Are you a MOOC candidate?

Informed visually by infographics...We love MOOCs. Using a Massive Open Online Course allows you to log-in from anywhere in the world and take part in some of the best tutorial and learning opportunities available from major centres of excellence.

The Knight Centre for Journalism, at the University of Texas in Austin, U.S. is launching a six week course in January 2013 to foster a better understanding of Infographics.

Although primarily targeted at journalists, the course would enable anyone with an interest in project management, social research, evaluative assessment or needs analysis to develop skills in the area of making data more visually compelling.

Ideal for improving reports to funders, clients or helping to pitch that ‘argument’ for your upcoming project.

You can find out more about this on-line course and how to register on the Knight Centre web pages here.

For a very modest fee, over and above the free participation in the course, your can also get a certificate…mapping your Continuous Professional development trajectory?

If you do, the best of luck with your web participation.

(Image: Creative Commons 
Jess3, geo-social networks visualised)

Data, geography and human development – get spaced

spacePic2Kings College London, under the auspices of Professor Robert Plomin, Director of the Twins Early Development Study, has been compiling and analysing data and spatial information about the development of twins.

TEDS, as a programme, has sought to understand why young people, from the same family environment grow to be different. The nature or nurture argument.

The research team have recently published their findings, in map form, on this web page. You can use the software to interrogate and adjust the study variables to see the effects.

The project maps complex study data across geographical spaces. Additionally the team have also made the software Open Source. You can download the package, with examples, for Windows, Mac or Linux environments by visiting the TEDS web pages here.

There is a short explanatory video to illustrate the research and the teams findings too.

Full instructions and licensing information is included with the free software download here as well.

Different, but the same perhaps – whichever community you focus upon.