By Alex Sanchez, Product Management, Mobile Experiences and Emerging Technology at Coursera
Today, we’re excited to announce a skill for Amazon Alexa that will help learners keep up in courses and achieve their personal and professional goals. Starting next month, learners can access course assignment and quiz scores, due dates, and progress updates by simply asking Alexa. This is one of the first skills for Amazon Alexa from an online learning platform.
Voice assistants, like Alexa, are being adopted faster than almost any other technology to date. Over a third of American smart speaker owners use their devices to help keep them on track and organized, which includes setting alarms, timers, and scheduling. Recognizing these trends, we designed a skill for Alexa to help learners stay organized with easy-to-access deadlines, grades, and course progress updates. The new tool builds on our current cross-platform compatibilities on desktop, mobile, and tablet.
In the coming weeks, learners will be able to search for the free Coursera skill in the Amazon Alexa Skills store. Once enabled and linked to Coursera, you’ll be able to simply ask, “Alexa, when is my next assignment due?” or, “Alexa, ask Coursera, am I making progress?” And by the end of the year, “Alexa, what did I get on my computer science quiz?” Responses will provide updates based on the latest information in the learner’s Coursera account.
Our new Coursera skill for Alexa will be available to all learners with a Coursera account and Amazon Alexa-enabled device in October. By introducing a new tool that helps learners fit education into their daily lives, we’ve taken another exciting step toward our mission of providing transformational learning experiences to anyone, anywhere.
Not yet a Coursera learner? Sign up and enroll in a course for free today.
We all know that running a successful blog takes careful planning and ample promoting. Throw in sponsors, affiliates, mailing lists, guest posts, tracking stats, giveaways, and taking pictures and blogging quickly becomes a full-time job! With so many balls in the air, it can often be hard to keep track of everything and stay organized. That is why we have painstakingly worked to design the most comprehensive blog planner kit out there.
Our blog planner has been downloaded by over 115,000 bloggers and is the most popular, well-utilized blog planner out there. It has been designed for driven, full-time bloggers who are determined to increase blog income and traffic.
The pages included in the full planner will help you brainstorm post ideas, plan your weekly posts, set yearly & monthly goals, track yearly & monthly stats, keep track of affiliates, Facebook advertising, social media posts, newsletter campaigns, finances, usernames & passwords, giveaways, etc. You name it, and our blog planner kit has you covered.
There’s no better way to grow your blog than by strategic goal setting and regularly tracking your progress towards reaching your blogging goals. Using The Ultimate Blog Planner is key to blog organization and blogging success!
WHAT’S INCLUDED
The following 9 pages can be downloaded in US Letter size (8.5 x 11) ABSOLUTELY FREE by joining our mailing list through the button below:
Need more pages and/or sizes? Check out the extension package below!
“This is my third year using this planner and it covers absolutely everything I need. It’s a beautiful planner and the extension package is well worth the price.” – Tammy R.
GET THE EXTENSION PACKAGE
The extension package includes 52 additional meticulously designed pages of organizational goodness! The extension is available in four sizes (US Letter, A4, A5 & Personal) so it will fit the planner of your choosing. Here’s a look at what the extension package includes:
The extension pack is available in the following 4 page sizes: US Letter (8.5 x 11 inch – North America), A4 (8.3 x 11.7 inch / 210 x 297 mm – Europe/International), A5 (5.8 x 8.3 inch / 148 x 210 mm) & Personal (3.7 x 6.7 / 95mm x 171mm). You can choose one or more sizes at checkout.
Free Pages Included
The 9 free pages (above) are also included in the extension package, so you’ll receive the full 61-page planner in the size you choose with your purchase.
Ample Margins
The planner has been carefully designed with ample margin space to allow for holes to be punched without punching through any text.
Downloadable PDF Files
This planner is a digital item so you will not receive any physical products. The file(s) will arrive to you via email immediately upon purchase (if you don’t get them check spam). When you download the files, they will arrive in zipped folders. You will need to unzip/extract the files from the folder in order to access them. All files are in PDF format. You will need Adobe Reader to view and print them. Adobe Reader can be downloaded for free here.
Only Print the Pages you Need
This planner allows you to pick and choose only the pages you want to use so you aren’t lugging around unused pages. The Print Guide (included) will help you know how many of each page to print out. The Printing Instructions (included) will give instructions on how to print each of the different page sizes.
Update Subscription
Your extension pack purchase includes an optional subscription to yearly updates. To be notified of yearly updates, you MUST opt into our newsletter at checkout. New and/or updated pages will be available separately at a discounted price to subscribers only.
“I just love Designer Blogs. I have downloaded and used the Blog Planner and now the Life Planner. I enjoy very very much the emails I receive and the wallpapers. I will continue to look to Designer Blogs to fulfill various needs. A very professional yet personable company.” – Kat Y.
PAGE USE EXAMPLES
Are you ready to increase your blog income & traffic? Are you ready to absolutely slaughter your blogging goals? Are you ready for unbelievable blogging success?
With the rapid pace of change that technology has brought upon us, millions of people are reskilling and upskilling to future-proof their careers.
Sure, some are learning code to create the AI. And others are developing advances in automation. But the wisest are honing their human-centric skills. After all, these are the qualities that futurists have revealed will be in-demand during the next industrial era.
What are human-centric skills?
Sometimes known as soft-skills, human-centric skills include empathy, communication, storytelling, emotional intelligence, creativity, having a growth mindset — the list goes on.
So, why will we need these skills in the future?
1. Bots will take care of the mundane
We’ve all experienced elements of our lives becoming automated — think self-serve check-outs and face-recognition at passport control. What these automations have in common is that they take care of life’s more mundane tasks.
As tech progresses, this will continue – which is great news in many ways. But it does mean that the human workers who once completed these tasks will need to find new jobs. Or moreover, find new skills that the robots can’t perform – making them employable once again.
According to The Definitive Guide to Future-Proofing Your Career, developed by Open Universities Australia, skilled human workers are set to be in shortage of around 1.5 million by 2022. Those who are well prepared will hone their human-centric skills to fill these positions.
2. Emotional intelligence never goes out of date
Ever conquered a digital platform just as the software has gone out of date? It’s a frustrating feeling.
As technology continues to double in capacity every 18 months, the rate of software upgrades is only going to get faster. While technical skills for using software will continue to be important, the soft skills that enable you to move seamlessly between new tech platforms will become paramount.
Being open to change, flexible in your approach, and willing to communicate challenges will empower you to learn and conquer the latest tech time and time again.
3. Soft skills will boost business growth
A recent report by global management consultancy, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) revealed that human-centric skill development can boost GDP growth by up to 2 per cent.
Skill gaps in employees due to changing technology creates a loss in revenue for many businesses. But by empowering employees to build soft skills – the very skills that allow you to move seamlessly across roles and industries – businesses can experience growth instead.
With the world abuzz with the power of human-centric skills, those less acquainted with the right side of their brains may feel concerned. But there’s no need to be. You don’t need to be born with high emotional intelligence to master soft skills.
In fact, online learning is an ideal avenue to hone these skills at any stage of life.
The Expert Network is a free resource for reporters and event organizers to quickly and easily access a diverse set of experts from top universities. Media can find thought leaders quickly, hear their take on trending topics in short audio/video clips, and request an interview or speaking opportunity—all in one place.
Is there a cost to use the service?
Nope! There’s no subscription, no fee, and no sign in—the resource is completely free to use.
Content
Can I directly embed the content in my story?
You sure can. Just click the “Share” button on the audio or video clip and copy the embed code. If you have any trouble whatsoever, reach out to us for help.
Can you provide images for stories as well?
We do our best to help you get everything you need for your story.
Can I be alerted when new content is posted? Is there a newsletter?
These experts can speak to a range of topics, from timely political issues, technology trends, social debates, financial news, and current health issues to evergreen topics, like happiness and personal development.
What if I can’t find an individual who has the expertise I’m looking for?
Millennials were dubbed the loneliness generation by a new YouGov study.
Can millennials still be happy if they’re alone?
Listen to Laurie Santos, who teaches The Science of Well-Being at Yale and on Coursera. She describes how important friendship is to overall happiness and tips on overcoming loneliness.
If you feel like you often sit down and study only to completely forget what you learn, you’re going to want to hear this.
Barb Oakley, a professor of engineering at Oakland University, has taught more than two million students on Coursera how to make the most of their study time.
Below, Barb details why we forget what we learn, how to stop that cycle and other tips and tricks for learning for the school year ahead.
The word sororal has appeared twice on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on Oct. 3 in the magazine article “The Morality Wars” by Wesley Morris:
The civilized dinner party is probably over — even when you’re dining with friends. Everything means too much now. Everything. Our politics, obviously. But our genders, our food, our television. Our television. Last month, I was in a six-way conversation about HBO that narrowed into two people hung up on “Insecure,” a sitcom co-created by and starring Issa Rae about two best friends — Issa and Molly — in Los Angeles. It just ended its third season on HBO, and I’d describe my ongoing viewership as “exasperated fealty.”
Relationships — sororal, heterosexual, professional — occupy a lot of the show. But its best mode is as a shrewd, satirical consideration of how race pollutes the workplace. Molly is an attorney, first at a corporate firm and then at a smaller, ritzy black outfit that, because it’s black, is more stressfully protocol-ridden. Issa works at a nonprofit that strives to do nice stuff for black and Latino school kids between fits of self-congratulation and casual racism.
Argentina’s capital, , has a well-deserved reputation as the Paris of South America — it’s walkable, is full of broad boulevards, and has plenty of made-in-France but assembled-in-Argentina architecture, as well as old-fashioned corner cafes with comfortable wooden seats in which to while away the day.
“I just love Designer Blogs. I have downloaded and used the Blog Planner and now the Life Planner. I enjoy very very much the emails I receive and the wallpapers. I will continue to look to Designer Blogs to fulfill various needs. A very professional yet personable company.”
