Reflections on developing a tool for creating visual representations of learning designs: towards a visual language for learning designs

Over the past four years we have been developing CompendiumLD, a software tool for designing learning activities using a flexible visual interface. It has been developed as a tool to support lecturers, teachers and others involved in education to help them articulate their ideas and map out a design or learning sequence. CompendiumLD is a specialised version of Compendium, a tool for managing connections between information and ideas, which has been applied in many domains including the mapping of discussions and arguments. As most of the core knowledge mapping facilities provided by Compendium are included within CompendiumLD, it can be used for learning design, and applied it to other information mapping and modelling problems. Evidence gathered since CompendiumLD’s first release has shown the many conditions in which it is likely to be applied and appreciated by users, and that the need for visualising learning designs as a solution to understanding how all components of planned learning and teaching fit together may continue to grow. Furthermore, the use of technology is making the process of creating courses more complex. We explore these challenges and conclude with some reflections on the developments in visual representation needed to further facilitate the modelling of today and tomorrow’s complex learning situations

Fault-tolerant magic state preparation with flag qubits

Magic state distillation is one of the leading candidates for implementing universal fault-tolerant logical gates. However, the distillation circuits themselves are not fault-tolerant, so there is additional cost to first implement encoded Clifford gates with negligible error. In this paper we present a scheme to fault-tolerantly and directly prepare magic states using flag qubits. One of these schemes uses a single extra ancilla, even with noisy Clifford gates. We compare the physical qubit and gate cost of this scheme to the magic state distillation protocol of Meier, Eastin, and Knill, which is efficient and uses a small stabilizer circuit. In some regimes, we show that the overhead can be improved by several orders of magnitude.Comment: 26 pages, 17 figures, 5 tables. Comments welcome! v2 (published version): quantumarticle documentclass and expanded discussions on the fault-tolerant scheme

Dual pathway spindle assembly increases both the speed and the fidelity of mitosis

Roughly half of all animal somatic cell spindles assemble by the classical prophase pathway, in which the centrosomes separate ahead of nuclear envelope breakdown (NEBD). The remainder assemble by the prometaphase pathway, in which the centrosomes separate following NEBD. Why cells use dual pathway spindle assembly is unclear. Here, by examining the timing of NEBD relative to the onset of Eg5-mEGFP loading to centrosomes, we show that a time window of 9.2 ± 2.9 min is available for Eg5-driven prophase centrosome separation ahead of NEBD, and that those cells that succeed in separating their centrosomes within this window subsequently show .3-fold fewer chromosome segregation errors and a somewhat faster mitosis. A longer time window would allow more cells to complete prophase centrosome separation and further reduce segregation errors, but at the expense of a slower mitosis. Our data reveal dual pathway mitosis in a new light, as a substantive strategy that increases both the speed and the fidelity of mitosis

OULDI-JISC Project Evaluation Report: the impact of new curriculum design tools and approaches on institutional process and design cultures

This report presents research and evaluation undertaken by the OULDI-JISC Project (Open University Learning Design Initiative JISC Project) between 2008 and 2012. In particular, it considers the impact of new curriculum design tools and approaches piloted by the project on institutional processes and design cultures. These tools and approaches include tools for sharing learning design expertise (Cloudworks), visualising designs (CompendiumLD, Module Map, Activity Profile) and for supporting design and reflection in workshops (Facilitation Cards, workshop activities, etc.). The project has adopted a learning design approach so as to help foreground pedagogy and learner experience. Nine pilots have been completed across six UK universities

Codeword Stabilized Quantum Codes

We present a unifying approach to quantum error correcting code design that encompasses additive (stabilizer) codes, as well as all known examples of nonadditive codes with good parameters. We use this framework to generate new codes with superior parameters to any previously known. In particular, we find ((10,18,3)) and ((10,20,3)) codes. We also show how to construct encoding circuits for all codes within our framework.Comment: 5 pages, 1 eps figure, ((11,48,3)) code removed, encoding circuits added, typos corrected in codewords and elsewher