A team of Brigham Young University graduate students working under the supervision of Dr. Lynn Henrichsen, collaborated on the creation of a book as well as a website, Basic Training and Resources for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (BTR-TESOL). The project, which will be developed in phases over the coming years, is intended to provide novice English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers with some introductory material on nearly fifty different topics related to the field. Each unit is not intended to be a comprehensive source and is not to be seen as a replacement for formal training. Rather the units should be used by those who would like formal training, but cannot afford the time or money it requires. With its minimalist, connectivist approach, BTR-TESOL will help them to "get their feet wet" and help them to develop the motivation and dedication needed to teach ESL until such time that they can receive formal instruction of some kind. This master's project describes the creation of two BTR-TESOL units on culture, titled "Understanding and Adapting in a New Culture" and "Teaching Culture." The first unit, "Understanding and Adapting in a New Culture," educates novice teachers about the importance of the differences that one faces when entering a new culture and guides them as they help their students (or themselves) to overcome culture shock. In the second unit, "Teaching Culture," novice teachers are educated on the importance of culture and are also given sample ideas and activities for teaching culture in a language classroom. Both units include a short introduction to the content, an opening scenario, a video segment related to the theme of each unit as well as reflection questions, objectives, explanatory text, and a section that directs readers to places they can go to learn more about the subject.

In the future, as world markets become more diverse, designers will be increasingly asked to create products for people dissimilar to themselves. Human issues, such as product pleasure, will also become more important as advances in manufacturing (enabling companies to produce high quality goods more cheaply) will mean companies will look elsewhere to achieve a competitive edge. These changes will affect designers who presently work with little or no user information. This thesis investigates the attributes designers need in resources that offer them an immediate yet broad understanding of users. The research presented in the thesis has a philosophical strand and a design strand. In the design strand, two mock up resources and a prototype resource are developed. These creations are used in the philosophical strand: the mock ups are used to provide focus while collecting opinions from participants and the prototype is evaluated at the end of the research as if it were a real resource. The thesis starts with a literature review; this review reveals that designers need to understand users' physical, psychological and social needs as well as their environments if they are to design appropriate products for them. It explains that designers find much ergonomics information too technical and not visual enough and reveals that no tools or methods exist that offer a broad and instant understanding of users at the start of the design process. Following this, the results from a set of interviews and a focus group are presented. These studies reveal that designers want both personal and general user information that is reliable, video based, contextual and authentic. The results also show that designers want a fast, online resource that allows information to be easily tagged, compared and shared. Next, the thesis describes the development of the prototype resource and its examination using a heuristic inspection. This resource is then evaluated by designers. The evaluation reveals that designers perceived that the resource would be of value to the design process and thought that the videos showing people going about their everyday lives and the virtual tours around people's homes would be particularly useful. The thesis concludes that designers want contextual user information presented as easily navigable video in an Internet based resource. In doing so, it provides an original contribution to knowledge.