Publishing Archives - Niall McNulty

AI Tools for Publishing, Guest Lecture, University of Witwatersrand

October 23, 2023October 20, 2023 by Niall McNulty

I recently presented a guest lecture for postgraduate students on how artificial intelligence is changing educational publishing.

Here’s the lecture introduction by Laetitia Cassells, Head of Division:

While the legal debates around copyright continue in the ongoing adaptation to AI, especially significant in South Africa as part of larger copyright and access debates, we can lose sight of the empowerment possible with technological advances – if properly disseminated and utilized. You can review the recent webinar on AI and the Law from the Mandela Institute at Wits here for more information: https://youtu.be/zDJLRbV8HPw

This Wednesday Cambridge University Press and Assessment joins us again on the Wits Publishing program, when we host Niall McNulty, currently a publishing manager at their Cape Town office.

Niall has extended his interest and background as a digital publisher into the AI revolution through engaging in generative content tools, from additional support for authors developing materials to apply assessment, to assisting content producers with prompt generation guidelines.

When AI is discussed it is often discussed as a challenge to the traditional operation of publishers like CUP&A and others – Niall reminds us of the most significant contributions an AI can provide publishers, and how to empower yourself as a content intermediary by using AI as support.

Here’s the lecture:

Using the latest research in cognitive science to develop learning materials

October 19, 2023June 20, 2020 by Niall McNulty

My job at Cambridge University Press has me developing textbooks and online courses daily. Most of what we do is curriculum-led, i.e. we develop a new book or course from a curriculum released by a ministry of education. Using the curriculum as the starting point, we plan the modules and topics, selecting the features of the course (e.g. activities, assessment, case studies, etc.) based on what is required by the curriculum. We then decide on additional features based on the traditional approaches to textbook development, i.e. let’s start each chapter with a list of objectives and end with a summary. In online course development, these choices are made based on what is available in the learning management system, e.g. can we efficiently use an interactive multiple-choice component or user forum section. Most of this is standard (and in some cases required) for the project. What happens, though, if we were also to include features that responded to the latest cognitive science research?

Luckily this research is available, and some of it fits directly into existing practices around learning material development. The aim with this research is to move new knowledge and skill from your short-term memory to your long-term memory. Here’s a high-level overview of my top four learning strategies and how we can incorporate into learning material development.

Interleaving

So what exactly is interleaving? It’s the simultaneous learning of more than one concept at once. This process could see you alternating between two topics in a learning session or mixing up the content in one block of learning content. The reason this works is that it trains your brain to discriminate between problem types or specimens. That is, instead of rote learning something you rather learn to identify unique characteristics or identifiers of a problem which can then be applied to another type of problem or used to identify a similar situation in a different context.

In a textbook or course, we structure the content in chapters or modules that focus on one topic or skill at a time. One strategy to bring interleaving into textbook development is to add a feature which consists of content from another chapter, either looking forward to content still to cover or looking back at content already learnt. In an online course, we can intersperse regular hyperlinks to other material in a content block. When it comes to assessment, questions can cover both the material in the previous module as well as topics or skills from the rest of the course (see Quizzing below).

Yizani – resources for teaching isiXhosa as an additional language

June 12, 2023June 10, 2020 by Niall McNulty

The Incremental Implementation of African Languages (IIAL) is a programme by South Africa’s Department of Basic Education to introduce the learning of an African language as a second or third language for pupils at schools. This programme will start learning-language in grade 1 and then follow it through to the end of schooling in grade 12 – that’s where the incremental implementation part comes in. While a laudable initiative, there are not enough trained African languages teachers in schools currently. The public broadcaster SABC has attempted to assist with a terrifying puppet-show series, but it fails to provide adequate support to teachers and guidance on how to structure a lesson. With Yizani, we’ve attempted to bridge this gap.