ID and eLearning Links 8/25/20

In this post, I share links on video conference tips and tools, video production costs, diversity, and freelancing.

As I read online, I bookmark resources I find interesting and useful. I share these links periodically here on my blog. In this post, I share links on video conference tips and tools, video production costs, diversity, and freelancing.

Video conference tips and tools

Zoom breakout workaround
Want to let people choose their own breakout rooms in Zoom? Check out this solution. This would probably work best with an audience with at least some prior experience with Zoom (so they don’t do anything as co-hosts accidentally), but it wouldn’t take too much training to give people enough skill to manage it.

Open Broadcaster Software
Open source tool for live mixing video streaming. You can put a text overlay on top of a video, for example. You can also set up different scenes in advance so you can transition between different combos. This also has an audio mixer so you can adjust the volume between a shared video and your own microphone (or other inputs). It’s compatible with other platforms, so you can use it with Zoom or whatever you’re currently using for video conferencing or streaming.

Web Captioner
Free real-time captions in a browser based tool. I haven’t tried this yet, but I’d like to see if it’s possible to use with Zoom for live training.

Video and animation production costs

How much to make a video?
Calculator for how much it costs to make a video (live, animated, etc.). Enter your variables and get an estimate. This looks like a useful tool for getting benchmarks.

Diversity and bias

Making people aware of their implicit biases doesn’t usually change minds. But here’s what does work | PBS NewsHour
“Discretion elimination” means changing systems to make choices more objective and less subject to the effects of implicit bias. First, you need data to know where the problems are so you know how to change the systems.

And once you know what’s happening, the next step is what I call discretion elimination. This can be applied when people are making decisions that involve subjective judgment about a person. This could be police officers, employers making hiring or promotion decisions, doctors deciding on a patient’s treatment, or teachers making decisions about students’ performance. When those decisions are made with discretion, they are likely to result in unintended disparities. But when those decisions are made based on predetermined, objective criteria that are rigorously applied, they are much less likely to produce disparities.

General Principles for Reducing Bias
APA Style guide principles for reducing bias in writing. This would be a good resource for elearning style guides too.

Illustrations of Black People for Your Next Digital Project | Black Illustrations
Free illustrations of Black people in various home and work settings. Licensed for commercial and personal use.

Words Matter: The Power of Bias-Free Language in the Workplace
This article provides guidelines and examples for reducing bias in your writing. Check out the list of resources at the end for additional information.

Freelancing

Learnexus
Learnexus is a platform for freelancers to find projects and clients to find freelancers. It’s focused on instructional designers and elearning developers, rather than being a general freelancer site like UpWork. They also screen freelancers, so they are hopefully filtering out some of the folks at the low end of the market. The site is new though, so the pool of people and projects is small currently.

Additional resources

Check out my complete library of links or my previous bookmarks posts.

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