Essential data journalism skills: A conversation with three data journalists

Posted on October 1, 2013 by Mu Lin

I had an informative Twitter conversation with three data journalists about the skills needed for a journalism graduate to land a data reporting job, how J-Schools can teach data skills, and how to learn those skills. Continue reading →

Posted in Data journalism | 2 Comments

How to best use Forum in Moodle courses: Ideas and tips by professionals

Posted on September 24, 2013 by Mu Lin

A compilation of good ideas for using Forum in a Moodle course, edited out of a discussion thread in Teaching with Moodle: An Introduction, which is a MOOC course offered by learn.moodle.net and attracted more than 9,000 participants. Continue reading →

Posted in Social media marketing | 1 Comment

How to embed customized video playlists in online training

Posted on September 8, 2013 by Mu Lin

If you are an online instructor or trainer and need to show multiple videos in a blog post, an online course lecture page, or a tutorial page, I recommend a free web service, tubesnack.com, which allows you to create, customize and embed a video playlist. Continue reading →

Posted in Digital tools and tips | Leave a comment

The myriad skills employers now expect of journalism graduates

Posted on September 4, 2013 by Mu Lin

Based on what employers and recent graduates are telling him, a journalism professor compiles a list of skills demanded by the current job market. I find this list informational and am sharing it with my readers: Continue reading →

Posted in Digital journalism education, Industry observation | 6 Comments

Why data visualization matters?

Posted on September 3, 2013 by Mu Lin

Data visualization reveals unnoticed information, especially in large data sets; gives answers faster; and helps journalists investigate cause-effect relationship. Continue reading →

Posted in Data journalism | 5 Comments

Journalistic skills are key to effective audio slideshow storytelling

Posted on August 20, 2013 by Mu Lin

It’s now easy and popular to create an audio slideshow, but it takes training and expertise to create a good audio slideshow story. To best leverage the narrative power of audio slideshows, one needs both production and journalistic skills: Continue reading →

Posted in Audio slideshow | 1 Comment

A color palette optimized for data visualization

Posted on August 10, 2013 by Mu Lin

If you don’t like the default colors in data visualizations such as bar chart or pie chart, I suggest you check out a color palette that is designed for use in data visualization. Continue reading →

Posted in Data journalism | 11 Comments

3 ingredients of effective data visualization: audience, message, the right chart

Posted on July 13, 2013 by Mu Lin

The purpose of data visualization is to convey messages, not to awe audiences with spectacular visuals. A data journalist, or anyone who works with data visualization, needs to know who the target audience is, what information the audience wants, and how to choose the right chart.

Continue reading →

Posted in Data journalism | 1 Comment

MOOCs: A learning solution more viable for corporate training than for higher education

Posted on July 11, 2013 by Mu Lin

My ongoing experiment with MOOC teaching, along with recent readings on this subject, lead me to believe that massive open online course (MOOC) is not a viable alternative to college education, but it can play a role in corporate employee training. Continue reading →

Posted in Social media marketing | 2 Comments

Writing for the web: Sample work in my open online writing course

Posted on June 27, 2013 by Mu Lin

Here’s a sample writing in my online course in Writing for the Web that I want to use as an illustration of how print-style texts can be optimized for online reading. Course participant Carole Rich examined an article titled “Plagiarizing across Europe” and rewrote it by following a “template” I created for this assignment: Continue reading →

Posted in Writing for the web | 1 Comment