Can you find Bangladesh on a map? What else do you know about this South Asian nation with a population of about 165 million people?
What’s Going On in This Picture? | March 30, 2020
Students
1. After looking closely at the image above (or at the full-size image), think about these three questions:
2. Next, join the conversation by clicking on the comment button and posting in the box that opens on the right. (Students 13 and older are invited to comment, although teachers of younger students are welcome to post what their students have to say.)
3. After you have posted, try reading back to see what others have said, then respond to someone else by posting another comment. Use the “Reply” button or the @ symbol to address that student directly.
Each Monday, our collaborator, Visual Thinking Strategies, will facilitate a discussion from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern time by paraphrasing comments and linking to responses to help students’ understanding go deeper. You might use their responses as models for your own.
4. On Thursday afternoons, we will reveal at the bottom of this post more information about the photo. How does reading the caption and learning its back story help you see the image differently?
What’s Going On in This Graph? | April 1, 2020
This graph appeared elsewhere in The New York Times.
By Friday morning, April 3, we will provide the “Reveal” — the graph’s free online link, additional background and questions, shout outs highlighting student comments and headlines, and Stat Nuggets.
After looking closely at the graph above (or at this full-size image), think about these three questions:
What do you notice? If you make a claim, tell us what you noticed that supports your claim.
What do you wonder? What are you curious about that comes from what you notice in the graphs?
The questions are intended to build on one another, so try to answer them in order. Start with “I notice,” then “I wonder,” and end with a catchy headline.
2. Next, join the conversation by clicking on the comment button and posting in the box that opens on the right. (Students 13 and older are invited to comment online. Teachers of younger students are welcome to post what their students say.)
3. After you have posted, read what others have said, then respond to someone else by posting a comment. Use the “Reply” button or the @ symbol to address that student directly.
On Wednesday, April 1, our collaborator, the American Statistical Association, will facilitate this discussion from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern time to help students’ understanding go deeper. You might use their responses as models for your own.
4. By Friday morning, April 3, we will reveal more information about the graph at the bottom of this post. Students, we encourage you to post an additional comment after reading the reveal. How does the original article and the moderators’ comments help you see the graph differently? Try to incorporate the statistical terms defined in the Stat Nuggets in your response.
More?
Read our 2019-20 introductory post, which includes the archives of past releases by topic and graph type.
Learn more about the “Notice and Wonder” teaching strategy and how and why other teachers are using this feature from our on-demand webinar.
Sign up for our free weekly newsletter so you never miss a graph, and add our 2019-20 “What’s Going On in This Graph?” live-moderated discussion Wednesdays to your Google calendar (4/1 and 4/8). Graphs are always released by the Friday before to give teachers time to plan ahead.
Go to the A.S.A. K-12 website, which includes This is Statistics, resources, professional development, student competitions, curriculum, courses and careers.
Lesson of the Day: ‘5 Key Things in the $2 Trillion Coronavirus Stimulus Package’
Going Further
Though the Senate unanimously passed the bill, some lawmakers had criticisms of it. The Times reports:
In the final measure, most Republicans agreed to Democrats’ demands for a substantial expansion of jobless benefits, including $600 extra per week on top of the usual amount provided by states.
On Wednesday afternoon, four Republican senators said they were concerned the new benefits would be larger than some people’s wages, prompting employers to lay off workers and some employees to prefer staying home and collecting unemployment payments.
“If this is not a drafting error, then this is the worst idea I have seen in a long time,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina. “We need to create a sustainable system.”
Mr. Mnuchin said the extra payments were calculated as a way to ensure that states could get money out quickly, saying that he did not believe it would create any perverse incentives. Most Americans, he said, “want to keep their jobs.”
Still, the Republicans’ threat to hold up the bill because of the issue prompted Senator Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont and a Democratic presidential contender, to issue his own warning that he, too, would seek to block the legislation for being too lenient on corporations. Later, in a speech on the floor, Mr. Sanders said he would support the bill despite his many reservations.
Encapsulating the sentiment of many lawmakers in both parties about the hastily negotiated package, Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska, one of the Republicans who sought to cap the jobless aid, said while he disagreed with Mr. Sanders, “I appreciate his candor in admitting that this is kind of a big crap sandwich.”
What is your reaction to these criticisms? Are any of them valid? Why or why not? What other issues, if any, do you see with this stimulus package? Do you think it should have been passed, even if it’s not a perfect bill? Why or why not?
If you have more time …
Take a moment to scroll through The Times Coronavirus Outbreak coverage. Which industries and workers seem to be most affected by the economic shutdown caused by social distancing and shelter-in-place measures? How, if at all, will the stimulus bill help them?
You might choose one of those industries or groups to read about more in depth, like the travel and hospitality industry, cultural institutions like museums and theaters, public transportation, undocumented household workers and Uber and Lyft drivers.
What are this group’s specific needs and concerns? Does the stimulus package address them? If so, how? Is it enough to sustain them for weeks or even months? If not, what measures would you add to the bill to support them?
Based on what you learned, to what extent do you think the government has a responsibility to help individuals and industries stay afloat during an economic crisis? What responsibility do employers have to their employees? What should we, as individuals, do to support the small businesses, workers and hospitals in our communities?
CK Connect Product Review
Oh what a night, and then that is all I remember of that song. Anyway, I am giddy today. Not because my dogs and I went for a car ride to McDonald’s for a soda (we do that daily, and it is fun), but because I had a grand ol’ time with CK Connect, the newest offering – platform from CrossKnowledge. You can call it an LXP, I see it as a digital learning platform (DLP).
Is it a different type of LXP/DLP from everything else on the market? Yes. Will your learners have fun and gain insight from using it? I believe so. Does it scream potential with words that say, uh “Potential”? Absolutely.
CK Connect Basics
First off, before a learner enters the system, they will go through a personality pre-assessment which presents a series of statements, to which the learner responds by sliding either left or right, with at the end of each spectrum (you are exactly) whatever those two opposites are. The learner does not have to go to the complete one side or another. I held back on showing a screenshot simply because the questions are the same for everyone, and I didn’t want anyone to cheat.
I know people are asking themselves, well what kind of personality test was it? I wondered myself, and so here is the answer directly from CrossKnowledge:
“CK Connect uses a different personality type assessment from MBTI (Myers Briggs Type Theory). The personality type assessment in CK Connect is the Wiley All Types™ assessment. The CK Connect assessment was developed by psychometrics experts at Wiley Professional Learning.
Although grounded in the same theory, All Types is not the same as MBTI: All Types is designed from a slightly different vision that resulted in that All Types has two major differentiators over the MBTI.
- All Types does not embrace what is called “type dynamics” which is a method of interpretation that involves combining the types according to a strict process to determine one’s dominant and auxiliary types. The research has not been supportive of this process and it is not supported by contemporary psychological theory.
- All Types measures using a continuum (presented as a slider for better user experience) rather than measuring using a dichotomy. MBTI is based on the idea of dichotomy, whereas All Types sees the two letters of each of the four dimensions as extremes of the same continua. Based on this, All Types identifies a person’s preferences between the two extremes of the continua, instead of fixating a person into one of the two halves. The concept of the Comfort Zone exemplifies this idea: allowing a person to prefer introversy, but also feeling comfortable with extrovertive situations and/or behavior, for example.”
There you have it. Thus if you have any griping about it, please do not let me know because well, I am an INTP! Plus, I just lost my ability to respond to you, just now. Right now.
One quick thought regarding the personality assessment, in order for the system to present accurate results, the learner has to be honest with themselves as they are completing it, otherwise the output will not truly reflect who they are and what are their strengths and challenges.
After The Assessment
You will go to a new page in the system which will present your results to you – your personality type along with details on it.
You are able to review the details of your “Strengths” and “Challenges”. After reviewing the details you are ready to jump into seeing “My Skills”. A simple click and now you are on another screen.
What I wished for
While I appreciated learning that I was an INTP, I had no idea on what INTP actually stood for (it appears later on another screen). Nor did I see some examples in a real world setting. I’d like to see the page contain less text and more examples visually speaking, hopefully that will appear in a future version. The details though are extremely important, and so that is a must to retain.
My Skills
On this page, the learner sees the following:
This is the initial screen they see, the first time they go the personality assessment.
- Playlist of Content recommended based on your Type
- Playlist recommended by your manager
- Skills recommended by your company
Since I was in a sandbox platform, I was unable to figure out if the skills recommended by my manager and or the company, was tied to my assessment type. I would assume it is, and if so, then to should include your Type. And the same with your company.
Nor could I tell if I could remove the recommended by manager playlist if I didn’t have a manager or this wasn’t going to be part of my learning.
Same with the company angle. If I am an association member, then it could be based on Association recommendations, but uh, considering some associations that I have belonged to, I’m not sure I’d want to see their recommendations.
Okay, So I picked out some content and started
The screen will change slightly, by listing the content you have started to take based on the second playlist of Skills Recommended Playlist. In this review, I selected the content “Harness the Benefits of Psychological Safety” because it was listed as a “Challenge”.
You can see below, that I have completed 32% of the course.
Each piece of content has a duration time, and I wish they didn’t, but every piece of content in any system always has an estimated duration time. What is missing is what type of content this is – a video, PDF, course, etc., and any ratings. I’d recommend that in a future version this is added. After all, this is the debut of the platform, not version 4.0.
On the right side of the “My Skills” screen you will see two boxes
This is a very fun section to check out, especially because My Profile goes into additional depth, and I can see under “My teammate” how I compare to another learner, whether they are in your department or somewhere at the company.
I should add that “My Profile” here is different than “My Profile” which you can select under your initials. I’d recommend changing “My Profile” to “About Me”.
On this page, the following is provided
- Learn more about your INTP
- How you’re misunderstood
- Blind Spots
- Strengths (repeat of what is provided the first time you log into the system and complete your assessment)
- Challenges (repeat of what is provided the first time you log into the system and complete your assessment)
The page also presents in graphical form:
- Energy
- Attention
- Decision
- Structure
Here’s mine:
As you can see, the system shows where you are in the assessment line, i.e. you will not necessarily be at the far end of each item. I felt this was right on, after all, no one ever said to me, “you know, you are a feeling person, ” and I thank them for that.
I do wish though that this graphical assessment results would appear on the page which says what is your type, strengths and challenges. And I wish in a future version to see more graphical results going beyond just these four.
But it is a very good start.
My Teammates
Ever wanted why Steve bores you? Curious to know how Stacey seems to be late on every project, yet Sarah is such a go getter?
My Teammates will provide the answers, okay, not a “here you are and here is why Steve bores you to death with his stories”, rather it goes this way:
Because this was a sandbox, it contained only a couple of employees for my review. Yours would show all your employees or however you set it up.
I liked this, but would love to be able to hover over ISFP to see what that actually stands for. Once you identify who you want to compare yourself to, click their name.
Under this initial mini description, the system will compare you to your employee in the following areas:
- Sources of Frustration
- Approach to relationships (I know it is work, so I’d recommend adding “Approach to work or business relationships)
- Working on a project together
- Response to conflict
The item that is missing? What does ISFP stand for? It should be listed in the employee’s mini description.
And if you want to see a graphical comparison, based on Energy, Attention, Judging, and Decision, fear not, because it is provided:
You will notice that Energy and Decision was in the same box as response to conflict. In the previous box, it was in the “Working on a project together”.
The problem though is that neither of those sections are correlated to my energy or decision making, in this case to responding to conflict.
I’d like to see the graphical up higher on the page, perhaps right next to the mini comparison, and then under each of the areas, text on the left with graphical on the right, perhaps as it relates to responding to conflict. Or at least whatever can be extracted from the assessment to correlate to that.
One part I liked though, was where it places you in comparison to your teammate in a very visible and easy to read manner. With thinking I know recognize that Marianne is more towards feeling.
So, that’s cool, but what does that mean exactly and what are/is some of the content I can take to help me overcome my challenges with that? To me, that would be a cool component to view under each area. But for now, what you see works.
Take me back Home
This is where CK Connect hits the confusion button, well at least to me. The information they provide is great, but finding it, isn’t that easy.
Getting back to home from comparison page, requires you to double click “back” i.e. twice to have you reach “My Skills”. But surprise, you are still not at home.
To go there, you either go back with your browser or go click the icon on the left side of your page.
Then you get this screen (which is the same screen you will see, the next time you log into the system, assuming you have completed your assessment)
The home you see there, goes nowhere, because uh, you are on the home page. And the same with Home in the upper section, next to My Activity.
On the “Home” page you will notice a search bar
If you pull down “Resources and Courses” you can select
- Resources and Courses
- Resources
- Courses
- Discussions
I found it very easy to use to find resources, courses, etc.
The Home page includes your name, the total points you have earned for doing a variety of things, including logging in, checking out your type results and so on. I liked that. The neon green icon with my initials if pulled down lists a variety of choices, but the one learners will use the most is “My Profile”.
Key Takeaway – Out of all the areas, the top three will always be “My Skills” , “My Activity” and “My Profile”. I’d add “Search” as the final option. Thus I’d have them listed on each page on the header.
And either revamp that home page or change it to “My Dashboard” which you actually see under “My Activity”
It will always list “Recent Courses”, “Recent Resources” and “Favorite Resources” – which is not visible here, because is on the page.
What is missing though? Some action tied to my type, since it plays so heavily into the platform itself. Perhaps it can be an option that exists on the left of the page, which has “Home” “Courses” and “Resources”. I bet you are thinking where is “My Skills”? And you would be right to ask, because there isn’t anyway to get to it directly from this screen.
If you select “Courses” you will see two options, “To Do” and “Completed” with a playlist respectively under each option. Obviously, if you haven’t completed any content, you won’t see a playlist. You also have an option to see what content is “Mandatory” by a quick button.
Resources shows results via a vertical grid, rather than a playlist style. The option headers are “Recent” and “Favorites”. You can choose to view, by “recent views” or “recent titles”.
My Profile
Besides containing your personal information, the page presents your points and your badges.
On the left side of the screen though it will present
I found this visually appealing and something that definitely grabbed my attention. Big win!
Administration Side
At the present time, CK Connect is interconnected with CrossKnowledge Learning Suite and thus, this review does not contain the administration side of CK Connect.
I have been told by CrossKnowledge, that CK Connect will be available as a standalone too, in the coming months.
Thus if you already have another learning system and want to bolt-on or add-on CK Connect you can, OR if you want to just use CK Connect you can OR you can still have it interconnected with CrossKnowledge Learning.
Bottom Line
CK Connect is the first learning system platform in the LXP/DLP space that provides an innovative approach to generating personalized content to the learner. Sure, it has the manager can assign and/or company, but other systems do that as well. What is the standout is the assessment and results thereof as well as how you compare to your fellow employee.
If you are willing to experience something different, then definitely consider CK Connect.
Rating: 8/10
Recommend: Yes
Learn More: CK Connect
E-Learning 24/7
Word + Quiz: adjutant
adjutant ˈa-jə-tənt noun
1. an officer who acts as military assistant to a more senior officer
2. a person who assists or helps
_________
The word adjutant has appeared in eight articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on Feb. 28 in “The True Story of the First Woman to Finish Special Forces Training” by John Ismay:
In 1980, when Wilder, then an intelligence officer, entered the U.S. Army Special Forces Officer Course, she had already been serving in the special-operations community for four years. It was normal for soldiers serving in her position to go through the course back then.
Wilder got an intelligence-officer job with the Fifth Special Forces Group at Fort Bragg in North Carolina in 1978 because she had the one qualification that was required: She was a graduate of the Airborne School. As a jump-qualified military intelligence officer, Wilder was sent to the John F. Kennedy Institute for Military Assistance at Fort Bragg and assigned as its adjutant. She quickly learned the ins and outs of all the Army’s regulations regarding special operations, and found nothing stating that Special Forces training was male-only.
_________
The Winners of Our 2020 Vocabulary Video Contest for High Schoolers
One of the top ten winners of our high school contest: vex by Steven Xie, Elliot Azzi, Arek Zenel Walasek and Korinne Hennel.
The world is a scary place right now. Let us offer you a break from it with these delightful 15-second videos created by teenagers.
In January, we challenged students to define one of our Words of the Day in 15 seconds or less for our Seventh Annual Vocabulary Video Contest. Below, we’re featuring the work of the finalists of our high school contest — 11 winners, 15 runners-up and 21 honorable mentions — which we selected from 800-plus entries. (You can see the winners of the middle school contest here.)
Thank you to everyone who participated, and to the teachers who devoted class time to this project. As always, we chose finalists based on their originality, how well each showed an understanding of the word and its use in a specific context, and how clearly that was communicated. And, though we hate to be a killjoy, we had to disqualify any entries that did not follow our rules.
Judging these videos has been a bright spot for our staff in these last few tumultuous weeks. We hope you’ll find some joy in them, too.
anachronistic by Daniel Baur:
callow by Katerina Poulathas:
exorcise: by Emily Bone and Davis Gibb
fecundity by Kaetlyn Patnaude:
hallucination by Anthony Ng-Thow-Hing:
mellifluous by Eric Bennett-Sines:
psychosis by Ava Johnston:
vex by Steven Xie, Elliot Azzi, Arek Zenel Walasek and Korinne Hennel (See top of this post.)
Runners-Up
abecedarian by Clare Zhang
HEC Paris upcoming webinars
HEC Paris Executive Education Professors will share their insights and expertise during a webinar series to support you and your teams through these next few weeks of confinement and uncertainty and to help you prepare for a new normal.
 | Will the coronavirus lead to economic decoupling and deglobalization? Professor Jeremy Ghez (English) 31/03/2020, 17:00 (CET) Click here to register |
 | Quelle gestion financière face à la crise COVID-19 ? Professeur Patrick Legland (Français) 02/04/2020, 15:00 (CET) Cliquez ici pour vous inscrire |
 | Prise de decision & biais cognitif – l’exemple du COVID-19 Professeur Olivier Sibony (Français) 07/04/2020, 17:00 (CET) Cliquez ici pour vous inscrire |
 | Comment l’art nous éclaire-t-il en temps de crise? Professeur Christian Monjou (Français) 09/04/2020, 17:00 (CET) Cliquez ici pour vous inscrire |
 | It’s time to reinvent your business model Professor Laurence Lehmann Ortega (English) 14/04/2020, 17:00 (CET) Click here to register |
 | Leading effective remote teams Professor Patrick Delamaire (English) 16/04/2020 17:00 (CET) Click here to register |
 | Agility vs resilience in supply chains Professor Michel Fender (English) 21/04/2020 17:00 (CET) Click here to register |
The post HEC Paris upcoming webinars appeared first on Coursera Blog.
Building practical skills through hands-on projects
Meet Paras, an aspiring data scientist learning from Mumbai. See how he used hands-on projects and exercises from his courses to build in-demand skills and accelerate his data career. In his own words, here’s his story.
I started taking courses on Coursera because I wanted to gain practical skills and apply them to what I’ve been learning. Since there was a lot of interest around data and conversations about its applications over the last few years, I decided to start by enrolling in the Big Data Specialization from the University of California, San Diego. Taking these courses has been amazing.The most exciting part was getting to complete hands-on assignments using industry-relevant tools. These assignments not only helped me gain practical knowledge but also gain confidence that I’d be able to apply what I was learning on the job.
Completing this Specialization helped me quickly accelerate my data analysis career. Now I’m able to:
- Ask the right questions about data
- Do basic exploration of large, complex datasets
- Effectively use Splunk for querying data
- Build decision trees on Knime for training and predicting data models
I also gained a broad overview of graph analytics along with some new ways to model, store, retrieve, and analyze graph-structured data. All of it was more than enough for me to land a data analyst role at a big multinational corporation.
Next, I want to get better at problem-solving, communication, and decision making. On the technical front, I am gearing up to learn more about Python, machine learning, and data visualization so that I can eventually move toward a data scientist role. I know it’s going to be a long journey from here, but with Coursera at my disposal, I’m confident that I’m going to make it through with flying colors.
Novartis Extends Coursera to Friends and Family in Response to COVID-19
By Leah Belsky, Chief Enterprise Officer, Coursera
The spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) has profoundly affected the way companies operate. In a matter of days, organizations around the globe have transitioned millions of employees to remote working to keep their community safe. The well-being of employees remains the utmost priority, and ensuring employees stay engaged while working remotely is a key consideration.
Novartis, a learning and development pioneer in many respects, is taking a unique approach. In addition to providing relief efforts for the pandemic, the global medicines company is setting an example for engagement and empowerment of employees and communities during this time. Understanding that friends and families may be directly or indirectly affected by COVID-19, Novartis is also enabling each employee to extend free access to Coursera to two friends or family members.
Novartis continues to redefine what it means to “go big on learning” with Coursera. Our strategic partnership began in 2019 to offer Coursera to all 108,000 employees worldwide, focusing on critical data science, digital and soft skills to drive medical innovation. Soon thereafter, Novartis began offering employees access to top master’s degrees for mastery level learning. With the new friends and family offering, we’re driving a culture of learning both for Novartis employees and their communities.
We are humbled to support global companies like Novartis during these unprecedented times, and commend Novartis’ leadership team for proactively using learning to support employees in a remote environment. As more companies lean on learning as a resource, Coursera will continue promoting dialogue and sharing best practices among our enterprise community.
The COVID-19 outbreak has introduced a heightened level of uncertainty in our lives, from our personal health and safety to the state of our livelihoods and the economy. If anything, learning can be a catalyst for hope, adaptability, and action in the face of uncertainty – a way for employees and their families to feel empowered and continue investing in their futures.
Coursera for Business provides a world-class learning platform for companies that need to upskill, reskill, and deepskill their talent. With topics ranging from digital transformation and data science to software development and leadership, over 2,300 institutions trust the Coursera for Business enterprise platform to transform their talent.
