If slide design takes too long, this is for you 👀 (I have good news) The vast majority who want to make better slides share a common concern: That it's going to take forever. First, I won't lie: Slide design CAN take forever. BUT.... #AcademicSky youtube.com/shorts/KkqLq...

A reader wrote a blog post about my book, Designing and Facilitating Workshops with Intentionality! It includes mention of @echorivera.com, @karencosta.bsky.social, & the Tea for Teaching podcast (@johnkane.bsky.social & @cyberthread.bsky.social). (Link in comments) #HigherEd #FacDev #EdDev #EduSky

🆕 Research suggests a conference poster format that outperforms BOTH the "journal article on a wall" and #betterposter formats. The “Complete assertion headings” poster format! 🤔 Yeah, they should have workshopped the name a little more. 1/2

Admin and EdTech folks: Stop suggesting that teachers use AI for teaching and grading and start giving teachers space and tools to actually help do our jobs.

Step 1 towards making more engaging presentations is to use more photos. But...you need to make sure you format them so they don't look weird. That's where cropping comes in. I put together a (hopefully) fun video about this to help. #EduSky www.echorivera.com/blog/crop-it...

You’re not starting over. You’re moving forward—with a PhD and a lifetime of skills behind you. My free webinar helps you build what’s next. Sign up here:

People I respect tremendously are saying really nice things about my co-edited forthcoming book! press.jhu.edu/books/title/...

I just released a new YouTube video (my first in years!) 🙌 My way of coping with all this chaos is to create things. I already have the next video ready, so that will be posted soon! If you want to clean up your presentation slides, here are the first steps 👇 #AcademicSky youtu.be/UEYnf_qncxo

When people Google your name, can they find what you want them to know about you? #AcademicSky You deserve a digital footprint that shares your research, teaching, and what you value as an academic (if you want one). Find resources to help you on The Social Academic theacademicdesigner.com/blog/

AI images in your presentations are not worth burning the planet. Also, they aren't good.

I've started offering short private program tours to give faculty members, postdocs, and other PhDs ready to leave academia more info about my PhD Career Clarity Program and how (or not!) it will help them land their next meaningful job. If you're on my list, you got info about that earlier today!

Academic and professional writing doesn’t have to be dull. Helen Kara’s new book Writing Creatively for Work or Study shows you how to use creative writing techniques for this purpose. Now available for pre-order

So. You’re realizing federal funding for your research is not as stable as you thought. Let’s talk crowdfunding. 🧵

My free workshop on Feb 5 will give my best tips for surviving the peer review process for scholarly books. There are important differences from the journal peer review process that all aspiring book authors need to understand. Register at Courses.manuscriptworks.com (recording provided)

Doing a book club in 2025? Webster & I are reading *The Present Professor* by @liznorell.bsky.social & *Learning Student Names* by @michellemillerphd.bsky.social: new releases from @ou.edu Press. www.oupress.com/teaching-eng... Save 40% with code 18HLDY24, too. Got a book idea? Let's connect!

@thomasjtobin.bsky.social oh hello! Nice to see you on here 👋

I shared in my newsletter that I'm giving away several of my handknitted items to raise funds for TransLifeline and other orgs that support LGBTQ+ youth. I'll be matching all donations and raffling off items to those who give. Get all the details here: newsletter.manuscriptworks.com/posts/giveaway

One thing that all professors have in common in that we weren't trained for our jobs. Now that I've been doing this for a few decades, I'm starting an occasional series called Professor School. It's not advice, just bunch of ideas and information to make things easier. 🧪

I’m looking for people who also enjoy talking about or learning about slide design & creating nice presentations 🙌✨ I spend almost all day every day hanging out in PowerPoint or other creative apps & would love to connect/share ideas! #AcademicSky #SciComm #AcademicChatter

If you’re writing a 20 skeet explainer thread about your newest paper, copy it and make a blog post about it, too. An explainer has value being just the first few days of publication. Blogs create a more stable archive of those explainers that grows in value over time. #AcademicChatter

On my semi-urgent to-do list: update my personal website! Because it's really embarrassing to realise how out of date it is when someone reads it out loud as a means of introducing you before a talk/workshop... 🙈 #academicchatter

I did a search for that figure about Elon's proposed cuts because I'm particularly worried about NIH and headstart and haven't found the sources for that figure. I even did a reverse search of the figure, but everything I found with the graph was from that person's posts. Here's what I did find.

Congratulations to all of you out there who: - submitted grad apps! 🎉 - submitted fellowship apps! 🎉 - submitted letters of rec! 🎉 - submitted your grants! 🎉 - submitted your paper! 🎉 Just making it through the process is a triumph. I complain about failures- but we must celebrate the wins too. ❤️

This fascinating study would explain why people “vote against their own economic interests”. One thing I keep hearing is that ppl who voted R in this (and other recent) US election(s) will come to regret it when their SS, medicare, other state assistance goes away. 1/

Hey #AcademicSky I have not yet seen a compelling example where AI was helpful or more efficient for any part of the presentation process. ❌ Not the script, ❌ Not the design, ❌ Not even for custom images It seems more trouble than it’s worth & the outcome seems goofy. What’s your experience?

Phewww I am exhausted. This week was packed with helping clients on their research/evaluation communication projects & presentations ☺️ It was fun spending the week helping people take dense, text-heavy info/data & turning it into visual, digestible chunks.

Hey do you dread working on presentations? Why do you think that is? What’s going on? #AcademicSky #AcademicChatter

Day 1/25: Need accessible color combinations that actually look good? This fantastic colour generator by @erikdkennedy.bsky.social helps you create beautiful, WCAG-compliant colour pairs in seconds! Try it here: www.learnui.design/tools/access...

They have found yet another way to ensure that people go bankrupt or die instead of receiving lifesaving medical care.

Here’s the full publication I did with Claire and Sam et al that was transformed into the frontiers for young minds article quoted below! #SciComm #AcademicSky 🧪🐡 j-stem.net/index.php/js...

Calling freelance illustrators who have been paid for work: pls take a few mins to answer an anon 7-question (multiple choice) survey re: how you found paying work? illustrator-promo.paperform.co Researching for my #SCBWI wkshop at #scbwiNY25 + will share aggregate results publicly. Thank you!

This is a cool idea!

Hey just FYI: If you are showing a graph on a presentation slide, don’t use vertical or diagonal text. Horizontal text ✅ Vertical text ❌ Diagonal text ❌ Your audience shouldn’t be tilting their heads to read your slides. #AcademicSky

I’m working with a client on slides & they’ve written out their plans for visuals. Eg “add illustration of people doing X” And finally I realized 💡 THAT’S why people are tempted to use AI to generate visuals. They fundamentally misunderstand what visuals even work for slides. #AcademicSky

“Nature based solutions” when you used how much power and water to generate the AI image used on the cover? Be serious.

Good luck everyone

I saw someone share a couple of tips for links that have made a huge difference to me so I'm sharing them for you. 1) once the link card is added you can delete the URL to free up characters in the post 2) You can use hyperlinks in posts and only the char count of the text counts

Such a really useful explainer of intersectionality theory!

Boosting so more people see that you can activate subtitles when presenting a PowerPoint. It may work even better now, but it did pretty well when I tested it out using a few academic words a little while back www.echorivera.com/blog/demo-pp... #AcademicSky

While this infographic in @jama.com is useful for patients, it's a disgrace that healthcare costs & drug pricing in the US are so high that this is even necessary. This doesn't even factor in prior authorizations. Health access is a basic human right. This includes access to meds. #MedSky

Suggestion for graduate programs: The graduate program should be responsible for ensuring that committee meetings happen regularly. They should not happen at the whim of faculty, nor should it be up to students to organize them. #AcademicChatter

Please follow my list of Indigenous scientists! I accidentally deleted my first starter park -- but recreated it with even more names. Who else needs to be added? go.bsky.app/9LhnuCY

@colemanlab.bsky.social hello 👋 can I perhaps be added to your researcher culture starter pack? I’m trying to improve the academic culture by encouraging more creativity and enjoyment in the research communication process (and also talk about better work/life balance in academia)

*chefs kiss*

A big regret of my time in grad school is that I convinced myself I was a burden to my committee/mentors, and I asked to meet way less than I should have. I struggled alone unnecessarily. Schedule the meeting 🙏 #AcademicSky

This is the start of holiday shopping season 🎁 for many! if you have a someone who goes to academic conferences in your life, may I suggest the Better Posters book? Buy direct from the publisher pelagicpublishing.com/products/bet... or from a local bookstore bookshop.org/books/better...

👇 Yup.

👏 More emojis in data viz please 👏 (Great thread & interesting study btw) #SciComm #DataViz #AcademicSky