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<title>Using Chat GPT to refine narratives</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/mediahopper/2023/12/13/using-chat-gpt-to-refine-narratives/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/mediahopper/2023/12/13/using-chat-gpt-to-refine-narratives/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Liam Duffy]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 13 Dec 2023 12:11:21 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[AI]]></category>
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<description><![CDATA[2023 has been the year of chatting with robots. Not in a fun-and-hijinks ‘Short Circuit’ way, but in a less...]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>2023 has been the year of chatting with robots. Not in a fun-and-hijinks ‘Short Circuit’ way, but in a less hilarity-inducing ‘lets spend 20 minutes phrasing this perfectly so I actually get something useful’ way. A lot of companies have been working on growing ‘large language models’ for use in AI for a while, but the one that really captured people’s attention in 2023 has been OpenAI’s ChatGPT.</p>
<p>There are many other flavours of AI chatty-Cathy’s out there with colourful names such as Bard, Claude, Grok, LLaMA, Bothan, and Ernie Bot (one of those I made up*), but ChatGPT has become the go-to chatbot for a lot of people, with over 100 million users registered on the service. In the past 12 months, the top 2 fastest-rising search terms on Google from the UK are ‘ChatGPT’ and ‘Chat GPT’.</p>
<p><img decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-121" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/mediahopper/wp-content/uploads/sites/201/2023/12/Screenshot-2023-12-13-at-09.38.55-300x253.png" alt="" width="300" height="253" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/mediahopper/wp-content/uploads/sites/201/2023/12/Screenshot-2023-12-13-at-09.38.55-300x253.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/mediahopper/wp-content/uploads/sites/201/2023/12/Screenshot-2023-12-13-at-09.38.55.png 585w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></p>
<p>While there are a lot of uses for ChatGPT and similar AI services, one that has some people worried about its potential impact is its use for creative purposes. The use of AI-generated images and music has raised questions about whether human artists will get shut out of the process if it’s quicker and cheaper to ask a bot to create art, and the recent SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes that took Hollywood to a grinding halt earlier this year was at least in part because of the actors and writer’s unions wanting to ensure there were protections in updated contracts to limit AI’s impact on filmmaking.</p>
<p>While we’re likely at least a few years away from the best original screenplay Academy Award going to ChatBot_182.432.1REV3, ChatGPT can be used as a tool in a lot of ways for narrative storytelling. It certainly can write a full story for you, but it can go off in pretty wild places with some… <em>interesting </em>narrative choices.</p>
<p>With the simple prompt ‘Hey ChatGPT, write me a story’, I got a 450 word tale of a character named Luna who lived in a ‘Blade Runner’-esque neon city worked as a librarian by day, and by night used her supernatural powers to turn the books on her shelves in to magical realms. She proceeds to find a kingdom in peril, talk to a wise old owl and a mischievous sprite, solve puzzles, go through enchanted forests, and save the day using the power of imagination. That’s a lot to cram in to 450 words. <em>You can read the full story here with the password LunasMidnightOdyssey – <a href="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/mediahopper/lunas-midnight-odyssey/">full story</a></em></p>
<p>This is one of the problems with just giving ChatGPT free reign to do what it ‘wants’ when being creative, it doesn’t really understand scale or that just throwing every plot point it can generate in to a list doesn’t really make a story.</p>
<figure id="attachment_130" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-130" style="width: 700px" class="wp-caption aligncenter center"><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-130" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/mediahopper/wp-content/uploads/sites/201/2023/12/0078862c-1024x684.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="468" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/mediahopper/wp-content/uploads/sites/201/2023/12/0078862c-1024x684.jpg 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/mediahopper/wp-content/uploads/sites/201/2023/12/0078862c-300x200.jpg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/mediahopper/wp-content/uploads/sites/201/2023/12/0078862c-768x513.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/mediahopper/wp-content/uploads/sites/201/2023/12/0078862c-1140x761.jpg 1140w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/mediahopper/wp-content/uploads/sites/201/2023/12/0078862c.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-130" class="wp-caption-text">Old College by Playfair, William, University of Edinburgh is available under a CC BY 3.0 Unported licence. https://images.is.ed.ac.uk/luna/servlet/s/m671gu</figcaption></figure>
<p>ChatGPT’s really power for creating narrative, at least in its current state, is in using it to refine a story, or to help work through ideas. Let’s say I’m trying create a new video for Media Hopper Create about the history of Old College, and want to write a voice over. Here’s a quick draft:</p>
<blockquote><p>Old College its part of The University of Edinburgh and was mostly built from the late 18th to early 19th century. Originally named ‘New College’, it is a Category A listed building located on South Bridge. The original design was by Robert Adam, with the modern design being completed by William Henry Playfair. The dome was added to the building in 1887, with a gilded statue of Youth by John Hutchinson.</p>
<ul>
<li>Original version</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<p>I wrote this in about 5 minutes with information culled from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_College,_University_of_Edinburgh">Wikipedia</a>, and while perfectly serviceable, it’s possibly a little perfunctory. I asked ChatGPT what it thought of my script, and it decided (unprompted) to re-write it for me to make it more ‘engaging’:</p>
<blockquote><p>Welcome to Old College, a majestic structure nestled within the heart of The University of Edinburgh. Originally named ‘New College,’ this architectural gem traces its roots back to the late 18th century. Designed by the renowned Robert Adam, its timeless elegance was later completed by William Henry Playfair in the 19th century.</p>
<p>Situated on South Bridge, Old College stands as a Category A listed building, a testament to its historical and architectural significance. In 1887, a crowning touch was added to the structure in the form of a magnificent dome. Adorning the pinnacle is a gilded statue of Youth, a creation by the skilled hands of John Hutchinson.</p>
<p>As you stand in awe of Old College, it’s not just a building; it’s a living testament to the evolution of academia and architecture. The melding of the past and present, with each stone whispering stories of the scholars who once walked its halls. Today, Old College continues to be a symbol of academic excellence and a revered landmark in the vibrant tapestry of The University of Edinburgh.</p>
<ul>
<li>Revision from ChatGPT</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<p>This new version does feel more like a narrative than just a list of facts, and the language use is definitely more descriptive, it goes a bit overboard with the use of evocative metaphors. To try and rein it in a bit, I added this prompt: “That’s a little bit over the top with descriptive language, can you scale it back a little?”. This is the new version:</p>
<blockquote><p>Old College, part of The University of Edinburgh, has a rich history dating back to the late 18th century. Originally called ‘New College,’ its design, led by Robert Adam and later completed by William Henry Playfair, stands as a testament to architectural craftsmanship.</p>
<p>Situated on South Bridge, this Category A listed building gained its distinctive dome in 1887, crowned with a gilded statue of Youth by John Hutchinson. Today, Old College preserves the charm of its past, serving as a key landmark in the University’s legacy.</p>
<p>Explore the echoes of academia within Old College’s walls, where each brick tells a story of the scholars who once roamed its corridors. This historic structure, with its timeless design, remains an enduring symbol of The University of Edinburgh’s journey through time.</p>
<ul>
<li>Revision 2 by ChatGPT</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<p>This time it removed some of the descriptive language of the building itself, but it replaced a metaphor of it being ‘a revered landmark in the vibrant tapestry’ of the university with one about ‘each brick telling a story’. Let’s try refining it one more time – here’s the latest version with my prompt “How about you remove some of the metaphors, but give more descriptive language?”:</p>
<blockquote><p>Old College, integral to The University of Edinburgh, has a fascinating history rooted in the late 18th century. Originally christened ‘New College,’ it boasts an architectural legacy shaped by Robert Adam and later refined by William Henry Playfair.</p>
<p>Nestled on South Bridge, this distinguished Category A listed building acquired its iconic dome in 1887, adorned with a gilded statue of Youth crafted by John Hutchinson. Old College serves as both witness and custodian to the University’s journey through time.</p>
<p>Step into its storied corridors and be transported to an era when scholars traversed its halls. Each brick and beam narrates tales of academic pursuits and intellectual growth. Old College stands today, not just as a historic landmark, but as a living tribute to The University of Edinburgh’s enduring academic tradition.</p></blockquote>
<p>At this point it feels like ChatGPT is stuck just reiterating on a specific style of writing. This is one of the issues I hit when looking to use a chatbot for anything creative – the model it’s using to generate text has a specific style and there isn’t an easy way to break out of that. While ChatGPT is great for helping point you in the right direction, most of the time things will still need to be edited and refined manually to fit the exact purpose you need it for.</p>
<p>How about we experiment with this further, and see how well it handles a change in tone. I added the a new prompt to change the genre, but not the content: “What if this was the Voice Over for a horror film?”</p>
<blockquote><p>“Deep within the shadows of The University of Edinburgh lies Old College, a structure steeped in a history that echoes with whispers of the supernatural. Once named ‘New College,’ its unsettling evolution began in the late 18th century under the design of Robert Adam, later twisted by the hands of William Henry Playfair.</p>
<p>Perched ominously on South Bridge, this foreboding Category A listed building acquired an eerie dome in 1887, crowned by a gilded statue of Youth, a macabre creation by the twisted artist John Hutchinson. Old College, now a haunting relic, conceals not only the secrets of academia but a darker, malevolent force.</p>
<p>As you traverse its desolate corridors, the air thickens with the chilling tales of scholars who met untimely fates within its haunted walls. Every brick, every step resonates with an otherworldly presence. Old College stands not as a symbol of knowledge, but as a portal to the supernatural, where the past lingers, and the spirits of the damned find no rest.”</p>
<ul>
<li>ChatGPT’s voice over for a horror film</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<p>Ok, a lot to unpack… not only is this now borderline defamatory calling famed sculptor John Hutchinson a ‘twisted artist’ who created ‘macabre creations’, claims that Old College is where ‘the spirits of the damned find no rest’ and is literally a ‘portal to the supernatural’, but it is <em>still</em> using that metaphor of ‘every brick tells a story’.</p>
<p>While overly flowery language can be a bit of a handful to prune back, this last revision shows where the creative ‘choices’ ChatGPT uses can start to turn truth in to pure fabrication. The original core of the facts from my initial script are still there (the dates, the people involved, the legacy), it uses those to create completely a fictitious narrative.</p>
<p>The creative uses for ChatGPT are vast, but as an AI it has no concept of how it <strong>should</strong> use the information in your prompts, only what it <strong>can</strong> do. Chat bots can be a useful tool, but just remember to keep it on a short leash.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>*’Bothan’ is actually a lesser-known species from Star Wars: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Star_Wars_species_(A–E)#Bothan">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Star_Wars_species_(A–E)#Bothan</a></p>
<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area">
<time datetime="2023-12-13" itemprop="dateModified">Dec 13, 2023</time>
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<title>What is 360º Video? – The Early Days…</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/mediahopper/2019/02/18/what-is-360o-video-the-early-days/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/mediahopper/2019/02/18/what-is-360o-video-the-early-days/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Liam Duffy]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 18 Feb 2019 16:24:53 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[DIY Film School]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[360º]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/mediahopper/?p=56</guid>
<description><![CDATA[This is part of a series of posts exploring 360º videos, going from its roots in expositions and theme parks,...]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><i>This is part of a series of posts exploring 360º videos, going from its roots in expositions and theme parks, to how it can be recorded using your mobile phone and used in education.</i></p>
<h2>Cinéorama</h2>
<p>The Exposition Universelle, or better known as the 1900 Paris Exposition in English, was part of France’s drive to enter the 20th century with a reignited sense of cultural and national pride after devastation of the Great War. For nearly a decade before the exhibition grounds were due to open, countries around the world were invited to bring their greatest achievements and display their cultures on an international stage, part of the event’s bigger themes of unifying people.</p>
<p><figure style="width: 4195px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/La_porte_monumentale%2C_Exposition_Universelle_1900.jpg" alt="" width="4195" height="2678" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Brown University Library [Public domain]</figcaption></figure>Some of the highlights of the Exposition included a giant refracting telescope (60 meters long with a diameter of 1.5 meters), a display of photographs showing African American’s contributions to American society organised by sociologists and activists Booker Washington and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W.E.B._Du_Bois">W.E.B. Du Bois</a> , and in a fit of what I can only imagine was either reckless abandonment or an over-eagerness to please the visiting crowds, a Russian sparkling wine won the “Grand Prix de Champagne” beating several French vintners. The first Olympic Games outside of Greece took place during the Exposition, with the winners receiving 100 francs, a tie pin, and a commemorative pencil.</p>
<p>One of the biggest draws of the Exposition was the introduction of two of the great innovations in the world of cinema: the first wide-scale demonstration of recorded sound synced with moving image, and 360º panoramic projections. Obviously the latter of the two had the greater impact in the history of entertainment. I mean, come on, how many people actually watch films with audio?</p>
<p>Oh, what’s that? Most people do? Pretty much every piece of commercial film created in the last 80 years has had synchronised sound? Nobody uses 360º panoramic video projections beyond some very limited applications? Hmm.</p>
<p>The French Cinéorama was designed and constructed specifically for the Exposition by <a href="Raoul Grimoin-Sanson">Raoul Grimoin-Sanson</a>, with the intention being to replicate a ride on a hot air balloon over Paris using ten synchronised projectors housed under the ‘basket’ of the stationary balloon model.</p>
<p><figure style="width: 1199px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Cineorama.jpg" alt="" width="1199" height="850" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Louis Poyet [Public domain]</figcaption></figure>Built on the technology that English inventor <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_W._Paul">Robert Paul</a> had been working on in the late 1890’s to project moving image on a screen (which was in turn based on designs stolen from Thomas Edison’s single-viewer Kinetoscope machine), the Cinéorama would project moving images onto 10 screens, each 9×9 meters, arranged in a circle around the viewer. The film was shot using 10 cameras pointing outwards from a central point which housed the cranking mechanism that wound all of the cameras at the same time – early cinema cameras were usually hand-cranked, so this made sure that the image was captured at the same speed on each camera. This rig was then attached to a real hot air balloon as it flew 400 meters about the Tuileries Gardens, filming the ascent.</p>
<p><figure style="width: 600px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/Cineorama_camera.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="1019" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Louis Poyet [Public domain]</figcaption></figure>People would board a giant hot air balloon model in the middle of the screens, the basket of which was big enough to hold 200 people, complete with rigging and the bottom half of a balloon suspended from the ceiling. Once ‘boarded’ the spectators would look out at the screens as the projectors showed the balloon take off. Once the experience had finished, they used some cinema magic to show the balloon landing again (they played the film backwards).</p>
<p>The Cinéorama lasted a glorious whole 3 days before the police shut it down due to safety concerns – one of the workmen had fainted from the immense heat of the arc lamps used in the projectors, and as these were housed directly beneath the viewing platform, it was considered an extreme fire hazard to the spectators. After the show was shut down in the middle of day 4, it has never been shown again.</p>
<p>Things didn’t faire much better for the Exposition Universelle – due the unexpectedly high running costs of the Exposition as a whole, it ended costing the organisers about 600 francs (around £2,000 in 2018) <i>more</i> per person than the cost of admission. This was the end of this streak of Parisian international fairs.</p>
<h2>Circle-Vision 360º</h2>
<p>The rebirth of commercial 360º panoramic films came with the opening of 1955’s ‘CIRCARAMA’ cinema in Disneyland, California, showing the short film A Tour of the West, soon followed by America The Beautiful.</p>
<iframe loading="lazy" src="about:blank" data-bs-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rmv_P_wcZG4?start=801" width="660" height="544" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>The system used in Disneyland, named ‘Circle-Vision 360°’, improved on Grimoin-Sanson’s Cinéorama system in a number of ways, with the biggest difference being that instead of having the film projectors mounted under the audience’s feet (and causing a lot of fire-risks at the same time) an odd number of screens and projectors are used – this means that each projector is placed between the screens on the opposite wall of the purpose-built circular auditorium:</p>
<figure style="width: 2320px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/3e/df/f2/ef5b770a26468d/US2942516-drawings-page-2.png" alt="" width="2320" height="3408" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Walter E Disney, Iwerks Ub (1956). US Patent No. US2942516A. Retrieved from https://patents.google.com/patent/US2942516</figcaption></figure>
<p>This clever bit of mathematics allows the bulky projector systems to be hidden behind the ring of screens, providing more a more immersive experience to the audience.</p>
<p>The camera system used to record the footage, however, is remarkably similar Cinéorama’s – nine cameras are arranged around a central point facing outwards, with an internal mechanism keeping the cameras in sync.</p>
<p><figure style="width: 2364px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/59/Circle-Vision_360_camera_%2829638534777%29_%28cropped%29.jpg" alt="" width="2364" height="1965" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">elisfkc from Orlando, FL, United States [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons</figcaption></figure>The camera rig can be attached to the roof of a car or the underside of a helicopter. Given there was an intentional gap between each screen for the projectors to fit, later films used these to split-up the action between sections of the room. For example, they could show a full 360º film to start with, then fade the screens on one half of the room to show standard film footage on each screen, while maintaining the panorama on the other. This allowed for greater creative freedom, and removed the reliance of using the expensive Circle-Vision 360º cameras to capture all the footage.</p>
<p>Over the years, 5 different Disney theme parks have used Circle-Vision 360º for their attractions, and while the original has now closed at Disneyland in California, and it’s international variants at Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Paris closing in the early 21st century, there are 2 theatres still operating at Epcot – ‘Reflections of China’ and ‘Oh Canada!’ At each of their respective country’s pavilions in the World Showcase.</p>
<iframe loading="lazy" src="about:blank" data-bs-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SdUKRTeyKfU" width="660" height="544" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <em>Interestingly, you can actually watch this version in 360º using Google Cardboard or by clicking and dragging your mouse around the frame</em></pre>
<p> </p>
<p>Both of these act as quasi-tourism videos showing off the landscapes and cultural landmarks of each country …and the Canadian one also serves as a showcase for Martin Short’s comedic talents, so there’s that.</p>
<p>This idea of pure spectacle makes sense as a use for this pretty unique form of film-making, but it does highlight two of the biggest drawbacks of 360º cinema in an auditorium setting:</p>
<p>The first being the cost involved would make it prohibitive to film more than a few minutes worth of footage, both in terms of capturing using 9 high-quality cameras and running the multiple necessary projectors all day.</p>
<p>The second, and possibly most difficult to overcome: trying to craft a story where the viewer needs to constantly be turning their heads. Both of the 360º cinema formats mentioned here rely on the viewer being free to stand and turn all the way around to find and follow points of interest. Indicating where a person should be looking at all times is tricky when it might be behind them. Constantly having your characters announce themselves and give time for people to move around and look in their direction could kill the tension in your drama.</p>
<p><em>Thank you for coming along on our first journey in to 360º video. In our next article we’ll be diving in to the world of modern film and content creation for 360º and VR, and how this can be used in education.</em></p>
<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area">
<time datetime="2019-02-18" itemprop="dateModified">Feb 18, 2019</time>
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<title>Using Chat GPT to refine narratives</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/mediahopper/2023/12/13/using-chat-gpt-to-refine-narratives/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/mediahopper/2023/12/13/using-chat-gpt-to-refine-narratives/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Liam Duffy]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 13 Dec 2023 12:11:21 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[AI]]></category>
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<description><![CDATA[2023 has been the year of chatting with robots. Not in a fun-and-hijinks ‘Short Circuit’ way, but in a less...]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>2023 has been the year of chatting with robots. Not in a fun-and-hijinks ‘Short Circuit’ way, but in a less hilarity-inducing ‘lets spend 20 minutes phrasing this perfectly so I actually get something useful’ way. A lot of companies have been working on growing ‘large language models’ for use in AI for a while, but the one that really captured people’s attention in 2023 has been OpenAI’s ChatGPT.</p>
<p>There are many other flavours of AI chatty-Cathy’s out there with colourful names such as Bard, Claude, Grok, LLaMA, Bothan, and Ernie Bot (one of those I made up*), but ChatGPT has become the go-to chatbot for a lot of people, with over 100 million users registered on the service. In the past 12 months, the top 2 fastest-rising search terms on Google from the UK are ‘ChatGPT’ and ‘Chat GPT’.</p>
<p><img decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-121" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/mediahopper/wp-content/uploads/sites/201/2023/12/Screenshot-2023-12-13-at-09.38.55-300x253.png" alt="" width="300" height="253" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/mediahopper/wp-content/uploads/sites/201/2023/12/Screenshot-2023-12-13-at-09.38.55-300x253.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/mediahopper/wp-content/uploads/sites/201/2023/12/Screenshot-2023-12-13-at-09.38.55.png 585w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></p>
<p>While there are a lot of uses for ChatGPT and similar AI services, one that has some people worried about its potential impact is its use for creative purposes. The use of AI-generated images and music has raised questions about whether human artists will get shut out of the process if it’s quicker and cheaper to ask a bot to create art, and the recent SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes that took Hollywood to a grinding halt earlier this year was at least in part because of the actors and writer’s unions wanting to ensure there were protections in updated contracts to limit AI’s impact on filmmaking.</p>
<p>While we’re likely at least a few years away from the best original screenplay Academy Award going to ChatBot_182.432.1REV3, ChatGPT can be used as a tool in a lot of ways for narrative storytelling. It certainly can write a full story for you, but it can go off in pretty wild places with some… <em>interesting </em>narrative choices.</p>
<p>With the simple prompt ‘Hey ChatGPT, write me a story’, I got a 450 word tale of a character named Luna who lived in a ‘Blade Runner’-esque neon city worked as a librarian by day, and by night used her supernatural powers to turn the books on her shelves in to magical realms. She proceeds to find a kingdom in peril, talk to a wise old owl and a mischievous sprite, solve puzzles, go through enchanted forests, and save the day using the power of imagination. That’s a lot to cram in to 450 words. <em>You can read the full story here with the password LunasMidnightOdyssey – <a href="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/mediahopper/lunas-midnight-odyssey/">full story</a></em></p>
<p>This is one of the problems with just giving ChatGPT free reign to do what it ‘wants’ when being creative, it doesn’t really understand scale or that just throwing every plot point it can generate in to a list doesn’t really make a story.</p>
<figure id="attachment_130" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-130" style="width: 700px" class="wp-caption aligncenter center"><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-130" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/mediahopper/wp-content/uploads/sites/201/2023/12/0078862c-1024x684.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="468" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/mediahopper/wp-content/uploads/sites/201/2023/12/0078862c-1024x684.jpg 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/mediahopper/wp-content/uploads/sites/201/2023/12/0078862c-300x200.jpg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/mediahopper/wp-content/uploads/sites/201/2023/12/0078862c-768x513.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/mediahopper/wp-content/uploads/sites/201/2023/12/0078862c-1140x761.jpg 1140w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/mediahopper/wp-content/uploads/sites/201/2023/12/0078862c.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-130" class="wp-caption-text">Old College by Playfair, William, University of Edinburgh is available under a CC BY 3.0 Unported licence. https://images.is.ed.ac.uk/luna/servlet/s/m671gu</figcaption></figure>
<p>ChatGPT’s really power for creating narrative, at least in its current state, is in using it to refine a story, or to help work through ideas. Let’s say I’m trying create a new video for Media Hopper Create about the history of Old College, and want to write a voice over. Here’s a quick draft:</p>
<blockquote><p>Old College its part of The University of Edinburgh and was mostly built from the late 18th to early 19th century. Originally named ‘New College’, it is a Category A listed building located on South Bridge. The original design was by Robert Adam, with the modern design being completed by William Henry Playfair. The dome was added to the building in 1887, with a gilded statue of Youth by John Hutchinson.</p>
<ul>
<li>Original version</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<p>I wrote this in about 5 minutes with information culled from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_College,_University_of_Edinburgh">Wikipedia</a>, and while perfectly serviceable, it’s possibly a little perfunctory. I asked ChatGPT what it thought of my script, and it decided (unprompted) to re-write it for me to make it more ‘engaging’:</p>
<blockquote><p>Welcome to Old College, a majestic structure nestled within the heart of The University of Edinburgh. Originally named ‘New College,’ this architectural gem traces its roots back to the late 18th century. Designed by the renowned Robert Adam, its timeless elegance was later completed by William Henry Playfair in the 19th century.</p>
<p>Situated on South Bridge, Old College stands as a Category A listed building, a testament to its historical and architectural significance. In 1887, a crowning touch was added to the structure in the form of a magnificent dome. Adorning the pinnacle is a gilded statue of Youth, a creation by the skilled hands of John Hutchinson.</p>
<p>As you stand in awe of Old College, it’s not just a building; it’s a living testament to the evolution of academia and architecture. The melding of the past and present, with each stone whispering stories of the scholars who once walked its halls. Today, Old College continues to be a symbol of academic excellence and a revered landmark in the vibrant tapestry of The University of Edinburgh.</p>
<ul>
<li>Revision from ChatGPT</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<p>This new version does feel more like a narrative than just a list of facts, and the language use is definitely more descriptive, it goes a bit overboard with the use of evocative metaphors. To try and rein it in a bit, I added this prompt: “That’s a little bit over the top with descriptive language, can you scale it back a little?”. This is the new version:</p>
<blockquote><p>Old College, part of The University of Edinburgh, has a rich history dating back to the late 18th century. Originally called ‘New College,’ its design, led by Robert Adam and later completed by William Henry Playfair, stands as a testament to architectural craftsmanship.</p>
<p>Situated on South Bridge, this Category A listed building gained its distinctive dome in 1887, crowned with a gilded statue of Youth by John Hutchinson. Today, Old College preserves the charm of its past, serving as a key landmark in the University’s legacy.</p>
<p>Explore the echoes of academia within Old College’s walls, where each brick tells a story of the scholars who once roamed its corridors. This historic structure, with its timeless design, remains an enduring symbol of The University of Edinburgh’s journey through time.</p>
<ul>
<li>Revision 2 by ChatGPT</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<p>This time it removed some of the descriptive language of the building itself, but it replaced a metaphor of it being ‘a revered landmark in the vibrant tapestry’ of the university with one about ‘each brick telling a story’. Let’s try refining it one more time – here’s the latest version with my prompt “How about you remove some of the metaphors, but give more descriptive language?”:</p>
<blockquote><p>Old College, integral to The University of Edinburgh, has a fascinating history rooted in the late 18th century. Originally christened ‘New College,’ it boasts an architectural legacy shaped by Robert Adam and later refined by William Henry Playfair.</p>
<p>Nestled on South Bridge, this distinguished Category A listed building acquired its iconic dome in 1887, adorned with a gilded statue of Youth crafted by John Hutchinson. Old College serves as both witness and custodian to the University’s journey through time.</p>
<p>Step into its storied corridors and be transported to an era when scholars traversed its halls. Each brick and beam narrates tales of academic pursuits and intellectual growth. Old College stands today, not just as a historic landmark, but as a living tribute to The University of Edinburgh’s enduring academic tradition.</p></blockquote>
<p>At this point it feels like ChatGPT is stuck just reiterating on a specific style of writing. This is one of the issues I hit when looking to use a chatbot for anything creative – the model it’s using to generate text has a specific style and there isn’t an easy way to break out of that. While ChatGPT is great for helping point you in the right direction, most of the time things will still need to be edited and refined manually to fit the exact purpose you need it for.</p>
<p>How about we experiment with this further, and see how well it handles a change in tone. I added the a new prompt to change the genre, but not the content: “What if this was the Voice Over for a horror film?”</p>
<blockquote><p>“Deep within the shadows of The University of Edinburgh lies Old College, a structure steeped in a history that echoes with whispers of the supernatural. Once named ‘New College,’ its unsettling evolution began in the late 18th century under the design of Robert Adam, later twisted by the hands of William Henry Playfair.</p>
<p>Perched ominously on South Bridge, this foreboding Category A listed building acquired an eerie dome in 1887, crowned by a gilded statue of Youth, a macabre creation by the twisted artist John Hutchinson. Old College, now a haunting relic, conceals not only the secrets of academia but a darker, malevolent force.</p>
<p>As you traverse its desolate corridors, the air thickens with the chilling tales of scholars who met untimely fates within its haunted walls. Every brick, every step resonates with an otherworldly presence. Old College stands not as a symbol of knowledge, but as a portal to the supernatural, where the past lingers, and the spirits of the damned find no rest.”</p>
<ul>
<li>ChatGPT’s voice over for a horror film</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<p>Ok, a lot to unpack… not only is this now borderline defamatory calling famed sculptor John Hutchinson a ‘twisted artist’ who created ‘macabre creations’, claims that Old College is where ‘the spirits of the damned find no rest’ and is literally a ‘portal to the supernatural’, but it is <em>still</em> using that metaphor of ‘every brick tells a story’.</p>
<p>While overly flowery language can be a bit of a handful to prune back, this last revision shows where the creative ‘choices’ ChatGPT uses can start to turn truth in to pure fabrication. The original core of the facts from my initial script are still there (the dates, the people involved, the legacy), it uses those to create completely a fictitious narrative.</p>
<p>The creative uses for ChatGPT are vast, but as an AI it has no concept of how it <strong>should</strong> use the information in your prompts, only what it <strong>can</strong> do. Chat bots can be a useful tool, but just remember to keep it on a short leash.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>*’Bothan’ is actually a lesser-known species from Star Wars: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Star_Wars_species_(A–E)#Bothan">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Star_Wars_species_(A–E)#Bothan</a></p>
<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area">
<time datetime="2023-12-13" itemprop="dateModified">Dec 13, 2023</time>
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<title>What is 360º Video? – The Early Days…</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/mediahopper/2019/02/18/what-is-360o-video-the-early-days/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/mediahopper/2019/02/18/what-is-360o-video-the-early-days/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Liam Duffy]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 18 Feb 2019 16:24:53 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[DIY Film School]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[360º]]></category>
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<description><![CDATA[This is part of a series of posts exploring 360º videos, going from its roots in expositions and theme parks,...]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><i>This is part of a series of posts exploring 360º videos, going from its roots in expositions and theme parks, to how it can be recorded using your mobile phone and used in education.</i></p>
<h2>Cinéorama</h2>
<p>The Exposition Universelle, or better known as the 1900 Paris Exposition in English, was part of France’s drive to enter the 20th century with a reignited sense of cultural and national pride after devastation of the Great War. For nearly a decade before the exhibition grounds were due to open, countries around the world were invited to bring their greatest achievements and display their cultures on an international stage, part of the event’s bigger themes of unifying people.</p>
<p><figure style="width: 4195px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/La_porte_monumentale%2C_Exposition_Universelle_1900.jpg" alt="" width="4195" height="2678" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Brown University Library [Public domain]</figcaption></figure>Some of the highlights of the Exposition included a giant refracting telescope (60 meters long with a diameter of 1.5 meters), a display of photographs showing African American’s contributions to American society organised by sociologists and activists Booker Washington and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W.E.B._Du_Bois">W.E.B. Du Bois</a> , and in a fit of what I can only imagine was either reckless abandonment or an over-eagerness to please the visiting crowds, a Russian sparkling wine won the “Grand Prix de Champagne” beating several French vintners. The first Olympic Games outside of Greece took place during the Exposition, with the winners receiving 100 francs, a tie pin, and a commemorative pencil.</p>
<p>One of the biggest draws of the Exposition was the introduction of two of the great innovations in the world of cinema: the first wide-scale demonstration of recorded sound synced with moving image, and 360º panoramic projections. Obviously the latter of the two had the greater impact in the history of entertainment. I mean, come on, how many people actually watch films with audio?</p>
<p>Oh, what’s that? Most people do? Pretty much every piece of commercial film created in the last 80 years has had synchronised sound? Nobody uses 360º panoramic video projections beyond some very limited applications? Hmm.</p>
<p>The French Cinéorama was designed and constructed specifically for the Exposition by <a href="Raoul Grimoin-Sanson">Raoul Grimoin-Sanson</a>, with the intention being to replicate a ride on a hot air balloon over Paris using ten synchronised projectors housed under the ‘basket’ of the stationary balloon model.</p>
<p><figure style="width: 1199px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Cineorama.jpg" alt="" width="1199" height="850" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Louis Poyet [Public domain]</figcaption></figure>Built on the technology that English inventor <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_W._Paul">Robert Paul</a> had been working on in the late 1890’s to project moving image on a screen (which was in turn based on designs stolen from Thomas Edison’s single-viewer Kinetoscope machine), the Cinéorama would project moving images onto 10 screens, each 9×9 meters, arranged in a circle around the viewer. The film was shot using 10 cameras pointing outwards from a central point which housed the cranking mechanism that wound all of the cameras at the same time – early cinema cameras were usually hand-cranked, so this made sure that the image was captured at the same speed on each camera. This rig was then attached to a real hot air balloon as it flew 400 meters about the Tuileries Gardens, filming the ascent.</p>
<p><figure style="width: 600px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/Cineorama_camera.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="1019" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Louis Poyet [Public domain]</figcaption></figure>People would board a giant hot air balloon model in the middle of the screens, the basket of which was big enough to hold 200 people, complete with rigging and the bottom half of a balloon suspended from the ceiling. Once ‘boarded’ the spectators would look out at the screens as the projectors showed the balloon take off. Once the experience had finished, they used some cinema magic to show the balloon landing again (they played the film backwards).</p>
<p>The Cinéorama lasted a glorious whole 3 days before the police shut it down due to safety concerns – one of the workmen had fainted from the immense heat of the arc lamps used in the projectors, and as these were housed directly beneath the viewing platform, it was considered an extreme fire hazard to the spectators. After the show was shut down in the middle of day 4, it has never been shown again.</p>
<p>Things didn’t faire much better for the Exposition Universelle – due the unexpectedly high running costs of the Exposition as a whole, it ended costing the organisers about 600 francs (around £2,000 in 2018) <i>more</i> per person than the cost of admission. This was the end of this streak of Parisian international fairs.</p>
<h2>Circle-Vision 360º</h2>
<p>The rebirth of commercial 360º panoramic films came with the opening of 1955’s ‘CIRCARAMA’ cinema in Disneyland, California, showing the short film A Tour of the West, soon followed by America The Beautiful.</p>
<iframe loading="lazy" src="about:blank" data-bs-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rmv_P_wcZG4?start=801" width="660" height="544" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>The system used in Disneyland, named ‘Circle-Vision 360°’, improved on Grimoin-Sanson’s Cinéorama system in a number of ways, with the biggest difference being that instead of having the film projectors mounted under the audience’s feet (and causing a lot of fire-risks at the same time) an odd number of screens and projectors are used – this means that each projector is placed between the screens on the opposite wall of the purpose-built circular auditorium:</p>
<figure style="width: 2320px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/3e/df/f2/ef5b770a26468d/US2942516-drawings-page-2.png" alt="" width="2320" height="3408" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Walter E Disney, Iwerks Ub (1956). US Patent No. US2942516A. Retrieved from https://patents.google.com/patent/US2942516</figcaption></figure>
<p>This clever bit of mathematics allows the bulky projector systems to be hidden behind the ring of screens, providing more a more immersive experience to the audience.</p>
<p>The camera system used to record the footage, however, is remarkably similar Cinéorama’s – nine cameras are arranged around a central point facing outwards, with an internal mechanism keeping the cameras in sync.</p>
<p><figure style="width: 2364px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/59/Circle-Vision_360_camera_%2829638534777%29_%28cropped%29.jpg" alt="" width="2364" height="1965" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">elisfkc from Orlando, FL, United States [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons</figcaption></figure>The camera rig can be attached to the roof of a car or the underside of a helicopter. Given there was an intentional gap between each screen for the projectors to fit, later films used these to split-up the action between sections of the room. For example, they could show a full 360º film to start with, then fade the screens on one half of the room to show standard film footage on each screen, while maintaining the panorama on the other. This allowed for greater creative freedom, and removed the reliance of using the expensive Circle-Vision 360º cameras to capture all the footage.</p>
<p>Over the years, 5 different Disney theme parks have used Circle-Vision 360º for their attractions, and while the original has now closed at Disneyland in California, and it’s international variants at Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Paris closing in the early 21st century, there are 2 theatres still operating at Epcot – ‘Reflections of China’ and ‘Oh Canada!’ At each of their respective country’s pavilions in the World Showcase.</p>
<iframe loading="lazy" src="about:blank" data-bs-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SdUKRTeyKfU" width="660" height="544" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <em>Interestingly, you can actually watch this version in 360º using Google Cardboard or by clicking and dragging your mouse around the frame</em></pre>
<p> </p>
<p>Both of these act as quasi-tourism videos showing off the landscapes and cultural landmarks of each country …and the Canadian one also serves as a showcase for Martin Short’s comedic talents, so there’s that.</p>
<p>This idea of pure spectacle makes sense as a use for this pretty unique form of film-making, but it does highlight two of the biggest drawbacks of 360º cinema in an auditorium setting:</p>
<p>The first being the cost involved would make it prohibitive to film more than a few minutes worth of footage, both in terms of capturing using 9 high-quality cameras and running the multiple necessary projectors all day.</p>
<p>The second, and possibly most difficult to overcome: trying to craft a story where the viewer needs to constantly be turning their heads. Both of the 360º cinema formats mentioned here rely on the viewer being free to stand and turn all the way around to find and follow points of interest. Indicating where a person should be looking at all times is tricky when it might be behind them. Constantly having your characters announce themselves and give time for people to move around and look in their direction could kill the tension in your drama.</p>
<p><em>Thank you for coming along on our first journey in to 360º video. In our next article we’ll be diving in to the world of modern film and content creation for 360º and VR, and how this can be used in education.</em></p>
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<time datetime="2019-02-18" itemprop="dateModified">Feb 18, 2019</time>
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<title>Using Chat GPT to refine narratives</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/mediahopper/2023/12/13/using-chat-gpt-to-refine-narratives/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/mediahopper/2023/12/13/using-chat-gpt-to-refine-narratives/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Liam Duffy]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 13 Dec 2023 12:11:21 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[AI]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/mediahopper/?p=120</guid>
<description><![CDATA[2023 has been the year of chatting with robots. Not in a fun-and-hijinks ‘Short Circuit’ way, but in a less...]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>2023 has been the year of chatting with robots. Not in a fun-and-hijinks ‘Short Circuit’ way, but in a less hilarity-inducing ‘lets spend 20 minutes phrasing this perfectly so I actually get something useful’ way. A lot of companies have been working on growing ‘large language models’ for use in AI for a while, but the one that really captured people’s attention in 2023 has been OpenAI’s ChatGPT.</p>
<p>There are many other flavours of AI chatty-Cathy’s out there with colourful names such as Bard, Claude, Grok, LLaMA, Bothan, and Ernie Bot (one of those I made up*), but ChatGPT has become the go-to chatbot for a lot of people, with over 100 million users registered on the service. In the past 12 months, the top 2 fastest-rising search terms on Google from the UK are ‘ChatGPT’ and ‘Chat GPT’.</p>
<p><img decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-121" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/mediahopper/wp-content/uploads/sites/201/2023/12/Screenshot-2023-12-13-at-09.38.55-300x253.png" alt="" width="300" height="253" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/mediahopper/wp-content/uploads/sites/201/2023/12/Screenshot-2023-12-13-at-09.38.55-300x253.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/mediahopper/wp-content/uploads/sites/201/2023/12/Screenshot-2023-12-13-at-09.38.55.png 585w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></p>
<p>While there are a lot of uses for ChatGPT and similar AI services, one that has some people worried about its potential impact is its use for creative purposes. The use of AI-generated images and music has raised questions about whether human artists will get shut out of the process if it’s quicker and cheaper to ask a bot to create art, and the recent SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes that took Hollywood to a grinding halt earlier this year was at least in part because of the actors and writer’s unions wanting to ensure there were protections in updated contracts to limit AI’s impact on filmmaking.</p>
<p>While we’re likely at least a few years away from the best original screenplay Academy Award going to ChatBot_182.432.1REV3, ChatGPT can be used as a tool in a lot of ways for narrative storytelling. It certainly can write a full story for you, but it can go off in pretty wild places with some… <em>interesting </em>narrative choices.</p>
<p>With the simple prompt ‘Hey ChatGPT, write me a story’, I got a 450 word tale of a character named Luna who lived in a ‘Blade Runner’-esque neon city worked as a librarian by day, and by night used her supernatural powers to turn the books on her shelves in to magical realms. She proceeds to find a kingdom in peril, talk to a wise old owl and a mischievous sprite, solve puzzles, go through enchanted forests, and save the day using the power of imagination. That’s a lot to cram in to 450 words. <em>You can read the full story here with the password LunasMidnightOdyssey – <a href="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/mediahopper/lunas-midnight-odyssey/">full story</a></em></p>
<p>This is one of the problems with just giving ChatGPT free reign to do what it ‘wants’ when being creative, it doesn’t really understand scale or that just throwing every plot point it can generate in to a list doesn’t really make a story.</p>
<figure id="attachment_130" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-130" style="width: 700px" class="wp-caption aligncenter center"><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-130" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/mediahopper/wp-content/uploads/sites/201/2023/12/0078862c-1024x684.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="468" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/mediahopper/wp-content/uploads/sites/201/2023/12/0078862c-1024x684.jpg 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/mediahopper/wp-content/uploads/sites/201/2023/12/0078862c-300x200.jpg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/mediahopper/wp-content/uploads/sites/201/2023/12/0078862c-768x513.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/mediahopper/wp-content/uploads/sites/201/2023/12/0078862c-1140x761.jpg 1140w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/mediahopper/wp-content/uploads/sites/201/2023/12/0078862c.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-130" class="wp-caption-text">Old College by Playfair, William, University of Edinburgh is available under a CC BY 3.0 Unported licence. https://images.is.ed.ac.uk/luna/servlet/s/m671gu</figcaption></figure>
<p>ChatGPT’s really power for creating narrative, at least in its current state, is in using it to refine a story, or to help work through ideas. Let’s say I’m trying create a new video for Media Hopper Create about the history of Old College, and want to write a voice over. Here’s a quick draft:</p>
<blockquote><p>Old College its part of The University of Edinburgh and was mostly built from the late 18th to early 19th century. Originally named ‘New College’, it is a Category A listed building located on South Bridge. The original design was by Robert Adam, with the modern design being completed by William Henry Playfair. The dome was added to the building in 1887, with a gilded statue of Youth by John Hutchinson.</p>
<ul>
<li>Original version</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<p>I wrote this in about 5 minutes with information culled from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_College,_University_of_Edinburgh">Wikipedia</a>, and while perfectly serviceable, it’s possibly a little perfunctory. I asked ChatGPT what it thought of my script, and it decided (unprompted) to re-write it for me to make it more ‘engaging’:</p>
<blockquote><p>Welcome to Old College, a majestic structure nestled within the heart of The University of Edinburgh. Originally named ‘New College,’ this architectural gem traces its roots back to the late 18th century. Designed by the renowned Robert Adam, its timeless elegance was later completed by William Henry Playfair in the 19th century.</p>
<p>Situated on South Bridge, Old College stands as a Category A listed building, a testament to its historical and architectural significance. In 1887, a crowning touch was added to the structure in the form of a magnificent dome. Adorning the pinnacle is a gilded statue of Youth, a creation by the skilled hands of John Hutchinson.</p>
<p>As you stand in awe of Old College, it’s not just a building; it’s a living testament to the evolution of academia and architecture. The melding of the past and present, with each stone whispering stories of the scholars who once walked its halls. Today, Old College continues to be a symbol of academic excellence and a revered landmark in the vibrant tapestry of The University of Edinburgh.</p>
<ul>
<li>Revision from ChatGPT</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<p>This new version does feel more like a narrative than just a list of facts, and the language use is definitely more descriptive, it goes a bit overboard with the use of evocative metaphors. To try and rein it in a bit, I added this prompt: “That’s a little bit over the top with descriptive language, can you scale it back a little?”. This is the new version:</p>
<blockquote><p>Old College, part of The University of Edinburgh, has a rich history dating back to the late 18th century. Originally called ‘New College,’ its design, led by Robert Adam and later completed by William Henry Playfair, stands as a testament to architectural craftsmanship.</p>
<p>Situated on South Bridge, this Category A listed building gained its distinctive dome in 1887, crowned with a gilded statue of Youth by John Hutchinson. Today, Old College preserves the charm of its past, serving as a key landmark in the University’s legacy.</p>
<p>Explore the echoes of academia within Old College’s walls, where each brick tells a story of the scholars who once roamed its corridors. This historic structure, with its timeless design, remains an enduring symbol of The University of Edinburgh’s journey through time.</p>
<ul>
<li>Revision 2 by ChatGPT</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<p>This time it removed some of the descriptive language of the building itself, but it replaced a metaphor of it being ‘a revered landmark in the vibrant tapestry’ of the university with one about ‘each brick telling a story’. Let’s try refining it one more time – here’s the latest version with my prompt “How about you remove some of the metaphors, but give more descriptive language?”:</p>
<blockquote><p>Old College, integral to The University of Edinburgh, has a fascinating history rooted in the late 18th century. Originally christened ‘New College,’ it boasts an architectural legacy shaped by Robert Adam and later refined by William Henry Playfair.</p>
<p>Nestled on South Bridge, this distinguished Category A listed building acquired its iconic dome in 1887, adorned with a gilded statue of Youth crafted by John Hutchinson. Old College serves as both witness and custodian to the University’s journey through time.</p>
<p>Step into its storied corridors and be transported to an era when scholars traversed its halls. Each brick and beam narrates tales of academic pursuits and intellectual growth. Old College stands today, not just as a historic landmark, but as a living tribute to The University of Edinburgh’s enduring academic tradition.</p></blockquote>
<p>At this point it feels like ChatGPT is stuck just reiterating on a specific style of writing. This is one of the issues I hit when looking to use a chatbot for anything creative – the model it’s using to generate text has a specific style and there isn’t an easy way to break out of that. While ChatGPT is great for helping point you in the right direction, most of the time things will still need to be edited and refined manually to fit the exact purpose you need it for.</p>
<p>How about we experiment with this further, and see how well it handles a change in tone. I added the a new prompt to change the genre, but not the content: “What if this was the Voice Over for a horror film?”</p>
<blockquote><p>“Deep within the shadows of The University of Edinburgh lies Old College, a structure steeped in a history that echoes with whispers of the supernatural. Once named ‘New College,’ its unsettling evolution began in the late 18th century under the design of Robert Adam, later twisted by the hands of William Henry Playfair.</p>
<p>Perched ominously on South Bridge, this foreboding Category A listed building acquired an eerie dome in 1887, crowned by a gilded statue of Youth, a macabre creation by the twisted artist John Hutchinson. Old College, now a haunting relic, conceals not only the secrets of academia but a darker, malevolent force.</p>
<p>As you traverse its desolate corridors, the air thickens with the chilling tales of scholars who met untimely fates within its haunted walls. Every brick, every step resonates with an otherworldly presence. Old College stands not as a symbol of knowledge, but as a portal to the supernatural, where the past lingers, and the spirits of the damned find no rest.”</p>
<ul>
<li>ChatGPT’s voice over for a horror film</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<p>Ok, a lot to unpack… not only is this now borderline defamatory calling famed sculptor John Hutchinson a ‘twisted artist’ who created ‘macabre creations’, claims that Old College is where ‘the spirits of the damned find no rest’ and is literally a ‘portal to the supernatural’, but it is <em>still</em> using that metaphor of ‘every brick tells a story’.</p>
<p>While overly flowery language can be a bit of a handful to prune back, this last revision shows where the creative ‘choices’ ChatGPT uses can start to turn truth in to pure fabrication. The original core of the facts from my initial script are still there (the dates, the people involved, the legacy), it uses those to create completely a fictitious narrative.</p>
<p>The creative uses for ChatGPT are vast, but as an AI it has no concept of how it <strong>should</strong> use the information in your prompts, only what it <strong>can</strong> do. Chat bots can be a useful tool, but just remember to keep it on a short leash.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>*’Bothan’ is actually a lesser-known species from Star Wars: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Star_Wars_species_(A–E)#Bothan">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Star_Wars_species_(A–E)#Bothan</a></p>
<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area">
<time datetime="2023-12-13" itemprop="dateModified">Dec 13, 2023</time>
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<title>What is 360º Video? – The Early Days…</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/mediahopper/2019/02/18/what-is-360o-video-the-early-days/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/mediahopper/2019/02/18/what-is-360o-video-the-early-days/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Liam Duffy]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 18 Feb 2019 16:24:53 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[DIY Film School]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[360º]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/mediahopper/?p=56</guid>
<description><![CDATA[This is part of a series of posts exploring 360º videos, going from its roots in expositions and theme parks,...]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><i>This is part of a series of posts exploring 360º videos, going from its roots in expositions and theme parks, to how it can be recorded using your mobile phone and used in education.</i></p>
<h2>Cinéorama</h2>
<p>The Exposition Universelle, or better known as the 1900 Paris Exposition in English, was part of France’s drive to enter the 20th century with a reignited sense of cultural and national pride after devastation of the Great War. For nearly a decade before the exhibition grounds were due to open, countries around the world were invited to bring their greatest achievements and display their cultures on an international stage, part of the event’s bigger themes of unifying people.</p>
<p><figure style="width: 4195px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/La_porte_monumentale%2C_Exposition_Universelle_1900.jpg" alt="" width="4195" height="2678" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Brown University Library [Public domain]</figcaption></figure>Some of the highlights of the Exposition included a giant refracting telescope (60 meters long with a diameter of 1.5 meters), a display of photographs showing African American’s contributions to American society organised by sociologists and activists Booker Washington and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W.E.B._Du_Bois">W.E.B. Du Bois</a> , and in a fit of what I can only imagine was either reckless abandonment or an over-eagerness to please the visiting crowds, a Russian sparkling wine won the “Grand Prix de Champagne” beating several French vintners. The first Olympic Games outside of Greece took place during the Exposition, with the winners receiving 100 francs, a tie pin, and a commemorative pencil.</p>
<p>One of the biggest draws of the Exposition was the introduction of two of the great innovations in the world of cinema: the first wide-scale demonstration of recorded sound synced with moving image, and 360º panoramic projections. Obviously the latter of the two had the greater impact in the history of entertainment. I mean, come on, how many people actually watch films with audio?</p>
<p>Oh, what’s that? Most people do? Pretty much every piece of commercial film created in the last 80 years has had synchronised sound? Nobody uses 360º panoramic video projections beyond some very limited applications? Hmm.</p>
<p>The French Cinéorama was designed and constructed specifically for the Exposition by <a href="Raoul Grimoin-Sanson">Raoul Grimoin-Sanson</a>, with the intention being to replicate a ride on a hot air balloon over Paris using ten synchronised projectors housed under the ‘basket’ of the stationary balloon model.</p>
<p><figure style="width: 1199px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Cineorama.jpg" alt="" width="1199" height="850" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Louis Poyet [Public domain]</figcaption></figure>Built on the technology that English inventor <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_W._Paul">Robert Paul</a> had been working on in the late 1890’s to project moving image on a screen (which was in turn based on designs stolen from Thomas Edison’s single-viewer Kinetoscope machine), the Cinéorama would project moving images onto 10 screens, each 9×9 meters, arranged in a circle around the viewer. The film was shot using 10 cameras pointing outwards from a central point which housed the cranking mechanism that wound all of the cameras at the same time – early cinema cameras were usually hand-cranked, so this made sure that the image was captured at the same speed on each camera. This rig was then attached to a real hot air balloon as it flew 400 meters about the Tuileries Gardens, filming the ascent.</p>
<p><figure style="width: 600px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/Cineorama_camera.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="1019" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Louis Poyet [Public domain]</figcaption></figure>People would board a giant hot air balloon model in the middle of the screens, the basket of which was big enough to hold 200 people, complete with rigging and the bottom half of a balloon suspended from the ceiling. Once ‘boarded’ the spectators would look out at the screens as the projectors showed the balloon take off. Once the experience had finished, they used some cinema magic to show the balloon landing again (they played the film backwards).</p>
<p>The Cinéorama lasted a glorious whole 3 days before the police shut it down due to safety concerns – one of the workmen had fainted from the immense heat of the arc lamps used in the projectors, and as these were housed directly beneath the viewing platform, it was considered an extreme fire hazard to the spectators. After the show was shut down in the middle of day 4, it has never been shown again.</p>
<p>Things didn’t faire much better for the Exposition Universelle – due the unexpectedly high running costs of the Exposition as a whole, it ended costing the organisers about 600 francs (around £2,000 in 2018) <i>more</i> per person than the cost of admission. This was the end of this streak of Parisian international fairs.</p>
<h2>Circle-Vision 360º</h2>
<p>The rebirth of commercial 360º panoramic films came with the opening of 1955’s ‘CIRCARAMA’ cinema in Disneyland, California, showing the short film A Tour of the West, soon followed by America The Beautiful.</p>
<iframe loading="lazy" src="about:blank" data-bs-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rmv_P_wcZG4?start=801" width="660" height="544" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>The system used in Disneyland, named ‘Circle-Vision 360°’, improved on Grimoin-Sanson’s Cinéorama system in a number of ways, with the biggest difference being that instead of having the film projectors mounted under the audience’s feet (and causing a lot of fire-risks at the same time) an odd number of screens and projectors are used – this means that each projector is placed between the screens on the opposite wall of the purpose-built circular auditorium:</p>
<figure style="width: 2320px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/3e/df/f2/ef5b770a26468d/US2942516-drawings-page-2.png" alt="" width="2320" height="3408" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Walter E Disney, Iwerks Ub (1956). US Patent No. US2942516A. Retrieved from https://patents.google.com/patent/US2942516</figcaption></figure>
<p>This clever bit of mathematics allows the bulky projector systems to be hidden behind the ring of screens, providing more a more immersive experience to the audience.</p>
<p>The camera system used to record the footage, however, is remarkably similar Cinéorama’s – nine cameras are arranged around a central point facing outwards, with an internal mechanism keeping the cameras in sync.</p>
<p><figure style="width: 2364px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/59/Circle-Vision_360_camera_%2829638534777%29_%28cropped%29.jpg" alt="" width="2364" height="1965" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">elisfkc from Orlando, FL, United States [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons</figcaption></figure>The camera rig can be attached to the roof of a car or the underside of a helicopter. Given there was an intentional gap between each screen for the projectors to fit, later films used these to split-up the action between sections of the room. For example, they could show a full 360º film to start with, then fade the screens on one half of the room to show standard film footage on each screen, while maintaining the panorama on the other. This allowed for greater creative freedom, and removed the reliance of using the expensive Circle-Vision 360º cameras to capture all the footage.</p>
<p>Over the years, 5 different Disney theme parks have used Circle-Vision 360º for their attractions, and while the original has now closed at Disneyland in California, and it’s international variants at Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Paris closing in the early 21st century, there are 2 theatres still operating at Epcot – ‘Reflections of China’ and ‘Oh Canada!’ At each of their respective country’s pavilions in the World Showcase.</p>
<iframe loading="lazy" src="about:blank" data-bs-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SdUKRTeyKfU" width="660" height="544" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <em>Interestingly, you can actually watch this version in 360º using Google Cardboard or by clicking and dragging your mouse around the frame</em></pre>
<p> </p>
<p>Both of these act as quasi-tourism videos showing off the landscapes and cultural landmarks of each country …and the Canadian one also serves as a showcase for Martin Short’s comedic talents, so there’s that.</p>
<p>This idea of pure spectacle makes sense as a use for this pretty unique form of film-making, but it does highlight two of the biggest drawbacks of 360º cinema in an auditorium setting:</p>
<p>The first being the cost involved would make it prohibitive to film more than a few minutes worth of footage, both in terms of capturing using 9 high-quality cameras and running the multiple necessary projectors all day.</p>
<p>The second, and possibly most difficult to overcome: trying to craft a story where the viewer needs to constantly be turning their heads. Both of the 360º cinema formats mentioned here rely on the viewer being free to stand and turn all the way around to find and follow points of interest. Indicating where a person should be looking at all times is tricky when it might be behind them. Constantly having your characters announce themselves and give time for people to move around and look in their direction could kill the tension in your drama.</p>
<p><em>Thank you for coming along on our first journey in to 360º video. In our next article we’ll be diving in to the world of modern film and content creation for 360º and VR, and how this can be used in education.</em></p>
<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area">
<time datetime="2019-02-18" itemprop="dateModified">Feb 18, 2019</time>
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<title>Data Visualization: The Intersection between Science and Art</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/dlam/2025/08/15/data-visualization-the-intersection-between-science-and-art/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[tli4]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 15 Aug 2025 08:48:10 +0000</pubDate>
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<category><![CDATA[Digital Learning Applications and Media]]></category>
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<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/dlam/?p=5766</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 4</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span> Hi, I’m Hera, the Data Visualization Intern working on the Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) Data Dashboards. Before getting into this internship, data had already been a fundamental part of my life. As an undergraduate student studying Psychology and Linguistics, statistics is part of the core of what we do. We’ve been taught how […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p> </p>
<div id="attachment_5767" style="width: 1811px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-5767" class="wp-image-5767 size-full" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/dlam/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2025/08/Screenshot-2025-08-15-092443.png" alt="Image of the TEL Data Dashboard SharePoint" width="1801" height="780" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/dlam/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2025/08/Screenshot-2025-08-15-092443.png 1801w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/dlam/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2025/08/Screenshot-2025-08-15-092443-300x130.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/dlam/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2025/08/Screenshot-2025-08-15-092443-1024x443.png 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/dlam/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2025/08/Screenshot-2025-08-15-092443-768x333.png 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/dlam/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2025/08/Screenshot-2025-08-15-092443-1536x665.png 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1801px) 100vw, 1801px" /><p id="caption-attachment-5767" class="wp-caption-text">The TEL Data Dashboard SharePoint</p></div>
<p> </p>
<p>Hi, I’m Hera, the Data Visualization Intern working on the Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) Data Dashboards. Before getting into this internship, data had already been a fundamental part of my life.</p>
<p>As an undergraduate student studying Psychology and Linguistics, statistics is part of the core of what we do. We’ve been taught how to approach data, clean it, visualize it, and analyze it. We’ve been taught how to run countless tests on it to figure out numbers like p-values and Cohen’s d.</p>
<p>Data and statistics are the shield behind what we do, the numbers that say “yeah, we’re 95% confident that what we found was not just an outcome of chance”.</p>
<p>It is the “sciencey” part.</p>
<p>But the visualization was small. It was more about getting the numbers to fit certain significance levels, just cold numbers and letters on a report. Visuals were required to have a better understanding of distributions. Although they were important and did tell a story, they weren’t exactly pretty and exciting standing by themselves. The excitement mainly comes when significant values are put into the context of suggesting that some scientific discoveries are “real”.</p>
<p>So when I got the opportunity to look at the data of LTW services when creating the dashboards, it was like a whole new world of fantasies and stories.</p>
<p>You start with the same old things that you do with any data.</p>
<p>You explore it, get yourself familiarized with it. Make sure you know what each data point means, how they each interlink with another. Meet with the data providers, service managers, and ask clarifying questions: What data points are relevant? What do you want to see on the dashboards? What would users want to see?</p>
<p>You clean the data, make sure everything is consistent, check for errors, and decide what measures to exclude and what measures to keep. You filter the data, merge stuff together when needed, and transform it into formats that PowerBI won’t give you errors working with.</p>
<p>And then the fundamental part of this internship, and the most exciting part – you paint visuals with numbers.</p>
<p>Bar charts, line graphs, area graphs, and pie charts.</p>
<p>Name cards, funnels, slicers, and filters.</p>
<p>Numbers are no longer just numbers. They are grouped together in bars or lines or arcs, illuminated with vibrant colours, and interactive with everything else that you click on.</p>
<p>PowerBI is my paintbrush.</p>
<p>An annoying one at certain times, trying to get it to do what I want, but a very useful one too indeed. You can play around with it in so many different ways: filter, slice, cross-highlight, drill down…</p>
<p>It was a constant problem-solving process to organize the data in certain ways and to customize the visualizations, trying to figure out relationships between models, and edit interactions between visuals so that related data move together. As there are ten services that I create dashboards for, and each of them is unique, the whole process starts again brand new with every dashboard that I make.</p>
<p>I also got to play around with the colours, the blank spaces, the shapes and lines – just like an artist would with his or her pieces of work.</p>
<p>But it was not only art in terms of the visuals. It was also art in terms of storytelling.</p>
<p>When data forms more than tables and numbers, you start to see the pictures more directly. Visualizations help to filter down the data to the most important bits, which makes the difficult communication of huge datasets much easier.</p>
<p>You can tell the story through different perspectives and dimensions. You can see the trend through time and years, a story of rises or fluctuations that make you wonder why there are certain peaks or troughs. You can see the categorizations by departments or user roles, which reveal how similar or different things are with students versus staff.</p>
<p>And as a product, the dashboards go through iterations of feedback with the data providers, service managers, and LTW representatives from the different schools. I was constantly having meetings to display my dashboards and to ask for feedback.</p>
<p>In fact, meeting with the services was one of the best parts. With both the initial walk-through of the datasets and the later feedback for the completed dashboards, collaboration with the different teams gave me a short glimpse of all of their work and inputs over the years. All the hidden work and immense effort behind the scenes, where I would not have known if I didn’t have the chance to work with LTW as an intern. The most inspiring part, though, was seeing their incredible expertise and familiarity with the services that they manage, and that was what brought the sparks into their eyes when they saw the dashboards.</p>
<p>So the dashboards tell way more than what someone can imagine, because people have different perspectives when they look at the same visualizations.</p>
<p>For the management teams of the different schools, the visualizations tell a story that reveals the preferences of their students and staff. For the data providers and service managers, the dashboards provide a snapshot of all their efforts and inputs into their services over the past few years.</p>
<p>For me, the whole project was a journey of exploration, discovery, and growth.</p>
<p>A journey of exploring the intersection between science and art.</p>
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<title>Elia Müller – Initial thoughts on doing Accessibility Checks</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2024/07/05/elia-muller-initial-thoughts-on-doing-accessibility-checks/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2024/07/05/elia-muller-initial-thoughts-on-doing-accessibility-checks/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[emuller2]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 05 Jul 2024 10:23:36 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[EDE]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Educational Design and Engagement]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Learn Foundations Intern]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Learn Foundations Learning Applications Developer]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[summer]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Uncategorised]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[university of edinburgh]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=2455</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 2</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>Year of study & degree: 2nd year Psychology and Linguistics Internship: Learn Foundations Intern Meal deal of choice: Least offensive looking sandwich + Bakery item + Smoothie Favourite floor in Argyle House: Definitely K The title of your preferred work playlist: tasteless bops Subpar Slides As a Learn Foundations Intern, I’m involved in conducting a […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 2</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span><hr />
<p><b><span data-contrast="auto">Year of study & degree: </span></b><span data-contrast="auto">2</span><span data-contrast="auto">nd</span><span data-contrast="auto"> year Psychology and Linguistics</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":279}"> </span></p>
<p><b><span data-contrast="auto">Internship:</span></b><span data-contrast="auto"> Learn Foundations Intern</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":279}"> </span></p>
<p><b><span data-contrast="auto">Meal deal of choice:</span></b><span data-contrast="auto"> Least offensive looking sandwich + Bakery item + Smoothie</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":279}"> </span></p>
<p><b><span data-contrast="auto">Favourite floor in Argyle House:</span></b><span data-contrast="auto"> Definitely K</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":279}"> </span></p>
<p><b><span data-contrast="auto">The title of your preferred work playlist:</span></b><span data-contrast="auto"> tasteless bops</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":279}"> </span></p>
<hr />
<h2><span data-contrast="none">Subpar Slides</span><span data-ccp-props="{"134245418":true,"134245529":true,"201341983":0,"335559738":160,"335559739":80,"335559740":279}"> </span></h2>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">As a Learn Foundations Intern, I’m involved in conducting a number of checks on the university’s Virtual Learning Environment, Learn. We are tasked with verifying the presence of a school-dependent template and making sure that the correct variables are present, among other things (think LOTS of Excel spreadsheets filled with Ys and Ns).</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":279}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">But the part of my internship that has intrigued me the most so far is the accessibility checks that I’ve had to fill out for a random sample of courses from each school. More specifically, I thoroughly enjoyed scrolling through the PowerPoint slides of various courses and imagining the lectures that had accompanied them (a personal favourite so far were the slides of a female filmmakers course from which I got great movie recommendations). </span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":279}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">But what about the accessibility of these slides? </span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":279}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">It leaves much to be desired, unfortunately. Aside from scans of documents, PowerPoints seem to be the documents that consistently have the most accessibility issues, ranging from insufficient contrast between text and slide backgrounds to images that didn’t include alternative text. </span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":279}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">I was stumped, as there is guidance on how to make PowerPoint presentations accessible to all, as well as </span><a href="https://uoe.sharepoint.com/:p:/r/sites/Anintroductiontoaccessibilityinlearningtechnology/Shared%20Documents/PowerPoint%20Accessible%20Template%201.pptx?d=w0026da0da47d4bc08995b30bfe529ecb&csf=1&web=1&e=7RS9cA"><span data-contrast="none">a</span><span data-contrast="none"> template</span></a><span data-contrast="auto"> provided by the university. Why weren’t people using that template?</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":279}"> </span></p>
<h2><span data-contrast="none">Both beautiful and accessible</span><span data-ccp-props="{"134233117":false,"134233118":false,"134245418":true,"134245529":true,"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":0,"335559737":0,"335559738":160,"335559739":80,"335559740":279}"> </span></h2>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Whilst I was staring incredulously at the university template that was getting so little use, I came to the realisation that a possible explanation for its invariable rejection was that it was a little </span><i><span data-contrast="auto">too </span></i><span data-contrast="auto">template-like. Its background is a neutral navy blue, and its font is Arial. What it has in accessibility, it lacks in flair. I believe that one reason the template may not be used is that course organisers want to add personality to the slides.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":279}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">But surely both are possible? This got me thinking about the way in which I design my own PowerPoint presentations. I frequently make use of online databases of PowerPoint templates, where I can choose between a myriad of different layouts and designs. </span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":279}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">How could we blend the world of accessibility and the world of design freedom?</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":279}"> </span></p>
<h2><span data-contrast="none">A possible route forward</span><span data-ccp-props="{"134245418":true,"134245529":true,"201341983":0,"335559738":160,"335559739":80,"335559740":279}"> </span></h2>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">One of the aspects I appreciate most about having an internship within ISG is that my line manager and supervisors are very keen on hearing our feedback and potential suggestions for improvements. This allowed me to suggest a database of accessible PowerPoint templates, to expand on the single template that currently exists and to enable course organisers to opt for an accessible template without sacrificing their aesthetic desires. If time permits, I would like to work on this project in the later stages of my internship.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":279}"> </span></p>
<h6>– your new Blog Editor</h6>
<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area">
<time datetime="2024-07-05" itemprop="dateModified">Jul 5, 2024</time>
</span>
]]></content:encoded>
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<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
</item>
<item>
<title>Tallulah Thompson – What I have learnt from the Media and Podcasting Internship</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2024/05/27/tallulah-thompson-what-i-have-learnt-from-the-media-and-podcasting-internship/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2024/05/27/tallulah-thompson-what-i-have-learnt-from-the-media-and-podcasting-internship/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[tthompso]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 27 May 2024 08:14:32 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Digital Learning Applications and Media]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Internships]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=2426</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 3</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>Programme of Study and Year: 1st year Informatics (MInf) Intern Position: Media and Podcasting Intern I have now been working with the Digital Learning Applications and Media (DLAM) group as the Media and Podcasting Intern since February. It’s been an amazing experience – I’ve had the opportunity to get involved in so many interesting things and […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 3</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span><p><strong>Programme of Study and Year: </strong>1st year Informatics (MInf)<br />
<strong>Intern Position: </strong>Media and Podcasting Intern</p>
<hr />
<p>I have now been working with the Digital Learning Applications and Media (DLAM) group as the Media and Podcasting Intern since February. It’s been an amazing experience – I’ve had the opportunity to get involved in so many interesting things and to work with a brilliant team led by Karen Howie. I’m really grateful to Karen and my colleagues for stretching me and supporting me in equal measure. As my internship comes to an end soon, I have decided to share my reflections and what I have learnt.</p>
<p><!-- notionvc: 0025adfe-330e-429b-a7a2-3092aef75b03 --></p>
<h3>Why I applied for this internship</h3>
<p>At the end of my first semester, I decided I wanted to find a job for the following semester that would allow me to interact with more people across the university, and that ideally would involve a project that would benefit others. After looking through many Computer Science related jobs, I found that most were exclusive to penultimate/final year students, and I realised I would have to broaden my search. I started looking for jobs, that despite being less directly related to my field of study, would still be relevant to my interests and help me gain professional experience and valuable skills. That was when I came across the Media and Podcasting Intern job opportunity on MyCareerHub; when I read the job description, I knew I had to apply! It was so appealing because it would allow me to bridge two of my main interests: technology and data, and content creation.</p>
<h3>What I have been doing</h3>
<p>My job has mainly entailed looking through videos uploaded to Media Hopper Create, and analysing their metadata to see how it can be improved, coming up with a metadata guidance document and checklist, collating videos to display on the front page that correspond to monthly themes, collaborating with content owners to improve the accessibility of their media, and, most excitingly, helping design the layout of the front page of the new Media Hopper Create website.</p>
<h3>What I have learnt</h3>
<p>This experience has taught me so much about metadata (<a href="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2024/03/20/2398/">see my previous blogpost</a>) and really highlighted the importance of having good metadata when it comes to improving the accessibility and findability of media. A small yet surprising fact I have learnt is that podcasts do not have to be audio only, and in order for media to be classed as a podcast on Media Hopper Create, it needs to be designed to be consumed in an episodic format, although, majority of the time, a podcast is audio only. I had used Media Hopper Create prior to my internship, however, this was mainly for watching lecture recordings, I hadn’t appreciated the range in content on the website and will continue to use it even after my internship ends. Another thing I hadn’t realised was how useful my ability to code is. I was asked to look through 2 data files and identify the entries that were in one and not the other; and being the Computer Science student that I am, rather than doing this manually/through Excel, I wrote a Python program to do this, which meant that I could complete this task in a much faster and more accurate way. I also used my Python skills to analyse metadata, identify trends and representing them as graphs. I so happy to discover how laterally applicable my skillset is!<!-- notionvc: 1730fcf1-c979-4f30-a932-ddc83022c226 --></p>
<h3>My thoughts</h3>
<p>Overall, this internship has not only expanded my understanding of metadata and media management but also reinforced the value of my technical skills in real-world applications. I’m excited to carry forward these lessons and continue exploring the intersection of technology and media in my future endeavours. I would like to thank Karen, Liam and the rest of the wonderful DLAM team for this amazing experience.</p>
<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area">
<time datetime="2024-05-27" itemprop="dateModified">May 27, 2024</time>
</span>
]]></content:encoded>
<wfw:commentRss>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2024/05/27/tallulah-thompson-what-i-have-learnt-from-the-media-and-podcasting-internship/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
</item>
<item>
<title>Tallulah Thompson – Reflections on metadata</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2024/03/20/2398/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2024/03/20/2398/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[tthompso]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 20 Mar 2024 14:10:54 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Digital Asset Management System Metadata Intern]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Digital Learning Applications and Media]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Digital Media Assistant]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Internships]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=2398</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 4</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>Programme of Study and Year: 1st year Informatics (MInf) Intern Position: Media and Podcasting Intern Introduction Hi! I’m Tallulah and I’m in my 4th week as the Media and Podcasting Intern with Media Hopper Create. So far, I’ve been looking through videos uploaded to Media Hopper Create to analyse their metadata and see how it could […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 4</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span><p><strong>Programme of Study and Year: </strong>1st year Informatics (MInf)</p>
<p><strong>Intern Position: </strong>Media and Podcasting Intern</p>
<hr />
<h3>Introduction</h3>
<p>Hi! I’m Tallulah and I’m in my 4th week as the Media and Podcasting Intern with Media Hopper Create. So far, I’ve been looking through videos uploaded to Media Hopper Create to analyse their metadata and see how it could be improved, coming up with a metadata guidance sheet, and I’ve collated videos to display on the front page that correspond to monthly themes.</p>
<h3>Metadata</h3>
<p>Most of my internship so far has involved looking at metadata. Metadata essentially is data about data. In the context of Media Hopper Create, it is the information associated with the different videos that have been uploaded, for example, title, video description, tags, captions, publisher, etc. Having good metadata will make it easier for users of Media Hopper Create to find videos. Unfortunately, the quality in the metadata across the videos is quite inconsistent, which is why one of my jobs is to write guidance to help improve the quality and to make the media easier to find.</p>
<h3>What is good metadata?</h3>
<p>Good metadata will help organise, find and understand data. It should serve as the bridge between content and users. When it comes to videos uploaded to Media Hopper Create, this is what good metadata should look like for media:</p>
<p><strong>Title:</strong> should be clear and give context, for example, if it is a lecture., a good format would be: [Course Name] [Video Subject], rather than just naming a video “Overview” or “Summary”, e.g., “Object Oriented Programming, Lecture 2: Conditionals and Loops”. The users should be able to have a good idea what the video is about based on the title.</p>
<p><strong>Description:</strong> brief description of what the video is about. It should not just be the title repeated, and it should be detailed enough so that users should not have to watch the whole video to see if it is going to be useful to them</p>
<p><strong>Tags:</strong> should be relevant and specific to the video and should not be too general, for example having the tag “acts” on a video about climate change is not specific enough to the video. If the video is a podcast, adding the tag “podcast” will help users who are specifically finding a podcast, and/or if the video is only audio, adding the tag “audio only” will help users who are specifically finding audio only videos . It is better to have fewer tags that are specific and relevant to the video that will help the users find what they are looking for rather than having many tags that are not specific enough. Tags are added from frequently used words in the auto-generated captions, but sometimes these are not the most relevant, so after captioning is complete, it would be good to go through the tags and remove the irrelevant ones. Having a consistent format for tags will make it easier to organise videos, for example, a video with the tag “#artificialintelligence” will be considered different to a video with the tag “artificial intelligence”. A good format for tags is having them completely lowercase.</p>
<p><strong>Captions:</strong> key accessibility feature for many, including but not limited to: people who are deaf or hard of hearing, people who have difficulty processing auditory information, and people whose native language is not English. At the very least, auto-generated captions should be requested for videos uploaded to Media Hopper Create, although at times they can be inaccurate, it is still better than nothing. These captions can either be corrected by the uploader or a request can be put in to have them reviewed and corrected by the captioning team, to make them as accurate as possible.</p>
<p><strong>Attachments:</strong> The transcript, which is created from the auto-generated captions should be uploaded automatically. It is useful to not remove the transcript as it will allow users to search through it to see if the video is relevant. If a presentation is included in the video, uploading the slides will make it more convenient for the user.</p>
<p><strong>Chapters:</strong> divides the video into different sections based on what it is about. Adding in chapters is very useful especially when the video is longer than 30 mins, because it will allow the user to find what they are looking for in a video without having to watch the whole video.</p>
<h3>What is “bad” metadata?</h3>
<p>When videos uploaded to Media Hopper Create have “bad” metadata, it can lead to poor content sorting, making it harder for users to find videos that they are looking for. For instance, when the title for a lecture video is just “0.0”, rather than having the course the lecture is from and more information about the video, it makes it very difficult for users to find this video unless they specifically have the link/know exactly where to find it. It also means that users are less likely to watch the video as they will not know if it is relevant to them. If a video has too many tags that aren’t specific or relevant to the video, when users try searching based on tags, many less relevant videos might come up, making it harder for the user to find what they are looking for.</p>
<h3>My thoughts</h3>
<p>In my opinion, the main issue with the metadata associated with videos uploaded to Media Hopper Create is that it is inconsistent. Having inconsistent metadata makes it much harder for videos to be organised, which will then make it harder for users to find what they are looking for. As part of my internship, I have been tasked with writing a metadata guidance sheet for video uploaders, which I hope will increase the consistency in quality of metadata of videos uploaded. Although this guidance won’t necessarily be able to change the metadata of the already uploaded videos, by hopefully improving the metadata for future videos, it will mean that users can access the most up to date and relevant videos to them much more easily.</p>
<h3>What I have learned so far</h3>
<p>Before I started this internship, I thought I had quite a good idea of what metadata was and its importance. Although I have only been interning with Media Hopper Create for 3 weeks, I realised, I have already learned a lot. I’ve learned a lot about Media Hopper Create and how useful it is as a service for the University, and I didn’t realise how such small details in metadata could make such a big difference in the user experience. I’m looking forward to the rest of my internship and learning even more about metadata.</p>
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<time datetime="2024-03-20" itemprop="dateModified">Mar 20, 2024</time>
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<title>Lewis Forbes – LaTeX and Accessibility</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2023/08/15/lewis-forbes-latex-and-accessibility/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2023/08/15/lewis-forbes-latex-and-accessibility/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[lforbes3]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 15 Aug 2023 14:46:31 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Digital Learning Applications and Media]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Digital Learning Intern]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=2152</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 5</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>Programme of Study and Year: Informatics (MInf), going into final year. Intern Position: Digital Learning Intern As a former Computer Science and Maths student (now just a Computer Science student), LaTeX has brought me much grief over my time at university. Writing my 30+ page dissertation using the software definitely increased my confidence in using […]]]></description>
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<p><strong>Programme of Study and Year: </strong>Informatics (MInf), going into final year.</p>
<p><strong>Intern Position: </strong>Digital Learning Intern</p>
<hr />
<p>As a former Computer Science and Maths student (now just a Computer Science student), LaTeX has brought me much grief over my time at university. Writing my 30+ page dissertation using the software definitely increased my confidence in using it, but to be honest I still don’t really understand how it works and frequently rely on StackOverflow.</p>
<p>As such, it was saddening but somewhat validating to learn that the problem of accessibility in LaTeX is one which has been plaguing the community for years – it’s maintained by a team of volunteers who have struggled to implement features which are becoming standard in electronic documents. In this post I’ll share my attempts at creating the most accessible LaTeX documents possible and conclude with steps you can take to achieve this. The speed at which LaTeX seems to advance (and break) led to a lot of trial and error in this process, and it’s possible that things which worked for me might not work for you.</p>
<p>I used the <a href="http://edin.ac/ally">accessibility evaluation software Ally</a> to determine what makes documents accessible, which gives documents an accessibility percentage and suggests where improvements can be made. Ally gave the initial PDF I provided a score of 5%, but guided me to create a document with a score of 96%. It did not comment on maths however, which is not accessible by default in LaTeX as explained in this <a href="https://asarantsev.github.io/WebArchive/access.pdf" class="mtli_attachment mtli_pdf">report by Massie and Sarantsev</a>.</p>
<figure id="attachment_2238" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-2238" style="width: 277px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" class="wp-image-2238" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2023/08/image-218x300.png" alt="" width="277" height="382" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2023/08/image-218x300.png 218w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2023/08/image.png 569w" sizes="(max-width: 277px) 100vw, 277px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-2238" class="wp-caption-text">Ally’s initial rating and comments for an unchanged LaTeX document.</figcaption></figure>
<p>Based on Ally’s guidance and the information in the report mentioned, the inaccessible aspects of default LaTeX documents are their lack of tagging and headers, lack of alt text, lack of metadata, and maths which cannot be meaningfully read by screen readers.</p>
<h2>LaTeX Accessibility Summary</h2>
<p>If your document contains a lot of maths, I recommend creating an HTML5 file using <a href="https://pandoc.org/index.html">Pandoc</a>. See the checklist in the ‘Maths’ section below for information on this.</p>
<p>If your document has no maths, follow these steps:</p>
<ol>
<li>Add alt text as explained in the first two bullet points in the ‘Alt Text’ section below.</li>
<li>Add metadata as explained in the ‘Metadata’ section below.</li>
<li>Add tags/headings using the using <a href="https://pdfix.io/make-pdf-accessible/">this PDFix tool</a>.</li>
</ol>
<p>As mentioned, following these steps produced <a href="https://www.overleaf.com/read/wnfhnwdpbfmy">96% accessible LaTeX project</a>, based on Ally’s score of its PDF after tagging.</p>
<hr />
<p>I will now go into more detail about each of the different inaccessible areas mentioned.</p>
<h2>Alt Text</h2>
<p>Alternative text is often included for those <a href="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/website-communications/improving-alt-text-at-the-university/">using screen readers</a>, but thanks to the <a href="https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/the-curb-cut-effect-8a6b68d6485">curb cut effect</a> has uses for many people – both visually impaired and sighted. Different sources recommend different ways of including this:</p>
<p>I successfully added alt text using the following methods:</p>
<ul>
<li>Using a parameter on caption <code>\caption[alt text]{caption text}</code>, as recommended by ChatGPT. This should be used when <code>\includegraphics{}</code> is used within a <code>\figure{}</code> environment.</li>
<li>Using <code>\pdftooltip{}</code> from the <a href="https://ctan.org/pkg/pdfcomment?lang=en">pdfcomment interface</a> successfully added tooltips with user-specified text to the document, which Ally recognized as alt text. This should be used when <code>\includegraphics{}</code> is being used with no <code>\caption{}</code>. For example, I used it in a <code>\subfloat{}</code> environment. This was advised in this <a href="https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/75102/need-alt-text-for-images-in-pdf-for-screen-readers?answertab=modifieddesc#tab-top">StackExchange forum</a>.</li>
</ul>
<p>The following methods were recommended by various sources, but did not allow me to successfully add alt text to images:</p>
<ul>
<li>Using <code>\Description{}</code> as recommended in this <a href="https://authors.acm.org/journals/how-to-write-alt-text-and-why">Association for Computing Machinery article</a>. This command was not recognized by the compiler, and no packages to include were mentioned.</li>
<li>Using <code>\nextalt{}</code> as recommended in this <a href="https://people.bath.ac.uk/cspehj/maths-access/latex-instructions/sect0049.html">webpage by Emma Cliffe at Bath University</a>. This command was not recognized by the compiler even with the inclusion of the graphicsx package as mentioned.</li>
<li>Using the accessibility package and the <code>\alt{}</code> comment as recommended in this <a href="https://libguides.lib.msu.edu/c.php?g=995742&p=8207771">Michigan State University Library guide</a>. This also didn’t work.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Metadata</h2>
<p>Ally highlights the need for the inclusion of a PDF’s title and language. This allows screen readers to introduce the document, which can be included with the following lines in the document preamble:</p>
<p><code>\usepackage{hyperref}<br />
\hypersetup{pdftitle={Document Name}, pdflang={en-GB}}</code></p>
<h2>PDF Tagging & Headings</h2>
<p>There does not appear to be a way of reliably generating tagged PDFs using LaTeX. The unsuitability of two potential solutions I came across follows:</p>
<ul>
<li>As outlined in the <a href="https://ctan.math.illinois.edu/macros/latex/contrib/tagpdf/tagpdf.pdf" class="mtli_attachment mtli_pdf">tagpdf documentation</a>, the tagpdf package is not meant for normal document production. As such, the syntax required to use it is complicated and the package likely contains bugs.</li>
<li>As outlined on the <a href="https://github.com/AndyClifton/accessibility"><!--StartFragment --><span class="cf0">Accessibility package GitHub page</span></a>, the accessibility package is also not suitable for production and is no longer maintained. Although it does produces tagged PDFs according to Ally, it sometimes leads to documents not compiling, and sometimes causes unexpected behaviour. As an example:
<ul>
<li>This <a href="https://www.overleaf.com/read/jhnbjpgkbfgy">compilable project</a> does not contain the package, but otherwise identical <a href="https://www.overleaf.com/read/xrqdvtbrksds">uncompilable project</a> contains the package.</li>
<li>In this <a href="https://www.overleaf.com/read/vjnnqxjwtnvy">incorrectly compiled project</a> some of the text is duplicated whereas in this <a href="https://www.overleaf.com/read/grpjgthrpcvq">correctly compiled project</a> no duplication occurs.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Tags can be added to a PDF once it’s been created by a few different services, namely Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, Microsoft Word, and PDFix. Since Acrobat Pro isn’t free to use and Word seems to often ruin the format, I found PDFix’s <a href="https://pdfix.io/make-pdf-accessible/">‘Make PDF Accessible’ tool</a> to be the best solution. This also allows metadata to be changed. The company appear reputable with the <a href="https://pdfix.net/privacy-policy/">PDFix privacy policy</a> stating they delete all provided files for 30 days and pass data to third parties “only within the extent necessary to meet its obligations”.</p>
<p>The only problem I found with this service was its inability to render a <code>.pdf</code> vector image. This format is unusual, and was easily fixed by converting the image to a <code>.png</code> file.</p>
<h2>Maths</h2>
<p>Making maths accessible in LaTeX does appear to be possible but is a little complex. Most sources seem to recommend converting LaTeX documents to HTML5 documents via a semi-automated process using various tools. This aforementioned <a href="https://asarantsev.github.io/WebArchive/access.pdf" class="mtli_attachment mtli_pdf">Massie and Sarantsev paper</a> provides a good overview of the topic.</p>
<p>I found <a href="https://pandoc.org/index.html">Pandoc</a> to be the easiest tool to do this conversion. To convert maths it uses <a href="https://www.mathjax.org/">MathJax</a> – a JavaScript engine which creates “beautiful and accessible math in all browsers”. HTML documents are accessible by default since they are tagged, and contain conventions for setting alt text and metadata. See this <a href="https://docs.mathjax.org/en/v2.7-latest/misc/accessibility-features.html#screenreader-support">MathJax documentation page</a> for information on screen readers for maths it helps display.</p>
<p>Once installing Pandoc, LaTeX documents can be converted on Windows as follows:</p>
<ol>
<li>Open command prompt (press <code>Win+R</code>, type cmd, press enter).</li>
<li>Copy the location of the folder containing the <code>.tex</code> file you wish to convert. The <code>.bib</code> file should be in the same directory.</li>
<li>In command prompt, enter:
<ul>
<li><code>cd "the folder location you copied"</code></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Enter the following command, replacing <code>myTex.tex</code> and <code>myBib.bib</code> with your filenames.
<ul>
<li><code>pandoc myTex.tex -f latex -t html -s -o output.html --bibliography myTex.bib --citeproc --mathjax</code></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Move the new file <code>output.html</code> up one folder level. For example, from <code>C:/folder1/folder2/folder3/output.html</code> to <code>C:/folder1/folder2/output.html</code>. This is so images’ paths are correct.</li>
<li>Open <code>output.html</code>.</li>
</ol>
<p>You might find Pandoc is <span class="NormalTextRun SCXW204967602 BCX0">less forgiving with syntax errors than your usual </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW204967602 BCX0">compiler when it comes to your bibliography</span>. A verifier such as <a href="https://flamingtempura.github.io/bibtex-tidy/">BibTeX Tidy</a> can be used to identify and correct errors.</p>
<h2>The Future</h2>
<p>Decreasing the steps authors have to take to make their LaTeX documents accessible is an area of active development, as outlined in <a href="https://www.latex-project.org/publications/indexbytopic/pdf/">The LaTex Project’s accessibility publications</a>. The most recent update I’ve seen comes from this <a href="https://www.latex-project.org/news/2023/05/27/latex-dev-2/">LaTeX news article</a> introducing the final pre-release of the June 2023 version of LaTeX.</p>
<p>This pre-releases produced viable, tagged documents for simple files, but cannot format some complex files, as shown in the image below. For documents with tables it produced well-compiled PDFs, but they were untagged. This means the pre-release is currently no better than the tagging methods mentioned above.</p>
<figure id="attachment_2203" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-2203" style="width: 967px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" class="wp-image-2203 size-full" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2023/08/image-3.png" alt="A screenshot of a unreadable document, containing text which overflows to off of the page and displayed commands." width="967" height="559" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2023/08/image-3.png 967w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2023/08/image-3-300x173.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2023/08/image-3-768x444.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 967px) 100vw, 967px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-2203" class="wp-caption-text">A poorly formatted document produced by the final June pre-release of LaTeX.</figcaption></figure>
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<time datetime="2023-08-15" itemprop="dateModified">Aug 15, 2023</time>
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<title>Ioana-Sabina Susanu – My Digital Learning Internship, in a nutshell.</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2023/06/07/ioana-sabina-susanu-my-digital-learning-internship-in-a-nutshell/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2023/06/07/ioana-sabina-susanu-my-digital-learning-internship-in-a-nutshell/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[lforbes3]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 07 Jun 2023 14:48:11 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Digital Learning Intern]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=1905</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 2</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>Programme of Study and Year: 3rd year Astrophysics Hobbies: Reading, music, karate Intern Position: Digital Learning Intern Describe your role in 4 words: interesting, challenging (at times), rewarding I wanted to take the time to do a blog post on how my internship has been for the past year. I have worked full-time during the […]]]></description>
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<p><strong>Programme of Study and Year: </strong>3rd year Astrophysics</p>
<p><strong>Hobbies: </strong>Reading, music, karate</p>
<p><strong>Intern Position: </strong>Digital Learning Intern</p>
<p><strong>Describe your role in 4 words: </strong>interesting, challenging (at times), rewarding</p>
<hr />
<p>I wanted to take the time to do a blog post on how my internship has been for the past year. I have worked full-time during the summer in the DLAM TEL team (Digital Learning Applications and Media, Technology Enhanced Learning – so many acronyms!), and part-time during the academic year.</p>
<p>I have done mostly Accessibility testing on various applications, including Turnitin, Moodle, Echo360, Collaborate and Ally, but also other tasks like caption verification or blog editing. I have had a lot to learn about all of the different software types and environments used within the University, and how important each piece of technology is.</p>
<p>Wrapping up my time in DLAM, I wanted to share once again how important the topic of Accessibility is, since it is what the vast majority of my work consisted of. Even though it seems that most of the regulations and adaptive software is concentrated on visual impairment (and too few regulations cover physical impairment – but this is a discussion for another time), it is certain that every little element that is made accessible on a page/application/platform makes a huge difference. Every colour combination, every button, every description and every message matters and can make the navigation better for users if accessibility is taken into consideration.</p>
<p>That being said, my work has been varied, and I never got a chance to get ‘bored’ as every thing I had to do was different from the previous one. I had the opportunity of working with a lot of different people, and I had a lot to learn from everyone I’ve met during my internship. The fact that the team has been welcoming and helpful made a great difference for me and my work – being relaxed and confident in my actions made me more productive, efficient and attentive to details</p>
<h2>Make the most of Learning Technology!</h2>
<p>I would like to end this blog post with a big ‘Thank you’ to the DLAM TEL team, and the wider Learning, Teaching and Web community for the continued support throughout the year.</p>
<p>I certainly recommend giving Learning Technology a chance, regardless of your degree – in the end, it is used by everyone at University, and it’s a very diverse field that will never make you bored.</p>
<p>And lastly, make the most of the resources available – there is a wide variety of them (books, software, databases, videos, courses, trainings), all available at a few clicks’ distance.</p>
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<time datetime="2023-06-07" itemprop="dateModified">Jun 7, 2023</time>
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<title>Eva Spanachi – The journey of being a Digital Learning Intern</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2022/08/04/__trashed/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2022/08/04/__trashed/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[espanach]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Thu, 04 Aug 2022 14:15:15 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Digital Learning Intern]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=1629</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 4</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>Programme of Study and Year: 4th Year Chemistry Hobbies: Art, reading, yoga, baking Intern Position: Digital learning Intern Describe your role in 4 words: Write a blog guys! “Known as” at the office: That annoying person who wouldn’t stop sending emails about the ISG Student Employee blog The opportunity to be part of the ISG […]]]></description>
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<hr />
<p><strong>Programme of Study and Year:</strong> 4<sup>th</sup> Year Chemistry</p>
<p><strong>Hobbies:</strong> Art, reading, yoga, baking</p>
<p><strong>Intern Position:</strong> Digital learning Intern</p>
<p><strong>Describe your role in 4 words:</strong> Write a blog guys!</p>
<p><strong>“Known as” at the office:</strong> That annoying person who wouldn’t stop sending emails about the ISG Student Employee blog</p>
<hr />
<h2>The opportunity to be part of the ISG team</h2>
<p>In mid-April, having the usual mid-semester crisis I started thinking of what I would be doing over the summer! So I started a search to find an internship and I came across the various roles offered by ISG on MyCareerHub and everything looked very interesting (and not chemistry related, which would allow my brain to have a break from all the science). Having my interview with some of the Digital Learning Applications and Media (DLAM) members, I immediately realized that I really wanted to become part of that lovely team and was therefore really happy to receive an offer for the digital learning role.</p>
<h2>The internship so far…</h2>
<p>Part of my internship consists of general testing, as well as accessibility testing on University platforms. After undergoing some training on accessibility, I was so surprised to realize how unfamiliar I was with the whole concept and I definitely learned a lot about how to make things more accessible by considering things like using a correct colour contrast, alternative text when using images, captions in videos and the general structure of a site to make it easy to navigate when someone is not using a mouse or using a speech navigator for example. The general lesson I learned however, was to actually keep in mind the various audiences and not just assume that we all use computers and technology in the same way, but we definitely all deserve to be able to access and navigate through all online environments.</p>
<p>Another part of my role has been to create screencasts using MediaHopper to provide instructions on how to navigate around some teaching and learning sites such as Learn. I now know the struggle of having to record your own voice, and the need to have approximately a hundred takes before you decide to give up and use whatever you have recorded by convincing yourself that it is good enough! The first video I had to script and record was 1.5 mins long and it took me a day to perfect, caption and finally post so I can only imagine how difficult it must be to record an hour long lecture!</p>
<p>I was also recently able to observe how the Unidesk side of the team works and see how they keep the Learning Technology of the University working, and ensure that any issue that occurs is resolved. So I had the opportunity to follow through the process of how an issue, that a staff member or student may be dealing with on different university platforms, such as Turnitin and Learn, is handled and eventually resolved. In the next few weeks I will also be able to go through a few issues and try to propose a way to resolve the problem, and become familiar with the different stages of coming up with a solution.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-1805 " src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2022/07/IMG20220328150556-scaled-e1659605487903-300x241.jpg" alt="" width="467" height="375" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2022/07/IMG20220328150556-scaled-e1659605487903-300x241.jpg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2022/07/IMG20220328150556-scaled-e1659605487903-1024x822.jpg 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2022/07/IMG20220328150556-scaled-e1659605487903-768x617.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2022/07/IMG20220328150556-scaled-e1659605487903-1536x1233.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2022/07/IMG20220328150556-scaled-e1659605487903.jpg 1919w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 467px) 100vw, 467px" /></p>
<p> </p>
<h2>Getting familiar with Blogs.ed!</h2>
<p>The general and accessibility testing I did was on Blogs.ed which was really useful because it helped me get familiar with the website as I had to use it daily as part of having the role of the student intern blog editor. My first task with this role was to come up with a template for the blog posts (a challenging task considering I had never written a single blog post or anything similar before). So I had to come up with a plan!</p>
<p>-> <strong>Plan A:</strong> Read all the previous blogs written by interns and get inspired. Well, I discovered that there were too many previous interns and hence too many previous blogs and too little time! -> <strong>Plan B:</strong> Read <em>a few</em> blogs from each past summer to get inspired and create a template. That actually worked and I managed to structure a template. Step 1 done! <strong>Step 2-</strong> Get the template approved and come up with a strategy on how to approach the other interns. I knew immediately that I had to find a way to make my fellow interns want to write blog posts without being too annoying. <strong> Step 3-</strong> After annoying the interns I then had to edit and proofread their blogs and finally post them on <a href="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/">the Information Services Group: Student Employee Blog</a>. It has been great to see that the plan actually worked and interns did offer to write a blog, and I definitely enjoyed reading them all!</p>
<h2>A few weeks left…</h2>
<p>Only a few weeks left for the end of my internship and I am thankful that I had the opportunity to be part of such a lovely team, where everyone was very welcoming and supportive throughout the internship. Also very grateful that Covid managed to calm down and allow us to go to the office now and then and enjoy each other’s company in person, and got to meet other interns during the great Unitemps social events!</p>
<p><strong>I hope all the interns had a great time during their internships and enjoyed their summers as well! Hopefully the rest of the staff in ISG enjoyed having us around and I am sure all of us appreciate their work and effort a lot more now that we got to see what is happening behind ‘the scenes’.</strong></p>
<p> </p>
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<time datetime="2022-08-04" itemprop="dateModified">Aug 4, 2022</time>
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<title>Ioana -Uncovering the depths of accessibility testing in the Digital Learning Internship</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2022/07/25/ioana-uncovering-the-depths-of-accessibility-testing-in-the-digital-learning-internship/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2022/07/25/ioana-uncovering-the-depths-of-accessibility-testing-in-the-digital-learning-internship/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[espanach]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 25 Jul 2022 13:10:59 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Digital Learning Intern]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=1727</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 3</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>Programme of Study and Year: Astrophysics (MPhys), going into 3rd year Hobbies: Reading, listening to music, taking walks, watching TV series Intern Position: Digital Learning Intern within Learning, Teaching and Web (LTW) Fun fact about your internship: I have become knowledgeable in Accessibility testing, even though this was not the plan initially Describe your role […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 3</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span><hr />
<p><strong>Programme of Study and Year:</strong> Astrophysics (MPhys), going into 3<sup>rd</sup> year</p>
<p><strong>Hobbies:</strong> Reading, listening to music, taking walks, watching TV series</p>
<p><strong>Intern Position:</strong> Digital Learning Intern within Learning, Teaching and Web (LTW)</p>
<p><strong>Fun fact about your internship:</strong> I have become knowledgeable in Accessibility testing, even though this was not the plan initially</p>
<p><strong>Describe your role in 4 words: </strong> Challenging, rewarding, technical, awesome</p>
<hr />
<h2>The internship experience in a nutshell</h2>
<p>I have found out about these internships from the Unitemps website. I kept checking it in March, as I knew that was the time when the summer roles would be advertised. I have also received notifications over e-mail regarding the roles and how to apply. My role requires me to become familiar with a variety of learning technology applications, and do the accessibility testing based on a specific script and using assistive software. The most enjoyable part is that I get to see, learn, experience and test a lot of the University’s platforms, applications and integrations, and I have the chance to see these from a developer point of view. Additionally, it is just enjoyable to collaborate with my team members and socialise with other interns when we are in the office. Speaking of socialising, the Unitemps social events for interns are the best – the food is great and I always get to meet and talk to lots of interesting people with various experiences.</p>
<h2>Highlights of Digital Learning – Creating documentation and conducting accessibility testing</h2>
<p>I find the 9-5 life surprisingly relaxing, especially when I work from home. Office days can be a bit more tiring, but they are the most fun as almost everyone is there on certain days. My team is welcoming and friendly, even in busy and stressful times – for which I admire them greatly. I really enjoy that communication is very efficient within the team, both when we are in the office and when we are working remotely.</p>
<p>My role so far has helped me overcome certain ‘fears’, for example listening to my own voice. I had to create some videos with instructions on how to use one of the applications within the University. I already had the script, I just had to record my screen while navigating the application. Even though it seems like a simple task, the idea of recording my own voice felt strange. After talking to my manager and some of the members of my team about this, I found that my feeling was quite common – no-one likes to record and listen to their own voice! Therefore I was a bit more confident that nothing could go wrong and I recorded the videos. Listening to my own voice while doing the captioning was not that bad – especially since I was focused on the quality of the sound and the content itself. The feedback I received for the videos was good, which boosted my confidence for this type of task.</p>
<p>As my work requires me to do accessibility testing, I had the opportunity to discover how complex this field is, and how many regulations need to be taken into account for a webpage/application/platform to be considered accessible. As an example, I was aware of captioning being needed for videos, but I wasn’t aware of the exact ratios needed for colour contrasts within a page. In addition, I could see how certain types of assistive software interact with the University platforms and applications, and which issues are encountered. While I still have some training sessions to do, I have developed an awareness for accessibility and I feel that this subject should be promoted more.</p>
<p>The internship has been a great experience so far. I feel lucky that I am a part of a lovely team (DLAM TEL – Digital Learning Applications and Media, Tech Enhanced Learning) where everyone is friendly and willing to help. I have a lot to learn from all of the team members, and also the other interns. The working environment is very good and inspiring, and it allows me to develop valuable skills that will certainly be beneficial in future assignments.</p>
<p><strong>Through this blog post, I would like to wish all the other interns the best of luck in their internships and projects, and to thank all the staff members for being welcoming and supportive in every matter. And last but not least, I encourage every student to apply for a summer internship within the Information Services Group – it’s definitely a fantastic experience!</strong></p>
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<time datetime="2022-07-25" itemprop="dateModified">Jul 25, 2022</time>
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<title>How I develop skills as a continuing App Developer Intern – Martin Lewis</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2022/04/20/how-i-develop-skills-as-a-continuing-app-developer-intern-martin-lewis/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2022/04/20/how-i-develop-skills-as-a-continuing-app-developer-intern-martin-lewis/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[awilso35]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 20 Apr 2022 11:59:17 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Learn Foundations Learning Applications Developer]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=1581</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 2</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>Martin Lewis is a final year student in BSc (Hons) Computer Science, and started working as a Summer Intern in ISG in 2020, as one of our interns auditing Learn. Martin really impressed the Learn team with his initiative in finding a chance to automate some work, so since summer 2021 he has since been […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 2</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span><p><em>Martin Lewis is a final year student in BSc (Hons) Computer Science, and started working as a Summer Intern in ISG in 2020, as one of our interns auditing Learn. Martin really impressed the Learn team with his initiative in finding a chance to automate some work, so since summer 2021 he has since been working with the Learn team in a more technical role, doing programming.</em></p>
<p>I started work in Information Services Group (ISG) at the University as a <strong>Summer Intern</strong> in 2020 and 2021, and <strong>since then I’ve been working for ISG doing technical bits and pieces</strong>. In this blog post I’ll be discussing <strong>what I’ve been doing as a part of my work for ISG and what skills this has helped me develop.</strong></p>
<p>Initially I was doing rather non-technical work as part of the Learn Foundations project getting the University’s Learn courses prepared for the new academic year. This was adding things like the course outline and organiser details into these fresh courses. <strong>However, I managed to find a way to automate parts of the workflow I was assigned to and from there began to do technical work for the ISG.</strong><br />
I now have the very long winded title of ‘Learn Foundations Applications Developer Intern’ in which I do development work, making applications that are usually, sometime tangentially, related to the Learn Foundations Project.</p>
<p>For those more technically minded, I’m working in the PHP programming language doing full stack (front and backend) work using the Laravel framework. An excellent opportunity to learn a new language and framework. <strong>There is also the chance to work on real world projects that contain issues and experiences that cannot be found in the classroom or in a coursework assignment.</strong> With real team members (big thanks to Andrew and his team who I have been working with) and <strong>projects that have a real outcome (not just a grade).</strong></p>
<p>Now this is not only a good opportunity to hone skills but it also looks very good on a CV. Already having practical software development experience is fantastic and it also is a great source of discussion <strong>during interviews being able to bring up situations and decisions you made outside of a classroom is great.</strong></p>
<p>Now let’s look at the day to day practicalities (this is just my experience your mileage may vary with role and when you might work). The work is remote, as you could probably guess, which fits well alongside my majority remote learning these past few years. Over the summers I’ve worked full time, 35 hours a week, being treated as a standard member of university staff. Then over the semesters only 7 hours a week which I find easy to fit around my studies and personal life but it does often mean rather slow progress in the projects you work on.</p>
<p><strong>Both of the line managers I’ve had have been wonderful and very understanding about the need to change work patterns last minute or take time off around major deadlines and exams.</strong> The pay isn’t too bad and goes a long way towards covering my rent.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if I’ll be continuing to work for the University after May as I am finally graduating. I will however apologise in advance to any potential future intern who has to work with my code! But the last two years have gone a long way to making me a much more employable graduate.</p>
<p>So do consider applying for an ISG internship,<strong> I’ve personally gotten a lot out of it and I think any proactive student can benefit greatly from such a role.</strong></p>
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<time datetime="2022-04-20" itemprop="dateModified">Apr 20, 2022</time>
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<title>Top Five Things I Like About my Internship</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2021/08/11/top-five-things-i-like-about-my-internship/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2021/08/11/top-five-things-i-like-about-my-internship/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[rcormac3]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 11 Aug 2021 11:07:16 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Digital Media Assistant]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=1543</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 3</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>Hazel is the Digital Media Assistant Intern and is responsible for making promotional videos for some of the Ed Web Services and self-enroll courses that are available for staff with the aim of explaining the system and services better to encourage higher usage. She enjoys her job because it allows for creativity and also loves […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 3</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span><p><em>Hazel is the Digital Media Assistant Intern and is responsible for making promotional videos for some of the Ed Web Services and self-enroll courses that are available for staff with the aim of explaining the system and services better to encourage higher usage. She enjoys her job because it allows for creativity and also loves singing, dancing, cooking and has just recently starting learning the ukulele!</em></p>
<hr />
<p>“It’s summer again!” This was what I thinking as I finished my semester. Then what? What should I do this summer? I wanted to make myself useful and gain some experience, which led me to browse for internship opportunities, and fortunately, I was accepted as a Digital Media Assistant Intern under Learning, Teaching and Web services (LTW)!</p>
<p>Impacted by COVID-19, the ways in which we learn and work have changed drastically. As a student, I’m not really a big fan of online learning but to my surprise, I have enjoyed my remote-working internship experience. Here are the top five things I like about my internship experience, and I hope some of that resonate with yours too <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/16.0.1/72x72/1f642.png" alt="🙂" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /></p>
<h3>1) Have my own input and make things happen!</h3>
<p>I’d never really had any internship experience before I joined. From my what my friends said, they described it as more of a rigid form of working, which means managers tell them exactly what they need to do and manage all the tasks with frequent reporting. It seems like it curbs much of their own creative input into the work as they are only following what they are asked to do.</p>
<p>However, my internship experience is totally different! To my surprise, I am given a plethora of opportunities to have my own input in creative tasks. For example, I initiated ideas of the video storyboards and the design of them. The fact that most of them were accepted truly makes me feel empowered as my manager and colleagues trust my skills in making the videos happen.<em><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class=" wp-image-1545 aligncenter" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2021/08/andrew-neel-cckf4TsHAuw-unsplash-300x200.jpg" alt="Table with laptop, mug, pen and paper and a mobile phone." width="411" height="274" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2021/08/andrew-neel-cckf4TsHAuw-unsplash-300x200.jpg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2021/08/andrew-neel-cckf4TsHAuw-unsplash-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2021/08/andrew-neel-cckf4TsHAuw-unsplash-768x512.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2021/08/andrew-neel-cckf4TsHAuw-unsplash-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2021/08/andrew-neel-cckf4TsHAuw-unsplash-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 411px) 100vw, 411px" /></em></p>
<h3>2) Effective communication</h3>
<p>Since the internship is entirely remote, we have used different methods of communication. Making use of Microsoft Teams and Outlook Email functions facilitates effective communication and avoids long-winded boring meetings (which usually happens in a physical setting). With all the technology available, it makes Working from Home possible and seemingly more effective, saving travelling time and speeding up work productivity. Therefore, although we cannot see each other physically, I am still able to communicate with my line manager and other team members easily on a weekly basis and get things going.</p>
<h3>3) High flexibility (time management skills are required!)</h3>
<p>My internship experience is very flexible with the whole project timeline. I can take on the role to plan when things should be delivered and manage when I should sort out the ideas, video storyboards and drafts, etc. This has certainly strengthened my time management skills, as I have to ensure that I am not falling behind the schedule and the project can progress swiftly.</p>
<p>The high flexibility also enables me to schedule other commitments around it. This allows me to achieve a good work-life balance during this period. I know that having an unexpected flexibility with time might seem to be a bit too good to be true, but to be honest, it does require a lot of self-control and time management skills!</p>
<h3>4) Gaining diverse skills</h3>
<p>It is a pleasant surprise to be able to gain other skills outside of what I’ve already learned! My project requires collaboration with other team members in the project and that has enabled me to learn so much more in other aspects, such as content writing, visual design, persona creation etc. These are all valuable opportunities and relevant skillsets that will be very helpful in a workplace. The fact that I can gain all these diverse skills makes the whole experience much more fulfilling!</p>
<h3>5) Supportive environment</h3>
<p>Last but not least, I’ve got to say I’m so grateful to have a really supportive manager that has kindly guided me all along. My colleagues have been really welcoming and encouraging with what I have done. Also, other team members in LTW have helped me so much with their constructive feedback! This whole working environment is surely a great add-on to this internship experience as who wouldn’t love to be surrounded by smart and friendly people?</p>
<hr />
<p>I’m certain that some of you may have a similar/ different internship experience according to your own department/ projects. Feel free to comment down below and share yours too! <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/16.0.1/72x72/1f642.png" alt="🙂" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /></p>
<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area">
<time datetime="2021-08-11" itemprop="dateModified">Aug 11, 2021</time>
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<category><![CDATA[DLAM Feed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Projects]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[internship]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/dlam/?p=5766</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 4</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span> Hi, I’m Hera, the Data Visualization Intern working on the Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) Data Dashboards. Before getting into this internship, data had already been a fundamental part of my life. As an undergraduate student studying Psychology and Linguistics, statistics is part of the core of what we do. We’ve been taught how […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p> </p>
<div id="attachment_5767" style="width: 1811px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-5767" class="wp-image-5767 size-full" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/dlam/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2025/08/Screenshot-2025-08-15-092443.png" alt="Image of the TEL Data Dashboard SharePoint" width="1801" height="780" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/dlam/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2025/08/Screenshot-2025-08-15-092443.png 1801w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/dlam/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2025/08/Screenshot-2025-08-15-092443-300x130.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/dlam/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2025/08/Screenshot-2025-08-15-092443-1024x443.png 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/dlam/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2025/08/Screenshot-2025-08-15-092443-768x333.png 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/dlam/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2025/08/Screenshot-2025-08-15-092443-1536x665.png 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1801px) 100vw, 1801px" /><p id="caption-attachment-5767" class="wp-caption-text">The TEL Data Dashboard SharePoint</p></div>
<p> </p>
<p>Hi, I’m Hera, the Data Visualization Intern working on the Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) Data Dashboards. Before getting into this internship, data had already been a fundamental part of my life.</p>
<p>As an undergraduate student studying Psychology and Linguistics, statistics is part of the core of what we do. We’ve been taught how to approach data, clean it, visualize it, and analyze it. We’ve been taught how to run countless tests on it to figure out numbers like p-values and Cohen’s d.</p>
<p>Data and statistics are the shield behind what we do, the numbers that say “yeah, we’re 95% confident that what we found was not just an outcome of chance”.</p>
<p>It is the “sciencey” part.</p>
<p>But the visualization was small. It was more about getting the numbers to fit certain significance levels, just cold numbers and letters on a report. Visuals were required to have a better understanding of distributions. Although they were important and did tell a story, they weren’t exactly pretty and exciting standing by themselves. The excitement mainly comes when significant values are put into the context of suggesting that some scientific discoveries are “real”.</p>
<p>So when I got the opportunity to look at the data of LTW services when creating the dashboards, it was like a whole new world of fantasies and stories.</p>
<p>You start with the same old things that you do with any data.</p>
<p>You explore it, get yourself familiarized with it. Make sure you know what each data point means, how they each interlink with another. Meet with the data providers, service managers, and ask clarifying questions: What data points are relevant? What do you want to see on the dashboards? What would users want to see?</p>
<p>You clean the data, make sure everything is consistent, check for errors, and decide what measures to exclude and what measures to keep. You filter the data, merge stuff together when needed, and transform it into formats that PowerBI won’t give you errors working with.</p>
<p>And then the fundamental part of this internship, and the most exciting part – you paint visuals with numbers.</p>
<p>Bar charts, line graphs, area graphs, and pie charts.</p>
<p>Name cards, funnels, slicers, and filters.</p>
<p>Numbers are no longer just numbers. They are grouped together in bars or lines or arcs, illuminated with vibrant colours, and interactive with everything else that you click on.</p>
<p>PowerBI is my paintbrush.</p>
<p>An annoying one at certain times, trying to get it to do what I want, but a very useful one too indeed. You can play around with it in so many different ways: filter, slice, cross-highlight, drill down…</p>
<p>It was a constant problem-solving process to organize the data in certain ways and to customize the visualizations, trying to figure out relationships between models, and edit interactions between visuals so that related data move together. As there are ten services that I create dashboards for, and each of them is unique, the whole process starts again brand new with every dashboard that I make.</p>
<p>I also got to play around with the colours, the blank spaces, the shapes and lines – just like an artist would with his or her pieces of work.</p>
<p>But it was not only art in terms of the visuals. It was also art in terms of storytelling.</p>
<p>When data forms more than tables and numbers, you start to see the pictures more directly. Visualizations help to filter down the data to the most important bits, which makes the difficult communication of huge datasets much easier.</p>
<p>You can tell the story through different perspectives and dimensions. You can see the trend through time and years, a story of rises or fluctuations that make you wonder why there are certain peaks or troughs. You can see the categorizations by departments or user roles, which reveal how similar or different things are with students versus staff.</p>
<p>And as a product, the dashboards go through iterations of feedback with the data providers, service managers, and LTW representatives from the different schools. I was constantly having meetings to display my dashboards and to ask for feedback.</p>
<p>In fact, meeting with the services was one of the best parts. With both the initial walk-through of the datasets and the later feedback for the completed dashboards, collaboration with the different teams gave me a short glimpse of all of their work and inputs over the years. All the hidden work and immense effort behind the scenes, where I would not have known if I didn’t have the chance to work with LTW as an intern. The most inspiring part, though, was seeing their incredible expertise and familiarity with the services that they manage, and that was what brought the sparks into their eyes when they saw the dashboards.</p>
<p>So the dashboards tell way more than what someone can imagine, because people have different perspectives when they look at the same visualizations.</p>
<p>For the management teams of the different schools, the visualizations tell a story that reveals the preferences of their students and staff. For the data providers and service managers, the dashboards provide a snapshot of all their efforts and inputs into their services over the past few years.</p>
<p>For me, the whole project was a journey of exploration, discovery, and growth.</p>
<p>A journey of exploring the intersection between science and art.</p>
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<title>Elia Müller – Initial thoughts on doing Accessibility Checks</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2024/07/05/elia-muller-initial-thoughts-on-doing-accessibility-checks/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2024/07/05/elia-muller-initial-thoughts-on-doing-accessibility-checks/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[emuller2]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 05 Jul 2024 10:23:36 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[EDE]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Educational Design and Engagement]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Learn Foundations Intern]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Learn Foundations Learning Applications Developer]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[summer]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Uncategorised]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[university of edinburgh]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=2455</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 2</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>Year of study & degree: 2nd year Psychology and Linguistics Internship: Learn Foundations Intern Meal deal of choice: Least offensive looking sandwich + Bakery item + Smoothie Favourite floor in Argyle House: Definitely K The title of your preferred work playlist: tasteless bops Subpar Slides As a Learn Foundations Intern, I’m involved in conducting a […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 2</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span><hr />
<p><b><span data-contrast="auto">Year of study & degree: </span></b><span data-contrast="auto">2</span><span data-contrast="auto">nd</span><span data-contrast="auto"> year Psychology and Linguistics</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":279}"> </span></p>
<p><b><span data-contrast="auto">Internship:</span></b><span data-contrast="auto"> Learn Foundations Intern</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":279}"> </span></p>
<p><b><span data-contrast="auto">Meal deal of choice:</span></b><span data-contrast="auto"> Least offensive looking sandwich + Bakery item + Smoothie</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":279}"> </span></p>
<p><b><span data-contrast="auto">Favourite floor in Argyle House:</span></b><span data-contrast="auto"> Definitely K</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":279}"> </span></p>
<p><b><span data-contrast="auto">The title of your preferred work playlist:</span></b><span data-contrast="auto"> tasteless bops</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":279}"> </span></p>
<hr />
<h2><span data-contrast="none">Subpar Slides</span><span data-ccp-props="{"134245418":true,"134245529":true,"201341983":0,"335559738":160,"335559739":80,"335559740":279}"> </span></h2>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">As a Learn Foundations Intern, I’m involved in conducting a number of checks on the university’s Virtual Learning Environment, Learn. We are tasked with verifying the presence of a school-dependent template and making sure that the correct variables are present, among other things (think LOTS of Excel spreadsheets filled with Ys and Ns).</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":279}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">But the part of my internship that has intrigued me the most so far is the accessibility checks that I’ve had to fill out for a random sample of courses from each school. More specifically, I thoroughly enjoyed scrolling through the PowerPoint slides of various courses and imagining the lectures that had accompanied them (a personal favourite so far were the slides of a female filmmakers course from which I got great movie recommendations). </span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":279}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">But what about the accessibility of these slides? </span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":279}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">It leaves much to be desired, unfortunately. Aside from scans of documents, PowerPoints seem to be the documents that consistently have the most accessibility issues, ranging from insufficient contrast between text and slide backgrounds to images that didn’t include alternative text. </span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":279}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">I was stumped, as there is guidance on how to make PowerPoint presentations accessible to all, as well as </span><a href="https://uoe.sharepoint.com/:p:/r/sites/Anintroductiontoaccessibilityinlearningtechnology/Shared%20Documents/PowerPoint%20Accessible%20Template%201.pptx?d=w0026da0da47d4bc08995b30bfe529ecb&csf=1&web=1&e=7RS9cA"><span data-contrast="none">a</span><span data-contrast="none"> template</span></a><span data-contrast="auto"> provided by the university. Why weren’t people using that template?</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":279}"> </span></p>
<h2><span data-contrast="none">Both beautiful and accessible</span><span data-ccp-props="{"134233117":false,"134233118":false,"134245418":true,"134245529":true,"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":0,"335559737":0,"335559738":160,"335559739":80,"335559740":279}"> </span></h2>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Whilst I was staring incredulously at the university template that was getting so little use, I came to the realisation that a possible explanation for its invariable rejection was that it was a little </span><i><span data-contrast="auto">too </span></i><span data-contrast="auto">template-like. Its background is a neutral navy blue, and its font is Arial. What it has in accessibility, it lacks in flair. I believe that one reason the template may not be used is that course organisers want to add personality to the slides.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":279}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">But surely both are possible? This got me thinking about the way in which I design my own PowerPoint presentations. I frequently make use of online databases of PowerPoint templates, where I can choose between a myriad of different layouts and designs. </span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":279}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">How could we blend the world of accessibility and the world of design freedom?</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":279}"> </span></p>
<h2><span data-contrast="none">A possible route forward</span><span data-ccp-props="{"134245418":true,"134245529":true,"201341983":0,"335559738":160,"335559739":80,"335559740":279}"> </span></h2>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">One of the aspects I appreciate most about having an internship within ISG is that my line manager and supervisors are very keen on hearing our feedback and potential suggestions for improvements. This allowed me to suggest a database of accessible PowerPoint templates, to expand on the single template that currently exists and to enable course organisers to opt for an accessible template without sacrificing their aesthetic desires. If time permits, I would like to work on this project in the later stages of my internship.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":279}"> </span></p>
<h6>– your new Blog Editor</h6>
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<time datetime="2024-07-05" itemprop="dateModified">Jul 5, 2024</time>
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<title>Tallulah Thompson – What I have learnt from the Media and Podcasting Internship</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2024/05/27/tallulah-thompson-what-i-have-learnt-from-the-media-and-podcasting-internship/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2024/05/27/tallulah-thompson-what-i-have-learnt-from-the-media-and-podcasting-internship/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[tthompso]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 27 May 2024 08:14:32 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Digital Learning Applications and Media]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Internships]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=2426</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 3</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>Programme of Study and Year: 1st year Informatics (MInf) Intern Position: Media and Podcasting Intern I have now been working with the Digital Learning Applications and Media (DLAM) group as the Media and Podcasting Intern since February. It’s been an amazing experience – I’ve had the opportunity to get involved in so many interesting things and […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 3</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span><p><strong>Programme of Study and Year: </strong>1st year Informatics (MInf)<br />
<strong>Intern Position: </strong>Media and Podcasting Intern</p>
<hr />
<p>I have now been working with the Digital Learning Applications and Media (DLAM) group as the Media and Podcasting Intern since February. It’s been an amazing experience – I’ve had the opportunity to get involved in so many interesting things and to work with a brilliant team led by Karen Howie. I’m really grateful to Karen and my colleagues for stretching me and supporting me in equal measure. As my internship comes to an end soon, I have decided to share my reflections and what I have learnt.</p>
<p><!-- notionvc: 0025adfe-330e-429b-a7a2-3092aef75b03 --></p>
<h3>Why I applied for this internship</h3>
<p>At the end of my first semester, I decided I wanted to find a job for the following semester that would allow me to interact with more people across the university, and that ideally would involve a project that would benefit others. After looking through many Computer Science related jobs, I found that most were exclusive to penultimate/final year students, and I realised I would have to broaden my search. I started looking for jobs, that despite being less directly related to my field of study, would still be relevant to my interests and help me gain professional experience and valuable skills. That was when I came across the Media and Podcasting Intern job opportunity on MyCareerHub; when I read the job description, I knew I had to apply! It was so appealing because it would allow me to bridge two of my main interests: technology and data, and content creation.</p>
<h3>What I have been doing</h3>
<p>My job has mainly entailed looking through videos uploaded to Media Hopper Create, and analysing their metadata to see how it can be improved, coming up with a metadata guidance document and checklist, collating videos to display on the front page that correspond to monthly themes, collaborating with content owners to improve the accessibility of their media, and, most excitingly, helping design the layout of the front page of the new Media Hopper Create website.</p>
<h3>What I have learnt</h3>
<p>This experience has taught me so much about metadata (<a href="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2024/03/20/2398/">see my previous blogpost</a>) and really highlighted the importance of having good metadata when it comes to improving the accessibility and findability of media. A small yet surprising fact I have learnt is that podcasts do not have to be audio only, and in order for media to be classed as a podcast on Media Hopper Create, it needs to be designed to be consumed in an episodic format, although, majority of the time, a podcast is audio only. I had used Media Hopper Create prior to my internship, however, this was mainly for watching lecture recordings, I hadn’t appreciated the range in content on the website and will continue to use it even after my internship ends. Another thing I hadn’t realised was how useful my ability to code is. I was asked to look through 2 data files and identify the entries that were in one and not the other; and being the Computer Science student that I am, rather than doing this manually/through Excel, I wrote a Python program to do this, which meant that I could complete this task in a much faster and more accurate way. I also used my Python skills to analyse metadata, identify trends and representing them as graphs. I so happy to discover how laterally applicable my skillset is!<!-- notionvc: 1730fcf1-c979-4f30-a932-ddc83022c226 --></p>
<h3>My thoughts</h3>
<p>Overall, this internship has not only expanded my understanding of metadata and media management but also reinforced the value of my technical skills in real-world applications. I’m excited to carry forward these lessons and continue exploring the intersection of technology and media in my future endeavours. I would like to thank Karen, Liam and the rest of the wonderful DLAM team for this amazing experience.</p>
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<time datetime="2024-05-27" itemprop="dateModified">May 27, 2024</time>
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<title>Tallulah Thompson – Reflections on metadata</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2024/03/20/2398/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2024/03/20/2398/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[tthompso]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 20 Mar 2024 14:10:54 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Digital Asset Management System Metadata Intern]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Digital Learning Applications and Media]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Digital Media Assistant]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Internships]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=2398</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 4</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>Programme of Study and Year: 1st year Informatics (MInf) Intern Position: Media and Podcasting Intern Introduction Hi! I’m Tallulah and I’m in my 4th week as the Media and Podcasting Intern with Media Hopper Create. So far, I’ve been looking through videos uploaded to Media Hopper Create to analyse their metadata and see how it could […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 4</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span><p><strong>Programme of Study and Year: </strong>1st year Informatics (MInf)</p>
<p><strong>Intern Position: </strong>Media and Podcasting Intern</p>
<hr />
<h3>Introduction</h3>
<p>Hi! I’m Tallulah and I’m in my 4th week as the Media and Podcasting Intern with Media Hopper Create. So far, I’ve been looking through videos uploaded to Media Hopper Create to analyse their metadata and see how it could be improved, coming up with a metadata guidance sheet, and I’ve collated videos to display on the front page that correspond to monthly themes.</p>
<h3>Metadata</h3>
<p>Most of my internship so far has involved looking at metadata. Metadata essentially is data about data. In the context of Media Hopper Create, it is the information associated with the different videos that have been uploaded, for example, title, video description, tags, captions, publisher, etc. Having good metadata will make it easier for users of Media Hopper Create to find videos. Unfortunately, the quality in the metadata across the videos is quite inconsistent, which is why one of my jobs is to write guidance to help improve the quality and to make the media easier to find.</p>
<h3>What is good metadata?</h3>
<p>Good metadata will help organise, find and understand data. It should serve as the bridge between content and users. When it comes to videos uploaded to Media Hopper Create, this is what good metadata should look like for media:</p>
<p><strong>Title:</strong> should be clear and give context, for example, if it is a lecture., a good format would be: [Course Name] [Video Subject], rather than just naming a video “Overview” or “Summary”, e.g., “Object Oriented Programming, Lecture 2: Conditionals and Loops”. The users should be able to have a good idea what the video is about based on the title.</p>
<p><strong>Description:</strong> brief description of what the video is about. It should not just be the title repeated, and it should be detailed enough so that users should not have to watch the whole video to see if it is going to be useful to them</p>
<p><strong>Tags:</strong> should be relevant and specific to the video and should not be too general, for example having the tag “acts” on a video about climate change is not specific enough to the video. If the video is a podcast, adding the tag “podcast” will help users who are specifically finding a podcast, and/or if the video is only audio, adding the tag “audio only” will help users who are specifically finding audio only videos . It is better to have fewer tags that are specific and relevant to the video that will help the users find what they are looking for rather than having many tags that are not specific enough. Tags are added from frequently used words in the auto-generated captions, but sometimes these are not the most relevant, so after captioning is complete, it would be good to go through the tags and remove the irrelevant ones. Having a consistent format for tags will make it easier to organise videos, for example, a video with the tag “#artificialintelligence” will be considered different to a video with the tag “artificial intelligence”. A good format for tags is having them completely lowercase.</p>
<p><strong>Captions:</strong> key accessibility feature for many, including but not limited to: people who are deaf or hard of hearing, people who have difficulty processing auditory information, and people whose native language is not English. At the very least, auto-generated captions should be requested for videos uploaded to Media Hopper Create, although at times they can be inaccurate, it is still better than nothing. These captions can either be corrected by the uploader or a request can be put in to have them reviewed and corrected by the captioning team, to make them as accurate as possible.</p>
<p><strong>Attachments:</strong> The transcript, which is created from the auto-generated captions should be uploaded automatically. It is useful to not remove the transcript as it will allow users to search through it to see if the video is relevant. If a presentation is included in the video, uploading the slides will make it more convenient for the user.</p>
<p><strong>Chapters:</strong> divides the video into different sections based on what it is about. Adding in chapters is very useful especially when the video is longer than 30 mins, because it will allow the user to find what they are looking for in a video without having to watch the whole video.</p>
<h3>What is “bad” metadata?</h3>
<p>When videos uploaded to Media Hopper Create have “bad” metadata, it can lead to poor content sorting, making it harder for users to find videos that they are looking for. For instance, when the title for a lecture video is just “0.0”, rather than having the course the lecture is from and more information about the video, it makes it very difficult for users to find this video unless they specifically have the link/know exactly where to find it. It also means that users are less likely to watch the video as they will not know if it is relevant to them. If a video has too many tags that aren’t specific or relevant to the video, when users try searching based on tags, many less relevant videos might come up, making it harder for the user to find what they are looking for.</p>
<h3>My thoughts</h3>
<p>In my opinion, the main issue with the metadata associated with videos uploaded to Media Hopper Create is that it is inconsistent. Having inconsistent metadata makes it much harder for videos to be organised, which will then make it harder for users to find what they are looking for. As part of my internship, I have been tasked with writing a metadata guidance sheet for video uploaders, which I hope will increase the consistency in quality of metadata of videos uploaded. Although this guidance won’t necessarily be able to change the metadata of the already uploaded videos, by hopefully improving the metadata for future videos, it will mean that users can access the most up to date and relevant videos to them much more easily.</p>
<h3>What I have learned so far</h3>
<p>Before I started this internship, I thought I had quite a good idea of what metadata was and its importance. Although I have only been interning with Media Hopper Create for 3 weeks, I realised, I have already learned a lot. I’ve learned a lot about Media Hopper Create and how useful it is as a service for the University, and I didn’t realise how such small details in metadata could make such a big difference in the user experience. I’m looking forward to the rest of my internship and learning even more about metadata.</p>
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<time datetime="2024-03-20" itemprop="dateModified">Mar 20, 2024</time>
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<title>Lewis Forbes – LaTeX and Accessibility</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2023/08/15/lewis-forbes-latex-and-accessibility/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2023/08/15/lewis-forbes-latex-and-accessibility/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[lforbes3]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 15 Aug 2023 14:46:31 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Digital Learning Applications and Media]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Digital Learning Intern]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=2152</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 5</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>Programme of Study and Year: Informatics (MInf), going into final year. Intern Position: Digital Learning Intern As a former Computer Science and Maths student (now just a Computer Science student), LaTeX has brought me much grief over my time at university. Writing my 30+ page dissertation using the software definitely increased my confidence in using […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 5</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span><hr />
<p><strong>Programme of Study and Year: </strong>Informatics (MInf), going into final year.</p>
<p><strong>Intern Position: </strong>Digital Learning Intern</p>
<hr />
<p>As a former Computer Science and Maths student (now just a Computer Science student), LaTeX has brought me much grief over my time at university. Writing my 30+ page dissertation using the software definitely increased my confidence in using it, but to be honest I still don’t really understand how it works and frequently rely on StackOverflow.</p>
<p>As such, it was saddening but somewhat validating to learn that the problem of accessibility in LaTeX is one which has been plaguing the community for years – it’s maintained by a team of volunteers who have struggled to implement features which are becoming standard in electronic documents. In this post I’ll share my attempts at creating the most accessible LaTeX documents possible and conclude with steps you can take to achieve this. The speed at which LaTeX seems to advance (and break) led to a lot of trial and error in this process, and it’s possible that things which worked for me might not work for you.</p>
<p>I used the <a href="http://edin.ac/ally">accessibility evaluation software Ally</a> to determine what makes documents accessible, which gives documents an accessibility percentage and suggests where improvements can be made. Ally gave the initial PDF I provided a score of 5%, but guided me to create a document with a score of 96%. It did not comment on maths however, which is not accessible by default in LaTeX as explained in this <a href="https://asarantsev.github.io/WebArchive/access.pdf" class="mtli_attachment mtli_pdf">report by Massie and Sarantsev</a>.</p>
<figure id="attachment_2238" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-2238" style="width: 277px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" class="wp-image-2238" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2023/08/image-218x300.png" alt="" width="277" height="382" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2023/08/image-218x300.png 218w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2023/08/image.png 569w" sizes="(max-width: 277px) 100vw, 277px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-2238" class="wp-caption-text">Ally’s initial rating and comments for an unchanged LaTeX document.</figcaption></figure>
<p>Based on Ally’s guidance and the information in the report mentioned, the inaccessible aspects of default LaTeX documents are their lack of tagging and headers, lack of alt text, lack of metadata, and maths which cannot be meaningfully read by screen readers.</p>
<h2>LaTeX Accessibility Summary</h2>
<p>If your document contains a lot of maths, I recommend creating an HTML5 file using <a href="https://pandoc.org/index.html">Pandoc</a>. See the checklist in the ‘Maths’ section below for information on this.</p>
<p>If your document has no maths, follow these steps:</p>
<ol>
<li>Add alt text as explained in the first two bullet points in the ‘Alt Text’ section below.</li>
<li>Add metadata as explained in the ‘Metadata’ section below.</li>
<li>Add tags/headings using the using <a href="https://pdfix.io/make-pdf-accessible/">this PDFix tool</a>.</li>
</ol>
<p>As mentioned, following these steps produced <a href="https://www.overleaf.com/read/wnfhnwdpbfmy">96% accessible LaTeX project</a>, based on Ally’s score of its PDF after tagging.</p>
<hr />
<p>I will now go into more detail about each of the different inaccessible areas mentioned.</p>
<h2>Alt Text</h2>
<p>Alternative text is often included for those <a href="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/website-communications/improving-alt-text-at-the-university/">using screen readers</a>, but thanks to the <a href="https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/the-curb-cut-effect-8a6b68d6485">curb cut effect</a> has uses for many people – both visually impaired and sighted. Different sources recommend different ways of including this:</p>
<p>I successfully added alt text using the following methods:</p>
<ul>
<li>Using a parameter on caption <code>\caption[alt text]{caption text}</code>, as recommended by ChatGPT. This should be used when <code>\includegraphics{}</code> is used within a <code>\figure{}</code> environment.</li>
<li>Using <code>\pdftooltip{}</code> from the <a href="https://ctan.org/pkg/pdfcomment?lang=en">pdfcomment interface</a> successfully added tooltips with user-specified text to the document, which Ally recognized as alt text. This should be used when <code>\includegraphics{}</code> is being used with no <code>\caption{}</code>. For example, I used it in a <code>\subfloat{}</code> environment. This was advised in this <a href="https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/75102/need-alt-text-for-images-in-pdf-for-screen-readers?answertab=modifieddesc#tab-top">StackExchange forum</a>.</li>
</ul>
<p>The following methods were recommended by various sources, but did not allow me to successfully add alt text to images:</p>
<ul>
<li>Using <code>\Description{}</code> as recommended in this <a href="https://authors.acm.org/journals/how-to-write-alt-text-and-why">Association for Computing Machinery article</a>. This command was not recognized by the compiler, and no packages to include were mentioned.</li>
<li>Using <code>\nextalt{}</code> as recommended in this <a href="https://people.bath.ac.uk/cspehj/maths-access/latex-instructions/sect0049.html">webpage by Emma Cliffe at Bath University</a>. This command was not recognized by the compiler even with the inclusion of the graphicsx package as mentioned.</li>
<li>Using the accessibility package and the <code>\alt{}</code> comment as recommended in this <a href="https://libguides.lib.msu.edu/c.php?g=995742&p=8207771">Michigan State University Library guide</a>. This also didn’t work.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Metadata</h2>
<p>Ally highlights the need for the inclusion of a PDF’s title and language. This allows screen readers to introduce the document, which can be included with the following lines in the document preamble:</p>
<p><code>\usepackage{hyperref}<br />
\hypersetup{pdftitle={Document Name}, pdflang={en-GB}}</code></p>
<h2>PDF Tagging & Headings</h2>
<p>There does not appear to be a way of reliably generating tagged PDFs using LaTeX. The unsuitability of two potential solutions I came across follows:</p>
<ul>
<li>As outlined in the <a href="https://ctan.math.illinois.edu/macros/latex/contrib/tagpdf/tagpdf.pdf" class="mtli_attachment mtli_pdf">tagpdf documentation</a>, the tagpdf package is not meant for normal document production. As such, the syntax required to use it is complicated and the package likely contains bugs.</li>
<li>As outlined on the <a href="https://github.com/AndyClifton/accessibility"><!--StartFragment --><span class="cf0">Accessibility package GitHub page</span></a>, the accessibility package is also not suitable for production and is no longer maintained. Although it does produces tagged PDFs according to Ally, it sometimes leads to documents not compiling, and sometimes causes unexpected behaviour. As an example:
<ul>
<li>This <a href="https://www.overleaf.com/read/jhnbjpgkbfgy">compilable project</a> does not contain the package, but otherwise identical <a href="https://www.overleaf.com/read/xrqdvtbrksds">uncompilable project</a> contains the package.</li>
<li>In this <a href="https://www.overleaf.com/read/vjnnqxjwtnvy">incorrectly compiled project</a> some of the text is duplicated whereas in this <a href="https://www.overleaf.com/read/grpjgthrpcvq">correctly compiled project</a> no duplication occurs.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Tags can be added to a PDF once it’s been created by a few different services, namely Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, Microsoft Word, and PDFix. Since Acrobat Pro isn’t free to use and Word seems to often ruin the format, I found PDFix’s <a href="https://pdfix.io/make-pdf-accessible/">‘Make PDF Accessible’ tool</a> to be the best solution. This also allows metadata to be changed. The company appear reputable with the <a href="https://pdfix.net/privacy-policy/">PDFix privacy policy</a> stating they delete all provided files for 30 days and pass data to third parties “only within the extent necessary to meet its obligations”.</p>
<p>The only problem I found with this service was its inability to render a <code>.pdf</code> vector image. This format is unusual, and was easily fixed by converting the image to a <code>.png</code> file.</p>
<h2>Maths</h2>
<p>Making maths accessible in LaTeX does appear to be possible but is a little complex. Most sources seem to recommend converting LaTeX documents to HTML5 documents via a semi-automated process using various tools. This aforementioned <a href="https://asarantsev.github.io/WebArchive/access.pdf" class="mtli_attachment mtli_pdf">Massie and Sarantsev paper</a> provides a good overview of the topic.</p>
<p>I found <a href="https://pandoc.org/index.html">Pandoc</a> to be the easiest tool to do this conversion. To convert maths it uses <a href="https://www.mathjax.org/">MathJax</a> – a JavaScript engine which creates “beautiful and accessible math in all browsers”. HTML documents are accessible by default since they are tagged, and contain conventions for setting alt text and metadata. See this <a href="https://docs.mathjax.org/en/v2.7-latest/misc/accessibility-features.html#screenreader-support">MathJax documentation page</a> for information on screen readers for maths it helps display.</p>
<p>Once installing Pandoc, LaTeX documents can be converted on Windows as follows:</p>
<ol>
<li>Open command prompt (press <code>Win+R</code>, type cmd, press enter).</li>
<li>Copy the location of the folder containing the <code>.tex</code> file you wish to convert. The <code>.bib</code> file should be in the same directory.</li>
<li>In command prompt, enter:
<ul>
<li><code>cd "the folder location you copied"</code></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Enter the following command, replacing <code>myTex.tex</code> and <code>myBib.bib</code> with your filenames.
<ul>
<li><code>pandoc myTex.tex -f latex -t html -s -o output.html --bibliography myTex.bib --citeproc --mathjax</code></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Move the new file <code>output.html</code> up one folder level. For example, from <code>C:/folder1/folder2/folder3/output.html</code> to <code>C:/folder1/folder2/output.html</code>. This is so images’ paths are correct.</li>
<li>Open <code>output.html</code>.</li>
</ol>
<p>You might find Pandoc is <span class="NormalTextRun SCXW204967602 BCX0">less forgiving with syntax errors than your usual </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW204967602 BCX0">compiler when it comes to your bibliography</span>. A verifier such as <a href="https://flamingtempura.github.io/bibtex-tidy/">BibTeX Tidy</a> can be used to identify and correct errors.</p>
<h2>The Future</h2>
<p>Decreasing the steps authors have to take to make their LaTeX documents accessible is an area of active development, as outlined in <a href="https://www.latex-project.org/publications/indexbytopic/pdf/">The LaTex Project’s accessibility publications</a>. The most recent update I’ve seen comes from this <a href="https://www.latex-project.org/news/2023/05/27/latex-dev-2/">LaTeX news article</a> introducing the final pre-release of the June 2023 version of LaTeX.</p>
<p>This pre-releases produced viable, tagged documents for simple files, but cannot format some complex files, as shown in the image below. For documents with tables it produced well-compiled PDFs, but they were untagged. This means the pre-release is currently no better than the tagging methods mentioned above.</p>
<figure id="attachment_2203" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-2203" style="width: 967px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" class="wp-image-2203 size-full" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2023/08/image-3.png" alt="A screenshot of a unreadable document, containing text which overflows to off of the page and displayed commands." width="967" height="559" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2023/08/image-3.png 967w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2023/08/image-3-300x173.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2023/08/image-3-768x444.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 967px) 100vw, 967px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-2203" class="wp-caption-text">A poorly formatted document produced by the final June pre-release of LaTeX.</figcaption></figure>
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<title>Ioana-Sabina Susanu – My Digital Learning Internship, in a nutshell.</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2023/06/07/ioana-sabina-susanu-my-digital-learning-internship-in-a-nutshell/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2023/06/07/ioana-sabina-susanu-my-digital-learning-internship-in-a-nutshell/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[lforbes3]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 07 Jun 2023 14:48:11 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Digital Learning Intern]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=1905</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 2</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>Programme of Study and Year: 3rd year Astrophysics Hobbies: Reading, music, karate Intern Position: Digital Learning Intern Describe your role in 4 words: interesting, challenging (at times), rewarding I wanted to take the time to do a blog post on how my internship has been for the past year. I have worked full-time during the […]]]></description>
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<p><strong>Programme of Study and Year: </strong>3rd year Astrophysics</p>
<p><strong>Hobbies: </strong>Reading, music, karate</p>
<p><strong>Intern Position: </strong>Digital Learning Intern</p>
<p><strong>Describe your role in 4 words: </strong>interesting, challenging (at times), rewarding</p>
<hr />
<p>I wanted to take the time to do a blog post on how my internship has been for the past year. I have worked full-time during the summer in the DLAM TEL team (Digital Learning Applications and Media, Technology Enhanced Learning – so many acronyms!), and part-time during the academic year.</p>
<p>I have done mostly Accessibility testing on various applications, including Turnitin, Moodle, Echo360, Collaborate and Ally, but also other tasks like caption verification or blog editing. I have had a lot to learn about all of the different software types and environments used within the University, and how important each piece of technology is.</p>
<p>Wrapping up my time in DLAM, I wanted to share once again how important the topic of Accessibility is, since it is what the vast majority of my work consisted of. Even though it seems that most of the regulations and adaptive software is concentrated on visual impairment (and too few regulations cover physical impairment – but this is a discussion for another time), it is certain that every little element that is made accessible on a page/application/platform makes a huge difference. Every colour combination, every button, every description and every message matters and can make the navigation better for users if accessibility is taken into consideration.</p>
<p>That being said, my work has been varied, and I never got a chance to get ‘bored’ as every thing I had to do was different from the previous one. I had the opportunity of working with a lot of different people, and I had a lot to learn from everyone I’ve met during my internship. The fact that the team has been welcoming and helpful made a great difference for me and my work – being relaxed and confident in my actions made me more productive, efficient and attentive to details</p>
<h2>Make the most of Learning Technology!</h2>
<p>I would like to end this blog post with a big ‘Thank you’ to the DLAM TEL team, and the wider Learning, Teaching and Web community for the continued support throughout the year.</p>
<p>I certainly recommend giving Learning Technology a chance, regardless of your degree – in the end, it is used by everyone at University, and it’s a very diverse field that will never make you bored.</p>
<p>And lastly, make the most of the resources available – there is a wide variety of them (books, software, databases, videos, courses, trainings), all available at a few clicks’ distance.</p>
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<time datetime="2023-06-07" itemprop="dateModified">Jun 7, 2023</time>
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<title>Eva Spanachi – The journey of being a Digital Learning Intern</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2022/08/04/__trashed/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2022/08/04/__trashed/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[espanach]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Thu, 04 Aug 2022 14:15:15 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Digital Learning Intern]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=1629</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 4</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>Programme of Study and Year: 4th Year Chemistry Hobbies: Art, reading, yoga, baking Intern Position: Digital learning Intern Describe your role in 4 words: Write a blog guys! “Known as” at the office: That annoying person who wouldn’t stop sending emails about the ISG Student Employee blog The opportunity to be part of the ISG […]]]></description>
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<hr />
<p><strong>Programme of Study and Year:</strong> 4<sup>th</sup> Year Chemistry</p>
<p><strong>Hobbies:</strong> Art, reading, yoga, baking</p>
<p><strong>Intern Position:</strong> Digital learning Intern</p>
<p><strong>Describe your role in 4 words:</strong> Write a blog guys!</p>
<p><strong>“Known as” at the office:</strong> That annoying person who wouldn’t stop sending emails about the ISG Student Employee blog</p>
<hr />
<h2>The opportunity to be part of the ISG team</h2>
<p>In mid-April, having the usual mid-semester crisis I started thinking of what I would be doing over the summer! So I started a search to find an internship and I came across the various roles offered by ISG on MyCareerHub and everything looked very interesting (and not chemistry related, which would allow my brain to have a break from all the science). Having my interview with some of the Digital Learning Applications and Media (DLAM) members, I immediately realized that I really wanted to become part of that lovely team and was therefore really happy to receive an offer for the digital learning role.</p>
<h2>The internship so far…</h2>
<p>Part of my internship consists of general testing, as well as accessibility testing on University platforms. After undergoing some training on accessibility, I was so surprised to realize how unfamiliar I was with the whole concept and I definitely learned a lot about how to make things more accessible by considering things like using a correct colour contrast, alternative text when using images, captions in videos and the general structure of a site to make it easy to navigate when someone is not using a mouse or using a speech navigator for example. The general lesson I learned however, was to actually keep in mind the various audiences and not just assume that we all use computers and technology in the same way, but we definitely all deserve to be able to access and navigate through all online environments.</p>
<p>Another part of my role has been to create screencasts using MediaHopper to provide instructions on how to navigate around some teaching and learning sites such as Learn. I now know the struggle of having to record your own voice, and the need to have approximately a hundred takes before you decide to give up and use whatever you have recorded by convincing yourself that it is good enough! The first video I had to script and record was 1.5 mins long and it took me a day to perfect, caption and finally post so I can only imagine how difficult it must be to record an hour long lecture!</p>
<p>I was also recently able to observe how the Unidesk side of the team works and see how they keep the Learning Technology of the University working, and ensure that any issue that occurs is resolved. So I had the opportunity to follow through the process of how an issue, that a staff member or student may be dealing with on different university platforms, such as Turnitin and Learn, is handled and eventually resolved. In the next few weeks I will also be able to go through a few issues and try to propose a way to resolve the problem, and become familiar with the different stages of coming up with a solution.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-1805 " src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2022/07/IMG20220328150556-scaled-e1659605487903-300x241.jpg" alt="" width="467" height="375" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2022/07/IMG20220328150556-scaled-e1659605487903-300x241.jpg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2022/07/IMG20220328150556-scaled-e1659605487903-1024x822.jpg 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2022/07/IMG20220328150556-scaled-e1659605487903-768x617.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2022/07/IMG20220328150556-scaled-e1659605487903-1536x1233.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2022/07/IMG20220328150556-scaled-e1659605487903.jpg 1919w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 467px) 100vw, 467px" /></p>
<p> </p>
<h2>Getting familiar with Blogs.ed!</h2>
<p>The general and accessibility testing I did was on Blogs.ed which was really useful because it helped me get familiar with the website as I had to use it daily as part of having the role of the student intern blog editor. My first task with this role was to come up with a template for the blog posts (a challenging task considering I had never written a single blog post or anything similar before). So I had to come up with a plan!</p>
<p>-> <strong>Plan A:</strong> Read all the previous blogs written by interns and get inspired. Well, I discovered that there were too many previous interns and hence too many previous blogs and too little time! -> <strong>Plan B:</strong> Read <em>a few</em> blogs from each past summer to get inspired and create a template. That actually worked and I managed to structure a template. Step 1 done! <strong>Step 2-</strong> Get the template approved and come up with a strategy on how to approach the other interns. I knew immediately that I had to find a way to make my fellow interns want to write blog posts without being too annoying. <strong> Step 3-</strong> After annoying the interns I then had to edit and proofread their blogs and finally post them on <a href="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/">the Information Services Group: Student Employee Blog</a>. It has been great to see that the plan actually worked and interns did offer to write a blog, and I definitely enjoyed reading them all!</p>
<h2>A few weeks left…</h2>
<p>Only a few weeks left for the end of my internship and I am thankful that I had the opportunity to be part of such a lovely team, where everyone was very welcoming and supportive throughout the internship. Also very grateful that Covid managed to calm down and allow us to go to the office now and then and enjoy each other’s company in person, and got to meet other interns during the great Unitemps social events!</p>
<p><strong>I hope all the interns had a great time during their internships and enjoyed their summers as well! Hopefully the rest of the staff in ISG enjoyed having us around and I am sure all of us appreciate their work and effort a lot more now that we got to see what is happening behind ‘the scenes’.</strong></p>
<p> </p>
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<time datetime="2022-08-04" itemprop="dateModified">Aug 4, 2022</time>
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<title>Ioana -Uncovering the depths of accessibility testing in the Digital Learning Internship</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2022/07/25/ioana-uncovering-the-depths-of-accessibility-testing-in-the-digital-learning-internship/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2022/07/25/ioana-uncovering-the-depths-of-accessibility-testing-in-the-digital-learning-internship/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[espanach]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 25 Jul 2022 13:10:59 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Digital Learning Intern]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=1727</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 3</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>Programme of Study and Year: Astrophysics (MPhys), going into 3rd year Hobbies: Reading, listening to music, taking walks, watching TV series Intern Position: Digital Learning Intern within Learning, Teaching and Web (LTW) Fun fact about your internship: I have become knowledgeable in Accessibility testing, even though this was not the plan initially Describe your role […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 3</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span><hr />
<p><strong>Programme of Study and Year:</strong> Astrophysics (MPhys), going into 3<sup>rd</sup> year</p>
<p><strong>Hobbies:</strong> Reading, listening to music, taking walks, watching TV series</p>
<p><strong>Intern Position:</strong> Digital Learning Intern within Learning, Teaching and Web (LTW)</p>
<p><strong>Fun fact about your internship:</strong> I have become knowledgeable in Accessibility testing, even though this was not the plan initially</p>
<p><strong>Describe your role in 4 words: </strong> Challenging, rewarding, technical, awesome</p>
<hr />
<h2>The internship experience in a nutshell</h2>
<p>I have found out about these internships from the Unitemps website. I kept checking it in March, as I knew that was the time when the summer roles would be advertised. I have also received notifications over e-mail regarding the roles and how to apply. My role requires me to become familiar with a variety of learning technology applications, and do the accessibility testing based on a specific script and using assistive software. The most enjoyable part is that I get to see, learn, experience and test a lot of the University’s platforms, applications and integrations, and I have the chance to see these from a developer point of view. Additionally, it is just enjoyable to collaborate with my team members and socialise with other interns when we are in the office. Speaking of socialising, the Unitemps social events for interns are the best – the food is great and I always get to meet and talk to lots of interesting people with various experiences.</p>
<h2>Highlights of Digital Learning – Creating documentation and conducting accessibility testing</h2>
<p>I find the 9-5 life surprisingly relaxing, especially when I work from home. Office days can be a bit more tiring, but they are the most fun as almost everyone is there on certain days. My team is welcoming and friendly, even in busy and stressful times – for which I admire them greatly. I really enjoy that communication is very efficient within the team, both when we are in the office and when we are working remotely.</p>
<p>My role so far has helped me overcome certain ‘fears’, for example listening to my own voice. I had to create some videos with instructions on how to use one of the applications within the University. I already had the script, I just had to record my screen while navigating the application. Even though it seems like a simple task, the idea of recording my own voice felt strange. After talking to my manager and some of the members of my team about this, I found that my feeling was quite common – no-one likes to record and listen to their own voice! Therefore I was a bit more confident that nothing could go wrong and I recorded the videos. Listening to my own voice while doing the captioning was not that bad – especially since I was focused on the quality of the sound and the content itself. The feedback I received for the videos was good, which boosted my confidence for this type of task.</p>
<p>As my work requires me to do accessibility testing, I had the opportunity to discover how complex this field is, and how many regulations need to be taken into account for a webpage/application/platform to be considered accessible. As an example, I was aware of captioning being needed for videos, but I wasn’t aware of the exact ratios needed for colour contrasts within a page. In addition, I could see how certain types of assistive software interact with the University platforms and applications, and which issues are encountered. While I still have some training sessions to do, I have developed an awareness for accessibility and I feel that this subject should be promoted more.</p>
<p>The internship has been a great experience so far. I feel lucky that I am a part of a lovely team (DLAM TEL – Digital Learning Applications and Media, Tech Enhanced Learning) where everyone is friendly and willing to help. I have a lot to learn from all of the team members, and also the other interns. The working environment is very good and inspiring, and it allows me to develop valuable skills that will certainly be beneficial in future assignments.</p>
<p><strong>Through this blog post, I would like to wish all the other interns the best of luck in their internships and projects, and to thank all the staff members for being welcoming and supportive in every matter. And last but not least, I encourage every student to apply for a summer internship within the Information Services Group – it’s definitely a fantastic experience!</strong></p>
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<time datetime="2022-07-25" itemprop="dateModified">Jul 25, 2022</time>
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<title>How I develop skills as a continuing App Developer Intern – Martin Lewis</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2022/04/20/how-i-develop-skills-as-a-continuing-app-developer-intern-martin-lewis/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2022/04/20/how-i-develop-skills-as-a-continuing-app-developer-intern-martin-lewis/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[awilso35]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 20 Apr 2022 11:59:17 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Learn Foundations Learning Applications Developer]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=1581</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 2</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>Martin Lewis is a final year student in BSc (Hons) Computer Science, and started working as a Summer Intern in ISG in 2020, as one of our interns auditing Learn. Martin really impressed the Learn team with his initiative in finding a chance to automate some work, so since summer 2021 he has since been […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 2</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span><p><em>Martin Lewis is a final year student in BSc (Hons) Computer Science, and started working as a Summer Intern in ISG in 2020, as one of our interns auditing Learn. Martin really impressed the Learn team with his initiative in finding a chance to automate some work, so since summer 2021 he has since been working with the Learn team in a more technical role, doing programming.</em></p>
<p>I started work in Information Services Group (ISG) at the University as a <strong>Summer Intern</strong> in 2020 and 2021, and <strong>since then I’ve been working for ISG doing technical bits and pieces</strong>. In this blog post I’ll be discussing <strong>what I’ve been doing as a part of my work for ISG and what skills this has helped me develop.</strong></p>
<p>Initially I was doing rather non-technical work as part of the Learn Foundations project getting the University’s Learn courses prepared for the new academic year. This was adding things like the course outline and organiser details into these fresh courses. <strong>However, I managed to find a way to automate parts of the workflow I was assigned to and from there began to do technical work for the ISG.</strong><br />
I now have the very long winded title of ‘Learn Foundations Applications Developer Intern’ in which I do development work, making applications that are usually, sometime tangentially, related to the Learn Foundations Project.</p>
<p>For those more technically minded, I’m working in the PHP programming language doing full stack (front and backend) work using the Laravel framework. An excellent opportunity to learn a new language and framework. <strong>There is also the chance to work on real world projects that contain issues and experiences that cannot be found in the classroom or in a coursework assignment.</strong> With real team members (big thanks to Andrew and his team who I have been working with) and <strong>projects that have a real outcome (not just a grade).</strong></p>
<p>Now this is not only a good opportunity to hone skills but it also looks very good on a CV. Already having practical software development experience is fantastic and it also is a great source of discussion <strong>during interviews being able to bring up situations and decisions you made outside of a classroom is great.</strong></p>
<p>Now let’s look at the day to day practicalities (this is just my experience your mileage may vary with role and when you might work). The work is remote, as you could probably guess, which fits well alongside my majority remote learning these past few years. Over the summers I’ve worked full time, 35 hours a week, being treated as a standard member of university staff. Then over the semesters only 7 hours a week which I find easy to fit around my studies and personal life but it does often mean rather slow progress in the projects you work on.</p>
<p><strong>Both of the line managers I’ve had have been wonderful and very understanding about the need to change work patterns last minute or take time off around major deadlines and exams.</strong> The pay isn’t too bad and goes a long way towards covering my rent.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if I’ll be continuing to work for the University after May as I am finally graduating. I will however apologise in advance to any potential future intern who has to work with my code! But the last two years have gone a long way to making me a much more employable graduate.</p>
<p>So do consider applying for an ISG internship,<strong> I’ve personally gotten a lot out of it and I think any proactive student can benefit greatly from such a role.</strong></p>
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<time datetime="2022-04-20" itemprop="dateModified">Apr 20, 2022</time>
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<title>Top Five Things I Like About my Internship</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2021/08/11/top-five-things-i-like-about-my-internship/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2021/08/11/top-five-things-i-like-about-my-internship/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[rcormac3]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 11 Aug 2021 11:07:16 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Digital Media Assistant]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=1543</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 3</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>Hazel is the Digital Media Assistant Intern and is responsible for making promotional videos for some of the Ed Web Services and self-enroll courses that are available for staff with the aim of explaining the system and services better to encourage higher usage. She enjoys her job because it allows for creativity and also loves […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 3</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span><p><em>Hazel is the Digital Media Assistant Intern and is responsible for making promotional videos for some of the Ed Web Services and self-enroll courses that are available for staff with the aim of explaining the system and services better to encourage higher usage. She enjoys her job because it allows for creativity and also loves singing, dancing, cooking and has just recently starting learning the ukulele!</em></p>
<hr />
<p>“It’s summer again!” This was what I thinking as I finished my semester. Then what? What should I do this summer? I wanted to make myself useful and gain some experience, which led me to browse for internship opportunities, and fortunately, I was accepted as a Digital Media Assistant Intern under Learning, Teaching and Web services (LTW)!</p>
<p>Impacted by COVID-19, the ways in which we learn and work have changed drastically. As a student, I’m not really a big fan of online learning but to my surprise, I have enjoyed my remote-working internship experience. Here are the top five things I like about my internship experience, and I hope some of that resonate with yours too <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/16.0.1/72x72/1f642.png" alt="🙂" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /></p>
<h3>1) Have my own input and make things happen!</h3>
<p>I’d never really had any internship experience before I joined. From my what my friends said, they described it as more of a rigid form of working, which means managers tell them exactly what they need to do and manage all the tasks with frequent reporting. It seems like it curbs much of their own creative input into the work as they are only following what they are asked to do.</p>
<p>However, my internship experience is totally different! To my surprise, I am given a plethora of opportunities to have my own input in creative tasks. For example, I initiated ideas of the video storyboards and the design of them. The fact that most of them were accepted truly makes me feel empowered as my manager and colleagues trust my skills in making the videos happen.<em><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class=" wp-image-1545 aligncenter" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2021/08/andrew-neel-cckf4TsHAuw-unsplash-300x200.jpg" alt="Table with laptop, mug, pen and paper and a mobile phone." width="411" height="274" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2021/08/andrew-neel-cckf4TsHAuw-unsplash-300x200.jpg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2021/08/andrew-neel-cckf4TsHAuw-unsplash-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2021/08/andrew-neel-cckf4TsHAuw-unsplash-768x512.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2021/08/andrew-neel-cckf4TsHAuw-unsplash-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2021/08/andrew-neel-cckf4TsHAuw-unsplash-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 411px) 100vw, 411px" /></em></p>
<h3>2) Effective communication</h3>
<p>Since the internship is entirely remote, we have used different methods of communication. Making use of Microsoft Teams and Outlook Email functions facilitates effective communication and avoids long-winded boring meetings (which usually happens in a physical setting). With all the technology available, it makes Working from Home possible and seemingly more effective, saving travelling time and speeding up work productivity. Therefore, although we cannot see each other physically, I am still able to communicate with my line manager and other team members easily on a weekly basis and get things going.</p>
<h3>3) High flexibility (time management skills are required!)</h3>
<p>My internship experience is very flexible with the whole project timeline. I can take on the role to plan when things should be delivered and manage when I should sort out the ideas, video storyboards and drafts, etc. This has certainly strengthened my time management skills, as I have to ensure that I am not falling behind the schedule and the project can progress swiftly.</p>
<p>The high flexibility also enables me to schedule other commitments around it. This allows me to achieve a good work-life balance during this period. I know that having an unexpected flexibility with time might seem to be a bit too good to be true, but to be honest, it does require a lot of self-control and time management skills!</p>
<h3>4) Gaining diverse skills</h3>
<p>It is a pleasant surprise to be able to gain other skills outside of what I’ve already learned! My project requires collaboration with other team members in the project and that has enabled me to learn so much more in other aspects, such as content writing, visual design, persona creation etc. These are all valuable opportunities and relevant skillsets that will be very helpful in a workplace. The fact that I can gain all these diverse skills makes the whole experience much more fulfilling!</p>
<h3>5) Supportive environment</h3>
<p>Last but not least, I’ve got to say I’m so grateful to have a really supportive manager that has kindly guided me all along. My colleagues have been really welcoming and encouraging with what I have done. Also, other team members in LTW have helped me so much with their constructive feedback! This whole working environment is surely a great add-on to this internship experience as who wouldn’t love to be surrounded by smart and friendly people?</p>
<hr />
<p>I’m certain that some of you may have a similar/ different internship experience according to your own department/ projects. Feel free to comment down below and share yours too! <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/16.0.1/72x72/1f642.png" alt="🙂" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /></p>
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<time datetime="2021-08-11" itemprop="dateModified">Aug 11, 2021</time>
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<title>Data Visualization: The Intersection between Science and Art</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/dlam/2025/08/15/data-visualization-the-intersection-between-science-and-art/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[tli4]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 15 Aug 2025 08:48:10 +0000</pubDate>
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<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/dlam/?p=5766</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 4</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span> Hi, I’m Hera, the Data Visualization Intern working on the Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) Data Dashboards. Before getting into this internship, data had already been a fundamental part of my life. As an undergraduate student studying Psychology and Linguistics, statistics is part of the core of what we do. We’ve been taught how […]]]></description>
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<div id="attachment_5767" style="width: 1811px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-5767" class="wp-image-5767 size-full" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/dlam/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2025/08/Screenshot-2025-08-15-092443.png" alt="Image of the TEL Data Dashboard SharePoint" width="1801" height="780" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/dlam/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2025/08/Screenshot-2025-08-15-092443.png 1801w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/dlam/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2025/08/Screenshot-2025-08-15-092443-300x130.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/dlam/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2025/08/Screenshot-2025-08-15-092443-1024x443.png 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/dlam/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2025/08/Screenshot-2025-08-15-092443-768x333.png 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/dlam/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2025/08/Screenshot-2025-08-15-092443-1536x665.png 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1801px) 100vw, 1801px" /><p id="caption-attachment-5767" class="wp-caption-text">The TEL Data Dashboard SharePoint</p></div>
<p> </p>
<p>Hi, I’m Hera, the Data Visualization Intern working on the Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) Data Dashboards. Before getting into this internship, data had already been a fundamental part of my life.</p>
<p>As an undergraduate student studying Psychology and Linguistics, statistics is part of the core of what we do. We’ve been taught how to approach data, clean it, visualize it, and analyze it. We’ve been taught how to run countless tests on it to figure out numbers like p-values and Cohen’s d.</p>
<p>Data and statistics are the shield behind what we do, the numbers that say “yeah, we’re 95% confident that what we found was not just an outcome of chance”.</p>
<p>It is the “sciencey” part.</p>
<p>But the visualization was small. It was more about getting the numbers to fit certain significance levels, just cold numbers and letters on a report. Visuals were required to have a better understanding of distributions. Although they were important and did tell a story, they weren’t exactly pretty and exciting standing by themselves. The excitement mainly comes when significant values are put into the context of suggesting that some scientific discoveries are “real”.</p>
<p>So when I got the opportunity to look at the data of LTW services when creating the dashboards, it was like a whole new world of fantasies and stories.</p>
<p>You start with the same old things that you do with any data.</p>
<p>You explore it, get yourself familiarized with it. Make sure you know what each data point means, how they each interlink with another. Meet with the data providers, service managers, and ask clarifying questions: What data points are relevant? What do you want to see on the dashboards? What would users want to see?</p>
<p>You clean the data, make sure everything is consistent, check for errors, and decide what measures to exclude and what measures to keep. You filter the data, merge stuff together when needed, and transform it into formats that PowerBI won’t give you errors working with.</p>
<p>And then the fundamental part of this internship, and the most exciting part – you paint visuals with numbers.</p>
<p>Bar charts, line graphs, area graphs, and pie charts.</p>
<p>Name cards, funnels, slicers, and filters.</p>
<p>Numbers are no longer just numbers. They are grouped together in bars or lines or arcs, illuminated with vibrant colours, and interactive with everything else that you click on.</p>
<p>PowerBI is my paintbrush.</p>
<p>An annoying one at certain times, trying to get it to do what I want, but a very useful one too indeed. You can play around with it in so many different ways: filter, slice, cross-highlight, drill down…</p>
<p>It was a constant problem-solving process to organize the data in certain ways and to customize the visualizations, trying to figure out relationships between models, and edit interactions between visuals so that related data move together. As there are ten services that I create dashboards for, and each of them is unique, the whole process starts again brand new with every dashboard that I make.</p>
<p>I also got to play around with the colours, the blank spaces, the shapes and lines – just like an artist would with his or her pieces of work.</p>
<p>But it was not only art in terms of the visuals. It was also art in terms of storytelling.</p>
<p>When data forms more than tables and numbers, you start to see the pictures more directly. Visualizations help to filter down the data to the most important bits, which makes the difficult communication of huge datasets much easier.</p>
<p>You can tell the story through different perspectives and dimensions. You can see the trend through time and years, a story of rises or fluctuations that make you wonder why there are certain peaks or troughs. You can see the categorizations by departments or user roles, which reveal how similar or different things are with students versus staff.</p>
<p>And as a product, the dashboards go through iterations of feedback with the data providers, service managers, and LTW representatives from the different schools. I was constantly having meetings to display my dashboards and to ask for feedback.</p>
<p>In fact, meeting with the services was one of the best parts. With both the initial walk-through of the datasets and the later feedback for the completed dashboards, collaboration with the different teams gave me a short glimpse of all of their work and inputs over the years. All the hidden work and immense effort behind the scenes, where I would not have known if I didn’t have the chance to work with LTW as an intern. The most inspiring part, though, was seeing their incredible expertise and familiarity with the services that they manage, and that was what brought the sparks into their eyes when they saw the dashboards.</p>
<p>So the dashboards tell way more than what someone can imagine, because people have different perspectives when they look at the same visualizations.</p>
<p>For the management teams of the different schools, the visualizations tell a story that reveals the preferences of their students and staff. For the data providers and service managers, the dashboards provide a snapshot of all their efforts and inputs into their services over the past few years.</p>
<p>For me, the whole project was a journey of exploration, discovery, and growth.</p>
<p>A journey of exploring the intersection between science and art.</p>
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<title>Elia Müller – Initial thoughts on doing Accessibility Checks</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2024/07/05/elia-muller-initial-thoughts-on-doing-accessibility-checks/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2024/07/05/elia-muller-initial-thoughts-on-doing-accessibility-checks/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[emuller2]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 05 Jul 2024 10:23:36 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[EDE]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Educational Design and Engagement]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Learn Foundations Intern]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Learn Foundations Learning Applications Developer]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[summer]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Uncategorised]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[university of edinburgh]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=2455</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 2</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>Year of study & degree: 2nd year Psychology and Linguistics Internship: Learn Foundations Intern Meal deal of choice: Least offensive looking sandwich + Bakery item + Smoothie Favourite floor in Argyle House: Definitely K The title of your preferred work playlist: tasteless bops Subpar Slides As a Learn Foundations Intern, I’m involved in conducting a […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 2</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span><hr />
<p><b><span data-contrast="auto">Year of study & degree: </span></b><span data-contrast="auto">2</span><span data-contrast="auto">nd</span><span data-contrast="auto"> year Psychology and Linguistics</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":279}"> </span></p>
<p><b><span data-contrast="auto">Internship:</span></b><span data-contrast="auto"> Learn Foundations Intern</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":279}"> </span></p>
<p><b><span data-contrast="auto">Meal deal of choice:</span></b><span data-contrast="auto"> Least offensive looking sandwich + Bakery item + Smoothie</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":279}"> </span></p>
<p><b><span data-contrast="auto">Favourite floor in Argyle House:</span></b><span data-contrast="auto"> Definitely K</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":279}"> </span></p>
<p><b><span data-contrast="auto">The title of your preferred work playlist:</span></b><span data-contrast="auto"> tasteless bops</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":279}"> </span></p>
<hr />
<h2><span data-contrast="none">Subpar Slides</span><span data-ccp-props="{"134245418":true,"134245529":true,"201341983":0,"335559738":160,"335559739":80,"335559740":279}"> </span></h2>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">As a Learn Foundations Intern, I’m involved in conducting a number of checks on the university’s Virtual Learning Environment, Learn. We are tasked with verifying the presence of a school-dependent template and making sure that the correct variables are present, among other things (think LOTS of Excel spreadsheets filled with Ys and Ns).</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":279}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">But the part of my internship that has intrigued me the most so far is the accessibility checks that I’ve had to fill out for a random sample of courses from each school. More specifically, I thoroughly enjoyed scrolling through the PowerPoint slides of various courses and imagining the lectures that had accompanied them (a personal favourite so far were the slides of a female filmmakers course from which I got great movie recommendations). </span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":279}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">But what about the accessibility of these slides? </span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":279}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">It leaves much to be desired, unfortunately. Aside from scans of documents, PowerPoints seem to be the documents that consistently have the most accessibility issues, ranging from insufficient contrast between text and slide backgrounds to images that didn’t include alternative text. </span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":279}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">I was stumped, as there is guidance on how to make PowerPoint presentations accessible to all, as well as </span><a href="https://uoe.sharepoint.com/:p:/r/sites/Anintroductiontoaccessibilityinlearningtechnology/Shared%20Documents/PowerPoint%20Accessible%20Template%201.pptx?d=w0026da0da47d4bc08995b30bfe529ecb&csf=1&web=1&e=7RS9cA"><span data-contrast="none">a</span><span data-contrast="none"> template</span></a><span data-contrast="auto"> provided by the university. Why weren’t people using that template?</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":279}"> </span></p>
<h2><span data-contrast="none">Both beautiful and accessible</span><span data-ccp-props="{"134233117":false,"134233118":false,"134245418":true,"134245529":true,"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":0,"335559737":0,"335559738":160,"335559739":80,"335559740":279}"> </span></h2>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Whilst I was staring incredulously at the university template that was getting so little use, I came to the realisation that a possible explanation for its invariable rejection was that it was a little </span><i><span data-contrast="auto">too </span></i><span data-contrast="auto">template-like. Its background is a neutral navy blue, and its font is Arial. What it has in accessibility, it lacks in flair. I believe that one reason the template may not be used is that course organisers want to add personality to the slides.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":279}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">But surely both are possible? This got me thinking about the way in which I design my own PowerPoint presentations. I frequently make use of online databases of PowerPoint templates, where I can choose between a myriad of different layouts and designs. </span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":279}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">How could we blend the world of accessibility and the world of design freedom?</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":279}"> </span></p>
<h2><span data-contrast="none">A possible route forward</span><span data-ccp-props="{"134245418":true,"134245529":true,"201341983":0,"335559738":160,"335559739":80,"335559740":279}"> </span></h2>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">One of the aspects I appreciate most about having an internship within ISG is that my line manager and supervisors are very keen on hearing our feedback and potential suggestions for improvements. This allowed me to suggest a database of accessible PowerPoint templates, to expand on the single template that currently exists and to enable course organisers to opt for an accessible template without sacrificing their aesthetic desires. If time permits, I would like to work on this project in the later stages of my internship.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":279}"> </span></p>
<h6>– your new Blog Editor</h6>
<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area">
<time datetime="2024-07-05" itemprop="dateModified">Jul 5, 2024</time>
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<title>Tallulah Thompson – What I have learnt from the Media and Podcasting Internship</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2024/05/27/tallulah-thompson-what-i-have-learnt-from-the-media-and-podcasting-internship/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2024/05/27/tallulah-thompson-what-i-have-learnt-from-the-media-and-podcasting-internship/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[tthompso]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 27 May 2024 08:14:32 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Digital Learning Applications and Media]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Internships]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=2426</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 3</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>Programme of Study and Year: 1st year Informatics (MInf) Intern Position: Media and Podcasting Intern I have now been working with the Digital Learning Applications and Media (DLAM) group as the Media and Podcasting Intern since February. It’s been an amazing experience – I’ve had the opportunity to get involved in so many interesting things and […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 3</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span><p><strong>Programme of Study and Year: </strong>1st year Informatics (MInf)<br />
<strong>Intern Position: </strong>Media and Podcasting Intern</p>
<hr />
<p>I have now been working with the Digital Learning Applications and Media (DLAM) group as the Media and Podcasting Intern since February. It’s been an amazing experience – I’ve had the opportunity to get involved in so many interesting things and to work with a brilliant team led by Karen Howie. I’m really grateful to Karen and my colleagues for stretching me and supporting me in equal measure. As my internship comes to an end soon, I have decided to share my reflections and what I have learnt.</p>
<p><!-- notionvc: 0025adfe-330e-429b-a7a2-3092aef75b03 --></p>
<h3>Why I applied for this internship</h3>
<p>At the end of my first semester, I decided I wanted to find a job for the following semester that would allow me to interact with more people across the university, and that ideally would involve a project that would benefit others. After looking through many Computer Science related jobs, I found that most were exclusive to penultimate/final year students, and I realised I would have to broaden my search. I started looking for jobs, that despite being less directly related to my field of study, would still be relevant to my interests and help me gain professional experience and valuable skills. That was when I came across the Media and Podcasting Intern job opportunity on MyCareerHub; when I read the job description, I knew I had to apply! It was so appealing because it would allow me to bridge two of my main interests: technology and data, and content creation.</p>
<h3>What I have been doing</h3>
<p>My job has mainly entailed looking through videos uploaded to Media Hopper Create, and analysing their metadata to see how it can be improved, coming up with a metadata guidance document and checklist, collating videos to display on the front page that correspond to monthly themes, collaborating with content owners to improve the accessibility of their media, and, most excitingly, helping design the layout of the front page of the new Media Hopper Create website.</p>
<h3>What I have learnt</h3>
<p>This experience has taught me so much about metadata (<a href="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2024/03/20/2398/">see my previous blogpost</a>) and really highlighted the importance of having good metadata when it comes to improving the accessibility and findability of media. A small yet surprising fact I have learnt is that podcasts do not have to be audio only, and in order for media to be classed as a podcast on Media Hopper Create, it needs to be designed to be consumed in an episodic format, although, majority of the time, a podcast is audio only. I had used Media Hopper Create prior to my internship, however, this was mainly for watching lecture recordings, I hadn’t appreciated the range in content on the website and will continue to use it even after my internship ends. Another thing I hadn’t realised was how useful my ability to code is. I was asked to look through 2 data files and identify the entries that were in one and not the other; and being the Computer Science student that I am, rather than doing this manually/through Excel, I wrote a Python program to do this, which meant that I could complete this task in a much faster and more accurate way. I also used my Python skills to analyse metadata, identify trends and representing them as graphs. I so happy to discover how laterally applicable my skillset is!<!-- notionvc: 1730fcf1-c979-4f30-a932-ddc83022c226 --></p>
<h3>My thoughts</h3>
<p>Overall, this internship has not only expanded my understanding of metadata and media management but also reinforced the value of my technical skills in real-world applications. I’m excited to carry forward these lessons and continue exploring the intersection of technology and media in my future endeavours. I would like to thank Karen, Liam and the rest of the wonderful DLAM team for this amazing experience.</p>
<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area">
<time datetime="2024-05-27" itemprop="dateModified">May 27, 2024</time>
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<title>Tallulah Thompson – Reflections on metadata</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2024/03/20/2398/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2024/03/20/2398/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[tthompso]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 20 Mar 2024 14:10:54 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Digital Asset Management System Metadata Intern]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Digital Learning Applications and Media]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Digital Media Assistant]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Internships]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=2398</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 4</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>Programme of Study and Year: 1st year Informatics (MInf) Intern Position: Media and Podcasting Intern Introduction Hi! I’m Tallulah and I’m in my 4th week as the Media and Podcasting Intern with Media Hopper Create. So far, I’ve been looking through videos uploaded to Media Hopper Create to analyse their metadata and see how it could […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 4</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span><p><strong>Programme of Study and Year: </strong>1st year Informatics (MInf)</p>
<p><strong>Intern Position: </strong>Media and Podcasting Intern</p>
<hr />
<h3>Introduction</h3>
<p>Hi! I’m Tallulah and I’m in my 4th week as the Media and Podcasting Intern with Media Hopper Create. So far, I’ve been looking through videos uploaded to Media Hopper Create to analyse their metadata and see how it could be improved, coming up with a metadata guidance sheet, and I’ve collated videos to display on the front page that correspond to monthly themes.</p>
<h3>Metadata</h3>
<p>Most of my internship so far has involved looking at metadata. Metadata essentially is data about data. In the context of Media Hopper Create, it is the information associated with the different videos that have been uploaded, for example, title, video description, tags, captions, publisher, etc. Having good metadata will make it easier for users of Media Hopper Create to find videos. Unfortunately, the quality in the metadata across the videos is quite inconsistent, which is why one of my jobs is to write guidance to help improve the quality and to make the media easier to find.</p>
<h3>What is good metadata?</h3>
<p>Good metadata will help organise, find and understand data. It should serve as the bridge between content and users. When it comes to videos uploaded to Media Hopper Create, this is what good metadata should look like for media:</p>
<p><strong>Title:</strong> should be clear and give context, for example, if it is a lecture., a good format would be: [Course Name] [Video Subject], rather than just naming a video “Overview” or “Summary”, e.g., “Object Oriented Programming, Lecture 2: Conditionals and Loops”. The users should be able to have a good idea what the video is about based on the title.</p>
<p><strong>Description:</strong> brief description of what the video is about. It should not just be the title repeated, and it should be detailed enough so that users should not have to watch the whole video to see if it is going to be useful to them</p>
<p><strong>Tags:</strong> should be relevant and specific to the video and should not be too general, for example having the tag “acts” on a video about climate change is not specific enough to the video. If the video is a podcast, adding the tag “podcast” will help users who are specifically finding a podcast, and/or if the video is only audio, adding the tag “audio only” will help users who are specifically finding audio only videos . It is better to have fewer tags that are specific and relevant to the video that will help the users find what they are looking for rather than having many tags that are not specific enough. Tags are added from frequently used words in the auto-generated captions, but sometimes these are not the most relevant, so after captioning is complete, it would be good to go through the tags and remove the irrelevant ones. Having a consistent format for tags will make it easier to organise videos, for example, a video with the tag “#artificialintelligence” will be considered different to a video with the tag “artificial intelligence”. A good format for tags is having them completely lowercase.</p>
<p><strong>Captions:</strong> key accessibility feature for many, including but not limited to: people who are deaf or hard of hearing, people who have difficulty processing auditory information, and people whose native language is not English. At the very least, auto-generated captions should be requested for videos uploaded to Media Hopper Create, although at times they can be inaccurate, it is still better than nothing. These captions can either be corrected by the uploader or a request can be put in to have them reviewed and corrected by the captioning team, to make them as accurate as possible.</p>
<p><strong>Attachments:</strong> The transcript, which is created from the auto-generated captions should be uploaded automatically. It is useful to not remove the transcript as it will allow users to search through it to see if the video is relevant. If a presentation is included in the video, uploading the slides will make it more convenient for the user.</p>
<p><strong>Chapters:</strong> divides the video into different sections based on what it is about. Adding in chapters is very useful especially when the video is longer than 30 mins, because it will allow the user to find what they are looking for in a video without having to watch the whole video.</p>
<h3>What is “bad” metadata?</h3>
<p>When videos uploaded to Media Hopper Create have “bad” metadata, it can lead to poor content sorting, making it harder for users to find videos that they are looking for. For instance, when the title for a lecture video is just “0.0”, rather than having the course the lecture is from and more information about the video, it makes it very difficult for users to find this video unless they specifically have the link/know exactly where to find it. It also means that users are less likely to watch the video as they will not know if it is relevant to them. If a video has too many tags that aren’t specific or relevant to the video, when users try searching based on tags, many less relevant videos might come up, making it harder for the user to find what they are looking for.</p>
<h3>My thoughts</h3>
<p>In my opinion, the main issue with the metadata associated with videos uploaded to Media Hopper Create is that it is inconsistent. Having inconsistent metadata makes it much harder for videos to be organised, which will then make it harder for users to find what they are looking for. As part of my internship, I have been tasked with writing a metadata guidance sheet for video uploaders, which I hope will increase the consistency in quality of metadata of videos uploaded. Although this guidance won’t necessarily be able to change the metadata of the already uploaded videos, by hopefully improving the metadata for future videos, it will mean that users can access the most up to date and relevant videos to them much more easily.</p>
<h3>What I have learned so far</h3>
<p>Before I started this internship, I thought I had quite a good idea of what metadata was and its importance. Although I have only been interning with Media Hopper Create for 3 weeks, I realised, I have already learned a lot. I’ve learned a lot about Media Hopper Create and how useful it is as a service for the University, and I didn’t realise how such small details in metadata could make such a big difference in the user experience. I’m looking forward to the rest of my internship and learning even more about metadata.</p>
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<time datetime="2024-03-20" itemprop="dateModified">Mar 20, 2024</time>
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<title>Lewis Forbes – LaTeX and Accessibility</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2023/08/15/lewis-forbes-latex-and-accessibility/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2023/08/15/lewis-forbes-latex-and-accessibility/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[lforbes3]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 15 Aug 2023 14:46:31 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Digital Learning Applications and Media]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Digital Learning Intern]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=2152</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 5</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>Programme of Study and Year: Informatics (MInf), going into final year. Intern Position: Digital Learning Intern As a former Computer Science and Maths student (now just a Computer Science student), LaTeX has brought me much grief over my time at university. Writing my 30+ page dissertation using the software definitely increased my confidence in using […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 5</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span><hr />
<p><strong>Programme of Study and Year: </strong>Informatics (MInf), going into final year.</p>
<p><strong>Intern Position: </strong>Digital Learning Intern</p>
<hr />
<p>As a former Computer Science and Maths student (now just a Computer Science student), LaTeX has brought me much grief over my time at university. Writing my 30+ page dissertation using the software definitely increased my confidence in using it, but to be honest I still don’t really understand how it works and frequently rely on StackOverflow.</p>
<p>As such, it was saddening but somewhat validating to learn that the problem of accessibility in LaTeX is one which has been plaguing the community for years – it’s maintained by a team of volunteers who have struggled to implement features which are becoming standard in electronic documents. In this post I’ll share my attempts at creating the most accessible LaTeX documents possible and conclude with steps you can take to achieve this. The speed at which LaTeX seems to advance (and break) led to a lot of trial and error in this process, and it’s possible that things which worked for me might not work for you.</p>
<p>I used the <a href="http://edin.ac/ally">accessibility evaluation software Ally</a> to determine what makes documents accessible, which gives documents an accessibility percentage and suggests where improvements can be made. Ally gave the initial PDF I provided a score of 5%, but guided me to create a document with a score of 96%. It did not comment on maths however, which is not accessible by default in LaTeX as explained in this <a href="https://asarantsev.github.io/WebArchive/access.pdf" class="mtli_attachment mtli_pdf">report by Massie and Sarantsev</a>.</p>
<figure id="attachment_2238" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-2238" style="width: 277px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" class="wp-image-2238" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2023/08/image-218x300.png" alt="" width="277" height="382" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2023/08/image-218x300.png 218w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2023/08/image.png 569w" sizes="(max-width: 277px) 100vw, 277px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-2238" class="wp-caption-text">Ally’s initial rating and comments for an unchanged LaTeX document.</figcaption></figure>
<p>Based on Ally’s guidance and the information in the report mentioned, the inaccessible aspects of default LaTeX documents are their lack of tagging and headers, lack of alt text, lack of metadata, and maths which cannot be meaningfully read by screen readers.</p>
<h2>LaTeX Accessibility Summary</h2>
<p>If your document contains a lot of maths, I recommend creating an HTML5 file using <a href="https://pandoc.org/index.html">Pandoc</a>. See the checklist in the ‘Maths’ section below for information on this.</p>
<p>If your document has no maths, follow these steps:</p>
<ol>
<li>Add alt text as explained in the first two bullet points in the ‘Alt Text’ section below.</li>
<li>Add metadata as explained in the ‘Metadata’ section below.</li>
<li>Add tags/headings using the using <a href="https://pdfix.io/make-pdf-accessible/">this PDFix tool</a>.</li>
</ol>
<p>As mentioned, following these steps produced <a href="https://www.overleaf.com/read/wnfhnwdpbfmy">96% accessible LaTeX project</a>, based on Ally’s score of its PDF after tagging.</p>
<hr />
<p>I will now go into more detail about each of the different inaccessible areas mentioned.</p>
<h2>Alt Text</h2>
<p>Alternative text is often included for those <a href="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/website-communications/improving-alt-text-at-the-university/">using screen readers</a>, but thanks to the <a href="https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/the-curb-cut-effect-8a6b68d6485">curb cut effect</a> has uses for many people – both visually impaired and sighted. Different sources recommend different ways of including this:</p>
<p>I successfully added alt text using the following methods:</p>
<ul>
<li>Using a parameter on caption <code>\caption[alt text]{caption text}</code>, as recommended by ChatGPT. This should be used when <code>\includegraphics{}</code> is used within a <code>\figure{}</code> environment.</li>
<li>Using <code>\pdftooltip{}</code> from the <a href="https://ctan.org/pkg/pdfcomment?lang=en">pdfcomment interface</a> successfully added tooltips with user-specified text to the document, which Ally recognized as alt text. This should be used when <code>\includegraphics{}</code> is being used with no <code>\caption{}</code>. For example, I used it in a <code>\subfloat{}</code> environment. This was advised in this <a href="https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/75102/need-alt-text-for-images-in-pdf-for-screen-readers?answertab=modifieddesc#tab-top">StackExchange forum</a>.</li>
</ul>
<p>The following methods were recommended by various sources, but did not allow me to successfully add alt text to images:</p>
<ul>
<li>Using <code>\Description{}</code> as recommended in this <a href="https://authors.acm.org/journals/how-to-write-alt-text-and-why">Association for Computing Machinery article</a>. This command was not recognized by the compiler, and no packages to include were mentioned.</li>
<li>Using <code>\nextalt{}</code> as recommended in this <a href="https://people.bath.ac.uk/cspehj/maths-access/latex-instructions/sect0049.html">webpage by Emma Cliffe at Bath University</a>. This command was not recognized by the compiler even with the inclusion of the graphicsx package as mentioned.</li>
<li>Using the accessibility package and the <code>\alt{}</code> comment as recommended in this <a href="https://libguides.lib.msu.edu/c.php?g=995742&p=8207771">Michigan State University Library guide</a>. This also didn’t work.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Metadata</h2>
<p>Ally highlights the need for the inclusion of a PDF’s title and language. This allows screen readers to introduce the document, which can be included with the following lines in the document preamble:</p>
<p><code>\usepackage{hyperref}<br />
\hypersetup{pdftitle={Document Name}, pdflang={en-GB}}</code></p>
<h2>PDF Tagging & Headings</h2>
<p>There does not appear to be a way of reliably generating tagged PDFs using LaTeX. The unsuitability of two potential solutions I came across follows:</p>
<ul>
<li>As outlined in the <a href="https://ctan.math.illinois.edu/macros/latex/contrib/tagpdf/tagpdf.pdf" class="mtli_attachment mtli_pdf">tagpdf documentation</a>, the tagpdf package is not meant for normal document production. As such, the syntax required to use it is complicated and the package likely contains bugs.</li>
<li>As outlined on the <a href="https://github.com/AndyClifton/accessibility"><!--StartFragment --><span class="cf0">Accessibility package GitHub page</span></a>, the accessibility package is also not suitable for production and is no longer maintained. Although it does produces tagged PDFs according to Ally, it sometimes leads to documents not compiling, and sometimes causes unexpected behaviour. As an example:
<ul>
<li>This <a href="https://www.overleaf.com/read/jhnbjpgkbfgy">compilable project</a> does not contain the package, but otherwise identical <a href="https://www.overleaf.com/read/xrqdvtbrksds">uncompilable project</a> contains the package.</li>
<li>In this <a href="https://www.overleaf.com/read/vjnnqxjwtnvy">incorrectly compiled project</a> some of the text is duplicated whereas in this <a href="https://www.overleaf.com/read/grpjgthrpcvq">correctly compiled project</a> no duplication occurs.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Tags can be added to a PDF once it’s been created by a few different services, namely Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, Microsoft Word, and PDFix. Since Acrobat Pro isn’t free to use and Word seems to often ruin the format, I found PDFix’s <a href="https://pdfix.io/make-pdf-accessible/">‘Make PDF Accessible’ tool</a> to be the best solution. This also allows metadata to be changed. The company appear reputable with the <a href="https://pdfix.net/privacy-policy/">PDFix privacy policy</a> stating they delete all provided files for 30 days and pass data to third parties “only within the extent necessary to meet its obligations”.</p>
<p>The only problem I found with this service was its inability to render a <code>.pdf</code> vector image. This format is unusual, and was easily fixed by converting the image to a <code>.png</code> file.</p>
<h2>Maths</h2>
<p>Making maths accessible in LaTeX does appear to be possible but is a little complex. Most sources seem to recommend converting LaTeX documents to HTML5 documents via a semi-automated process using various tools. This aforementioned <a href="https://asarantsev.github.io/WebArchive/access.pdf" class="mtli_attachment mtli_pdf">Massie and Sarantsev paper</a> provides a good overview of the topic.</p>
<p>I found <a href="https://pandoc.org/index.html">Pandoc</a> to be the easiest tool to do this conversion. To convert maths it uses <a href="https://www.mathjax.org/">MathJax</a> – a JavaScript engine which creates “beautiful and accessible math in all browsers”. HTML documents are accessible by default since they are tagged, and contain conventions for setting alt text and metadata. See this <a href="https://docs.mathjax.org/en/v2.7-latest/misc/accessibility-features.html#screenreader-support">MathJax documentation page</a> for information on screen readers for maths it helps display.</p>
<p>Once installing Pandoc, LaTeX documents can be converted on Windows as follows:</p>
<ol>
<li>Open command prompt (press <code>Win+R</code>, type cmd, press enter).</li>
<li>Copy the location of the folder containing the <code>.tex</code> file you wish to convert. The <code>.bib</code> file should be in the same directory.</li>
<li>In command prompt, enter:
<ul>
<li><code>cd "the folder location you copied"</code></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Enter the following command, replacing <code>myTex.tex</code> and <code>myBib.bib</code> with your filenames.
<ul>
<li><code>pandoc myTex.tex -f latex -t html -s -o output.html --bibliography myTex.bib --citeproc --mathjax</code></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Move the new file <code>output.html</code> up one folder level. For example, from <code>C:/folder1/folder2/folder3/output.html</code> to <code>C:/folder1/folder2/output.html</code>. This is so images’ paths are correct.</li>
<li>Open <code>output.html</code>.</li>
</ol>
<p>You might find Pandoc is <span class="NormalTextRun SCXW204967602 BCX0">less forgiving with syntax errors than your usual </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW204967602 BCX0">compiler when it comes to your bibliography</span>. A verifier such as <a href="https://flamingtempura.github.io/bibtex-tidy/">BibTeX Tidy</a> can be used to identify and correct errors.</p>
<h2>The Future</h2>
<p>Decreasing the steps authors have to take to make their LaTeX documents accessible is an area of active development, as outlined in <a href="https://www.latex-project.org/publications/indexbytopic/pdf/">The LaTex Project’s accessibility publications</a>. The most recent update I’ve seen comes from this <a href="https://www.latex-project.org/news/2023/05/27/latex-dev-2/">LaTeX news article</a> introducing the final pre-release of the June 2023 version of LaTeX.</p>
<p>This pre-releases produced viable, tagged documents for simple files, but cannot format some complex files, as shown in the image below. For documents with tables it produced well-compiled PDFs, but they were untagged. This means the pre-release is currently no better than the tagging methods mentioned above.</p>
<figure id="attachment_2203" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-2203" style="width: 967px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" class="wp-image-2203 size-full" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2023/08/image-3.png" alt="A screenshot of a unreadable document, containing text which overflows to off of the page and displayed commands." width="967" height="559" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2023/08/image-3.png 967w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2023/08/image-3-300x173.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2023/08/image-3-768x444.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 967px) 100vw, 967px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-2203" class="wp-caption-text">A poorly formatted document produced by the final June pre-release of LaTeX.</figcaption></figure>
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<title>Ioana-Sabina Susanu – My Digital Learning Internship, in a nutshell.</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2023/06/07/ioana-sabina-susanu-my-digital-learning-internship-in-a-nutshell/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2023/06/07/ioana-sabina-susanu-my-digital-learning-internship-in-a-nutshell/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[lforbes3]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 07 Jun 2023 14:48:11 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Digital Learning Intern]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=1905</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 2</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>Programme of Study and Year: 3rd year Astrophysics Hobbies: Reading, music, karate Intern Position: Digital Learning Intern Describe your role in 4 words: interesting, challenging (at times), rewarding I wanted to take the time to do a blog post on how my internship has been for the past year. I have worked full-time during the […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 2</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span><hr />
<p><strong>Programme of Study and Year: </strong>3rd year Astrophysics</p>
<p><strong>Hobbies: </strong>Reading, music, karate</p>
<p><strong>Intern Position: </strong>Digital Learning Intern</p>
<p><strong>Describe your role in 4 words: </strong>interesting, challenging (at times), rewarding</p>
<hr />
<p>I wanted to take the time to do a blog post on how my internship has been for the past year. I have worked full-time during the summer in the DLAM TEL team (Digital Learning Applications and Media, Technology Enhanced Learning – so many acronyms!), and part-time during the academic year.</p>
<p>I have done mostly Accessibility testing on various applications, including Turnitin, Moodle, Echo360, Collaborate and Ally, but also other tasks like caption verification or blog editing. I have had a lot to learn about all of the different software types and environments used within the University, and how important each piece of technology is.</p>
<p>Wrapping up my time in DLAM, I wanted to share once again how important the topic of Accessibility is, since it is what the vast majority of my work consisted of. Even though it seems that most of the regulations and adaptive software is concentrated on visual impairment (and too few regulations cover physical impairment – but this is a discussion for another time), it is certain that every little element that is made accessible on a page/application/platform makes a huge difference. Every colour combination, every button, every description and every message matters and can make the navigation better for users if accessibility is taken into consideration.</p>
<p>That being said, my work has been varied, and I never got a chance to get ‘bored’ as every thing I had to do was different from the previous one. I had the opportunity of working with a lot of different people, and I had a lot to learn from everyone I’ve met during my internship. The fact that the team has been welcoming and helpful made a great difference for me and my work – being relaxed and confident in my actions made me more productive, efficient and attentive to details</p>
<h2>Make the most of Learning Technology!</h2>
<p>I would like to end this blog post with a big ‘Thank you’ to the DLAM TEL team, and the wider Learning, Teaching and Web community for the continued support throughout the year.</p>
<p>I certainly recommend giving Learning Technology a chance, regardless of your degree – in the end, it is used by everyone at University, and it’s a very diverse field that will never make you bored.</p>
<p>And lastly, make the most of the resources available – there is a wide variety of them (books, software, databases, videos, courses, trainings), all available at a few clicks’ distance.</p>
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<time datetime="2023-06-07" itemprop="dateModified">Jun 7, 2023</time>
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<title>Eva Spanachi – The journey of being a Digital Learning Intern</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2022/08/04/__trashed/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2022/08/04/__trashed/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[espanach]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Thu, 04 Aug 2022 14:15:15 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Digital Learning Intern]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=1629</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 4</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>Programme of Study and Year: 4th Year Chemistry Hobbies: Art, reading, yoga, baking Intern Position: Digital learning Intern Describe your role in 4 words: Write a blog guys! “Known as” at the office: That annoying person who wouldn’t stop sending emails about the ISG Student Employee blog The opportunity to be part of the ISG […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 4</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span><h1></h1>
<hr />
<p><strong>Programme of Study and Year:</strong> 4<sup>th</sup> Year Chemistry</p>
<p><strong>Hobbies:</strong> Art, reading, yoga, baking</p>
<p><strong>Intern Position:</strong> Digital learning Intern</p>
<p><strong>Describe your role in 4 words:</strong> Write a blog guys!</p>
<p><strong>“Known as” at the office:</strong> That annoying person who wouldn’t stop sending emails about the ISG Student Employee blog</p>
<hr />
<h2>The opportunity to be part of the ISG team</h2>
<p>In mid-April, having the usual mid-semester crisis I started thinking of what I would be doing over the summer! So I started a search to find an internship and I came across the various roles offered by ISG on MyCareerHub and everything looked very interesting (and not chemistry related, which would allow my brain to have a break from all the science). Having my interview with some of the Digital Learning Applications and Media (DLAM) members, I immediately realized that I really wanted to become part of that lovely team and was therefore really happy to receive an offer for the digital learning role.</p>
<h2>The internship so far…</h2>
<p>Part of my internship consists of general testing, as well as accessibility testing on University platforms. After undergoing some training on accessibility, I was so surprised to realize how unfamiliar I was with the whole concept and I definitely learned a lot about how to make things more accessible by considering things like using a correct colour contrast, alternative text when using images, captions in videos and the general structure of a site to make it easy to navigate when someone is not using a mouse or using a speech navigator for example. The general lesson I learned however, was to actually keep in mind the various audiences and not just assume that we all use computers and technology in the same way, but we definitely all deserve to be able to access and navigate through all online environments.</p>
<p>Another part of my role has been to create screencasts using MediaHopper to provide instructions on how to navigate around some teaching and learning sites such as Learn. I now know the struggle of having to record your own voice, and the need to have approximately a hundred takes before you decide to give up and use whatever you have recorded by convincing yourself that it is good enough! The first video I had to script and record was 1.5 mins long and it took me a day to perfect, caption and finally post so I can only imagine how difficult it must be to record an hour long lecture!</p>
<p>I was also recently able to observe how the Unidesk side of the team works and see how they keep the Learning Technology of the University working, and ensure that any issue that occurs is resolved. So I had the opportunity to follow through the process of how an issue, that a staff member or student may be dealing with on different university platforms, such as Turnitin and Learn, is handled and eventually resolved. In the next few weeks I will also be able to go through a few issues and try to propose a way to resolve the problem, and become familiar with the different stages of coming up with a solution.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-1805 " src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2022/07/IMG20220328150556-scaled-e1659605487903-300x241.jpg" alt="" width="467" height="375" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2022/07/IMG20220328150556-scaled-e1659605487903-300x241.jpg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2022/07/IMG20220328150556-scaled-e1659605487903-1024x822.jpg 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2022/07/IMG20220328150556-scaled-e1659605487903-768x617.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2022/07/IMG20220328150556-scaled-e1659605487903-1536x1233.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2022/07/IMG20220328150556-scaled-e1659605487903.jpg 1919w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 467px) 100vw, 467px" /></p>
<p> </p>
<h2>Getting familiar with Blogs.ed!</h2>
<p>The general and accessibility testing I did was on Blogs.ed which was really useful because it helped me get familiar with the website as I had to use it daily as part of having the role of the student intern blog editor. My first task with this role was to come up with a template for the blog posts (a challenging task considering I had never written a single blog post or anything similar before). So I had to come up with a plan!</p>
<p>-> <strong>Plan A:</strong> Read all the previous blogs written by interns and get inspired. Well, I discovered that there were too many previous interns and hence too many previous blogs and too little time! -> <strong>Plan B:</strong> Read <em>a few</em> blogs from each past summer to get inspired and create a template. That actually worked and I managed to structure a template. Step 1 done! <strong>Step 2-</strong> Get the template approved and come up with a strategy on how to approach the other interns. I knew immediately that I had to find a way to make my fellow interns want to write blog posts without being too annoying. <strong> Step 3-</strong> After annoying the interns I then had to edit and proofread their blogs and finally post them on <a href="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/">the Information Services Group: Student Employee Blog</a>. It has been great to see that the plan actually worked and interns did offer to write a blog, and I definitely enjoyed reading them all!</p>
<h2>A few weeks left…</h2>
<p>Only a few weeks left for the end of my internship and I am thankful that I had the opportunity to be part of such a lovely team, where everyone was very welcoming and supportive throughout the internship. Also very grateful that Covid managed to calm down and allow us to go to the office now and then and enjoy each other’s company in person, and got to meet other interns during the great Unitemps social events!</p>
<p><strong>I hope all the interns had a great time during their internships and enjoyed their summers as well! Hopefully the rest of the staff in ISG enjoyed having us around and I am sure all of us appreciate their work and effort a lot more now that we got to see what is happening behind ‘the scenes’.</strong></p>
<p> </p>
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<time datetime="2022-08-04" itemprop="dateModified">Aug 4, 2022</time>
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<title>Ioana -Uncovering the depths of accessibility testing in the Digital Learning Internship</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2022/07/25/ioana-uncovering-the-depths-of-accessibility-testing-in-the-digital-learning-internship/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2022/07/25/ioana-uncovering-the-depths-of-accessibility-testing-in-the-digital-learning-internship/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[espanach]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 25 Jul 2022 13:10:59 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Digital Learning Intern]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=1727</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 3</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>Programme of Study and Year: Astrophysics (MPhys), going into 3rd year Hobbies: Reading, listening to music, taking walks, watching TV series Intern Position: Digital Learning Intern within Learning, Teaching and Web (LTW) Fun fact about your internship: I have become knowledgeable in Accessibility testing, even though this was not the plan initially Describe your role […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 3</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span><hr />
<p><strong>Programme of Study and Year:</strong> Astrophysics (MPhys), going into 3<sup>rd</sup> year</p>
<p><strong>Hobbies:</strong> Reading, listening to music, taking walks, watching TV series</p>
<p><strong>Intern Position:</strong> Digital Learning Intern within Learning, Teaching and Web (LTW)</p>
<p><strong>Fun fact about your internship:</strong> I have become knowledgeable in Accessibility testing, even though this was not the plan initially</p>
<p><strong>Describe your role in 4 words: </strong> Challenging, rewarding, technical, awesome</p>
<hr />
<h2>The internship experience in a nutshell</h2>
<p>I have found out about these internships from the Unitemps website. I kept checking it in March, as I knew that was the time when the summer roles would be advertised. I have also received notifications over e-mail regarding the roles and how to apply. My role requires me to become familiar with a variety of learning technology applications, and do the accessibility testing based on a specific script and using assistive software. The most enjoyable part is that I get to see, learn, experience and test a lot of the University’s platforms, applications and integrations, and I have the chance to see these from a developer point of view. Additionally, it is just enjoyable to collaborate with my team members and socialise with other interns when we are in the office. Speaking of socialising, the Unitemps social events for interns are the best – the food is great and I always get to meet and talk to lots of interesting people with various experiences.</p>
<h2>Highlights of Digital Learning – Creating documentation and conducting accessibility testing</h2>
<p>I find the 9-5 life surprisingly relaxing, especially when I work from home. Office days can be a bit more tiring, but they are the most fun as almost everyone is there on certain days. My team is welcoming and friendly, even in busy and stressful times – for which I admire them greatly. I really enjoy that communication is very efficient within the team, both when we are in the office and when we are working remotely.</p>
<p>My role so far has helped me overcome certain ‘fears’, for example listening to my own voice. I had to create some videos with instructions on how to use one of the applications within the University. I already had the script, I just had to record my screen while navigating the application. Even though it seems like a simple task, the idea of recording my own voice felt strange. After talking to my manager and some of the members of my team about this, I found that my feeling was quite common – no-one likes to record and listen to their own voice! Therefore I was a bit more confident that nothing could go wrong and I recorded the videos. Listening to my own voice while doing the captioning was not that bad – especially since I was focused on the quality of the sound and the content itself. The feedback I received for the videos was good, which boosted my confidence for this type of task.</p>
<p>As my work requires me to do accessibility testing, I had the opportunity to discover how complex this field is, and how many regulations need to be taken into account for a webpage/application/platform to be considered accessible. As an example, I was aware of captioning being needed for videos, but I wasn’t aware of the exact ratios needed for colour contrasts within a page. In addition, I could see how certain types of assistive software interact with the University platforms and applications, and which issues are encountered. While I still have some training sessions to do, I have developed an awareness for accessibility and I feel that this subject should be promoted more.</p>
<p>The internship has been a great experience so far. I feel lucky that I am a part of a lovely team (DLAM TEL – Digital Learning Applications and Media, Tech Enhanced Learning) where everyone is friendly and willing to help. I have a lot to learn from all of the team members, and also the other interns. The working environment is very good and inspiring, and it allows me to develop valuable skills that will certainly be beneficial in future assignments.</p>
<p><strong>Through this blog post, I would like to wish all the other interns the best of luck in their internships and projects, and to thank all the staff members for being welcoming and supportive in every matter. And last but not least, I encourage every student to apply for a summer internship within the Information Services Group – it’s definitely a fantastic experience!</strong></p>
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<time datetime="2022-07-25" itemprop="dateModified">Jul 25, 2022</time>
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<title>How I develop skills as a continuing App Developer Intern – Martin Lewis</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2022/04/20/how-i-develop-skills-as-a-continuing-app-developer-intern-martin-lewis/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2022/04/20/how-i-develop-skills-as-a-continuing-app-developer-intern-martin-lewis/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[awilso35]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 20 Apr 2022 11:59:17 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Learn Foundations Learning Applications Developer]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=1581</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 2</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>Martin Lewis is a final year student in BSc (Hons) Computer Science, and started working as a Summer Intern in ISG in 2020, as one of our interns auditing Learn. Martin really impressed the Learn team with his initiative in finding a chance to automate some work, so since summer 2021 he has since been […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 2</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span><p><em>Martin Lewis is a final year student in BSc (Hons) Computer Science, and started working as a Summer Intern in ISG in 2020, as one of our interns auditing Learn. Martin really impressed the Learn team with his initiative in finding a chance to automate some work, so since summer 2021 he has since been working with the Learn team in a more technical role, doing programming.</em></p>
<p>I started work in Information Services Group (ISG) at the University as a <strong>Summer Intern</strong> in 2020 and 2021, and <strong>since then I’ve been working for ISG doing technical bits and pieces</strong>. In this blog post I’ll be discussing <strong>what I’ve been doing as a part of my work for ISG and what skills this has helped me develop.</strong></p>
<p>Initially I was doing rather non-technical work as part of the Learn Foundations project getting the University’s Learn courses prepared for the new academic year. This was adding things like the course outline and organiser details into these fresh courses. <strong>However, I managed to find a way to automate parts of the workflow I was assigned to and from there began to do technical work for the ISG.</strong><br />
I now have the very long winded title of ‘Learn Foundations Applications Developer Intern’ in which I do development work, making applications that are usually, sometime tangentially, related to the Learn Foundations Project.</p>
<p>For those more technically minded, I’m working in the PHP programming language doing full stack (front and backend) work using the Laravel framework. An excellent opportunity to learn a new language and framework. <strong>There is also the chance to work on real world projects that contain issues and experiences that cannot be found in the classroom or in a coursework assignment.</strong> With real team members (big thanks to Andrew and his team who I have been working with) and <strong>projects that have a real outcome (not just a grade).</strong></p>
<p>Now this is not only a good opportunity to hone skills but it also looks very good on a CV. Already having practical software development experience is fantastic and it also is a great source of discussion <strong>during interviews being able to bring up situations and decisions you made outside of a classroom is great.</strong></p>
<p>Now let’s look at the day to day practicalities (this is just my experience your mileage may vary with role and when you might work). The work is remote, as you could probably guess, which fits well alongside my majority remote learning these past few years. Over the summers I’ve worked full time, 35 hours a week, being treated as a standard member of university staff. Then over the semesters only 7 hours a week which I find easy to fit around my studies and personal life but it does often mean rather slow progress in the projects you work on.</p>
<p><strong>Both of the line managers I’ve had have been wonderful and very understanding about the need to change work patterns last minute or take time off around major deadlines and exams.</strong> The pay isn’t too bad and goes a long way towards covering my rent.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if I’ll be continuing to work for the University after May as I am finally graduating. I will however apologise in advance to any potential future intern who has to work with my code! But the last two years have gone a long way to making me a much more employable graduate.</p>
<p>So do consider applying for an ISG internship,<strong> I’ve personally gotten a lot out of it and I think any proactive student can benefit greatly from such a role.</strong></p>
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<time datetime="2022-04-20" itemprop="dateModified">Apr 20, 2022</time>
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<title>Top Five Things I Like About my Internship</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2021/08/11/top-five-things-i-like-about-my-internship/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2021/08/11/top-five-things-i-like-about-my-internship/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[rcormac3]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 11 Aug 2021 11:07:16 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Digital Media Assistant]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=1543</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 3</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>Hazel is the Digital Media Assistant Intern and is responsible for making promotional videos for some of the Ed Web Services and self-enroll courses that are available for staff with the aim of explaining the system and services better to encourage higher usage. She enjoys her job because it allows for creativity and also loves […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 3</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span><p><em>Hazel is the Digital Media Assistant Intern and is responsible for making promotional videos for some of the Ed Web Services and self-enroll courses that are available for staff with the aim of explaining the system and services better to encourage higher usage. She enjoys her job because it allows for creativity and also loves singing, dancing, cooking and has just recently starting learning the ukulele!</em></p>
<hr />
<p>“It’s summer again!” This was what I thinking as I finished my semester. Then what? What should I do this summer? I wanted to make myself useful and gain some experience, which led me to browse for internship opportunities, and fortunately, I was accepted as a Digital Media Assistant Intern under Learning, Teaching and Web services (LTW)!</p>
<p>Impacted by COVID-19, the ways in which we learn and work have changed drastically. As a student, I’m not really a big fan of online learning but to my surprise, I have enjoyed my remote-working internship experience. Here are the top five things I like about my internship experience, and I hope some of that resonate with yours too <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/16.0.1/72x72/1f642.png" alt="🙂" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /></p>
<h3>1) Have my own input and make things happen!</h3>
<p>I’d never really had any internship experience before I joined. From my what my friends said, they described it as more of a rigid form of working, which means managers tell them exactly what they need to do and manage all the tasks with frequent reporting. It seems like it curbs much of their own creative input into the work as they are only following what they are asked to do.</p>
<p>However, my internship experience is totally different! To my surprise, I am given a plethora of opportunities to have my own input in creative tasks. For example, I initiated ideas of the video storyboards and the design of them. The fact that most of them were accepted truly makes me feel empowered as my manager and colleagues trust my skills in making the videos happen.<em><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class=" wp-image-1545 aligncenter" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2021/08/andrew-neel-cckf4TsHAuw-unsplash-300x200.jpg" alt="Table with laptop, mug, pen and paper and a mobile phone." width="411" height="274" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2021/08/andrew-neel-cckf4TsHAuw-unsplash-300x200.jpg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2021/08/andrew-neel-cckf4TsHAuw-unsplash-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2021/08/andrew-neel-cckf4TsHAuw-unsplash-768x512.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2021/08/andrew-neel-cckf4TsHAuw-unsplash-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2021/08/andrew-neel-cckf4TsHAuw-unsplash-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 411px) 100vw, 411px" /></em></p>
<h3>2) Effective communication</h3>
<p>Since the internship is entirely remote, we have used different methods of communication. Making use of Microsoft Teams and Outlook Email functions facilitates effective communication and avoids long-winded boring meetings (which usually happens in a physical setting). With all the technology available, it makes Working from Home possible and seemingly more effective, saving travelling time and speeding up work productivity. Therefore, although we cannot see each other physically, I am still able to communicate with my line manager and other team members easily on a weekly basis and get things going.</p>
<h3>3) High flexibility (time management skills are required!)</h3>
<p>My internship experience is very flexible with the whole project timeline. I can take on the role to plan when things should be delivered and manage when I should sort out the ideas, video storyboards and drafts, etc. This has certainly strengthened my time management skills, as I have to ensure that I am not falling behind the schedule and the project can progress swiftly.</p>
<p>The high flexibility also enables me to schedule other commitments around it. This allows me to achieve a good work-life balance during this period. I know that having an unexpected flexibility with time might seem to be a bit too good to be true, but to be honest, it does require a lot of self-control and time management skills!</p>
<h3>4) Gaining diverse skills</h3>
<p>It is a pleasant surprise to be able to gain other skills outside of what I’ve already learned! My project requires collaboration with other team members in the project and that has enabled me to learn so much more in other aspects, such as content writing, visual design, persona creation etc. These are all valuable opportunities and relevant skillsets that will be very helpful in a workplace. The fact that I can gain all these diverse skills makes the whole experience much more fulfilling!</p>
<h3>5) Supportive environment</h3>
<p>Last but not least, I’ve got to say I’m so grateful to have a really supportive manager that has kindly guided me all along. My colleagues have been really welcoming and encouraging with what I have done. Also, other team members in LTW have helped me so much with their constructive feedback! This whole working environment is surely a great add-on to this internship experience as who wouldn’t love to be surrounded by smart and friendly people?</p>
<hr />
<p>I’m certain that some of you may have a similar/ different internship experience according to your own department/ projects. Feel free to comment down below and share yours too! <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/16.0.1/72x72/1f642.png" alt="🙂" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /></p>
<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area">
<time datetime="2021-08-11" itemprop="dateModified">Aug 11, 2021</time>
</span>
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