Thank You and Acknowledgement to the Glossary Contributors

Increasing Student Success

Hello, this is David Arendale. Thank you for listening to the essential glossary for increasing postsecondary student success: administrators, faculty, staff, and policymakers. It was a privilege to serve as editor of this third edition of the glossary. The names of the team that produced this reinvented work are provided a little later in this brief podcast episode.

If you would like a print copy of the glossary along with the extensive references that were cited throughout the glossary and this podcast, please visit the web page for the College Reading and Learning Association. It is located under the publications menu tab. Then, click on CRLA Resources. You can also search for the glossary by typing that work into the search box located in the upper right hand corner of the web page.

Just a brief overview of how we created this audio podcast. Aria was the chief narrator of all podcast episodes. She is an AI synthetic voice provided by the Natural Reader Corporation. The audio was produced by the commercial version of the software that requires an annual license fee. Aria was selected from more than sixty choices. The Natural Reader text to voice system is the only one guaranteed to produce narration that can be played at no additional cost on podcasts, YouTube videos, commercial radio and television, and more. While there is an explosion of AI generated video and audio choices now, read carefully the fine print on where that content can be shared. Most is for personal consumption.

The podcast is available through many channels such as Google, Apple, Spotify, and many others. The host site for the podcast is a company named transistor dot FM. The web page for our podcast is located at successglossary dot transistor dot FM. A feature I like about this company is that I can host many different podcasts at this one web site. However, it does require an annuial license fee. Just a thought for teachers among our listeners. If you had a license with this company, you could host a different podcast for every student in your classes. I plan to offer most podcasts focused on specific academic topics with this company.

One more note about the rapidly changing features of software related to audio and video production. If a person has a license for the Commercial version of Natural Reader, a person can clone their voice. After reading for a few minutes, the computer software creates a synthetic version of a person’s voice that is very accurate. A few weeks ago, I cloned my voice. That is what you are listening to on this episode. I am getting over a really bad head cold and my speaking voice is not the best. So, I decided to use my cloned voice. Those that know me can give me feedback about whether this episode sounds like me. Those of you that are old enough may remember th old advertisement, is it real of is it Memorex?

We finish this podcast episode with providing thanks to the educators who created th glossary. We owe much to the dedication and expertise of the authors, editors, and external review teams of the first two editions of this glossary (Arendale et al., 2007; Rubin, 1991). This new collective work is the result of numerous revisions to make it current and useful to the professional field. Credit for improvements in this version of the glossary goes to the external review team of respected professionals in the field of learning assistance and developmental education. No attempt has been made to differentiate the authors of new terms, contributors of new terms written by others, and reviewers of this glossary who made recommendations for revisions. Some of them were involved in multiple roles. This team includes the College Reading and Learning Association Publications Committee, Semilore Adelugba, Karen Agee, David Arendale, Sonya Armstrong, Geoffrey Bailey, Barbara Bekis, Hunter Boylan, Amarilis Costillo, Gwen Eldridge, Zohreh Fathi, Sarah Felber, Jennifer Ferguson, John Gardner, Denise Guckert, Russ Hodges (and graduate students from several of his doctoral courses), Page Keller, Jonathan Lollar, Lucy MacDonald, Amanda Metzler, Jane Neuburger, Kimberley Nolting, Paul Nolting, Jan Norton, David Otts, Robin Ozz, Karen Patty-Graham, Diane Ramirez, Norm Stahl, Linda Thompson, Lori Wischnewsky, and others who anonymously offered their comments through a glossary feedback website.

A special recognition is given to Dr. Karen Agee who provided the most input and thoughtful revision suggestions for the glossary. I offered her the role as co-editor of the glossary, but she declined. For those that know Karen, you would probably not be surprised. She preferred to continue to serve the field of learning assistance but did not want to be in the limelight. I have been fortunate to have her as a personal colleague and friend for my career. Many thanks from me and those who work as equity warriers in the field of learning assistance who seek to help the next generation of leaders to do well in college and life.

Thanks again for listening.