby, who played a major part in this partnership. So when he decided to drop by our office for the final QA round, I had to break out my notebook and ask some questions. Enjoy.

Hey Ryan, let’s start off with a question I’ve had for a while — what is a Data Engineer? (Is it similar to a Data Analyst or a Software Engineer?)

At Warby Parker, data engineers are responsible for creating and maintaining the plumbing required to support the data and reporting needs of the business. We use software engineering practices to automate the work of data cleaning, normalizing, and model building so that data is always ready to be consumed by data analysts in every department.

What languages/frameworks do you use at Warby?

On data engineering, we use Python as our general purpose programming language, as do most of the other teams in our Technology department. When it comes to databases, we use PostgreSQL for the majority of our SQL needs, and are beginning to use Amazon Athena and Google BigQuery for some of our larger datasets. We use Looker as our exclusive business intelligence entry point to all of this data.

What are some of the projects you worked on?

I’ve had the privilege of working with a lot of of smart people in every department at our company to help them solve their varied data needs, from reconciling financial data with the Accounting team to automating and modeling standardized performance metrics for our team of over 200 customer experience advisors.

As part of a team of five supporting the data needs of a rapidly growing company, I’ve tried where possible to focus on helping our analysts solve their own problems. This includes helping people learn Python and commit to our codebase, guiding the creation of data models in SQL, and encouraging people to submit pull requests to add features in Looker, our BI tool.

Seeing dozens of otherwise “non-technical” colleagues opening up PRs on a daily basis, and consequently being part of the democratization of tech that we value at Warby Parker, is probably the most rewarding “project” I’ve been a part of.

One project finished recently during our first annual “Hackweek” is called Pipes, which allows anyone at the company to easily move large amounts of data from wherever to wherever (Looker, Google Sheets, PostgreSQL, BigQuery, etc) on a regular cadence, or manually through a simple one-line chatbot interface. The adoption has been overwhelmingly positive and we’re looking to grow this sort of tooling out even more.

“We use software engineering practices to automate the work of data cleaning, normalizing, and model building so that data is always ready to be consumed by data analysts in every department.”

What got you into the data field?

I’ve always been drawn to analytical fields like math, and became pretty proficient in Excel during some internships in college. Once I had learned to program and learned more about data science and its applications in artificial intelligence, I knew that anything I could do to immerse myself in the world of data would be a step in the right direction.

Three and a half years ago, I landed a job as a junior software engineer at Warby Parker not fully knowing what I was in for, but am so glad I got the opportunity to help build tools to support an interesting and ever-changing data-driven culture here.

Where did you learn SQL and Python?

I had a background in C++, and was exposed to Python through an Intro to Data Science course. When Warby Parker hired me onto the Data team in 2015, I had never written a SQL query in my life, but picked it up quickly and within a few months started up internal SQL training classes, which I still teach on a monthly basis.

What does your tattoo say?


The ultimate cheatsheet.

This is Bayes’ Theorem, which is an equation that describes how to update probabilities given new evidence. Two summers ago I worked on building a tool to help predict weekly fantasy football performance. Some colleagues suggested a Bayesian approach would be appropriate, since there aren’t really enough data points in an NFL season to be able to use statistical approaches that require larger datasets, and I’d want to regularly update my predictions after each player’s latest performance.

I did a deep dive into understanding the (simple) math underlying Bayes’ Theorem and came out of that experience with a whole new worldview, understanding my entire knowledge of the world as a big and intricate probabilistic model that I was continuously updating with every experience I ever have. It was pretty transformative, and I figured that was worth a tattoo.

What is a concept in SQL/Python that’s essential to your work?

Donald Knuth said, “Premature optimization is the root of all evil.” I’ve generally found this to be true, and try to live by it in my work. For example, I’ll generally prefer to keep a data model simple by rebuilding it for all time on a daily basis using a single SQL query instead of making a more complicated model that requires iteratively adding to a table, keeping track of state, updated timestamps, when something last ran, etc.

A wise man once said, “Duplicating data makes things go fast,” but databases are already impressively fast to begin with, without implementing anything to improve performance. Ultimately, I almost always approach a problem thinking about optimizing for my time over machine time, for readability over performance, and for introducing as little cognitive overhead as is required by the problem at hand. Only once performance issues or readability issues present themselves will some code be worth a rewrite.

Last question! Since you wrote Warby Parker’s internal SQL training courses, I know there gotta be some inner Curriculum Developer in you. Can you teach a SQL concept in 2 minutes?

Sure! Have you ever written a query that yields some result set and you think, “I’d love to query the stuff I just produced like it was a table?” Enter the WITH clause.

Suppose I have a mega query that gives the transaction summaries:

select
    transactions.date as transaction_date,
    sum(items.price) as total_cost,
    count(*) as number_of_items
from
    transactions
inner join
    customers
    on
    customers.id = transactions.customer_id
inner join
    transaction_items
    on
    transactions.id = transaction_items.transaction_id
inner join
    items
    on
    items.id = transaction_items.item_id

Using WITH, I can create a temporary table within my query that I can SELECT from and treat it just like a regular old table.

I will put everything from the previous query in a parentheses and use WITH to give it the name transaction_summaries.

Then I’ll apply the date and customer filtering down below for a more readable query, to separate out all the JOIN logic from the actual WHERE filters that I want to apply on that data.

with transaction_summaries as (
  select
      transactions.date as transaction_date,
      sum(items.price) as total_cost,
      count(*) as number_of_items
  from
      transactions
  inner join
      customers
      on
      customers.id = transactions.customer_id
  inner join
      transaction_items
      on
      transactions.id = transaction_items.transaction_id
  inner join
      items
      on
      items.id = transaction_items.item_id
)

select 
        * 
from 
        transaction_summaries
where 
        first_name = 'beyonce'
        and 
        transaction_date > '2018–01–01'
order by 
        total_cost desc
limit 
        5

If you’re familiar with subqueries, this does a similar thing but makes the SQL far more readable, even if your query isn’t quite as performant as it would have been. This is essentially an implementation of the mantra “Don’t Repeat Yourself” that’s common in the world of programming.

Incredible. And love the SQL styling! 😍

Huge shout out to Ryan and the whole Warby Parker team for making this partnership happen. Special hat tips for behind-the-scenes support from:

  • Lon Binder, Chief Technology Officer, Warby Parker
  • Maddie Tierney, Executive Assistant, Warby Parker
  • Kayla Robbins, Executive Assistant, Warby Parker
  • Kaki Read, Senior Communications Manager, Warby Parker
  • Isabel Seely, Senior Brand Manager, Warby Parker

It’s been an absolute pleasure. And of course, the fam at Codecademy. You know who you are. Couldn’t do it without you.

Final Four

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Final Four

Did you make a bracket, join a pool or watch any of March Madness this year? How many of your predictions were correct? In your opinion, what were the biggest upsets of the tournament?

What is your reaction to the men’s and women’s N.C.A.A. champions?

Overall what did you think of this year’s tournament? Who do you hope to see compete in the Final Four next year?

Tell us in the comments, then read the related articles to learn more about the men’s and women’s championship games.

Find many more ways to use our Picture Prompt feature in this lesson plan.

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