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<cc:license >Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0</cc:license><dc:rights  >Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0</dc:rights>	<item>
		<title>More about Blogs.ed and Plugins</title>
		<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/sliceoflearning/2020/09/23/more-about-blogs-ed-and-plugins/</link>
					<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/sliceoflearning/2020/09/23/more-about-blogs-ed-and-plugins/#respond</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[James Slack]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 23 Sep 2020 15:22:18 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorised]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dlam-feed]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/sliceoflearning/?p=176</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"> 6</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>Processes and Plugins   I admit, I may be cheating a little here. As part of HeyPresstoConf20 I really wanted to be able to talk about our Plugins and Processes but couldn’t fit into the Tweet limit so I’m putting it all here. This should be helpful if you are planning on building your own […]]]></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"> 6</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span><h1>Processes and Plugins</h1>
<p> </p>
<p>I admit, I may be cheating a little here. As part of HeyPresstoConf20 I really wanted to be able to talk about our Plugins and Processes but couldn’t fit into the Tweet limit so I’m putting it all here. This should be helpful if you are planning on building your own WordPress Multisite at your institution, as ever, if you want to discuss this feel free to get in touch.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Firstly let’s talk about how we go about selecting Plugins. We start to look when multiple users all ask for the same of similar plugin/function or if we encounter and issue that needs a plugin to be resolved. Thankfully we have an inhouse development team that can be called on if we cannot find something which is a blessing but they support multiple platforms so we do need to have good reason. If we do find a plugin or multiple plugins then we start to investigate whether they actually resolve our issue and if they add any issues or have unexpected behaviour, so far this seems to make basic sense. We have, however, developed a process to audit plugins to ascertain whether they are well supported, well reviewed and also if they contain privacy invasive cookies using the following criteria:</p>
<table width="99%">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>Plugin / theme name:</strong></td>
<td><strong>Yes / no</strong></td>
<td><strong>Comments</strong></td>
<td><strong>Date requested</strong></td>
<td><strong>Date installed</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>What does it do?</strong></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>How much does it cost?</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Cost of adoption</li>
<li>Cost of training</li>
<li>Cost of usage</li>
</ul>
</td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>Author background</strong></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>Is the documentation good?</strong></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>Who will use the add-on?</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>admins / authors</li>
</ul>
</td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>Feedback / reviews</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Is it used by many, reviews / comments</li>
</ul>
</td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>Technical status:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Is it up to date, compatible with our version of wordpress?</li>
<li>Is it well written?</li>
<li>Does it backup/restore?</li>
<li>Is it secure?</li>
<li>Is data shared outside of wordpress?</li>
<li>Type of cookies set</li>
</ul>
</td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>Accessibility:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Check any spellcheck functionality on free data entry boxes/forms that is either automatically run by the system or that requires users interaction</li>
<li>Describe any data validation that is automatically run by the system to ensure users enter data in the correct formats.  Check error messages are in sufficient colour contrast, accessible font, clear location, not pop ups.</li>
<li>Check whether the template scales correctly using different resolutions and whether there are any resolutions that are not recommended, tested using ctrl + and Windows Magnifier</li>
<li>Check the colours and colour contrasts and font types and styles used i.e. are italics and continuous capitals avoided?</li>
<li>Check functionality that would allow users to customise their views (i.e. font size, colours, contrast ratios).  This is by altering browser settings.</li>
<li>Check whether all content is accessible through a keyboard interface and whether it requires specific timings for keystrokes. I.e. is it possible to navigate around the template and complete any forms etc without ever using a mouse.</li>
<li>Check there is an indication or warning of links which will open a new tab or window and check that these warnings are accessible</li>
<li>Check that the template conveys no information in only colour or sound.</li>
<li>Check there is no flashing or scrolling text? If so does the text flash 3 or more times per second and can it be paused? If there is flashing or scrolling text please provide more details.</li>
<li>Check that Zoomtext is compatible with the template without plug ins</li>
<li>Check that JAWS is compatible with the template without plug ins</li>
<li>Check that TextHelp Read and Write Gold is compatible with the template in terms of spellcheck, hover highlight and highlight and read without plug ins.</li>
<li>Check that tooltips are clear and enabled by default on the template.</li>
</ul>
<p>·       Check that there are text alternatives for any non-text content.</p>
<ul>
<li>Check that for any audio/visual items are there captions available and theses have been checked for accuracy.</li>
<li>Check there are no time limits prescribed for the viewing/inputting of content to the template</li>
<li>Check what specialist help is linked to on the template and that this includes a method of contacting someone for assistance?</li>
<li>Check that if the template is accessed via a mobile or tablet device the user system does not require to use any requires any specific timings/specific keystrokes to complete tasks</li>
<li>Check the template works with mobiles/tablets to offer any text to speech functionality of the results for those with visual impairments?</li>
</ul>
</td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p> </p>
<p>You can also read more about this process in this blog post by Callum, one of the original service managers who has since moved to greener pastures (about 5 metres away when we were in the office) – <a href="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/dlam/2019/04/08/cookie-audit-findings/">Cookie Audit Process Blog</a></p>
<p>Lastly, here is a comprehensive list of all of the plugins that we currently use, all of these have been vetted through our process so should provide a good starting point.</p>
<h3>Plugins</h3>
<table width="1132">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td width="270"><strong>Plugin</strong></td>
<td width="225">Developer</td>
<td width="511">Description</td>
<td width="126">Network Activated?</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Add Existing Users</td>
<td>WPMUDEV</td>
<td width="511">Allows you to bulk add existing users to a site, including the facility to set their role.</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="http://addmultipleusers.happynuclear.com/">Add Multiple Users</a></td>
<td>HappyNuclear</td>
<td width="511">This plugin allows you to add multiple user accounts to your WordPress blog using a range of tools.</td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://akismet.com/">Akismet Anti-Spam</a></td>
<td>Automattic</td>
<td width="511">Used by millions, Akismet is quite possibly the best way in the world to protect your blog from spam. Your site is fully configured and being protected, even while you sleep.</td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Batch Create</td>
<td>WPMUDEV</td>
<td width="511">Create hundred or thousands of blogs and users automatically by simply uploading a csv text file – subdomain and user creation automation has never been so easy.</td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>BeeHive Pro</td>
<td>WPMUDEV</td>
<td width="511">Basicall Google Analytics, users can use their own ID or apply for access to the University managed one</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Broken Link Checker</td>
<td>ManageWP</td>
<td width="511">Checks your blog for broken links and missing images and notifies you on the dashboard if any are found.</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Classic Editor</td>
<td>WordPress Contributers</td>
<td width="511">Enabled at network level to remove block editor default</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>CommentPress Core</td>
<td><a href="http://www.futureofthebook.org/"> Institute for the Future of the Book</a></td>
<td width="511">CommentPress allows readers to comment in the margins of a text. You can use it to annotate, gloss, workshop, debate and more!</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Cookies for Comment</td>
<td><a href="http://ocaoimh.ie/"> Donncha O Caoimh</a></td>
<td width="511">Sets a cookie that must exist for a comment to be allowed through</td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Cryout Series Slider</td>
<td><a href="http://www.cryoutcreations.eu/">Cryout Creations</a></td>
<td width="511">accessibility ready free image slider for WordPress.</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Disable Comments</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rayofsolaris.net/">Samir Shah</a></td>
<td width="511">Allows administrators to globally disable comments on their site. Comments can be disabled according to post type.</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://gitlab.is.ed.ac.uk/is-dlam/academic-blogging-project/ed-solr">EdSolr</a></td>
<td>UoE</td>
<td width="511">Integrates Apache Solr with a WordPress Multisite Installation.</td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Email Subscribers & Newsletters</td>
<td><a href="https://www.icegram.com/"> Icegram</a></td>
<td width="511">Add subscription forms on website, send HTML newsletters, and automatically notify subscribers about new blog posts once they are published.</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Enlighter – Customizable Syntax Highlighter</td>
<td><a href="https://andidittrich.com/">Andi Dittrich</a></td>
<td width="511">Syntax Highlighter</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>FeedWordPress</td>
<td><a href="https://feedwordpress.radgeek.com/contact/"> C. Johnson</a></td>
<td width="511">simple and flexible Atom/RSS syndication for WordPress</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Flickr Album Gallery</td>
<td>FARAZFRANK</td>
<td>Flickr Album Gallery is on JS API plugin to display all public Flickr albums on your WordPress website.</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Force Regenerate Thumbnails</td>
<td><a href="http://www.pedroelsner.com/">Pedro Elsner</a></td>
<td width="511">Delete and REALLY force the regenerate thumbnail.</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="http://www.arnebrachhold.de/redir/sitemap-home/">Google XML Sitemaps</a></td>
<td><a href="http://www.arnebrachhold.de/"> Arne Brachhold</a></td>
<td width="511">This plugin improves SEO using sitemaps for best indexation by search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo and others.</td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Image Attribution Tagger</td>
<td><a href="http://red8interactive.com/">Red8 Interactive</a></td>
<td width="511">A plugin that adds image credits to licensed images</td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>MimeTypes Link Icons</td>
<td><a href="https://github.com/eagerterrier/MimeTypes-Link-Icons"> Toby Cox, Juliette Reinders Folmer</a></td>
<td width="511">This will add file type icons next to links automatically.</td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Multisite Plugin Manager</td>
<td><a href="http://uglyrobot.com/"> Aaron Edwards</a></td>
<td width="511">The essential plugin for every multisite install! Manage plugin access permissions across your entire multisite network.</td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Multisite Privacy</td>
<td>WPMUDEV</td>
<td width="511">Adds more levels of privacy and allows you to control them across all sites – or allow users to override them.</td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>NS Cloner – Site Copier</td>
<td><a href="https://neversettle.it/">Never Settle</a></td>
<td width="511">Allows us to create sites from a template</td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>NS Cloner Pro</td>
<td><a href="https://neversettle.it/">Never Settle</a></td>
<td width="511">add-ons to the NS Cloner Core</td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Open Attribute</td>
<td><a href="http://openattribute.com/">OpenAttribute</a></td>
<td width="511"></td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>PDF & Print</td>
<td><a href="https://bestwebsoft.com/">BestWebSoft</a></td>
<td width="511">Generate PDF files and print WordPress posts/pages. Customize document header/footer styles and appearance.</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Reading Time WP</td>
<td><a href="https://jasonyingling.me/">Jason Yingling</a></td>
<td width="511">Add an estimated reading time to your posts.</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Remove Email Verification</td>
<td>WPMUDEV</td>
<td width="511">Removes need to send a verification email when adding users to site or blogs</td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>TinyMCE Comment Field – WPSIWYG</td>
<td><a href="http://www.eracer.de/">Stefan Helmer</a></td>
<td width="511">This plugin turns the comment field from a primitive into a WYSIWYG editor, using the internal TinyMCE library bundled with WordPress.</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Titan Framework</td>
<td><a href="http://gambit.ph/"> Benjamin Intal, Gambit</a></td>
<td width="511">Titan Framework allows theme and plugin developers to create a admin pages, options, meta boxes, and theme customizer options with just a few simple lines of code.</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>True Multisite Indexer</td>
<td><a href="https://rudrastyh.com/">Misha Rudrastyh</a></td>
<td width="511">Indexes all posts across your network and brings them into one spot – a very powerful tool that you use as a base to display posts in different ways or to manage your network.</td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Ultimate Category Excluder</td>
<td><a href="http://infolific.com/technology/"> Marios Alexandrou</a></td>
<td width="511">Easily exclude categories from your front page, feeds, archives, and search results.</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>WordPress Importer</td>
<td><a href="https://wordpress.org/"> wordpressdotorg</a></td>
<td width="511">Import posts, pages, comments, custom fields, categories, tags and more from a WordPress export file.</td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>WordPress.com Theme Updates</td>
<td><a href="http://automattic.com/"> Automattic</a></td>
<td width="511">Update themes downloaded from WordPress.com seamlessly with the rest of your WordPress updates.</td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>WP Accessibility</td>
<td><a href="http://www.joedolson.com/"> Joe Dolson</a></td>
<td width="511">Helps improve accessibility in your WordPress site, like removing title attributes.</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>WP Crontrol</td>
<td><a href="https://github.com/johnbillion/wp-crontrol/graphs/contributors"> John Blackbourn & contributors</a></td>
<td width="511">WP Crontrol lets you view and control what’s happening in the WP-Cron system.</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>WP QuickLaTeX</td>
<td><a href="http://www.holoborodko.com/pavel/">Pavel Holoborodko</a></td>
<td width="511">Access to complete LaTeX distribution. Publish formulae & graphics using native LaTeX syntax directly in the text. Inline formulas, displayed equations auto-numbering, labeling and referencing, AMS-LaTeX, TikZ, custom LaTeX preamble. No LaTeX installation required. Easily customizable using UI dialog. Actively developed and maintained. Visit QuickLaTeX homepage for more info.</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>WP to Twitter</td>
<td><a href="http://www.joedolson.com/">Joseph C Dolson</a></td>
<td width="511">Posts a Tweet when you update your WordPress blog or post a link, using your URL shortener. Rich options to customise and promote your Tweets.</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>WPMUDEV Dashboard</td>
<td>WPMUDEV</td>
<td width="511">Brings the powers of WPMU DEV directly to you. It will revolutionize how you use WordPress. Activate now!</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p> </p>
<h3>Themes</h3>
<div>
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 48pt;" border="0" width="64" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<colgroup>
<col style="width: 48pt;" width="64" /> </colgroup>
<tbody>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt; width: 48pt;" width="64" height="19"><strong>Theme Name</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Apostrophe 2</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">AwesomePress</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Baskerville</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Bhari</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Blask</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Cover</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Cover2</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Cyanotype</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Davis</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Fluida</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Fukasawa</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Garfunkel</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Hitchcock</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Intergalactic</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Intergalactic 2</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Isola</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Lovecraft</td>
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<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Make</td>
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<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Period</td>
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<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Radcliffe</td>
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<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Sorbet</td>
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<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">SPLOTpoint</td>
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<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Tiny Framework</td>
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<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Twenty Fifteen</td>
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<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Twenty Nineteen</td>
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<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Twenty Seventeen</td>
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<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Twenty Sixteen</td>
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<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Twenty Twenty</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Writee</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
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		<title>Service Inheritance</title>
		<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/sliceoflearning/2020/08/14/service-inheritance/</link>
					<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/sliceoflearning/2020/08/14/service-inheritance/#comments</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[James Slack]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 14 Aug 2020 16:06:04 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorised]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dlam-feed]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/sliceoflearning/?p=165</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"> 6</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>How to Inherit a Service A while back, before quarantine and therefore a lifetime ago, I ‘inherited’ a service. Anyone familiar with how these things go will also be somewhat familiar with how the conversation went: “We think you’ve done quiet well and we’d like you to take over this service” “Does that mean I […]]]></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"> 6</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span><h1>How to Inherit a Service</h1>
<p>A while back, before quarantine and therefore a lifetime ago, I ‘inherited’ a service. Anyone familiar with how these things go will also be somewhat familiar with how the conversation went:</p>
<p>“We think you’ve done quiet well and we’d like you to take over this service”</p>
<p>“Does that mean I can drop my old service”</p>
<p>“No”.</p>
<p>Thankfully I have loved taking over this service, by this service I do actually mean *this* service. I now manage the Academic Blogging service, blogs.ed.ac.uk which is what you are reading this post on. I have blogged in the past but sporadically at best. Managing the service is completely different, managing any service is difficult but managing a service which is designed to be open and allow people to do what they want (to an extent) comes with it’s own interesting challenges, more of that in another post.</p>
<p>Today however I wanted to talk more specifically about inheriting a service. It’s something that I hadn’t really thought about before but it struck me that this is the first ‘living’ service that I have taken over. I have a relatively short period of experience of managing learning technology services, roughly 6 years at this point. In that time I have managed two large services but both of these were in their infancy when I got hold. I was able to largely decide what these service should look like, what they would look like and what the policies around them would be. Obviously there is an amount of team work and involvement of other teams in this process but as a service manager the impetus usually came from me.</p>
<p>Taking on a new service that has existed before, however, is something completely different. I often enjoy using bad analogies that I tend to stretch to far, so allow me to do this yet again: Inheriting services is like getting an armchair that belonged to someone else (ish). It’s arranged in a different way, it faces the door, it doesn’t go back far enough, it feels a bit to firm and there are Revels tucked into the side of the cushion. Who would put Revels down there, why would they choose Revels of all the things available?</p>
<h2>Service Personality</h2>
<p>The problem/issue/opportunity is, someone or a group of somebodies have decided how this should work and put it all in place. Now you come in and you’re not sure if you always agree. Most of the time you will but you just need to understand the ‘why’ after seeing the ‘what’ and ‘how’. Most services have a ‘vision’ of sorts attached, usually within the original Project Brief or the Service Level Description (SLD) that sets out the ‘shape’ of the service. This works great in isolation but what often happens is that this clearly defined ‘shape’ then gets released and it tends to need to alter shape to fits its environment in some way. (I DID say I enjoy bad analogies).</p>
<h2>Opportunities for Change</h2>
<p>I’ve always very strongly believed that getting a ‘fresh pair of eyes’ is possibly one of the most useful things to do when you have a great idea or process. Having someone outside of the ‘organisation’ take a look is often the best way to pick up on things, firstly it forces you to explain why you made a decision and also allows you to be questioned. If you can’t convince someone as to why something works that way then you might want to re-evaluate or compromise with the other view point. I love the following quote, which I believe is attributed to Grace Hopper  – “The most dangerous phrase in the language is, ‘We’ve always done it this way’ ”</p>
<p>(If you don’t know who Grace Hopper is, please pause and look her up. I will wait)</p>
<h2>Inheritance runs both ways</h2>
<p>This is the part that surprised me the most when I realised that this was the first service that was secondhand/pre-loved/pre-existing/had a life before me. I started this long monologue talking about how I had inherited something but it seems obvious that the service had also imbibed something from it’s creators and previous owners. There were certain priorities or choices that were made by previous people upon the service, impressions in the surface that had left their mark. I agree with the vast majority of these but some I want to change, based on my priorities or choices that I think make it fit it’s environment in a better way, or a way that appears better to me. Obviously all of this is measured alongside the needs of the current community, I wouldn’t make big changes that negatively impacted people using the service but I may make decisions that change the ‘flavour’ in some ways.</p>
<h2>Making it yours or making you part of it</h2>
<p>After you have been looking after the service for a short while you will likely find a list of things that don’t really feel right to you. It’s likely that these decisions were made some time ago and might not reflect the needs of the user community anymore. I would say it is important to mention here that we aren’t criticising the previous owners, just using this change as an opportunity to review and also add you own input to the service. Once you have found these areas then try to seek the justification if possible, there could be a very good reason as to why something works like this and not like *this*. If there isn’t a good justification or if that doesn’t really hold anymore then start building your case for making a change and what that change will be. Next you get to take these changes to the service team, working group or user community. If these don’t exist then this is a good chance to make them as having some external input, if only at certain times will greatly improve the service as a whole. Also be sure to check that these changes are actually wanted/needed/will have a positive impact, change for the sake of change is a winding road. Always remember RACI (Responsible, Accountable,<strong> Consulted, Informed</strong>)</p>
<p>This is the part that I enjoy the most about managing services, there is a human part even if what *it* is an application running on virtual machines somewhere (I imagine in a basement, because, it has to be). I get to take all of the work that went before and add my layer on top and alter it ever so slightly, like a funky new flavour in your Rainbow Cake – I REALLY DID say that I like bad analogies.</p>
<p> </p>
<div id="attachment_166" style="width: 696px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-166" class="size-full wp-image-166" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/sliceoflearning/wp-content/uploads/sites/2048/2020/08/7478835056_c91640ed8c_b.jpg" alt=""Layers from top - Rainbow Birthday Cake" by avlxyz is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0" width="686" height="1024" /><p id="caption-attachment-166" class="wp-caption-text">“Layers from top – Rainbow Birthday Cake” by avlxyz is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0</p></div>
<p> </p>
<p>Takeaways from service inheritance</p>
<p>If you are a current service owner</p>
<ul>
<li>For you managing a service, try to document what decisions were taken and why they were taken, this makes it a lot quicker for someone to get a feel for how the service exists now. Adding the justification really makes a big difference when someone new steps in</li>
<li>Even if the service isn’t being taken over by someone else it can be very helpful to get fresh eyes on a service, or to include more people when making the decisions. Working groups or user involvement are very good for this.</li>
<li>Try to update original documentation as the service shifts over time, most institutions seem to push for this at intervals but it helps to remember how services can change over time.</li>
<li>Include retrospective look backs at the service at regular intervals, perhaps each year. Having a look at the changes that were added, how they were received and whether they helped add something useful to the service is a very rewarding process</li>
</ul>
<p>If you are taking over an existing service</p>
<ul>
<li>Getting an overview or introduction to the service is incredibly useful but do bear in mind that it is unlikely that you will be able to understand the entire service after one meeting</li>
<li>If possible try to take the previous service owner hostage so that you can refer to them if they didn’t document things</li>
<li>Once you have a good understanding of the service highlight the areas that you have issues with. Areas that you don’t understand why something was done in a particular way or why a certain policy exists. Try to find to root cause for these, if they make sense and fit the service you can leave them for now. If that doesn’t fit the service or the user’s need then earmark those areas for change.</li>
<li>Add your personal touch, come up with suggestions in these specific areas that you have highlighted and taken them to existing working groups or service team. If they don’t exist then consider creating them.</li>
</ul>
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		<title>More about Blogs.ed and Plugins</title>
		<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/sliceoflearning/2020/09/23/more-about-blogs-ed-and-plugins/</link>
					<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/sliceoflearning/2020/09/23/more-about-blogs-ed-and-plugins/#respond</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[James Slack]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 23 Sep 2020 15:22:18 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorised]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dlam-feed]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/sliceoflearning/?p=176</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"> 6</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>Processes and Plugins   I admit, I may be cheating a little here. As part of HeyPresstoConf20 I really wanted to be able to talk about our Plugins and Processes but couldn’t fit into the Tweet limit so I’m putting it all here. This should be helpful if you are planning on building your own […]]]></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"> 6</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span><h1>Processes and Plugins</h1>
<p> </p>
<p>I admit, I may be cheating a little here. As part of HeyPresstoConf20 I really wanted to be able to talk about our Plugins and Processes but couldn’t fit into the Tweet limit so I’m putting it all here. This should be helpful if you are planning on building your own WordPress Multisite at your institution, as ever, if you want to discuss this feel free to get in touch.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Firstly let’s talk about how we go about selecting Plugins. We start to look when multiple users all ask for the same of similar plugin/function or if we encounter and issue that needs a plugin to be resolved. Thankfully we have an inhouse development team that can be called on if we cannot find something which is a blessing but they support multiple platforms so we do need to have good reason. If we do find a plugin or multiple plugins then we start to investigate whether they actually resolve our issue and if they add any issues or have unexpected behaviour, so far this seems to make basic sense. We have, however, developed a process to audit plugins to ascertain whether they are well supported, well reviewed and also if they contain privacy invasive cookies using the following criteria:</p>
<table width="99%">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>Plugin / theme name:</strong></td>
<td><strong>Yes / no</strong></td>
<td><strong>Comments</strong></td>
<td><strong>Date requested</strong></td>
<td><strong>Date installed</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>What does it do?</strong></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>How much does it cost?</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Cost of adoption</li>
<li>Cost of training</li>
<li>Cost of usage</li>
</ul>
</td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>Author background</strong></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>Is the documentation good?</strong></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>Who will use the add-on?</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>admins / authors</li>
</ul>
</td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>Feedback / reviews</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Is it used by many, reviews / comments</li>
</ul>
</td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>Technical status:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Is it up to date, compatible with our version of wordpress?</li>
<li>Is it well written?</li>
<li>Does it backup/restore?</li>
<li>Is it secure?</li>
<li>Is data shared outside of wordpress?</li>
<li>Type of cookies set</li>
</ul>
</td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>Accessibility:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Check any spellcheck functionality on free data entry boxes/forms that is either automatically run by the system or that requires users interaction</li>
<li>Describe any data validation that is automatically run by the system to ensure users enter data in the correct formats.  Check error messages are in sufficient colour contrast, accessible font, clear location, not pop ups.</li>
<li>Check whether the template scales correctly using different resolutions and whether there are any resolutions that are not recommended, tested using ctrl + and Windows Magnifier</li>
<li>Check the colours and colour contrasts and font types and styles used i.e. are italics and continuous capitals avoided?</li>
<li>Check functionality that would allow users to customise their views (i.e. font size, colours, contrast ratios).  This is by altering browser settings.</li>
<li>Check whether all content is accessible through a keyboard interface and whether it requires specific timings for keystrokes. I.e. is it possible to navigate around the template and complete any forms etc without ever using a mouse.</li>
<li>Check there is an indication or warning of links which will open a new tab or window and check that these warnings are accessible</li>
<li>Check that the template conveys no information in only colour or sound.</li>
<li>Check there is no flashing or scrolling text? If so does the text flash 3 or more times per second and can it be paused? If there is flashing or scrolling text please provide more details.</li>
<li>Check that Zoomtext is compatible with the template without plug ins</li>
<li>Check that JAWS is compatible with the template without plug ins</li>
<li>Check that TextHelp Read and Write Gold is compatible with the template in terms of spellcheck, hover highlight and highlight and read without plug ins.</li>
<li>Check that tooltips are clear and enabled by default on the template.</li>
</ul>
<p>·       Check that there are text alternatives for any non-text content.</p>
<ul>
<li>Check that for any audio/visual items are there captions available and theses have been checked for accuracy.</li>
<li>Check there are no time limits prescribed for the viewing/inputting of content to the template</li>
<li>Check what specialist help is linked to on the template and that this includes a method of contacting someone for assistance?</li>
<li>Check that if the template is accessed via a mobile or tablet device the user system does not require to use any requires any specific timings/specific keystrokes to complete tasks</li>
<li>Check the template works with mobiles/tablets to offer any text to speech functionality of the results for those with visual impairments?</li>
</ul>
</td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p> </p>
<p>You can also read more about this process in this blog post by Callum, one of the original service managers who has since moved to greener pastures (about 5 metres away when we were in the office) – <a href="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/dlam/2019/04/08/cookie-audit-findings/">Cookie Audit Process Blog</a></p>
<p>Lastly, here is a comprehensive list of all of the plugins that we currently use, all of these have been vetted through our process so should provide a good starting point.</p>
<h3>Plugins</h3>
<table width="1132">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td width="270"><strong>Plugin</strong></td>
<td width="225">Developer</td>
<td width="511">Description</td>
<td width="126">Network Activated?</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Add Existing Users</td>
<td>WPMUDEV</td>
<td width="511">Allows you to bulk add existing users to a site, including the facility to set their role.</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="http://addmultipleusers.happynuclear.com/">Add Multiple Users</a></td>
<td>HappyNuclear</td>
<td width="511">This plugin allows you to add multiple user accounts to your WordPress blog using a range of tools.</td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://akismet.com/">Akismet Anti-Spam</a></td>
<td>Automattic</td>
<td width="511">Used by millions, Akismet is quite possibly the best way in the world to protect your blog from spam. Your site is fully configured and being protected, even while you sleep.</td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Batch Create</td>
<td>WPMUDEV</td>
<td width="511">Create hundred or thousands of blogs and users automatically by simply uploading a csv text file – subdomain and user creation automation has never been so easy.</td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>BeeHive Pro</td>
<td>WPMUDEV</td>
<td width="511">Basicall Google Analytics, users can use their own ID or apply for access to the University managed one</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Broken Link Checker</td>
<td>ManageWP</td>
<td width="511">Checks your blog for broken links and missing images and notifies you on the dashboard if any are found.</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Classic Editor</td>
<td>WordPress Contributers</td>
<td width="511">Enabled at network level to remove block editor default</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>CommentPress Core</td>
<td><a href="http://www.futureofthebook.org/"> Institute for the Future of the Book</a></td>
<td width="511">CommentPress allows readers to comment in the margins of a text. You can use it to annotate, gloss, workshop, debate and more!</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Cookies for Comment</td>
<td><a href="http://ocaoimh.ie/"> Donncha O Caoimh</a></td>
<td width="511">Sets a cookie that must exist for a comment to be allowed through</td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Cryout Series Slider</td>
<td><a href="http://www.cryoutcreations.eu/">Cryout Creations</a></td>
<td width="511">accessibility ready free image slider for WordPress.</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Disable Comments</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rayofsolaris.net/">Samir Shah</a></td>
<td width="511">Allows administrators to globally disable comments on their site. Comments can be disabled according to post type.</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://gitlab.is.ed.ac.uk/is-dlam/academic-blogging-project/ed-solr">EdSolr</a></td>
<td>UoE</td>
<td width="511">Integrates Apache Solr with a WordPress Multisite Installation.</td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Email Subscribers & Newsletters</td>
<td><a href="https://www.icegram.com/"> Icegram</a></td>
<td width="511">Add subscription forms on website, send HTML newsletters, and automatically notify subscribers about new blog posts once they are published.</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Enlighter – Customizable Syntax Highlighter</td>
<td><a href="https://andidittrich.com/">Andi Dittrich</a></td>
<td width="511">Syntax Highlighter</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>FeedWordPress</td>
<td><a href="https://feedwordpress.radgeek.com/contact/"> C. Johnson</a></td>
<td width="511">simple and flexible Atom/RSS syndication for WordPress</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Flickr Album Gallery</td>
<td>FARAZFRANK</td>
<td>Flickr Album Gallery is on JS API plugin to display all public Flickr albums on your WordPress website.</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Force Regenerate Thumbnails</td>
<td><a href="http://www.pedroelsner.com/">Pedro Elsner</a></td>
<td width="511">Delete and REALLY force the regenerate thumbnail.</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="http://www.arnebrachhold.de/redir/sitemap-home/">Google XML Sitemaps</a></td>
<td><a href="http://www.arnebrachhold.de/"> Arne Brachhold</a></td>
<td width="511">This plugin improves SEO using sitemaps for best indexation by search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo and others.</td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Image Attribution Tagger</td>
<td><a href="http://red8interactive.com/">Red8 Interactive</a></td>
<td width="511">A plugin that adds image credits to licensed images</td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>MimeTypes Link Icons</td>
<td><a href="https://github.com/eagerterrier/MimeTypes-Link-Icons"> Toby Cox, Juliette Reinders Folmer</a></td>
<td width="511">This will add file type icons next to links automatically.</td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Multisite Plugin Manager</td>
<td><a href="http://uglyrobot.com/"> Aaron Edwards</a></td>
<td width="511">The essential plugin for every multisite install! Manage plugin access permissions across your entire multisite network.</td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Multisite Privacy</td>
<td>WPMUDEV</td>
<td width="511">Adds more levels of privacy and allows you to control them across all sites – or allow users to override them.</td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>NS Cloner – Site Copier</td>
<td><a href="https://neversettle.it/">Never Settle</a></td>
<td width="511">Allows us to create sites from a template</td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>NS Cloner Pro</td>
<td><a href="https://neversettle.it/">Never Settle</a></td>
<td width="511">add-ons to the NS Cloner Core</td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Open Attribute</td>
<td><a href="http://openattribute.com/">OpenAttribute</a></td>
<td width="511"></td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>PDF & Print</td>
<td><a href="https://bestwebsoft.com/">BestWebSoft</a></td>
<td width="511">Generate PDF files and print WordPress posts/pages. Customize document header/footer styles and appearance.</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Reading Time WP</td>
<td><a href="https://jasonyingling.me/">Jason Yingling</a></td>
<td width="511">Add an estimated reading time to your posts.</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Remove Email Verification</td>
<td>WPMUDEV</td>
<td width="511">Removes need to send a verification email when adding users to site or blogs</td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>TinyMCE Comment Field – WPSIWYG</td>
<td><a href="http://www.eracer.de/">Stefan Helmer</a></td>
<td width="511">This plugin turns the comment field from a primitive into a WYSIWYG editor, using the internal TinyMCE library bundled with WordPress.</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Titan Framework</td>
<td><a href="http://gambit.ph/"> Benjamin Intal, Gambit</a></td>
<td width="511">Titan Framework allows theme and plugin developers to create a admin pages, options, meta boxes, and theme customizer options with just a few simple lines of code.</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>True Multisite Indexer</td>
<td><a href="https://rudrastyh.com/">Misha Rudrastyh</a></td>
<td width="511">Indexes all posts across your network and brings them into one spot – a very powerful tool that you use as a base to display posts in different ways or to manage your network.</td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Ultimate Category Excluder</td>
<td><a href="http://infolific.com/technology/"> Marios Alexandrou</a></td>
<td width="511">Easily exclude categories from your front page, feeds, archives, and search results.</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>WordPress Importer</td>
<td><a href="https://wordpress.org/"> wordpressdotorg</a></td>
<td width="511">Import posts, pages, comments, custom fields, categories, tags and more from a WordPress export file.</td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>WordPress.com Theme Updates</td>
<td><a href="http://automattic.com/"> Automattic</a></td>
<td width="511">Update themes downloaded from WordPress.com seamlessly with the rest of your WordPress updates.</td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>WP Accessibility</td>
<td><a href="http://www.joedolson.com/"> Joe Dolson</a></td>
<td width="511">Helps improve accessibility in your WordPress site, like removing title attributes.</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>WP Crontrol</td>
<td><a href="https://github.com/johnbillion/wp-crontrol/graphs/contributors"> John Blackbourn & contributors</a></td>
<td width="511">WP Crontrol lets you view and control what’s happening in the WP-Cron system.</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>WP QuickLaTeX</td>
<td><a href="http://www.holoborodko.com/pavel/">Pavel Holoborodko</a></td>
<td width="511">Access to complete LaTeX distribution. Publish formulae & graphics using native LaTeX syntax directly in the text. Inline formulas, displayed equations auto-numbering, labeling and referencing, AMS-LaTeX, TikZ, custom LaTeX preamble. No LaTeX installation required. Easily customizable using UI dialog. Actively developed and maintained. Visit QuickLaTeX homepage for more info.</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>WP to Twitter</td>
<td><a href="http://www.joedolson.com/">Joseph C Dolson</a></td>
<td width="511">Posts a Tweet when you update your WordPress blog or post a link, using your URL shortener. Rich options to customise and promote your Tweets.</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>WPMUDEV Dashboard</td>
<td>WPMUDEV</td>
<td width="511">Brings the powers of WPMU DEV directly to you. It will revolutionize how you use WordPress. Activate now!</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p> </p>
<h3>Themes</h3>
<div>
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 48pt;" border="0" width="64" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<colgroup>
<col style="width: 48pt;" width="64" /> </colgroup>
<tbody>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt; width: 48pt;" width="64" height="19"><strong>Theme Name</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Apostrophe 2</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">AwesomePress</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Baskerville</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Bhari</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Blask</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Cover</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Cover2</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Cyanotype</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Davis</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Fluida</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Fukasawa</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Garfunkel</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Hitchcock</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Intergalactic</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Intergalactic 2</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Isola</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Lovecraft</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Make</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Period</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Radcliffe</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Sorbet</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">SPLOTpoint</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Tiny Framework</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Twenty Fifteen</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Twenty Nineteen</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Twenty Seventeen</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Twenty Sixteen</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Twenty Twenty</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Writee</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
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			</item>
		<item>
		<title>Service Inheritance</title>
		<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/sliceoflearning/2020/08/14/service-inheritance/</link>
					<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/sliceoflearning/2020/08/14/service-inheritance/#comments</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[James Slack]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 14 Aug 2020 16:06:04 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorised]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dlam-feed]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/sliceoflearning/?p=165</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"> 6</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>How to Inherit a Service A while back, before quarantine and therefore a lifetime ago, I ‘inherited’ a service. Anyone familiar with how these things go will also be somewhat familiar with how the conversation went: “We think you’ve done quiet well and we’d like you to take over this service” “Does that mean I […]]]></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"> 6</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span><h1>How to Inherit a Service</h1>
<p>A while back, before quarantine and therefore a lifetime ago, I ‘inherited’ a service. Anyone familiar with how these things go will also be somewhat familiar with how the conversation went:</p>
<p>“We think you’ve done quiet well and we’d like you to take over this service”</p>
<p>“Does that mean I can drop my old service”</p>
<p>“No”.</p>
<p>Thankfully I have loved taking over this service, by this service I do actually mean *this* service. I now manage the Academic Blogging service, blogs.ed.ac.uk which is what you are reading this post on. I have blogged in the past but sporadically at best. Managing the service is completely different, managing any service is difficult but managing a service which is designed to be open and allow people to do what they want (to an extent) comes with it’s own interesting challenges, more of that in another post.</p>
<p>Today however I wanted to talk more specifically about inheriting a service. It’s something that I hadn’t really thought about before but it struck me that this is the first ‘living’ service that I have taken over. I have a relatively short period of experience of managing learning technology services, roughly 6 years at this point. In that time I have managed two large services but both of these were in their infancy when I got hold. I was able to largely decide what these service should look like, what they would look like and what the policies around them would be. Obviously there is an amount of team work and involvement of other teams in this process but as a service manager the impetus usually came from me.</p>
<p>Taking on a new service that has existed before, however, is something completely different. I often enjoy using bad analogies that I tend to stretch to far, so allow me to do this yet again: Inheriting services is like getting an armchair that belonged to someone else (ish). It’s arranged in a different way, it faces the door, it doesn’t go back far enough, it feels a bit to firm and there are Revels tucked into the side of the cushion. Who would put Revels down there, why would they choose Revels of all the things available?</p>
<h2>Service Personality</h2>
<p>The problem/issue/opportunity is, someone or a group of somebodies have decided how this should work and put it all in place. Now you come in and you’re not sure if you always agree. Most of the time you will but you just need to understand the ‘why’ after seeing the ‘what’ and ‘how’. Most services have a ‘vision’ of sorts attached, usually within the original Project Brief or the Service Level Description (SLD) that sets out the ‘shape’ of the service. This works great in isolation but what often happens is that this clearly defined ‘shape’ then gets released and it tends to need to alter shape to fits its environment in some way. (I DID say I enjoy bad analogies).</p>
<h2>Opportunities for Change</h2>
<p>I’ve always very strongly believed that getting a ‘fresh pair of eyes’ is possibly one of the most useful things to do when you have a great idea or process. Having someone outside of the ‘organisation’ take a look is often the best way to pick up on things, firstly it forces you to explain why you made a decision and also allows you to be questioned. If you can’t convince someone as to why something works that way then you might want to re-evaluate or compromise with the other view point. I love the following quote, which I believe is attributed to Grace Hopper  – “The most dangerous phrase in the language is, ‘We’ve always done it this way’ ”</p>
<p>(If you don’t know who Grace Hopper is, please pause and look her up. I will wait)</p>
<h2>Inheritance runs both ways</h2>
<p>This is the part that surprised me the most when I realised that this was the first service that was secondhand/pre-loved/pre-existing/had a life before me. I started this long monologue talking about how I had inherited something but it seems obvious that the service had also imbibed something from it’s creators and previous owners. There were certain priorities or choices that were made by previous people upon the service, impressions in the surface that had left their mark. I agree with the vast majority of these but some I want to change, based on my priorities or choices that I think make it fit it’s environment in a better way, or a way that appears better to me. Obviously all of this is measured alongside the needs of the current community, I wouldn’t make big changes that negatively impacted people using the service but I may make decisions that change the ‘flavour’ in some ways.</p>
<h2>Making it yours or making you part of it</h2>
<p>After you have been looking after the service for a short while you will likely find a list of things that don’t really feel right to you. It’s likely that these decisions were made some time ago and might not reflect the needs of the user community anymore. I would say it is important to mention here that we aren’t criticising the previous owners, just using this change as an opportunity to review and also add you own input to the service. Once you have found these areas then try to seek the justification if possible, there could be a very good reason as to why something works like this and not like *this*. If there isn’t a good justification or if that doesn’t really hold anymore then start building your case for making a change and what that change will be. Next you get to take these changes to the service team, working group or user community. If these don’t exist then this is a good chance to make them as having some external input, if only at certain times will greatly improve the service as a whole. Also be sure to check that these changes are actually wanted/needed/will have a positive impact, change for the sake of change is a winding road. Always remember RACI (Responsible, Accountable,<strong> Consulted, Informed</strong>)</p>
<p>This is the part that I enjoy the most about managing services, there is a human part even if what *it* is an application running on virtual machines somewhere (I imagine in a basement, because, it has to be). I get to take all of the work that went before and add my layer on top and alter it ever so slightly, like a funky new flavour in your Rainbow Cake – I REALLY DID say that I like bad analogies.</p>
<p> </p>
<div id="attachment_166" style="width: 696px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-166" class="size-full wp-image-166" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/sliceoflearning/wp-content/uploads/sites/2048/2020/08/7478835056_c91640ed8c_b.jpg" alt=""Layers from top - Rainbow Birthday Cake" by avlxyz is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0" width="686" height="1024" /><p id="caption-attachment-166" class="wp-caption-text">“Layers from top – Rainbow Birthday Cake” by avlxyz is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0</p></div>
<p> </p>
<p>Takeaways from service inheritance</p>
<p>If you are a current service owner</p>
<ul>
<li>For you managing a service, try to document what decisions were taken and why they were taken, this makes it a lot quicker for someone to get a feel for how the service exists now. Adding the justification really makes a big difference when someone new steps in</li>
<li>Even if the service isn’t being taken over by someone else it can be very helpful to get fresh eyes on a service, or to include more people when making the decisions. Working groups or user involvement are very good for this.</li>
<li>Try to update original documentation as the service shifts over time, most institutions seem to push for this at intervals but it helps to remember how services can change over time.</li>
<li>Include retrospective look backs at the service at regular intervals, perhaps each year. Having a look at the changes that were added, how they were received and whether they helped add something useful to the service is a very rewarding process</li>
</ul>
<p>If you are taking over an existing service</p>
<ul>
<li>Getting an overview or introduction to the service is incredibly useful but do bear in mind that it is unlikely that you will be able to understand the entire service after one meeting</li>
<li>If possible try to take the previous service owner hostage so that you can refer to them if they didn’t document things</li>
<li>Once you have a good understanding of the service highlight the areas that you have issues with. Areas that you don’t understand why something was done in a particular way or why a certain policy exists. Try to find to root cause for these, if they make sense and fit the service you can leave them for now. If that doesn’t fit the service or the user’s need then earmark those areas for change.</li>
<li>Add your personal touch, come up with suggestions in these specific areas that you have highlighted and taken them to existing working groups or service team. If they don’t exist then consider creating them.</li>
</ul>
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		<title>More about Blogs.ed and Plugins</title>
		<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/sliceoflearning/2020/09/23/more-about-blogs-ed-and-plugins/</link>
					<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/sliceoflearning/2020/09/23/more-about-blogs-ed-and-plugins/#respond</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[James Slack]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 23 Sep 2020 15:22:18 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorised]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dlam-feed]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/sliceoflearning/?p=176</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"> 6</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>Processes and Plugins   I admit, I may be cheating a little here. As part of HeyPresstoConf20 I really wanted to be able to talk about our Plugins and Processes but couldn’t fit into the Tweet limit so I’m putting it all here. This should be helpful if you are planning on building your own […]]]></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"> 6</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span><h1>Processes and Plugins</h1>
<p> </p>
<p>I admit, I may be cheating a little here. As part of HeyPresstoConf20 I really wanted to be able to talk about our Plugins and Processes but couldn’t fit into the Tweet limit so I’m putting it all here. This should be helpful if you are planning on building your own WordPress Multisite at your institution, as ever, if you want to discuss this feel free to get in touch.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Firstly let’s talk about how we go about selecting Plugins. We start to look when multiple users all ask for the same of similar plugin/function or if we encounter and issue that needs a plugin to be resolved. Thankfully we have an inhouse development team that can be called on if we cannot find something which is a blessing but they support multiple platforms so we do need to have good reason. If we do find a plugin or multiple plugins then we start to investigate whether they actually resolve our issue and if they add any issues or have unexpected behaviour, so far this seems to make basic sense. We have, however, developed a process to audit plugins to ascertain whether they are well supported, well reviewed and also if they contain privacy invasive cookies using the following criteria:</p>
<table width="99%">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>Plugin / theme name:</strong></td>
<td><strong>Yes / no</strong></td>
<td><strong>Comments</strong></td>
<td><strong>Date requested</strong></td>
<td><strong>Date installed</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>What does it do?</strong></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>How much does it cost?</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Cost of adoption</li>
<li>Cost of training</li>
<li>Cost of usage</li>
</ul>
</td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>Author background</strong></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>Is the documentation good?</strong></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>Who will use the add-on?</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>admins / authors</li>
</ul>
</td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>Feedback / reviews</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Is it used by many, reviews / comments</li>
</ul>
</td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>Technical status:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Is it up to date, compatible with our version of wordpress?</li>
<li>Is it well written?</li>
<li>Does it backup/restore?</li>
<li>Is it secure?</li>
<li>Is data shared outside of wordpress?</li>
<li>Type of cookies set</li>
</ul>
</td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>Accessibility:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Check any spellcheck functionality on free data entry boxes/forms that is either automatically run by the system or that requires users interaction</li>
<li>Describe any data validation that is automatically run by the system to ensure users enter data in the correct formats.  Check error messages are in sufficient colour contrast, accessible font, clear location, not pop ups.</li>
<li>Check whether the template scales correctly using different resolutions and whether there are any resolutions that are not recommended, tested using ctrl + and Windows Magnifier</li>
<li>Check the colours and colour contrasts and font types and styles used i.e. are italics and continuous capitals avoided?</li>
<li>Check functionality that would allow users to customise their views (i.e. font size, colours, contrast ratios).  This is by altering browser settings.</li>
<li>Check whether all content is accessible through a keyboard interface and whether it requires specific timings for keystrokes. I.e. is it possible to navigate around the template and complete any forms etc without ever using a mouse.</li>
<li>Check there is an indication or warning of links which will open a new tab or window and check that these warnings are accessible</li>
<li>Check that the template conveys no information in only colour or sound.</li>
<li>Check there is no flashing or scrolling text? If so does the text flash 3 or more times per second and can it be paused? If there is flashing or scrolling text please provide more details.</li>
<li>Check that Zoomtext is compatible with the template without plug ins</li>
<li>Check that JAWS is compatible with the template without plug ins</li>
<li>Check that TextHelp Read and Write Gold is compatible with the template in terms of spellcheck, hover highlight and highlight and read without plug ins.</li>
<li>Check that tooltips are clear and enabled by default on the template.</li>
</ul>
<p>·       Check that there are text alternatives for any non-text content.</p>
<ul>
<li>Check that for any audio/visual items are there captions available and theses have been checked for accuracy.</li>
<li>Check there are no time limits prescribed for the viewing/inputting of content to the template</li>
<li>Check what specialist help is linked to on the template and that this includes a method of contacting someone for assistance?</li>
<li>Check that if the template is accessed via a mobile or tablet device the user system does not require to use any requires any specific timings/specific keystrokes to complete tasks</li>
<li>Check the template works with mobiles/tablets to offer any text to speech functionality of the results for those with visual impairments?</li>
</ul>
</td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p> </p>
<p>You can also read more about this process in this blog post by Callum, one of the original service managers who has since moved to greener pastures (about 5 metres away when we were in the office) – <a href="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/dlam/2019/04/08/cookie-audit-findings/">Cookie Audit Process Blog</a></p>
<p>Lastly, here is a comprehensive list of all of the plugins that we currently use, all of these have been vetted through our process so should provide a good starting point.</p>
<h3>Plugins</h3>
<table width="1132">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td width="270"><strong>Plugin</strong></td>
<td width="225">Developer</td>
<td width="511">Description</td>
<td width="126">Network Activated?</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Add Existing Users</td>
<td>WPMUDEV</td>
<td width="511">Allows you to bulk add existing users to a site, including the facility to set their role.</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="http://addmultipleusers.happynuclear.com/">Add Multiple Users</a></td>
<td>HappyNuclear</td>
<td width="511">This plugin allows you to add multiple user accounts to your WordPress blog using a range of tools.</td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://akismet.com/">Akismet Anti-Spam</a></td>
<td>Automattic</td>
<td width="511">Used by millions, Akismet is quite possibly the best way in the world to protect your blog from spam. Your site is fully configured and being protected, even while you sleep.</td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Batch Create</td>
<td>WPMUDEV</td>
<td width="511">Create hundred or thousands of blogs and users automatically by simply uploading a csv text file – subdomain and user creation automation has never been so easy.</td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>BeeHive Pro</td>
<td>WPMUDEV</td>
<td width="511">Basicall Google Analytics, users can use their own ID or apply for access to the University managed one</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Broken Link Checker</td>
<td>ManageWP</td>
<td width="511">Checks your blog for broken links and missing images and notifies you on the dashboard if any are found.</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Classic Editor</td>
<td>WordPress Contributers</td>
<td width="511">Enabled at network level to remove block editor default</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>CommentPress Core</td>
<td><a href="http://www.futureofthebook.org/"> Institute for the Future of the Book</a></td>
<td width="511">CommentPress allows readers to comment in the margins of a text. You can use it to annotate, gloss, workshop, debate and more!</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Cookies for Comment</td>
<td><a href="http://ocaoimh.ie/"> Donncha O Caoimh</a></td>
<td width="511">Sets a cookie that must exist for a comment to be allowed through</td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Cryout Series Slider</td>
<td><a href="http://www.cryoutcreations.eu/">Cryout Creations</a></td>
<td width="511">accessibility ready free image slider for WordPress.</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Disable Comments</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rayofsolaris.net/">Samir Shah</a></td>
<td width="511">Allows administrators to globally disable comments on their site. Comments can be disabled according to post type.</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://gitlab.is.ed.ac.uk/is-dlam/academic-blogging-project/ed-solr">EdSolr</a></td>
<td>UoE</td>
<td width="511">Integrates Apache Solr with a WordPress Multisite Installation.</td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Email Subscribers & Newsletters</td>
<td><a href="https://www.icegram.com/"> Icegram</a></td>
<td width="511">Add subscription forms on website, send HTML newsletters, and automatically notify subscribers about new blog posts once they are published.</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Enlighter – Customizable Syntax Highlighter</td>
<td><a href="https://andidittrich.com/">Andi Dittrich</a></td>
<td width="511">Syntax Highlighter</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>FeedWordPress</td>
<td><a href="https://feedwordpress.radgeek.com/contact/"> C. Johnson</a></td>
<td width="511">simple and flexible Atom/RSS syndication for WordPress</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Flickr Album Gallery</td>
<td>FARAZFRANK</td>
<td>Flickr Album Gallery is on JS API plugin to display all public Flickr albums on your WordPress website.</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Force Regenerate Thumbnails</td>
<td><a href="http://www.pedroelsner.com/">Pedro Elsner</a></td>
<td width="511">Delete and REALLY force the regenerate thumbnail.</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="http://www.arnebrachhold.de/redir/sitemap-home/">Google XML Sitemaps</a></td>
<td><a href="http://www.arnebrachhold.de/"> Arne Brachhold</a></td>
<td width="511">This plugin improves SEO using sitemaps for best indexation by search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo and others.</td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Image Attribution Tagger</td>
<td><a href="http://red8interactive.com/">Red8 Interactive</a></td>
<td width="511">A plugin that adds image credits to licensed images</td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>MimeTypes Link Icons</td>
<td><a href="https://github.com/eagerterrier/MimeTypes-Link-Icons"> Toby Cox, Juliette Reinders Folmer</a></td>
<td width="511">This will add file type icons next to links automatically.</td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Multisite Plugin Manager</td>
<td><a href="http://uglyrobot.com/"> Aaron Edwards</a></td>
<td width="511">The essential plugin for every multisite install! Manage plugin access permissions across your entire multisite network.</td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Multisite Privacy</td>
<td>WPMUDEV</td>
<td width="511">Adds more levels of privacy and allows you to control them across all sites – or allow users to override them.</td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>NS Cloner – Site Copier</td>
<td><a href="https://neversettle.it/">Never Settle</a></td>
<td width="511">Allows us to create sites from a template</td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>NS Cloner Pro</td>
<td><a href="https://neversettle.it/">Never Settle</a></td>
<td width="511">add-ons to the NS Cloner Core</td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Open Attribute</td>
<td><a href="http://openattribute.com/">OpenAttribute</a></td>
<td width="511"></td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>PDF & Print</td>
<td><a href="https://bestwebsoft.com/">BestWebSoft</a></td>
<td width="511">Generate PDF files and print WordPress posts/pages. Customize document header/footer styles and appearance.</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Reading Time WP</td>
<td><a href="https://jasonyingling.me/">Jason Yingling</a></td>
<td width="511">Add an estimated reading time to your posts.</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Remove Email Verification</td>
<td>WPMUDEV</td>
<td width="511">Removes need to send a verification email when adding users to site or blogs</td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>TinyMCE Comment Field – WPSIWYG</td>
<td><a href="http://www.eracer.de/">Stefan Helmer</a></td>
<td width="511">This plugin turns the comment field from a primitive into a WYSIWYG editor, using the internal TinyMCE library bundled with WordPress.</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Titan Framework</td>
<td><a href="http://gambit.ph/"> Benjamin Intal, Gambit</a></td>
<td width="511">Titan Framework allows theme and plugin developers to create a admin pages, options, meta boxes, and theme customizer options with just a few simple lines of code.</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>True Multisite Indexer</td>
<td><a href="https://rudrastyh.com/">Misha Rudrastyh</a></td>
<td width="511">Indexes all posts across your network and brings them into one spot – a very powerful tool that you use as a base to display posts in different ways or to manage your network.</td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Ultimate Category Excluder</td>
<td><a href="http://infolific.com/technology/"> Marios Alexandrou</a></td>
<td width="511">Easily exclude categories from your front page, feeds, archives, and search results.</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>WordPress Importer</td>
<td><a href="https://wordpress.org/"> wordpressdotorg</a></td>
<td width="511">Import posts, pages, comments, custom fields, categories, tags and more from a WordPress export file.</td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>WordPress.com Theme Updates</td>
<td><a href="http://automattic.com/"> Automattic</a></td>
<td width="511">Update themes downloaded from WordPress.com seamlessly with the rest of your WordPress updates.</td>
<td>Y</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>WP Accessibility</td>
<td><a href="http://www.joedolson.com/"> Joe Dolson</a></td>
<td width="511">Helps improve accessibility in your WordPress site, like removing title attributes.</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>WP Crontrol</td>
<td><a href="https://github.com/johnbillion/wp-crontrol/graphs/contributors"> John Blackbourn & contributors</a></td>
<td width="511">WP Crontrol lets you view and control what’s happening in the WP-Cron system.</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>WP QuickLaTeX</td>
<td><a href="http://www.holoborodko.com/pavel/">Pavel Holoborodko</a></td>
<td width="511">Access to complete LaTeX distribution. Publish formulae & graphics using native LaTeX syntax directly in the text. Inline formulas, displayed equations auto-numbering, labeling and referencing, AMS-LaTeX, TikZ, custom LaTeX preamble. No LaTeX installation required. Easily customizable using UI dialog. Actively developed and maintained. Visit QuickLaTeX homepage for more info.</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>WP to Twitter</td>
<td><a href="http://www.joedolson.com/">Joseph C Dolson</a></td>
<td width="511">Posts a Tweet when you update your WordPress blog or post a link, using your URL shortener. Rich options to customise and promote your Tweets.</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>WPMUDEV Dashboard</td>
<td>WPMUDEV</td>
<td width="511">Brings the powers of WPMU DEV directly to you. It will revolutionize how you use WordPress. Activate now!</td>
<td>N</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p> </p>
<h3>Themes</h3>
<div>
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 48pt;" border="0" width="64" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<colgroup>
<col style="width: 48pt;" width="64" /> </colgroup>
<tbody>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt; width: 48pt;" width="64" height="19"><strong>Theme Name</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Apostrophe 2</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">AwesomePress</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Baskerville</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Bhari</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Blask</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Cover</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Cover2</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Cyanotype</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Davis</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Fluida</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Fukasawa</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Garfunkel</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Hitchcock</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Intergalactic</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Intergalactic 2</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Isola</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Lovecraft</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Make</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Period</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Radcliffe</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Sorbet</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">SPLOTpoint</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Tiny Framework</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Twenty Fifteen</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Twenty Nineteen</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Twenty Seventeen</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Twenty Sixteen</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Twenty Twenty</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14.5pt;">
<td style="height: 14.5pt;" height="19">Writee</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
]]></content:encoded>
					
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			</item>
		<item>
		<title>Service Inheritance</title>
		<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/sliceoflearning/2020/08/14/service-inheritance/</link>
					<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/sliceoflearning/2020/08/14/service-inheritance/#comments</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[James Slack]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 14 Aug 2020 16:06:04 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorised]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dlam-feed]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/sliceoflearning/?p=165</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"> 6</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>How to Inherit a Service A while back, before quarantine and therefore a lifetime ago, I ‘inherited’ a service. Anyone familiar with how these things go will also be somewhat familiar with how the conversation went: “We think you’ve done quiet well and we’d like you to take over this service” “Does that mean I […]]]></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"> 6</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span><h1>How to Inherit a Service</h1>
<p>A while back, before quarantine and therefore a lifetime ago, I ‘inherited’ a service. Anyone familiar with how these things go will also be somewhat familiar with how the conversation went:</p>
<p>“We think you’ve done quiet well and we’d like you to take over this service”</p>
<p>“Does that mean I can drop my old service”</p>
<p>“No”.</p>
<p>Thankfully I have loved taking over this service, by this service I do actually mean *this* service. I now manage the Academic Blogging service, blogs.ed.ac.uk which is what you are reading this post on. I have blogged in the past but sporadically at best. Managing the service is completely different, managing any service is difficult but managing a service which is designed to be open and allow people to do what they want (to an extent) comes with it’s own interesting challenges, more of that in another post.</p>
<p>Today however I wanted to talk more specifically about inheriting a service. It’s something that I hadn’t really thought about before but it struck me that this is the first ‘living’ service that I have taken over. I have a relatively short period of experience of managing learning technology services, roughly 6 years at this point. In that time I have managed two large services but both of these were in their infancy when I got hold. I was able to largely decide what these service should look like, what they would look like and what the policies around them would be. Obviously there is an amount of team work and involvement of other teams in this process but as a service manager the impetus usually came from me.</p>
<p>Taking on a new service that has existed before, however, is something completely different. I often enjoy using bad analogies that I tend to stretch to far, so allow me to do this yet again: Inheriting services is like getting an armchair that belonged to someone else (ish). It’s arranged in a different way, it faces the door, it doesn’t go back far enough, it feels a bit to firm and there are Revels tucked into the side of the cushion. Who would put Revels down there, why would they choose Revels of all the things available?</p>
<h2>Service Personality</h2>
<p>The problem/issue/opportunity is, someone or a group of somebodies have decided how this should work and put it all in place. Now you come in and you’re not sure if you always agree. Most of the time you will but you just need to understand the ‘why’ after seeing the ‘what’ and ‘how’. Most services have a ‘vision’ of sorts attached, usually within the original Project Brief or the Service Level Description (SLD) that sets out the ‘shape’ of the service. This works great in isolation but what often happens is that this clearly defined ‘shape’ then gets released and it tends to need to alter shape to fits its environment in some way. (I DID say I enjoy bad analogies).</p>
<h2>Opportunities for Change</h2>
<p>I’ve always very strongly believed that getting a ‘fresh pair of eyes’ is possibly one of the most useful things to do when you have a great idea or process. Having someone outside of the ‘organisation’ take a look is often the best way to pick up on things, firstly it forces you to explain why you made a decision and also allows you to be questioned. If you can’t convince someone as to why something works that way then you might want to re-evaluate or compromise with the other view point. I love the following quote, which I believe is attributed to Grace Hopper  – “The most dangerous phrase in the language is, ‘We’ve always done it this way’ ”</p>
<p>(If you don’t know who Grace Hopper is, please pause and look her up. I will wait)</p>
<h2>Inheritance runs both ways</h2>
<p>This is the part that surprised me the most when I realised that this was the first service that was secondhand/pre-loved/pre-existing/had a life before me. I started this long monologue talking about how I had inherited something but it seems obvious that the service had also imbibed something from it’s creators and previous owners. There were certain priorities or choices that were made by previous people upon the service, impressions in the surface that had left their mark. I agree with the vast majority of these but some I want to change, based on my priorities or choices that I think make it fit it’s environment in a better way, or a way that appears better to me. Obviously all of this is measured alongside the needs of the current community, I wouldn’t make big changes that negatively impacted people using the service but I may make decisions that change the ‘flavour’ in some ways.</p>
<h2>Making it yours or making you part of it</h2>
<p>After you have been looking after the service for a short while you will likely find a list of things that don’t really feel right to you. It’s likely that these decisions were made some time ago and might not reflect the needs of the user community anymore. I would say it is important to mention here that we aren’t criticising the previous owners, just using this change as an opportunity to review and also add you own input to the service. Once you have found these areas then try to seek the justification if possible, there could be a very good reason as to why something works like this and not like *this*. If there isn’t a good justification or if that doesn’t really hold anymore then start building your case for making a change and what that change will be. Next you get to take these changes to the service team, working group or user community. If these don’t exist then this is a good chance to make them as having some external input, if only at certain times will greatly improve the service as a whole. Also be sure to check that these changes are actually wanted/needed/will have a positive impact, change for the sake of change is a winding road. Always remember RACI (Responsible, Accountable,<strong> Consulted, Informed</strong>)</p>
<p>This is the part that I enjoy the most about managing services, there is a human part even if what *it* is an application running on virtual machines somewhere (I imagine in a basement, because, it has to be). I get to take all of the work that went before and add my layer on top and alter it ever so slightly, like a funky new flavour in your Rainbow Cake – I REALLY DID say that I like bad analogies.</p>
<p> </p>
<div id="attachment_166" style="width: 696px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-166" class="size-full wp-image-166" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/sliceoflearning/wp-content/uploads/sites/2048/2020/08/7478835056_c91640ed8c_b.jpg" alt=""Layers from top - Rainbow Birthday Cake" by avlxyz is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0" width="686" height="1024" /><p id="caption-attachment-166" class="wp-caption-text">“Layers from top – Rainbow Birthday Cake” by avlxyz is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0</p></div>
<p> </p>
<p>Takeaways from service inheritance</p>
<p>If you are a current service owner</p>
<ul>
<li>For you managing a service, try to document what decisions were taken and why they were taken, this makes it a lot quicker for someone to get a feel for how the service exists now. Adding the justification really makes a big difference when someone new steps in</li>
<li>Even if the service isn’t being taken over by someone else it can be very helpful to get fresh eyes on a service, or to include more people when making the decisions. Working groups or user involvement are very good for this.</li>
<li>Try to update original documentation as the service shifts over time, most institutions seem to push for this at intervals but it helps to remember how services can change over time.</li>
<li>Include retrospective look backs at the service at regular intervals, perhaps each year. Having a look at the changes that were added, how they were received and whether they helped add something useful to the service is a very rewarding process</li>
</ul>
<p>If you are taking over an existing service</p>
<ul>
<li>Getting an overview or introduction to the service is incredibly useful but do bear in mind that it is unlikely that you will be able to understand the entire service after one meeting</li>
<li>If possible try to take the previous service owner hostage so that you can refer to them if they didn’t document things</li>
<li>Once you have a good understanding of the service highlight the areas that you have issues with. Areas that you don’t understand why something was done in a particular way or why a certain policy exists. Try to find to root cause for these, if they make sense and fit the service you can leave them for now. If that doesn’t fit the service or the user’s need then earmark those areas for change.</li>
<li>Add your personal touch, come up with suggestions in these specific areas that you have highlighted and taken them to existing working groups or service team. If they don’t exist then consider creating them.</li>
</ul>
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<cc:license >Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0</cc:license><dc:rights  >Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0</dc:rights>	<item>
		<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>
				<category><![CDATA[data]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Digital Learning Applications and Media]]></category>
		<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>
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					<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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		<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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		<title>Eva Spanachi – The journey of being a Digital Learning Intern</title>
		<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2022/08/04/__trashed/</link>
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		<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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		<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>
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		<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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		<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>
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		<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>

			<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area">
				<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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		<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>
				<category><![CDATA[data]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Digital Learning Applications and Media]]></category>
		<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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		<title>Tallulah Thompson – Reflections on metadata</title>
		<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2024/03/20/2398/</link>
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		<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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		<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>
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		<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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		<title>Eva Spanachi – The journey of being a Digital Learning Intern</title>
		<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2022/08/04/__trashed/</link>
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		<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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		<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>
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		<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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		<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>
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		<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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		<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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		<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>
				<category><![CDATA[data]]></category>
		<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>
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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>
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		<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>
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		<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>
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		<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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		<title>Eva Spanachi – The journey of being a Digital Learning Intern</title>
		<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2022/08/04/__trashed/</link>
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		<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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<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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		<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>
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		<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>
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<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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		<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>
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		<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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		<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>
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		<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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					<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/edwardenejoh/2025/07/22/why-food-is-the-ultimate-bridge-a-tale-of-two-cultures/#respond</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Edward Enejoh]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 22 Jul 2025 10:11:19 +0000</pubDate>
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					<description><![CDATA[July always makes me think of yam. Not just any yam, the New Yam. If you’re Nigerian, you already know. That sacred tuber that gets a full festival of its own. Across Nigeria, where we’ve got over 250 ethnic groups and more than 500 languages, each one has its own way of celebrating, singing, dancing, […]]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>July always makes me think of yam. Not just any yam, the New Yam.</p>
<p>If you’re Nigerian, you already know. That sacred tuber that gets a full festival of its own.</p>
<p>Across Nigeria, where we’ve got over 250 ethnic groups and more than 500 languages, each one has its own way of celebrating, singing, dancing, and of course, cooking.</p>
<p><img decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-12" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/edwardenejoh/wp-content/uploads/sites/10264/2025/07/Yam-300x195.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="195" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/edwardenejoh/wp-content/uploads/sites/10264/2025/07/Yam-300x195.jpg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/edwardenejoh/wp-content/uploads/sites/10264/2025/07/Yam-1024x667.jpg 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/edwardenejoh/wp-content/uploads/sites/10264/2025/07/Yam-768x500.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/edwardenejoh/wp-content/uploads/sites/10264/2025/07/Yam-1536x1001.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/edwardenejoh/wp-content/uploads/sites/10264/2025/07/Yam.jpg 2000w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-13" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/edwardenejoh/wp-content/uploads/sites/10264/2025/07/Pounded-Yam-and-Egusis-Soup-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/edwardenejoh/wp-content/uploads/sites/10264/2025/07/Pounded-Yam-and-Egusis-Soup-300x200.jpg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/edwardenejoh/wp-content/uploads/sites/10264/2025/07/Pounded-Yam-and-Egusis-Soup.jpg 750w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></p>
<p>But among them all, the New Yam Festival stands tall. It’s especially big in the South-East and Middle Belt regions among the Igbo, Idoma, Tiv, and other yam-loving communities.</p>
<p>Right after the harvest season, it feels like a carnival. People dress in bright traditional outfits, drummers show off their rhythm, dancers spin and leap with joy, and the smell of yam dishes fills the air.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>And we love our yam. Yam in Nigeria is like potatoes in the UK, only better (we’ll argue that any day!). You can fry it, boil it with stew, roast it, make yam porridge, or the king of all: pounded yam with soup.</p>
<p>Serve a guest pounded yam, and you’re not just feeding them, you’re honouring them with a royal delicacy.</p>
<p>Now, working and living in Edinburgh, I sometimes miss that buzz. The sound, the colours, the food. But every so often, something unexpected brings it all rushing back, from the Edinburgh Festival to the LTW Charity Bake Sale.</p>
<p>I joined the University of Edinburgh in February 2024, as part of the ISG team. It hasn’t been long, but after attending my first bake sale last year, I felt like I’d been here for years.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>I connected with so many people from different teams. It reminded me so much of home.</p>
<p>People from different backgrounds brought sweet treats from their cultures. There were cakes I couldn’t even pronounce and flavours I’d never tasted, but everything came with a smile and a story.</p>
<p>Honestly, I felt like a child lost in a candy shop. My only mission was to taste every cake!</p>
<p>That first bake sale brought people together. Whether you were new or had been around for a while, you felt part of the ISG community, just like at the New Yam Festival.</p>
<p>Food broke the ice, started conversations, and built friendships. No pressure, just “What’s this called?” or “Did you bake this?” and just like that, you’re chatting like old friends.</p>
<p>Now, the July bake sale is here again, and I can’t wait. This will be my second, and I already know it’ll be just as heartwarming.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The ISG team is wonderfully diverse, and within Learning, Teaching and Web (LTW), we have a lovely habit of celebrating culture through food.</p>
<p>Sounds familiar, right?</p>
<p> </p>
<p>In Nigeria, we say: the people who eat together, stay together. It’s true. Whether it’s yam with spicy soup or a slice of sponge cake, food is the ultimate bridge. And hunger or appetite, is a universal language. Across cultures, across teams, across oceans.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>So if you love to bake, or just love to eat like me, come join the LTW Bake Sale! The delicious treats will be inspired by favourite films and TV shows of the people baking them.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>And with every bite, you’ll be helping raise funds for an <a href="https://uoe.sharepoint.com/sites/LTWColleagueHub/SitePages/LTW-fundraising-for-the-Organ-Donation-Team,-NHS-Blood-and-Transplant.aspx">NHS Blood and Transplant Charity Fund</a>.</p>
<p>So come along, I’ll be looking out to have a chat with you and hear about your favourite cake or food.</p>
<p>I wonder, will someone bake a Pink Panther cake? Or maybe a Black Panther one?</p>
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		<title>Volunteer Day: Making a Difference Beyond the Desk</title>
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		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Edward Enejoh]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 10 Sep 2024 09:47:19 +0000</pubDate>
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					<description><![CDATA[Moving to a new country can be exciting, but it’s also filled with challenges. As a migrant, the excitement of new beginnings often fades quickly when faced with harsh realities: adapting to a new culture, finding a job, and trying to make a meaningful life in an unfamiliar place. I know how it feels because […]]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Moving to a new country can be exciting, but it’s also filled with challenges.</p>
<p>As a migrant, the excitement of new beginnings often fades quickly when faced with harsh realities: adapting to a new culture, finding a job, and trying to make a meaningful life in an unfamiliar place.</p>
<p>I know how it feels because I’ve been there.</p>
<p>There’s a sense of loneliness, uncertainty, and even frustration. You might have all the skills and experience, but the job market seems like a closed door, and you’re not sure where to start.</p>
<p>The feeling of being left out, or not belonging, can weigh heavily on you.</p>
<h3><strong>A Journey of Adaptation and Growth</strong></h3>
<p>Beyond the language barriers, it’s also about learning the professional culture, the unspoken culture, and doing the work expected of you in such a way that translates to a successful outcome as expected by your employer and team.</p>
<p>I’m thankful to be part of a great team at the Learning, Teaching, and Web Unit of the Information Services Group, especially the Digital Learning, Applications, and Media team. I’ll always be grateful to the team, my manager, the team lead, and the director of LTW for making my onboarding experience smooth.</p>
<p>I learned the acronyms, got to know the teams, understood the work culture, and learned the tools we use. This took away a lot of the uncertainty I had.</p>
<h3><strong>What if Things Could Be Different?</strong></h3>
<p>At the University of Edinburgh, every staff gets one day to volunteer for a cause of their choosing. We get to step away from our desks and give back to the community. Beyond taking a break from our daily tasks, it’s a chance to make a real impact on the lives of others and enrich our own lives in the process.</p>
<p>So, I thought to myself, what if we could host an event that helps people understand the challenges that come with adapting to a new environment and actively provides how to overcome them?</p>
<p>What if you could have access to the tools, resources, and mentors needed to open doors to opportunities for career growth?</p>
<p>That’s why I collaborated with some amazing people to host <strong>Vantage Point 2.0.</strong></p>
<h3><strong>How Vantage Point Came to Life</strong></h3>
<p>In 2020, during the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic, I launched Vantage Point. What started as a small online event turned into a movement. Seven speakers, seven days, and hundreds of participants from Nigeria came together to talk about how we could reposition ourselves during uncertain times.</p>
<p><strong>Vantage Point 2.0</strong> was designed to ride on the success of the earlier edition as a physical gathering in Aberdeen, Scotland, focused on helping migrants navigate the local job market, adapt to the culture, and build meaningful careers. This was a team effort, made possible through collaboration with team members and partner organizations that believed in the vision.</p>
<p>We didn’t just talk about the struggles; we shared real solutions. We explored how to leverage technology for career growth, the power of networking, and the importance of adapting to a new work culture—all while staying true to ourselves.</p>
<p>We heard inspiring stories from experts who had walked in our shoes, who also offered advice and mentorship to those just starting. By the end of the event, many left with a renewed sense of purpose and actionable plans to move forward.</p>
<h3><strong>Why Volunteering Matters</strong></h3>
<p>Volunteering at Vantage Point was a powerful reminder of how collective effort can create significant change. Often, we think of volunteering as an individual act of kindness.</p>
<h3><strong>Ubuntu – I Am Because You Are</strong></h3>
<p>Vantage Point is about building a community rooted in the spirit of <strong>Ubuntu</strong>—<em>“I am because you are.”</em> This African philosophy reminds us that our strength comes from our connections with each other. None of us can truly succeed unless we lift each other.</p>
<p>Through the lens of Ubuntu, volunteering becomes about building a stronger, more connected community. It’s about understanding that our success is intertwined with the success of others.</p>
<p>When we share our knowledge, help each other, and support our community, we create a ripple effect that impacts everyone.</p>
<p>Similarly, when we work together to clean up the environment by reducing carbon emissions or keeping the oceans free from waste, we make the world safer for all living things. This creates a balance that helps the whole ecosystem.</p>
<p>That’s the power of community. Vantage Point isn’t just my story; it’s <strong>our</strong> story. Together, we’re creating a space where everyone has the chance to thrive.</p>
<h3><strong>What Can You Do from Where You Are?</strong></h3>
<p>Now, here’s the question I want to leave you with: <em><strong>What can you do right now to contribute to this change?</strong></em></p>
<p>How can you, from where you are, start making a difference—not just for yourself but for others in our community?</p>
<p>Volunteer Day reminds us that we all have the power to make a difference.</p>
<p>It may be organizing an event like Vantage Point, supporting a local charity, or simply offering your time and skills; volunteering allows us to step beyond our usual routines and contribute to something greater.</p>
<p>So, the next time you have the opportunity to volunteer, take it!</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Because remember, <strong>I am because you are.</strong></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Your actions, no matter how small, can create a ripple effect, bringing positive change to those you help and yourself.</p>
<p>Together, we can build a better world—one act of kindness at a time.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>PS: What part of the story fascinates you and why? I look forward to know about this in the comments below.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Talk soon,</p>
<p>Edward.</p>
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		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Edward Enejoh]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 22 Jul 2025 10:11:19 +0000</pubDate>
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					<description><![CDATA[July always makes me think of yam. Not just any yam, the New Yam. If you’re Nigerian, you already know. That sacred tuber that gets a full festival of its own. Across Nigeria, where we’ve got over 250 ethnic groups and more than 500 languages, each one has its own way of celebrating, singing, dancing, […]]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>July always makes me think of yam. Not just any yam, the New Yam.</p>
<p>If you’re Nigerian, you already know. That sacred tuber that gets a full festival of its own.</p>
<p>Across Nigeria, where we’ve got over 250 ethnic groups and more than 500 languages, each one has its own way of celebrating, singing, dancing, and of course, cooking.</p>
<p><img decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-12" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/edwardenejoh/wp-content/uploads/sites/10264/2025/07/Yam-300x195.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="195" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/edwardenejoh/wp-content/uploads/sites/10264/2025/07/Yam-300x195.jpg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/edwardenejoh/wp-content/uploads/sites/10264/2025/07/Yam-1024x667.jpg 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/edwardenejoh/wp-content/uploads/sites/10264/2025/07/Yam-768x500.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/edwardenejoh/wp-content/uploads/sites/10264/2025/07/Yam-1536x1001.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/edwardenejoh/wp-content/uploads/sites/10264/2025/07/Yam.jpg 2000w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-13" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/edwardenejoh/wp-content/uploads/sites/10264/2025/07/Pounded-Yam-and-Egusis-Soup-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/edwardenejoh/wp-content/uploads/sites/10264/2025/07/Pounded-Yam-and-Egusis-Soup-300x200.jpg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/edwardenejoh/wp-content/uploads/sites/10264/2025/07/Pounded-Yam-and-Egusis-Soup.jpg 750w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></p>
<p>But among them all, the New Yam Festival stands tall. It’s especially big in the South-East and Middle Belt regions among the Igbo, Idoma, Tiv, and other yam-loving communities.</p>
<p>Right after the harvest season, it feels like a carnival. People dress in bright traditional outfits, drummers show off their rhythm, dancers spin and leap with joy, and the smell of yam dishes fills the air.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>And we love our yam. Yam in Nigeria is like potatoes in the UK, only better (we’ll argue that any day!). You can fry it, boil it with stew, roast it, make yam porridge, or the king of all: pounded yam with soup.</p>
<p>Serve a guest pounded yam, and you’re not just feeding them, you’re honouring them with a royal delicacy.</p>
<p>Now, working and living in Edinburgh, I sometimes miss that buzz. The sound, the colours, the food. But every so often, something unexpected brings it all rushing back, from the Edinburgh Festival to the LTW Charity Bake Sale.</p>
<p>I joined the University of Edinburgh in February 2024, as part of the ISG team. It hasn’t been long, but after attending my first bake sale last year, I felt like I’d been here for years.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>I connected with so many people from different teams. It reminded me so much of home.</p>
<p>People from different backgrounds brought sweet treats from their cultures. There were cakes I couldn’t even pronounce and flavours I’d never tasted, but everything came with a smile and a story.</p>
<p>Honestly, I felt like a child lost in a candy shop. My only mission was to taste every cake!</p>
<p>That first bake sale brought people together. Whether you were new or had been around for a while, you felt part of the ISG community, just like at the New Yam Festival.</p>
<p>Food broke the ice, started conversations, and built friendships. No pressure, just “What’s this called?” or “Did you bake this?” and just like that, you’re chatting like old friends.</p>
<p>Now, the July bake sale is here again, and I can’t wait. This will be my second, and I already know it’ll be just as heartwarming.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The ISG team is wonderfully diverse, and within Learning, Teaching and Web (LTW), we have a lovely habit of celebrating culture through food.</p>
<p>Sounds familiar, right?</p>
<p> </p>
<p>In Nigeria, we say: the people who eat together, stay together. It’s true. Whether it’s yam with spicy soup or a slice of sponge cake, food is the ultimate bridge. And hunger or appetite, is a universal language. Across cultures, across teams, across oceans.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>So if you love to bake, or just love to eat like me, come join the LTW Bake Sale! The delicious treats will be inspired by favourite films and TV shows of the people baking them.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>And with every bite, you’ll be helping raise funds for an <a href="https://uoe.sharepoint.com/sites/LTWColleagueHub/SitePages/LTW-fundraising-for-the-Organ-Donation-Team,-NHS-Blood-and-Transplant.aspx">NHS Blood and Transplant Charity Fund</a>.</p>
<p>So come along, I’ll be looking out to have a chat with you and hear about your favourite cake or food.</p>
<p>I wonder, will someone bake a Pink Panther cake? Or maybe a Black Panther one?</p>
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		<title>Volunteer Day: Making a Difference Beyond the Desk</title>
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		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Edward Enejoh]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 10 Sep 2024 09:47:19 +0000</pubDate>
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					<description><![CDATA[Moving to a new country can be exciting, but it’s also filled with challenges. As a migrant, the excitement of new beginnings often fades quickly when faced with harsh realities: adapting to a new culture, finding a job, and trying to make a meaningful life in an unfamiliar place. I know how it feels because […]]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Moving to a new country can be exciting, but it’s also filled with challenges.</p>
<p>As a migrant, the excitement of new beginnings often fades quickly when faced with harsh realities: adapting to a new culture, finding a job, and trying to make a meaningful life in an unfamiliar place.</p>
<p>I know how it feels because I’ve been there.</p>
<p>There’s a sense of loneliness, uncertainty, and even frustration. You might have all the skills and experience, but the job market seems like a closed door, and you’re not sure where to start.</p>
<p>The feeling of being left out, or not belonging, can weigh heavily on you.</p>
<h3><strong>A Journey of Adaptation and Growth</strong></h3>
<p>Beyond the language barriers, it’s also about learning the professional culture, the unspoken culture, and doing the work expected of you in such a way that translates to a successful outcome as expected by your employer and team.</p>
<p>I’m thankful to be part of a great team at the Learning, Teaching, and Web Unit of the Information Services Group, especially the Digital Learning, Applications, and Media team. I’ll always be grateful to the team, my manager, the team lead, and the director of LTW for making my onboarding experience smooth.</p>
<p>I learned the acronyms, got to know the teams, understood the work culture, and learned the tools we use. This took away a lot of the uncertainty I had.</p>
<h3><strong>What if Things Could Be Different?</strong></h3>
<p>At the University of Edinburgh, every staff gets one day to volunteer for a cause of their choosing. We get to step away from our desks and give back to the community. Beyond taking a break from our daily tasks, it’s a chance to make a real impact on the lives of others and enrich our own lives in the process.</p>
<p>So, I thought to myself, what if we could host an event that helps people understand the challenges that come with adapting to a new environment and actively provides how to overcome them?</p>
<p>What if you could have access to the tools, resources, and mentors needed to open doors to opportunities for career growth?</p>
<p>That’s why I collaborated with some amazing people to host <strong>Vantage Point 2.0.</strong></p>
<h3><strong>How Vantage Point Came to Life</strong></h3>
<p>In 2020, during the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic, I launched Vantage Point. What started as a small online event turned into a movement. Seven speakers, seven days, and hundreds of participants from Nigeria came together to talk about how we could reposition ourselves during uncertain times.</p>
<p><strong>Vantage Point 2.0</strong> was designed to ride on the success of the earlier edition as a physical gathering in Aberdeen, Scotland, focused on helping migrants navigate the local job market, adapt to the culture, and build meaningful careers. This was a team effort, made possible through collaboration with team members and partner organizations that believed in the vision.</p>
<p>We didn’t just talk about the struggles; we shared real solutions. We explored how to leverage technology for career growth, the power of networking, and the importance of adapting to a new work culture—all while staying true to ourselves.</p>
<p>We heard inspiring stories from experts who had walked in our shoes, who also offered advice and mentorship to those just starting. By the end of the event, many left with a renewed sense of purpose and actionable plans to move forward.</p>
<h3><strong>Why Volunteering Matters</strong></h3>
<p>Volunteering at Vantage Point was a powerful reminder of how collective effort can create significant change. Often, we think of volunteering as an individual act of kindness.</p>
<h3><strong>Ubuntu – I Am Because You Are</strong></h3>
<p>Vantage Point is about building a community rooted in the spirit of <strong>Ubuntu</strong>—<em>“I am because you are.”</em> This African philosophy reminds us that our strength comes from our connections with each other. None of us can truly succeed unless we lift each other.</p>
<p>Through the lens of Ubuntu, volunteering becomes about building a stronger, more connected community. It’s about understanding that our success is intertwined with the success of others.</p>
<p>When we share our knowledge, help each other, and support our community, we create a ripple effect that impacts everyone.</p>
<p>Similarly, when we work together to clean up the environment by reducing carbon emissions or keeping the oceans free from waste, we make the world safer for all living things. This creates a balance that helps the whole ecosystem.</p>
<p>That’s the power of community. Vantage Point isn’t just my story; it’s <strong>our</strong> story. Together, we’re creating a space where everyone has the chance to thrive.</p>
<h3><strong>What Can You Do from Where You Are?</strong></h3>
<p>Now, here’s the question I want to leave you with: <em><strong>What can you do right now to contribute to this change?</strong></em></p>
<p>How can you, from where you are, start making a difference—not just for yourself but for others in our community?</p>
<p>Volunteer Day reminds us that we all have the power to make a difference.</p>
<p>It may be organizing an event like Vantage Point, supporting a local charity, or simply offering your time and skills; volunteering allows us to step beyond our usual routines and contribute to something greater.</p>
<p>So, the next time you have the opportunity to volunteer, take it!</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Because remember, <strong>I am because you are.</strong></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Your actions, no matter how small, can create a ripple effect, bringing positive change to those you help and yourself.</p>
<p>Together, we can build a better world—one act of kindness at a time.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>PS: What part of the story fascinates you and why? I look forward to know about this in the comments below.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Talk soon,</p>
<p>Edward.</p>
<h1><!-- notionvc: 994d6d07-ea14-415d-b1c4-c0d4aea8a5a7 --></h1>
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		<title>Why Food Is the Ultimate Bridge: A Tale of Two Cultures</title>
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					<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/edwardenejoh/2025/07/22/why-food-is-the-ultimate-bridge-a-tale-of-two-cultures/#respond</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Edward Enejoh]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 22 Jul 2025 10:11:19 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Events]]></category>
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					<description><![CDATA[July always makes me think of yam. Not just any yam, the New Yam. If you’re Nigerian, you already know. That sacred tuber that gets a full festival of its own. Across Nigeria, where we’ve got over 250 ethnic groups and more than 500 languages, each one has its own way of celebrating, singing, dancing, […]]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>July always makes me think of yam. Not just any yam, the New Yam.</p>
<p>If you’re Nigerian, you already know. That sacred tuber that gets a full festival of its own.</p>
<p>Across Nigeria, where we’ve got over 250 ethnic groups and more than 500 languages, each one has its own way of celebrating, singing, dancing, and of course, cooking.</p>
<p><img decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-12" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/edwardenejoh/wp-content/uploads/sites/10264/2025/07/Yam-300x195.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="195" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/edwardenejoh/wp-content/uploads/sites/10264/2025/07/Yam-300x195.jpg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/edwardenejoh/wp-content/uploads/sites/10264/2025/07/Yam-1024x667.jpg 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/edwardenejoh/wp-content/uploads/sites/10264/2025/07/Yam-768x500.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/edwardenejoh/wp-content/uploads/sites/10264/2025/07/Yam-1536x1001.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/edwardenejoh/wp-content/uploads/sites/10264/2025/07/Yam.jpg 2000w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-13" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/edwardenejoh/wp-content/uploads/sites/10264/2025/07/Pounded-Yam-and-Egusis-Soup-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/edwardenejoh/wp-content/uploads/sites/10264/2025/07/Pounded-Yam-and-Egusis-Soup-300x200.jpg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/edwardenejoh/wp-content/uploads/sites/10264/2025/07/Pounded-Yam-and-Egusis-Soup.jpg 750w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></p>
<p>But among them all, the New Yam Festival stands tall. It’s especially big in the South-East and Middle Belt regions among the Igbo, Idoma, Tiv, and other yam-loving communities.</p>
<p>Right after the harvest season, it feels like a carnival. People dress in bright traditional outfits, drummers show off their rhythm, dancers spin and leap with joy, and the smell of yam dishes fills the air.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>And we love our yam. Yam in Nigeria is like potatoes in the UK, only better (we’ll argue that any day!). You can fry it, boil it with stew, roast it, make yam porridge, or the king of all: pounded yam with soup.</p>
<p>Serve a guest pounded yam, and you’re not just feeding them, you’re honouring them with a royal delicacy.</p>
<p>Now, working and living in Edinburgh, I sometimes miss that buzz. The sound, the colours, the food. But every so often, something unexpected brings it all rushing back, from the Edinburgh Festival to the LTW Charity Bake Sale.</p>
<p>I joined the University of Edinburgh in February 2024, as part of the ISG team. It hasn’t been long, but after attending my first bake sale last year, I felt like I’d been here for years.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>I connected with so many people from different teams. It reminded me so much of home.</p>
<p>People from different backgrounds brought sweet treats from their cultures. There were cakes I couldn’t even pronounce and flavours I’d never tasted, but everything came with a smile and a story.</p>
<p>Honestly, I felt like a child lost in a candy shop. My only mission was to taste every cake!</p>
<p>That first bake sale brought people together. Whether you were new or had been around for a while, you felt part of the ISG community, just like at the New Yam Festival.</p>
<p>Food broke the ice, started conversations, and built friendships. No pressure, just “What’s this called?” or “Did you bake this?” and just like that, you’re chatting like old friends.</p>
<p>Now, the July bake sale is here again, and I can’t wait. This will be my second, and I already know it’ll be just as heartwarming.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The ISG team is wonderfully diverse, and within Learning, Teaching and Web (LTW), we have a lovely habit of celebrating culture through food.</p>
<p>Sounds familiar, right?</p>
<p> </p>
<p>In Nigeria, we say: the people who eat together, stay together. It’s true. Whether it’s yam with spicy soup or a slice of sponge cake, food is the ultimate bridge. And hunger or appetite, is a universal language. Across cultures, across teams, across oceans.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>So if you love to bake, or just love to eat like me, come join the LTW Bake Sale! The delicious treats will be inspired by favourite films and TV shows of the people baking them.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>And with every bite, you’ll be helping raise funds for an <a href="https://uoe.sharepoint.com/sites/LTWColleagueHub/SitePages/LTW-fundraising-for-the-Organ-Donation-Team,-NHS-Blood-and-Transplant.aspx">NHS Blood and Transplant Charity Fund</a>.</p>
<p>So come along, I’ll be looking out to have a chat with you and hear about your favourite cake or food.</p>
<p>I wonder, will someone bake a Pink Panther cake? Or maybe a Black Panther one?</p>
]]></content:encoded>
					
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		<title>Volunteer Day: Making a Difference Beyond the Desk</title>
		<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/edwardenejoh/2024/09/10/volunteerday/</link>
					<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/edwardenejoh/2024/09/10/volunteerday/#respond</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Edward Enejoh]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 10 Sep 2024 09:47:19 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[DLAM]]></category>
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					<description><![CDATA[Moving to a new country can be exciting, but it’s also filled with challenges. As a migrant, the excitement of new beginnings often fades quickly when faced with harsh realities: adapting to a new culture, finding a job, and trying to make a meaningful life in an unfamiliar place. I know how it feels because […]]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Moving to a new country can be exciting, but it’s also filled with challenges.</p>
<p>As a migrant, the excitement of new beginnings often fades quickly when faced with harsh realities: adapting to a new culture, finding a job, and trying to make a meaningful life in an unfamiliar place.</p>
<p>I know how it feels because I’ve been there.</p>
<p>There’s a sense of loneliness, uncertainty, and even frustration. You might have all the skills and experience, but the job market seems like a closed door, and you’re not sure where to start.</p>
<p>The feeling of being left out, or not belonging, can weigh heavily on you.</p>
<h3><strong>A Journey of Adaptation and Growth</strong></h3>
<p>Beyond the language barriers, it’s also about learning the professional culture, the unspoken culture, and doing the work expected of you in such a way that translates to a successful outcome as expected by your employer and team.</p>
<p>I’m thankful to be part of a great team at the Learning, Teaching, and Web Unit of the Information Services Group, especially the Digital Learning, Applications, and Media team. I’ll always be grateful to the team, my manager, the team lead, and the director of LTW for making my onboarding experience smooth.</p>
<p>I learned the acronyms, got to know the teams, understood the work culture, and learned the tools we use. This took away a lot of the uncertainty I had.</p>
<h3><strong>What if Things Could Be Different?</strong></h3>
<p>At the University of Edinburgh, every staff gets one day to volunteer for a cause of their choosing. We get to step away from our desks and give back to the community. Beyond taking a break from our daily tasks, it’s a chance to make a real impact on the lives of others and enrich our own lives in the process.</p>
<p>So, I thought to myself, what if we could host an event that helps people understand the challenges that come with adapting to a new environment and actively provides how to overcome them?</p>
<p>What if you could have access to the tools, resources, and mentors needed to open doors to opportunities for career growth?</p>
<p>That’s why I collaborated with some amazing people to host <strong>Vantage Point 2.0.</strong></p>
<h3><strong>How Vantage Point Came to Life</strong></h3>
<p>In 2020, during the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic, I launched Vantage Point. What started as a small online event turned into a movement. Seven speakers, seven days, and hundreds of participants from Nigeria came together to talk about how we could reposition ourselves during uncertain times.</p>
<p><strong>Vantage Point 2.0</strong> was designed to ride on the success of the earlier edition as a physical gathering in Aberdeen, Scotland, focused on helping migrants navigate the local job market, adapt to the culture, and build meaningful careers. This was a team effort, made possible through collaboration with team members and partner organizations that believed in the vision.</p>
<p>We didn’t just talk about the struggles; we shared real solutions. We explored how to leverage technology for career growth, the power of networking, and the importance of adapting to a new work culture—all while staying true to ourselves.</p>
<p>We heard inspiring stories from experts who had walked in our shoes, who also offered advice and mentorship to those just starting. By the end of the event, many left with a renewed sense of purpose and actionable plans to move forward.</p>
<h3><strong>Why Volunteering Matters</strong></h3>
<p>Volunteering at Vantage Point was a powerful reminder of how collective effort can create significant change. Often, we think of volunteering as an individual act of kindness.</p>
<h3><strong>Ubuntu – I Am Because You Are</strong></h3>
<p>Vantage Point is about building a community rooted in the spirit of <strong>Ubuntu</strong>—<em>“I am because you are.”</em> This African philosophy reminds us that our strength comes from our connections with each other. None of us can truly succeed unless we lift each other.</p>
<p>Through the lens of Ubuntu, volunteering becomes about building a stronger, more connected community. It’s about understanding that our success is intertwined with the success of others.</p>
<p>When we share our knowledge, help each other, and support our community, we create a ripple effect that impacts everyone.</p>
<p>Similarly, when we work together to clean up the environment by reducing carbon emissions or keeping the oceans free from waste, we make the world safer for all living things. This creates a balance that helps the whole ecosystem.</p>
<p>That’s the power of community. Vantage Point isn’t just my story; it’s <strong>our</strong> story. Together, we’re creating a space where everyone has the chance to thrive.</p>
<h3><strong>What Can You Do from Where You Are?</strong></h3>
<p>Now, here’s the question I want to leave you with: <em><strong>What can you do right now to contribute to this change?</strong></em></p>
<p>How can you, from where you are, start making a difference—not just for yourself but for others in our community?</p>
<p>Volunteer Day reminds us that we all have the power to make a difference.</p>
<p>It may be organizing an event like Vantage Point, supporting a local charity, or simply offering your time and skills; volunteering allows us to step beyond our usual routines and contribute to something greater.</p>
<p>So, the next time you have the opportunity to volunteer, take it!</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Because remember, <strong>I am because you are.</strong></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Your actions, no matter how small, can create a ripple effect, bringing positive change to those you help and yourself.</p>
<p>Together, we can build a better world—one act of kindness at a time.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>PS: What part of the story fascinates you and why? I look forward to know about this in the comments below.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Talk soon,</p>
<p>Edward.</p>
<h1><!-- notionvc: 994d6d07-ea14-415d-b1c4-c0d4aea8a5a7 --></h1>
]]></content:encoded>
					
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Diag| Considering item [https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/edwardenejoh/?p=11] "Why Food Is the Ultimate Bridge: A Tale of Two Cultures"

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Diag| Considering item [https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/edwardenejoh/2024/09/10/welcome/] "Volunteer Day: Making a Difference Beyond the Desk"

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		<pubDate>Tue, 03 Mar 2026 18:42:04 +0000</pubDate>
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		<category><![CDATA[badges]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dlam]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/?p=150</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>The Spring Canvas UK User Group was hosted at ARU Peterborough — a brand‑new institution, opened in 2022, set up to boost local skills and employability through career‑focused education. The university was created to tackle a long‑standing skills shortage in the area, with Peterborough sitting in the bottom 10% nationally for degree‑level qualifications. Their aim […]]]></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>The Spring Canvas UK User Group was hosted at ARU Peterborough — a brand‑new institution, opened in 2022, set up to boost local skills and employability through career‑focused education. The university was created to tackle a long‑standing skills shortage in the area, with Peterborough sitting in the bottom 10% nationally for degree‑level qualifications. Their aim is to widen participation, attract students from non‑traditional backgrounds, and build a curriculum tied directly to local economic needs. In short: a practical response to a higher‑education “cold spot.”</p>
<p>It couldn’t be more different from the University of Edinburgh — we’re very much the classic, historic university, and incredibly privileged in what we already have. And it seems like contradiction was the theme of this conference at least from my perspective.</p>
<h2>Badges with Backbone</h2>
<p>I was first up: Building a scalable badging model & ecosystem — which, let’s be honest, is not the most memorable title. Thanks to last week’s Practical Strategic Storytelling workshop, I renamed it “Badges with Backbone.” Much better. The audience asked lots of questions at the end. That’s a good thing… right? After what felt like a light interrogation (I was genuinely sweating), what became clear to me was this: we do have the infrastructure in place for a scalable model — check. But now we need to reconnect that infrastructure to our earners and their employers. We need to understand:</p>
<ul>
<li>How they perceive badges</li>
<li>Whether they understand their value</li>
<li>How badges evidence skills in ways that genuinely enhance employability.</li>
</ul>
<p>For our last survey, we relied on champions to share the questionnaire with the earners, and the response rate was… modest. I’m not claiming direct causation — but it does make me try going straight to the source next time: EUSA, open days, employer events — anywhere we can actually talk to the people involved.</p>
<h2><strong>Different Models, Same Purpose</strong></h2>
<p>Boston College presented after me, and I’m glad they did. Their approach to badging is bright, colourful, gamified, aimed at under‑18s. It is programme‑based and tied directly to marketable skills. At polar opposites from ours.</p>
<p>But it was a good reminder that one size doesn’t fit all. Different audiences, different needs, different solutions. They even use badges for staff accessibility training — honestly, not a bad idea.</p>
<p>I’ll admit I felt a pang of jealousy when they mentioned their rapid rollout (March to September in the same year). Then I remembered the sheer amount of groundwork we’ve put into our framework. Ours is built to scale, built to last, and ready for wider use with the SCP.</p>
<h2>APIs, AI, and Unexpected Practicality</h2>
<p>Manchester University’s session on APIs and AI was surprisingly one of the most practical AI‑in‑education talks I’ve been to. Surprising because I don’t code. I make a point to avoid coding. Usually anything with “API” in the title makes me want to sneak out of the room.</p>
<p>But the way they framed it — using AI to speed up tasks I’d otherwise spend months trying to learn — actually made sense. It felt more relevant to my day‑to‑day work than the usual high‑level ethical debates about AI literacy.</p>
<h2>Wrapping Up</h2>
<p>Overall, it was a valuable conference. Good conversations with colleagues and with the vendor, and a reminder that while we work with technology, frameworks, and strategy, we’re still human beings trying to build things that help other human beings.</p>
<p>And after presenting, surviving a Q&A, and facilitating one of the afternoon’s discussion tables… yes, I absolutely needed that pint at the end.</p>

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				<time datetime="2026-03-03" itemprop="dateModified">Mar 3, 2026</time>
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		<title>Back to the Beginning: Black Sabbath and Birmingham</title>
		<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/2025/07/24/back-to-the-beginning-black-sabbath-and-birmingham/</link>
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		<dc:creator><![CDATA[dgeorge2]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 24 Jul 2025 13:29:34 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorised]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/?p=139</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>The last time I found myself in Birmingham, it was for a Canvas conference. Like many of my colleagues, I looked forward to the event — but not the destination. Birmingham, for all its history, carries a certain reputation these days: gritty, grey, post-industrial. It’s a city people often pass through, not go to. This […]]]></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 data-start="504" data-end="814">The last time I found myself in Birmingham, it was for a Canvas conference. Like many of my colleagues, I looked forward to the event — but not the destination. Birmingham, for all its history, carries a certain reputation these days: gritty, grey, post-industrial. It’s a city people often pass through, not go to.</p>
<p data-start="816" data-end="849">This time, though, was different.</p>
<p style="text-align: left" data-start="851" data-end="1155">Birmingham named this summer the <em data-start="113" data-end="132">Summer of Sabbath</em>, commemorating the band’s career throughout the city — from Ozzy the metal bull greeting us at the train station, to The Crown Pub and a dedicated exhibition at the Birmingham Museum. And at the heart of it all, the crown jewel: a farewell concert, the most anticipated event in metal music — and not only metal. It was a cultural moment, a homecoming unlike any other.</p>
<p data-start="851" data-end="1155"><img decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-141 alignright" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2025/07/Ozzy-the-bull-300x228.png" alt="Ozzy the bull metal structure" width="300" height="228" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2025/07/Ozzy-the-bull-300x228.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2025/07/Ozzy-the-bull-768x583.png 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2025/07/Ozzy-the-bull.png 878w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></p>
<p>The concert’s title couldn’t be more appropriate. As the train left the station heading toward Villa Park, it felt like a trip into the past — back to where it all began. We passed many a traditional red-brick building, graffitied, worn and crumbling — echoes of a more prosperous time. Once the beating heart of British industry, Birmingham led the charge in manufacturing, engineering, and automotive innovation. That proud past still lingers, like soot in the air, even as the city shifts and strains under modern pressures.</p>
<p data-start="1688" data-end="1994">For most visitors, this backdrop might feel unwelcoming — austere, even. But for this journey, it felt exactly right. I wasn’t here to experience the modern city. I was here for a pilgrimage: to witness the final homecoming of the godfathers of heavy metal. Black Sabbath, returning to where it all began.</p>
<p data-start="1996" data-end="2333">There are already hundreds of reviews out there dissecting the gig itself —the epic setlist, the legends on stage (who could fill Villa Park on their own, let alone as a collective force. But for me, the most striking element wasn’t just the music. It was how perfectly the surroundings fit.</p>
<p data-start="2335" data-end="2730">On stage, the massive screens displayed black-and-white footage of Birmingham in the 1960s. Steelworks, smokestacks, workers. As the haunting riff of “Black Sabbath” rang out, those old images reminded us that this band — and this sound — weren’t born in spite of the city’s hardship, but because of it.</p>
<p data-start="3037" data-end="3371">From our spot in the Holte End, I looked to the right, out through a break in the stands. There, through the opening, you could see rooftops stretching into the distance, the occasional train rumbling past — a living, breathing reminder of where we were. In that moment, it all made sense. The music. The place. The people. Birmingham may not be glamorous, but it has soul. And for a band like Black Sabbath — it was always the only place to begin, and the only place to end.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class=" wp-image-146 aligncenter" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2025/07/Untitled-300x169.png" alt="Stadium concert setting with stage and crowd" width="350" height="197" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2025/07/Untitled-300x169.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2025/07/Untitled-1024x577.png 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2025/07/Untitled-768x433.png 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2025/07/Untitled-1536x865.png 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2025/07/Untitled-1440x811.png 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2025/07/Untitled.png 1919w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px" /></p>
<p>PS: Writing this after hearing about Ozzy’s passing yesterday gives this experience a new depth, which is why I decided to share it. I wasn’t sure whether it belonged here, but after chatting with a few colleagues about the concert, I realised it might resonate more than I thought.</p>

			<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area">
				<time datetime="2025-07-24" itemprop="dateModified">Jul 24, 2025</time>
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		<title>Masticate on this!</title>
		<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/2022/10/05/masticate-on-this/</link>
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		<dc:creator><![CDATA[dgeorge2]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 05 Oct 2022 13:20:34 +0000</pubDate>
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		<category><![CDATA[dlam-feed]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/?p=30</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>My first blog was due to happen soon, so I might as well start with something I love My friends ask me why I don’t start documenting my food experiments and restaurant visits in a food blog (they are probably tired of me steering all conversations towards food and consider it would be more worthwhile […]]]></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><h4 style="text-align: center">My first blog was due to happen soon, so I might as well start with something I love</h4>
<p>My friends ask me why I don’t start documenting my food experiments and restaurant visits in a food blog (they are probably tired of me steering all conversations towards food and consider it would be more worthwhile to focus my energy into a constructive avenue). My work colleagues suggest I blog as a tool of reflecting on my work experience and potentially providing a start for my CMALT portfolio (hopefully more on that in another post). So I’m going to try to combine these topics, into a ‘food I had at work’ blog. Well, sort of…</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-62 alignright" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/a-169x300.jpg" alt="a display table with cake trays" width="241" height="428" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/a-169x300.jpg 169w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/a-577x1024.jpg 577w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/a-768x1364.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/a-865x1536.jpg 865w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/a-1153x2048.jpg 1153w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/a-541x960.jpg 541w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/a-scaled.jpg 1442w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 241px) 100vw, 241px" />Every time I come into the Argyle House office I feel tempted by the myriad of lovely shops around the Grassmarket area: ice-cream from <a href="https://www.instagram.com/marysmilkbar/">Mary’s Milk Bar</a>, cake from <a href="https://www.instagram.com/tastybunsbakery/">Tasty Buns</a>, coffee from the <a href="https://www.thesourcecoffee.co.uk/">Source</a>, spanakopita from the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/GreekArtisanPastries/">Greek Artisan Pastries</a> are just a handful of my favourites that come to mind. Yesterday I added a new discovery to that list: the relatively recently opened <a href="https://www.instagram.com/slice_of_greece_/">Slice of Greece</a>, on Morrison Street. As I waltzed into the shop, my eyes were instantly drawn to the mastic desserts in the display. The one I chose was a Galaktompoureko, a mastic flavoured custard filled phyllo pastry pie. Why, you are asking, among all the chocolate covered croissants, baklavas and mousse pots?</p>
<p>Mastic, or mastiha, happens to be one of my favourite flavours in the world! Sadly, I don’t come across it as often as I’d like to, especially in the UK, it is an underdog. In all the GBBO seasons I’ve watched (admittedly, not all, so somebody PLEASE correct me if I’m wrong) I’ve only seen it used once in season 12 when George made brandy snaps filled with an orange blossom and mastic creme pat, and mentioned once on their recipe page (<a href="https://thegreatbritishbakeoff.co.uk/recipes/all/paul-hollywood-flaounas/">https://thegreatbritishbakeoff.co.uk/recipes/all/paul-hollywood-flaounas/</a>).</p>
<h4 style="text-align: center">But what exactly is mastic?</h4>
<h4><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-33 alignright" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/20220818_121423-169x300.jpg" alt="Close-up of resin dripping out of a mastic tree bark" width="234" height="415" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/20220818_121423-169x300.jpg 169w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/20220818_121423-576x1024.jpg 576w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/20220818_121423.jpg 613w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 234px) 100vw, 234px" /></h4>
<p>Mastic is the resin extracted from the <em>Pistacia lentiscus </em>aka the Chios mastic tree, a little shrub like tree. The resin is ‘revealed’ by cutting into the tree bark, which releases the ‘tears’ of resin. These harden and are then collected and cleaned.  It is used as a flavouring in lots of deserts (list) as well as in mastica, an alcoholic sweet liqueur similar to ouzo, and in cosmetic products due to its nice smell and supposed medicinal benefits. It is also the earliest known form of chewing gum: the Ancient Greeks aptly named the resin after the word <em>mastikhan, </em>“to gnash the teeth”, which through a long linguistic journey via Latin and Old French also reached English: “to masticate, to chew”.</p>
<p>Mastichochoria, the mastic villages in the south of the island, are the main (and only constant) producers of mastic in the world. There are small groves in the Çeşme peninsula in Turkey, and the Japanese tried importing and growing the trees but the unique soil and climate of Chios made planting the trees elsewhere an impossible task.</p>
<p>The taste is very unique and hard to describe. It always takes me a while to come up with an answer when someone asks me to describe it, and I always wish I had a piece of gum to hand them, as it would make the process a lot easier. I’d say it tastes ‘resin-y’ (what a surprise!) herbally and pine-y. It is definitely an aquired taste. So far I’ve only used it in a <a href="https://www.tasteatlas.com/maras-dondurmas/recipe">Maraş style ice-cream</a> and flavoured custard.</p>
<h4 style="text-align: center">A bit of a (his)story*</h4>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-57 alignright" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/Eugene_Delacroix_-_Le_Massacre_de_Scio-254x300.jpg" alt="Massacre of Choios painting by Eugene Delacroix" width="327" height="387" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/Eugene_Delacroix_-_Le_Massacre_de_Scio-254x300.jpg 254w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/Eugene_Delacroix_-_Le_Massacre_de_Scio-867x1024.jpg 867w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/Eugene_Delacroix_-_Le_Massacre_de_Scio-768x907.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/Eugene_Delacroix_-_Le_Massacre_de_Scio-813x960.jpg 813w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/Eugene_Delacroix_-_Le_Massacre_de_Scio.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 327px) 100vw, 327px" />To me, mastic is a taste of summer holidays in Turkey (I know, Greek people please be patient). My dad would always have a packet of mastic chewing gum in his car, and it would the first thing I tasted upon my arrival in Turkey. However, it was not until this summer that I visited the ‘home’ of mastic- the island of Chios. The 5<sup>th</sup> biggest Greek island, it is located only 3.5 miles (5.5 km) from the Turkish coast. And as the location suggests, it has a very turbulent history.</p>
<p>Archaeological research on Chios has found evidence of habitation as early as the Neolithic era, and the island has gone through the hands of multiple occupiers: Persians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantine, Genoese, Ottoman and eventually back to the Greek, after the First Balkan War in 1912. All of which left an imprint on the island. There is still quite a bit of animosity between the Greek and the Turkish people of the island, one of the most interesting examples being the removal and re-addition of the replica of Eugene Delacroix’s “The Massacre of Chios” from the Byzantine museum on Chios (incidentally, the museum is located in the old mosque). In 2009, a copy of the painting was displayed in the museum, swiftly withdrawn a few months later in a “good faith initiative” for the improvement of Greek-Turkish relations. However, the Greeks protested its removal, leading to the copy being brought back on display.</p>
<p>So here it is, a blog about the food I had at work, turned travel blog, turned love declaration to mastic.</p>
<p>Oh, and please give Slice of Greece a try. I did lie a bit at the start, I also got a couple of mousse pots because I couldn’t resist them – the black forest and the caramel ones. Also, the next day I returned for a (huge) slice of baklava, it had to be tested! I can now also confirm they do one of the best baklavas I’ve had in Edinburgh- laden with syrup, walnuts and cinnamon, and not overly sweet, which was a nice surprise. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-69 aligncenter" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/cake-298x300.jpg" alt="2 plastic pots with mouse in the foreground, and a pastry in a box in the background" width="298" height="300" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/cake-298x300.jpg 298w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/cake-1019x1024.jpg 1019w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/cake-150x150.jpg 150w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/cake-768x772.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/cake-1528x1536.jpg 1528w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/cake-955x960.jpg 955w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/cake.jpg 1717w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 298px) 100vw, 298px" /></p>
<p>*historic facts borrowed from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chios">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chios</a></p>

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				<time datetime="2022-10-05" itemprop="dateModified">Oct 5, 2022</time>
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	<title>A foray into Delia's world</title>
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	<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu</link>
	<description>The ramblings of a bilingual foodie lost in the Learning Technology world</description>
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		<title>Badges with Backbone @ Canvas UK Spring meeting</title>
		<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/2026/03/03/badges-with-backbone-canvas-uk-spring-meeting/</link>
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		<dc:creator><![CDATA[dgeorge2]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 03 Mar 2026 18:42:04 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorised]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[badges]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dlam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dlam-feed]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/?p=150</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>The Spring Canvas UK User Group was hosted at ARU Peterborough — a brand‑new institution, opened in 2022, set up to boost local skills and employability through career‑focused education. The university was created to tackle a long‑standing skills shortage in the area, with Peterborough sitting in the bottom 10% nationally for degree‑level qualifications. Their aim […]]]></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>The Spring Canvas UK User Group was hosted at ARU Peterborough — a brand‑new institution, opened in 2022, set up to boost local skills and employability through career‑focused education. The university was created to tackle a long‑standing skills shortage in the area, with Peterborough sitting in the bottom 10% nationally for degree‑level qualifications. Their aim is to widen participation, attract students from non‑traditional backgrounds, and build a curriculum tied directly to local economic needs. In short: a practical response to a higher‑education “cold spot.”</p>
<p>It couldn’t be more different from the University of Edinburgh — we’re very much the classic, historic university, and incredibly privileged in what we already have. And it seems like contradiction was the theme of this conference at least from my perspective.</p>
<h2>Badges with Backbone</h2>
<p>I was first up: Building a scalable badging model & ecosystem — which, let’s be honest, is not the most memorable title. Thanks to last week’s Practical Strategic Storytelling workshop, I renamed it “Badges with Backbone.” Much better. The audience asked lots of questions at the end. That’s a good thing… right? After what felt like a light interrogation (I was genuinely sweating), what became clear to me was this: we do have the infrastructure in place for a scalable model — check. But now we need to reconnect that infrastructure to our earners and their employers. We need to understand:</p>
<ul>
<li>How they perceive badges</li>
<li>Whether they understand their value</li>
<li>How badges evidence skills in ways that genuinely enhance employability.</li>
</ul>
<p>For our last survey, we relied on champions to share the questionnaire with the earners, and the response rate was… modest. I’m not claiming direct causation — but it does make me try going straight to the source next time: EUSA, open days, employer events — anywhere we can actually talk to the people involved.</p>
<h2><strong>Different Models, Same Purpose</strong></h2>
<p>Boston College presented after me, and I’m glad they did. Their approach to badging is bright, colourful, gamified, aimed at under‑18s. It is programme‑based and tied directly to marketable skills. At polar opposites from ours.</p>
<p>But it was a good reminder that one size doesn’t fit all. Different audiences, different needs, different solutions. They even use badges for staff accessibility training — honestly, not a bad idea.</p>
<p>I’ll admit I felt a pang of jealousy when they mentioned their rapid rollout (March to September in the same year). Then I remembered the sheer amount of groundwork we’ve put into our framework. Ours is built to scale, built to last, and ready for wider use with the SCP.</p>
<h2>APIs, AI, and Unexpected Practicality</h2>
<p>Manchester University’s session on APIs and AI was surprisingly one of the most practical AI‑in‑education talks I’ve been to. Surprising because I don’t code. I make a point to avoid coding. Usually anything with “API” in the title makes me want to sneak out of the room.</p>
<p>But the way they framed it — using AI to speed up tasks I’d otherwise spend months trying to learn — actually made sense. It felt more relevant to my day‑to‑day work than the usual high‑level ethical debates about AI literacy.</p>
<h2>Wrapping Up</h2>
<p>Overall, it was a valuable conference. Good conversations with colleagues and with the vendor, and a reminder that while we work with technology, frameworks, and strategy, we’re still human beings trying to build things that help other human beings.</p>
<p>And after presenting, surviving a Q&A, and facilitating one of the afternoon’s discussion tables… yes, I absolutely needed that pint at the end.</p>

			<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area">
				<time datetime="2026-03-03" itemprop="dateModified">Mar 3, 2026</time>
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		<title>Back to the Beginning: Black Sabbath and Birmingham</title>
		<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/2025/07/24/back-to-the-beginning-black-sabbath-and-birmingham/</link>
					<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/2025/07/24/back-to-the-beginning-black-sabbath-and-birmingham/#respond</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[dgeorge2]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 24 Jul 2025 13:29:34 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorised]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/?p=139</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>The last time I found myself in Birmingham, it was for a Canvas conference. Like many of my colleagues, I looked forward to the event — but not the destination. Birmingham, for all its history, carries a certain reputation these days: gritty, grey, post-industrial. It’s a city people often pass through, not go to. This […]]]></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 data-start="504" data-end="814">The last time I found myself in Birmingham, it was for a Canvas conference. Like many of my colleagues, I looked forward to the event — but not the destination. Birmingham, for all its history, carries a certain reputation these days: gritty, grey, post-industrial. It’s a city people often pass through, not go to.</p>
<p data-start="816" data-end="849">This time, though, was different.</p>
<p style="text-align: left" data-start="851" data-end="1155">Birmingham named this summer the <em data-start="113" data-end="132">Summer of Sabbath</em>, commemorating the band’s career throughout the city — from Ozzy the metal bull greeting us at the train station, to The Crown Pub and a dedicated exhibition at the Birmingham Museum. And at the heart of it all, the crown jewel: a farewell concert, the most anticipated event in metal music — and not only metal. It was a cultural moment, a homecoming unlike any other.</p>
<p data-start="851" data-end="1155"><img decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-141 alignright" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2025/07/Ozzy-the-bull-300x228.png" alt="Ozzy the bull metal structure" width="300" height="228" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2025/07/Ozzy-the-bull-300x228.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2025/07/Ozzy-the-bull-768x583.png 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2025/07/Ozzy-the-bull.png 878w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></p>
<p>The concert’s title couldn’t be more appropriate. As the train left the station heading toward Villa Park, it felt like a trip into the past — back to where it all began. We passed many a traditional red-brick building, graffitied, worn and crumbling — echoes of a more prosperous time. Once the beating heart of British industry, Birmingham led the charge in manufacturing, engineering, and automotive innovation. That proud past still lingers, like soot in the air, even as the city shifts and strains under modern pressures.</p>
<p data-start="1688" data-end="1994">For most visitors, this backdrop might feel unwelcoming — austere, even. But for this journey, it felt exactly right. I wasn’t here to experience the modern city. I was here for a pilgrimage: to witness the final homecoming of the godfathers of heavy metal. Black Sabbath, returning to where it all began.</p>
<p data-start="1996" data-end="2333">There are already hundreds of reviews out there dissecting the gig itself —the epic setlist, the legends on stage (who could fill Villa Park on their own, let alone as a collective force. But for me, the most striking element wasn’t just the music. It was how perfectly the surroundings fit.</p>
<p data-start="2335" data-end="2730">On stage, the massive screens displayed black-and-white footage of Birmingham in the 1960s. Steelworks, smokestacks, workers. As the haunting riff of “Black Sabbath” rang out, those old images reminded us that this band — and this sound — weren’t born in spite of the city’s hardship, but because of it.</p>
<p data-start="3037" data-end="3371">From our spot in the Holte End, I looked to the right, out through a break in the stands. There, through the opening, you could see rooftops stretching into the distance, the occasional train rumbling past — a living, breathing reminder of where we were. In that moment, it all made sense. The music. The place. The people. Birmingham may not be glamorous, but it has soul. And for a band like Black Sabbath — it was always the only place to begin, and the only place to end.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class=" wp-image-146 aligncenter" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2025/07/Untitled-300x169.png" alt="Stadium concert setting with stage and crowd" width="350" height="197" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2025/07/Untitled-300x169.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2025/07/Untitled-1024x577.png 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2025/07/Untitled-768x433.png 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2025/07/Untitled-1536x865.png 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2025/07/Untitled-1440x811.png 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2025/07/Untitled.png 1919w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px" /></p>
<p>PS: Writing this after hearing about Ozzy’s passing yesterday gives this experience a new depth, which is why I decided to share it. I wasn’t sure whether it belonged here, but after chatting with a few colleagues about the concert, I realised it might resonate more than I thought.</p>

			<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area">
				<time datetime="2025-07-24" itemprop="dateModified">Jul 24, 2025</time>
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		<title>Masticate on this!</title>
		<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/2022/10/05/masticate-on-this/</link>
					<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/2022/10/05/masticate-on-this/#respond</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[dgeorge2]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 05 Oct 2022 13:20:34 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorised]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dlam-feed]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/?p=30</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>My first blog was due to happen soon, so I might as well start with something I love My friends ask me why I don’t start documenting my food experiments and restaurant visits in a food blog (they are probably tired of me steering all conversations towards food and consider it would be more worthwhile […]]]></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><h4 style="text-align: center">My first blog was due to happen soon, so I might as well start with something I love</h4>
<p>My friends ask me why I don’t start documenting my food experiments and restaurant visits in a food blog (they are probably tired of me steering all conversations towards food and consider it would be more worthwhile to focus my energy into a constructive avenue). My work colleagues suggest I blog as a tool of reflecting on my work experience and potentially providing a start for my CMALT portfolio (hopefully more on that in another post). So I’m going to try to combine these topics, into a ‘food I had at work’ blog. Well, sort of…</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-62 alignright" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/a-169x300.jpg" alt="a display table with cake trays" width="241" height="428" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/a-169x300.jpg 169w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/a-577x1024.jpg 577w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/a-768x1364.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/a-865x1536.jpg 865w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/a-1153x2048.jpg 1153w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/a-541x960.jpg 541w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/a-scaled.jpg 1442w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 241px) 100vw, 241px" />Every time I come into the Argyle House office I feel tempted by the myriad of lovely shops around the Grassmarket area: ice-cream from <a href="https://www.instagram.com/marysmilkbar/">Mary’s Milk Bar</a>, cake from <a href="https://www.instagram.com/tastybunsbakery/">Tasty Buns</a>, coffee from the <a href="https://www.thesourcecoffee.co.uk/">Source</a>, spanakopita from the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/GreekArtisanPastries/">Greek Artisan Pastries</a> are just a handful of my favourites that come to mind. Yesterday I added a new discovery to that list: the relatively recently opened <a href="https://www.instagram.com/slice_of_greece_/">Slice of Greece</a>, on Morrison Street. As I waltzed into the shop, my eyes were instantly drawn to the mastic desserts in the display. The one I chose was a Galaktompoureko, a mastic flavoured custard filled phyllo pastry pie. Why, you are asking, among all the chocolate covered croissants, baklavas and mousse pots?</p>
<p>Mastic, or mastiha, happens to be one of my favourite flavours in the world! Sadly, I don’t come across it as often as I’d like to, especially in the UK, it is an underdog. In all the GBBO seasons I’ve watched (admittedly, not all, so somebody PLEASE correct me if I’m wrong) I’ve only seen it used once in season 12 when George made brandy snaps filled with an orange blossom and mastic creme pat, and mentioned once on their recipe page (<a href="https://thegreatbritishbakeoff.co.uk/recipes/all/paul-hollywood-flaounas/">https://thegreatbritishbakeoff.co.uk/recipes/all/paul-hollywood-flaounas/</a>).</p>
<h4 style="text-align: center">But what exactly is mastic?</h4>
<h4><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-33 alignright" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/20220818_121423-169x300.jpg" alt="Close-up of resin dripping out of a mastic tree bark" width="234" height="415" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/20220818_121423-169x300.jpg 169w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/20220818_121423-576x1024.jpg 576w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/20220818_121423.jpg 613w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 234px) 100vw, 234px" /></h4>
<p>Mastic is the resin extracted from the <em>Pistacia lentiscus </em>aka the Chios mastic tree, a little shrub like tree. The resin is ‘revealed’ by cutting into the tree bark, which releases the ‘tears’ of resin. These harden and are then collected and cleaned.  It is used as a flavouring in lots of deserts (list) as well as in mastica, an alcoholic sweet liqueur similar to ouzo, and in cosmetic products due to its nice smell and supposed medicinal benefits. It is also the earliest known form of chewing gum: the Ancient Greeks aptly named the resin after the word <em>mastikhan, </em>“to gnash the teeth”, which through a long linguistic journey via Latin and Old French also reached English: “to masticate, to chew”.</p>
<p>Mastichochoria, the mastic villages in the south of the island, are the main (and only constant) producers of mastic in the world. There are small groves in the Çeşme peninsula in Turkey, and the Japanese tried importing and growing the trees but the unique soil and climate of Chios made planting the trees elsewhere an impossible task.</p>
<p>The taste is very unique and hard to describe. It always takes me a while to come up with an answer when someone asks me to describe it, and I always wish I had a piece of gum to hand them, as it would make the process a lot easier. I’d say it tastes ‘resin-y’ (what a surprise!) herbally and pine-y. It is definitely an aquired taste. So far I’ve only used it in a <a href="https://www.tasteatlas.com/maras-dondurmas/recipe">Maraş style ice-cream</a> and flavoured custard.</p>
<h4 style="text-align: center">A bit of a (his)story*</h4>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-57 alignright" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/Eugene_Delacroix_-_Le_Massacre_de_Scio-254x300.jpg" alt="Massacre of Choios painting by Eugene Delacroix" width="327" height="387" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/Eugene_Delacroix_-_Le_Massacre_de_Scio-254x300.jpg 254w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/Eugene_Delacroix_-_Le_Massacre_de_Scio-867x1024.jpg 867w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/Eugene_Delacroix_-_Le_Massacre_de_Scio-768x907.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/Eugene_Delacroix_-_Le_Massacre_de_Scio-813x960.jpg 813w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/Eugene_Delacroix_-_Le_Massacre_de_Scio.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 327px) 100vw, 327px" />To me, mastic is a taste of summer holidays in Turkey (I know, Greek people please be patient). My dad would always have a packet of mastic chewing gum in his car, and it would the first thing I tasted upon my arrival in Turkey. However, it was not until this summer that I visited the ‘home’ of mastic- the island of Chios. The 5<sup>th</sup> biggest Greek island, it is located only 3.5 miles (5.5 km) from the Turkish coast. And as the location suggests, it has a very turbulent history.</p>
<p>Archaeological research on Chios has found evidence of habitation as early as the Neolithic era, and the island has gone through the hands of multiple occupiers: Persians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantine, Genoese, Ottoman and eventually back to the Greek, after the First Balkan War in 1912. All of which left an imprint on the island. There is still quite a bit of animosity between the Greek and the Turkish people of the island, one of the most interesting examples being the removal and re-addition of the replica of Eugene Delacroix’s “The Massacre of Chios” from the Byzantine museum on Chios (incidentally, the museum is located in the old mosque). In 2009, a copy of the painting was displayed in the museum, swiftly withdrawn a few months later in a “good faith initiative” for the improvement of Greek-Turkish relations. However, the Greeks protested its removal, leading to the copy being brought back on display.</p>
<p>So here it is, a blog about the food I had at work, turned travel blog, turned love declaration to mastic.</p>
<p>Oh, and please give Slice of Greece a try. I did lie a bit at the start, I also got a couple of mousse pots because I couldn’t resist them – the black forest and the caramel ones. Also, the next day I returned for a (huge) slice of baklava, it had to be tested! I can now also confirm they do one of the best baklavas I’ve had in Edinburgh- laden with syrup, walnuts and cinnamon, and not overly sweet, which was a nice surprise. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-69 aligncenter" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/cake-298x300.jpg" alt="2 plastic pots with mouse in the foreground, and a pastry in a box in the background" width="298" height="300" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/cake-298x300.jpg 298w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/cake-1019x1024.jpg 1019w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/cake-150x150.jpg 150w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/cake-768x772.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/cake-1528x1536.jpg 1528w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/cake-955x960.jpg 955w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/cake.jpg 1717w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 298px) 100vw, 298px" /></p>
<p>*historic facts borrowed from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chios">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chios</a></p>

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				<time datetime="2022-10-05" itemprop="dateModified">Oct 5, 2022</time>
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	<title>A foray into Delia's world</title>
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	<description>The ramblings of a bilingual foodie lost in the Learning Technology world</description>
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		<title>Badges with Backbone @ Canvas UK Spring meeting</title>
		<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/2026/03/03/badges-with-backbone-canvas-uk-spring-meeting/</link>
					<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/2026/03/03/badges-with-backbone-canvas-uk-spring-meeting/#comments</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[dgeorge2]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 03 Mar 2026 18:42:04 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorised]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[badges]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dlam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dlam-feed]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/?p=150</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>The Spring Canvas UK User Group was hosted at ARU Peterborough — a brand‑new institution, opened in 2022, set up to boost local skills and employability through career‑focused education. The university was created to tackle a long‑standing skills shortage in the area, with Peterborough sitting in the bottom 10% nationally for degree‑level qualifications. Their aim […]]]></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>The Spring Canvas UK User Group was hosted at ARU Peterborough — a brand‑new institution, opened in 2022, set up to boost local skills and employability through career‑focused education. The university was created to tackle a long‑standing skills shortage in the area, with Peterborough sitting in the bottom 10% nationally for degree‑level qualifications. Their aim is to widen participation, attract students from non‑traditional backgrounds, and build a curriculum tied directly to local economic needs. In short: a practical response to a higher‑education “cold spot.”</p>
<p>It couldn’t be more different from the University of Edinburgh — we’re very much the classic, historic university, and incredibly privileged in what we already have. And it seems like contradiction was the theme of this conference at least from my perspective.</p>
<h2>Badges with Backbone</h2>
<p>I was first up: Building a scalable badging model & ecosystem — which, let’s be honest, is not the most memorable title. Thanks to last week’s Practical Strategic Storytelling workshop, I renamed it “Badges with Backbone.” Much better. The audience asked lots of questions at the end. That’s a good thing… right? After what felt like a light interrogation (I was genuinely sweating), what became clear to me was this: we do have the infrastructure in place for a scalable model — check. But now we need to reconnect that infrastructure to our earners and their employers. We need to understand:</p>
<ul>
<li>How they perceive badges</li>
<li>Whether they understand their value</li>
<li>How badges evidence skills in ways that genuinely enhance employability.</li>
</ul>
<p>For our last survey, we relied on champions to share the questionnaire with the earners, and the response rate was… modest. I’m not claiming direct causation — but it does make me try going straight to the source next time: EUSA, open days, employer events — anywhere we can actually talk to the people involved.</p>
<h2><strong>Different Models, Same Purpose</strong></h2>
<p>Boston College presented after me, and I’m glad they did. Their approach to badging is bright, colourful, gamified, aimed at under‑18s. It is programme‑based and tied directly to marketable skills. At polar opposites from ours.</p>
<p>But it was a good reminder that one size doesn’t fit all. Different audiences, different needs, different solutions. They even use badges for staff accessibility training — honestly, not a bad idea.</p>
<p>I’ll admit I felt a pang of jealousy when they mentioned their rapid rollout (March to September in the same year). Then I remembered the sheer amount of groundwork we’ve put into our framework. Ours is built to scale, built to last, and ready for wider use with the SCP.</p>
<h2>APIs, AI, and Unexpected Practicality</h2>
<p>Manchester University’s session on APIs and AI was surprisingly one of the most practical AI‑in‑education talks I’ve been to. Surprising because I don’t code. I make a point to avoid coding. Usually anything with “API” in the title makes me want to sneak out of the room.</p>
<p>But the way they framed it — using AI to speed up tasks I’d otherwise spend months trying to learn — actually made sense. It felt more relevant to my day‑to‑day work than the usual high‑level ethical debates about AI literacy.</p>
<h2>Wrapping Up</h2>
<p>Overall, it was a valuable conference. Good conversations with colleagues and with the vendor, and a reminder that while we work with technology, frameworks, and strategy, we’re still human beings trying to build things that help other human beings.</p>
<p>And after presenting, surviving a Q&A, and facilitating one of the afternoon’s discussion tables… yes, I absolutely needed that pint at the end.</p>

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				<time datetime="2026-03-03" itemprop="dateModified">Mar 3, 2026</time>
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		<title>Back to the Beginning: Black Sabbath and Birmingham</title>
		<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/2025/07/24/back-to-the-beginning-black-sabbath-and-birmingham/</link>
					<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/2025/07/24/back-to-the-beginning-black-sabbath-and-birmingham/#respond</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[dgeorge2]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 24 Jul 2025 13:29:34 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorised]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/?p=139</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>The last time I found myself in Birmingham, it was for a Canvas conference. Like many of my colleagues, I looked forward to the event — but not the destination. Birmingham, for all its history, carries a certain reputation these days: gritty, grey, post-industrial. It’s a city people often pass through, not go to. This […]]]></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 data-start="504" data-end="814">The last time I found myself in Birmingham, it was for a Canvas conference. Like many of my colleagues, I looked forward to the event — but not the destination. Birmingham, for all its history, carries a certain reputation these days: gritty, grey, post-industrial. It’s a city people often pass through, not go to.</p>
<p data-start="816" data-end="849">This time, though, was different.</p>
<p style="text-align: left" data-start="851" data-end="1155">Birmingham named this summer the <em data-start="113" data-end="132">Summer of Sabbath</em>, commemorating the band’s career throughout the city — from Ozzy the metal bull greeting us at the train station, to The Crown Pub and a dedicated exhibition at the Birmingham Museum. And at the heart of it all, the crown jewel: a farewell concert, the most anticipated event in metal music — and not only metal. It was a cultural moment, a homecoming unlike any other.</p>
<p data-start="851" data-end="1155"><img decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-141 alignright" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2025/07/Ozzy-the-bull-300x228.png" alt="Ozzy the bull metal structure" width="300" height="228" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2025/07/Ozzy-the-bull-300x228.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2025/07/Ozzy-the-bull-768x583.png 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2025/07/Ozzy-the-bull.png 878w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></p>
<p>The concert’s title couldn’t be more appropriate. As the train left the station heading toward Villa Park, it felt like a trip into the past — back to where it all began. We passed many a traditional red-brick building, graffitied, worn and crumbling — echoes of a more prosperous time. Once the beating heart of British industry, Birmingham led the charge in manufacturing, engineering, and automotive innovation. That proud past still lingers, like soot in the air, even as the city shifts and strains under modern pressures.</p>
<p data-start="1688" data-end="1994">For most visitors, this backdrop might feel unwelcoming — austere, even. But for this journey, it felt exactly right. I wasn’t here to experience the modern city. I was here for a pilgrimage: to witness the final homecoming of the godfathers of heavy metal. Black Sabbath, returning to where it all began.</p>
<p data-start="1996" data-end="2333">There are already hundreds of reviews out there dissecting the gig itself —the epic setlist, the legends on stage (who could fill Villa Park on their own, let alone as a collective force. But for me, the most striking element wasn’t just the music. It was how perfectly the surroundings fit.</p>
<p data-start="2335" data-end="2730">On stage, the massive screens displayed black-and-white footage of Birmingham in the 1960s. Steelworks, smokestacks, workers. As the haunting riff of “Black Sabbath” rang out, those old images reminded us that this band — and this sound — weren’t born in spite of the city’s hardship, but because of it.</p>
<p data-start="3037" data-end="3371">From our spot in the Holte End, I looked to the right, out through a break in the stands. There, through the opening, you could see rooftops stretching into the distance, the occasional train rumbling past — a living, breathing reminder of where we were. In that moment, it all made sense. The music. The place. The people. Birmingham may not be glamorous, but it has soul. And for a band like Black Sabbath — it was always the only place to begin, and the only place to end.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class=" wp-image-146 aligncenter" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2025/07/Untitled-300x169.png" alt="Stadium concert setting with stage and crowd" width="350" height="197" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2025/07/Untitled-300x169.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2025/07/Untitled-1024x577.png 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2025/07/Untitled-768x433.png 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2025/07/Untitled-1536x865.png 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2025/07/Untitled-1440x811.png 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2025/07/Untitled.png 1919w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px" /></p>
<p>PS: Writing this after hearing about Ozzy’s passing yesterday gives this experience a new depth, which is why I decided to share it. I wasn’t sure whether it belonged here, but after chatting with a few colleagues about the concert, I realised it might resonate more than I thought.</p>

			<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area">
				<time datetime="2025-07-24" itemprop="dateModified">Jul 24, 2025</time>
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		<title>Masticate on this!</title>
		<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/2022/10/05/masticate-on-this/</link>
					<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/2022/10/05/masticate-on-this/#respond</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[dgeorge2]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 05 Oct 2022 13:20:34 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorised]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dlam-feed]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/?p=30</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>My first blog was due to happen soon, so I might as well start with something I love My friends ask me why I don’t start documenting my food experiments and restaurant visits in a food blog (they are probably tired of me steering all conversations towards food and consider it would be more worthwhile […]]]></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><h4 style="text-align: center">My first blog was due to happen soon, so I might as well start with something I love</h4>
<p>My friends ask me why I don’t start documenting my food experiments and restaurant visits in a food blog (they are probably tired of me steering all conversations towards food and consider it would be more worthwhile to focus my energy into a constructive avenue). My work colleagues suggest I blog as a tool of reflecting on my work experience and potentially providing a start for my CMALT portfolio (hopefully more on that in another post). So I’m going to try to combine these topics, into a ‘food I had at work’ blog. Well, sort of…</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-62 alignright" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/a-169x300.jpg" alt="a display table with cake trays" width="241" height="428" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/a-169x300.jpg 169w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/a-577x1024.jpg 577w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/a-768x1364.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/a-865x1536.jpg 865w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/a-1153x2048.jpg 1153w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/a-541x960.jpg 541w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/a-scaled.jpg 1442w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 241px) 100vw, 241px" />Every time I come into the Argyle House office I feel tempted by the myriad of lovely shops around the Grassmarket area: ice-cream from <a href="https://www.instagram.com/marysmilkbar/">Mary’s Milk Bar</a>, cake from <a href="https://www.instagram.com/tastybunsbakery/">Tasty Buns</a>, coffee from the <a href="https://www.thesourcecoffee.co.uk/">Source</a>, spanakopita from the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/GreekArtisanPastries/">Greek Artisan Pastries</a> are just a handful of my favourites that come to mind. Yesterday I added a new discovery to that list: the relatively recently opened <a href="https://www.instagram.com/slice_of_greece_/">Slice of Greece</a>, on Morrison Street. As I waltzed into the shop, my eyes were instantly drawn to the mastic desserts in the display. The one I chose was a Galaktompoureko, a mastic flavoured custard filled phyllo pastry pie. Why, you are asking, among all the chocolate covered croissants, baklavas and mousse pots?</p>
<p>Mastic, or mastiha, happens to be one of my favourite flavours in the world! Sadly, I don’t come across it as often as I’d like to, especially in the UK, it is an underdog. In all the GBBO seasons I’ve watched (admittedly, not all, so somebody PLEASE correct me if I’m wrong) I’ve only seen it used once in season 12 when George made brandy snaps filled with an orange blossom and mastic creme pat, and mentioned once on their recipe page (<a href="https://thegreatbritishbakeoff.co.uk/recipes/all/paul-hollywood-flaounas/">https://thegreatbritishbakeoff.co.uk/recipes/all/paul-hollywood-flaounas/</a>).</p>
<h4 style="text-align: center">But what exactly is mastic?</h4>
<h4><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-33 alignright" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/20220818_121423-169x300.jpg" alt="Close-up of resin dripping out of a mastic tree bark" width="234" height="415" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/20220818_121423-169x300.jpg 169w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/20220818_121423-576x1024.jpg 576w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/20220818_121423.jpg 613w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 234px) 100vw, 234px" /></h4>
<p>Mastic is the resin extracted from the <em>Pistacia lentiscus </em>aka the Chios mastic tree, a little shrub like tree. The resin is ‘revealed’ by cutting into the tree bark, which releases the ‘tears’ of resin. These harden and are then collected and cleaned.  It is used as a flavouring in lots of deserts (list) as well as in mastica, an alcoholic sweet liqueur similar to ouzo, and in cosmetic products due to its nice smell and supposed medicinal benefits. It is also the earliest known form of chewing gum: the Ancient Greeks aptly named the resin after the word <em>mastikhan, </em>“to gnash the teeth”, which through a long linguistic journey via Latin and Old French also reached English: “to masticate, to chew”.</p>
<p>Mastichochoria, the mastic villages in the south of the island, are the main (and only constant) producers of mastic in the world. There are small groves in the Çeşme peninsula in Turkey, and the Japanese tried importing and growing the trees but the unique soil and climate of Chios made planting the trees elsewhere an impossible task.</p>
<p>The taste is very unique and hard to describe. It always takes me a while to come up with an answer when someone asks me to describe it, and I always wish I had a piece of gum to hand them, as it would make the process a lot easier. I’d say it tastes ‘resin-y’ (what a surprise!) herbally and pine-y. It is definitely an aquired taste. So far I’ve only used it in a <a href="https://www.tasteatlas.com/maras-dondurmas/recipe">Maraş style ice-cream</a> and flavoured custard.</p>
<h4 style="text-align: center">A bit of a (his)story*</h4>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-57 alignright" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/Eugene_Delacroix_-_Le_Massacre_de_Scio-254x300.jpg" alt="Massacre of Choios painting by Eugene Delacroix" width="327" height="387" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/Eugene_Delacroix_-_Le_Massacre_de_Scio-254x300.jpg 254w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/Eugene_Delacroix_-_Le_Massacre_de_Scio-867x1024.jpg 867w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/Eugene_Delacroix_-_Le_Massacre_de_Scio-768x907.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/Eugene_Delacroix_-_Le_Massacre_de_Scio-813x960.jpg 813w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/Eugene_Delacroix_-_Le_Massacre_de_Scio.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 327px) 100vw, 327px" />To me, mastic is a taste of summer holidays in Turkey (I know, Greek people please be patient). My dad would always have a packet of mastic chewing gum in his car, and it would the first thing I tasted upon my arrival in Turkey. However, it was not until this summer that I visited the ‘home’ of mastic- the island of Chios. The 5<sup>th</sup> biggest Greek island, it is located only 3.5 miles (5.5 km) from the Turkish coast. And as the location suggests, it has a very turbulent history.</p>
<p>Archaeological research on Chios has found evidence of habitation as early as the Neolithic era, and the island has gone through the hands of multiple occupiers: Persians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantine, Genoese, Ottoman and eventually back to the Greek, after the First Balkan War in 1912. All of which left an imprint on the island. There is still quite a bit of animosity between the Greek and the Turkish people of the island, one of the most interesting examples being the removal and re-addition of the replica of Eugene Delacroix’s “The Massacre of Chios” from the Byzantine museum on Chios (incidentally, the museum is located in the old mosque). In 2009, a copy of the painting was displayed in the museum, swiftly withdrawn a few months later in a “good faith initiative” for the improvement of Greek-Turkish relations. However, the Greeks protested its removal, leading to the copy being brought back on display.</p>
<p>So here it is, a blog about the food I had at work, turned travel blog, turned love declaration to mastic.</p>
<p>Oh, and please give Slice of Greece a try. I did lie a bit at the start, I also got a couple of mousse pots because I couldn’t resist them – the black forest and the caramel ones. Also, the next day I returned for a (huge) slice of baklava, it had to be tested! I can now also confirm they do one of the best baklavas I’ve had in Edinburgh- laden with syrup, walnuts and cinnamon, and not overly sweet, which was a nice surprise. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-69 aligncenter" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/cake-298x300.jpg" alt="2 plastic pots with mouse in the foreground, and a pastry in a box in the background" width="298" height="300" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/cake-298x300.jpg 298w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/cake-1019x1024.jpg 1019w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/cake-150x150.jpg 150w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/cake-768x772.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/cake-1528x1536.jpg 1528w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/cake-955x960.jpg 955w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7365/2022/10/cake.jpg 1717w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 298px) 100vw, 298px" /></p>
<p>*historic facts borrowed from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chios">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chios</a></p>

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Diag| Considering item [https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/?p=150] "Badges with Backbone @ Canvas UK Spring meeting"

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Diag| Considering item [https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deliageorgescu/?p=139] "Back to the Beginning: Black Sabbath and Birmingham"

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		<title>Working hand in hand</title>
		<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/2025/12/10/working-hand-in-hand/</link>
					<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/2025/12/10/working-hand-in-hand/#respond</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kat]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 10 Dec 2025 10:10:05 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[general]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dlam-feed]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/?p=126</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[A lot of the time IT services are supporting users – that is, students and teaching staff – or work quietly in the background to assure systems and infrastructure are in good shape and fit for purpose. In my own role I rarely have an opportunity to see what happens “on the ground”, in the […]]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>A lot of the time IT services are supporting users – that is, students and teaching staff – or work quietly in the background to assure systems and infrastructure are in good shape and fit for purpose. In my own role I rarely have an opportunity to see what happens “on the ground”, in the physical teaching environments. However, recently I was attending a staff training event for Data Protection Champions, and it ended up being an exciting little showcase of how our services work together to make learning and teaching happen. Not just for students <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>
<p>What are Data Protection Champions? These are a group of staff members who commit to staying up to date on current developments across the university on matters intersecting with Data Protection and to help keep information otherwise available on the web current in discussions and work locally. The Community Meetings help to exchange knowledge and ask questions to understand in better detail what processes and procedures are designed to do and to disambiguate the legalese that necessarily accompanies legal and compliance rules and regulations.</p>
<p>In other words, understanding the details is important, and summarising this “second hand” is not always easy. This prompted some champions to reach out to the organiser asking if the event could be recorded.</p>
<p>This was not a Teams meeting. But, it was set at a lecture theatre with Lecture recording facilities. So after a little consideration of alternatives (recording in segments on a mobile phone? recording via Kaltura video recorder from a laptop?) we set to work out what might need to happen to make use of the lecture recording equipment.</p>
<ul>
<li>Sound check – oh my. Somehow feedback reverberating in stereo through the theatre makes for a great alarm clock, but it transpired quite quickly that we were in need of support. A colleague from Digital Spaces Tech attended within minutes – and some troubleshooting later had all the microphones operating normally. Sigh of relief – we can all hear and know this will be captured in the recording.</li>
<li>Recording – typically recordings are linked to course delivery in our VLE, Learn. And timetabling allows for lectures to be added to the courses automatically. When requesting an ad-hoc recording, this is available to instructors; or can be supported from the Media Service team with a little notice. In our case, notice was very limited, and the support from the service team was invaluable. The lights of the recording equipment turned red – on time for the meeting to start.</li>
<li>Processing – with the event being a full morning, including a break for coffee and networking, the recording took some time to process on the system. With help from the service team, this time duly recorded using our ticketing system Unidesk, the recording was modified to exclude the break to make this more convenient for champions to review once shared.</li>
</ul>
<p>Since the event was not associated with a course or programme, and the default of our lecture recordings setup via the VLE did not apply, sharing recordings is not automatic. The system is designed to safeguard teaching activities and keep permissions for processing and sharing details in line with the terms and conditions of service. Data Protection compliance at its best. Staff training, still falls within the remit of teaching, but staff training is not hosted on our VLE Learn, again, in order to comply with the terms and conditions of service for the VLE. On guidance from the Media Service team we requested for the migration of the video to our other media channel, Media Hopper Create. With this being the first interaction on the service the help and support with this process was incredibly appreciated by the organiser and all involved in the event.</p>
<ul>
<li>Migrating – as part of this whole process, I discovered a whole new set of environments that can be logged into, alas, because my account is linked to a playground account, and I was not the owner of the video recording, we took up the kind offer of support from the Media Service team who brought the video into Media Hopper Create, which offers captioning and wider sharing permissions.</li>
<li>Sharing – as with many of our services, the ability to secure content is shared with the appropriate user groups is really important. Materials can be set to only exist for the video owner (private), made accessible only to users who have been given the link (unlisted) or be made public to all users. In addition, licensing selections assure that users are informed of what is permissible with regards to use of the content and copyright.</li>
</ul>
<p>The support and efforts across the different teams was a really good reminder of why working in ISG / LTW / DLAM is such a rewarding experience. Sometimes we end up being in the role of our own users, and colleagues come to our rescue and support to make the most of the teaching and training that keeps our service provisions compliant and up to date.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>

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				<time datetime="2025-12-10" itemprop="dateModified">Dec 10, 2025</time>
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		<item>
		<title>What’s in a measure? Considerations on Anthology Ally</title>
		<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/2023/12/04/whats-in-a-measure-considerations-on-anthology-ally/</link>
					<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/2023/12/04/whats-in-a-measure-considerations-on-anthology-ally/#respond</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kat]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 04 Dec 2023 11:09:51 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorised]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[accessibility]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dlam-feed]]></category>
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					<description><![CDATA[Let me take a moment to share my thoughts around one of our newer services with Learning, Teaching and Web: Anthology Ally. Accessibility is fast becoming one of my favourite topics working within DLAM. A Humanities graduate myself, maybe the link between Hermeneutics (Interpretation theory) and digital transformations in accessible design play a part. Whilst […]]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Let me take a moment to share my thoughts around one of our newer services with Learning, Teaching and Web: Anthology Ally. Accessibility is fast becoming one of my favourite topics working within DLAM. A Humanities graduate myself, maybe the link between Hermeneutics (Interpretation theory) and digital transformations in accessible design play a part. Whilst I used to be primarily concerned about the meaning behind the words, I now find myself deeply fascinated by the (digital) transactions that take place to transmit and present information, and the tools it takes to make this happen!</p>
<p><span class="TextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8" lang="EN-GB" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="auto"><span class="NormalTextRun CommentStart CommentHighlightPipeRest CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">Digital accessibility refers to </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">digital content </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">that has been reviewed and tested to be </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">accessible to the widest possible audience and be free from any avoidable access restrictions when using assisti</span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">ve technologies. </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">In the broad landscape of software, programmes and platforms, readability and interoperability </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">are crucial if we are to enable our users to interact with out content in an output format suited to th</span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">eir needs. Thus, for accessibility to </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">translate to digital media </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">educational design (content focussed), interoperability, and user navigation and software availability</span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8"> all play a part</span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">. </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">To achieve this, </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">the ability </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">to review and revise </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightPipeRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">core information – such as</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8"> file properties,</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8"> logical </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">input</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8"> and design </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">elements</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8"> – </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">this data </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">must be clearly readable to </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">a variety of </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">software </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">before the </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">output</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8"> can be guaranteed</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">. Who else remembers the wonders of opening a foreign file extension with Word and being faced with code </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">rendered</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8"> in Webdings?</span></span><span class="EOP SCXW170933220 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}"> </span></p>
<p><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW185165916 BCX8">Our ability to alter and edit our content and </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW185165916 BCX8">render</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW185165916 BCX8"> it accessible at all levels, is critical. </span>Anthology Ally offers us a window into the system level dialogue of our digital learning environment and the digital media we populate our classrooms with. Ally is a software integration on our primary VLE that scans contents for digital accessibility, its meta text, settings and requirements hidden behind the on-the-face output. It allows the users to identify accessibility issues at software level and supports some measures of fixing these; as well as enabling the conversion of files into alternative formats. Alternative formats can make teaching resources more adaptable to the diverse needs and wants of our students. Changing file type may help in presenting a file more adaptive to screen size; opting for a different display modus can support reading; access to audio can allow you to listen back on materials whilst working out, running chores or on the commute… with a diverse student body, we have the opportunity to fit all our teaching courses into a more flexible learning style. An improved digital experience supports all our learners, and having a chance to gauge better what poses a hindrance to assistive technology will make an impact to our users!</p>
<figure id="attachment_87" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-87" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-87" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/wp-content/uploads/sites/8190/2023/11/accessibility-formats-300x224.png" alt="Image title: Know your options. Chose a format that's right for you. List of alternative formats and their advantages shows 8 items. Item 1 Format: OCRed PDF for automatically extracted text. Advantage: Improved scanned documents for better reading and text search. Item 2 Format: Tagged PDF for a structured PDF for assistive technology. Advantage: Improved structure for navigation, essential for screen readers. Item 3 Format: HTML for browser and mobile. Advantage: Customize your text with a file that adapts text to mobile screen sizes. Item 4 Format: ePub for reading on tablets and e-book readers. Advantage: usable for ebooks on tablets to annotate and highlight. Item 5 Format: Electronic braille in BRF file format. Advantage: supports tactile reading and offers relief from screenreaders. Item 6 Format: Audio as MP3 recording of text. Advantage: Listen and learn on the go by engaging different modalities. Item 7 Format: BeeLine Reader. This creates a machine translated version of the document. Advantage: Improved on-screen reading to read faster and with greater focus. Item 8 Format: Translated version (this is an opt-in product) offering a machine translated version of the document. Advantage: Translates text to one of 50 different languages. Speak to Information Services if you are interested in this version." width="300" height="224" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/wp-content/uploads/sites/8190/2023/11/accessibility-formats-300x224.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/wp-content/uploads/sites/8190/2023/11/accessibility-formats.png 343w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-87" class="wp-caption-text">Table of available alternative formats</figcaption></figure>
<p>Here at DLAM testing out our service solutions to assure that they work as intended and integrate seamlessly (we can but try!) into our existing service environment is a wonderful part of the job. The <a href="https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/">Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1</a> (version 2.2 has been launched in October) offer a detailed list of criteria when reviewing all our websites and applications for legal compliance <span class="TextRun SCXW56190171 BCX8" lang="EN-GB" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="auto"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW56190171 BCX8"> under the </span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW56190171 BCX8" lang="EN-GB" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="auto"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW56190171 BCX8">Equality Act (2010)</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW56190171 BCX8" lang="EN-GB" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="auto"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW56190171 BCX8"> and </span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW56190171 BCX8" lang="EN-GB" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="auto"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW56190171 BCX8">The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Regulations 2012 (<a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/about/website/accessibility/guidelines-policy-legislation">https://www.ed.ac.uk/about/website/accessibility/guidelines-policy-legislation</a>)</span></span>. One of the core efforts in the standard is that organisations have to lay bare how they identified and thought about accessibility for their products and services, and where possible, mitigated any avoidable shortcomings. In broad terms, our applications are challenged on three aspects: audio, visual and navigation / workflow; the touch points of our digital environment. It is a “dimension of interoperability” to assess whether “assistive technologies [are] working predictably with different combinations of browsers, mobile operating systems, and devices“ (<a href="https://link-springer-com.ezproxy.is.ed.ac.uk/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4842-7948-9_7">The Next Frontier – Expanding the Definition of Accessibility | SpringerLink</a>).  When testing for Ally, a core challenge for me was using assistive technology, often for the first time, and to interpret the behaviour. Whilst I was reasonably familiar with Ease of Access settings for my PC and browser, other more specialist tools I found hard to judge. What if my lack of familiarity with assistive technology in the test makes for a poor result due to difficulties with the assistive tool rather than the target interface? It is the hard to judge places that lead us to use tools to scan and evaluate what meets compliance criteria and helps us to correlate our own experience with the data we interact with.</p>
<p>To guide instructors about digital accessibility, Ally produces a score. It is meant as a guide to how clean a file is in digital terms, i.e. how successful it will be in converting to an alternative file format or being negotiated by any common assistive technology tool. So taking a moment to demystify the scoring for a moment should clear our view to how Ally supports our wider mission to produce accessible learning and teaching materials.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-86" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/wp-content/uploads/sites/8190/2023/11/Low-gauge.png" alt="Fuel gauge symbol pictured in red pointing to low level to denote 0-33% success rate" width="22" height="19" /> <strong>Low </strong>(0-33%): Needs help! There are severe accessibility issues.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-89" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/wp-content/uploads/sites/8190/2023/11/Medium-gauge.png" alt="Fuel gauge symbol pictured in amber pointing to mid-level to denote 34-66% success rate" width="22" height="19" /> <strong>Medium </strong>(34-66%): A little better. The file is somewhat accessible and needs improvement.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-88" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/wp-content/uploads/sites/8190/2023/11/high-gauge.png" alt="Fuel gauge symbol pictured in light green pointing to high level to denote 67-99% success rate" width="22" height="19" /> <strong>High </strong>(67-99%): Almost there. The file is accessible but more improvements are possible.</p>
<p><strong><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-90" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/wp-content/uploads/sites/8190/2023/11/Perfect-gauge.png" alt="Fuel gauge symbol pictured in dark green pointing to full tank level to denote 100% success rate" width="22" height="19" /> Perfect </strong>(100%): Perfect! Ally didn’t identify any accessibility issues but further improvements may still be possible.</p>
<p>Now, a scan for alternative text, in spite of the potential for AI to play a part here in future, cannot infer the context for the teaching resource and the focus the image might have in the lesson plan in the assessment of the appropriateness of ALT text. Ally is first and foremost an editing tool for the instructor, and a convenient conversion tool for the students. Accessibility needs remain to be assessed at the human level. So what do we do to assure we keep the service on track?</p>
<ul>
<li>Training; we must foster a keen awareness of what constitute accessible design in our digital service landscape</li>
<li>Testing; we must test out applications and websites to identify and mitigate challenges in accessibility</li>
<li>Research; we must continue to learn about digital trends, possible new solutions and developments in assistive technology, and accessible design</li>
<li>Feedback; we must actively listen to user feedback to satisfy ourselves that we are not merely offering a legally compliant but a practical and usable service solution and that users understand the benefits and limits of the tools we provide; evaluating our service data can support this conversation (and I hope to go into more detail about this in my next blog).</li>
</ul>
<p>What I have found in the course of the launch of Ally is that users, academics and technologists alike, need to know not only what the barriers of student users may be, and what assistive technologies might be employed, but how to make the leap between the informational content, the educational experience or activities, and the digital needs of the programmes to make it operate for other software.  Whilst it is important to point out that accessibility needs are as diverse as the subjects we offer in teaching, focused on honing different skills and abilities, the same goes for assistive technologies. There will never be a one-size-fits-all. And that is a positive thing. It curtails our tendency to reduce accessibility to a tick box exercise. Checking for accessibility remains at all times an iterative process. With Ally, we have one more tool to help us orientate ourselves amidst this ever evolving digital landscape.</p>
<p> </p>

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		<title>Accessible by design</title>
		<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/2023/07/25/accessible-by-design/</link>
					<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/2023/07/25/accessible-by-design/#respond</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kat]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 25 Jul 2023 07:20:48 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[general]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[#digitalaccessibility]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/?p=59</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[For many years I have worked as a proof-reader and editor on an assignment basis. It seemed a suitable outlet to my fastidious nature and relentless drive for detail (attributes that I have only marginally been able to tamper for polite society since). What it has given me, however, is a deep appreciation of the […]]]></description>
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<p>For many years I have worked as a proof-reader and editor on an assignment basis. It seemed a suitable outlet to my fastidious nature and relentless drive for detail (attributes that I have only marginally been able to tamper for polite society since). What it has given me, however, is a deep appreciation of the intricacies of good type setting, clean style guides and accurate referencing.</p>
<p>Fast forward to the present day, I am starting to learn more about the digital footprint all these choices and settings create and which of them support interoperability with assistive technologies. What used to be, to my untrained eye, just a flat surface, a 2-dimensional choice of matching the style to the words for the benefit of the reader, suddenly had 3 dimensions: making the text comprehensible to technology to assist in its easy transformation across media by means of tags and codes and alt text… and with it opening up to a more agile interaction with that all-important source material that was being communicated.</p>
<p>So I have set myself two goals: to collate reference material in support of accessibility that may help in designing documents at the outset with accessibility in mind; and to work on some style sheets that can meaningfully integrate what characteristics might be required for different materials to make them meaningfully accessible in their own context and user groups. </p>
<p>What does it take to annotate an art textbook in digital print? What software best integrates disciplinary challenges like specialist symbols and characters? What etiquette rules should be followed in the landscape of gifs and emoji?  How can good editing eliminate additional workflows and processes to create differently accessible materials? Is there really ever going to be a “golden copy”?</p>
<p>Let the journey begin <img decoding="async" src="https://statics.teams.cdn.office.net/evergreen-assets/personal-expressions/v2/assets/emoticons/mmm/default/50_f.png?v=v17" alt="Mmmmm…" width="20px" height="20px" aria-label="Mmmmm…" /></p>
<h4>Accessibility Resources </h4>
<p>Government Digital Service – <a href="https://accessibility.blog.gov.uk/2017/10/23/an-accessibility-reading-list/">An accessibility reading list – Accessibility in government (blog.gov.uk)</a></p>
<p>TextBox Digital – Designing Accessibly – <a href="https://www.textboxdigital.com/aspiredatabase-education/university-of-kent">University of Kent (textboxdigital.com)</a></p>
<p>Universal Design for Learning Guidelines <a href="https://udlguidelines.cast.org/">UDL: The UDL Guidelines (cast.org)</a></p>
<p>Ally Accessibility Formats <a href="https://sites.reading.ac.uk/tel-support-for-students/2018/09/21/blackboard-ally-getting-started-with-alternative-accessible-formats/">Blackboard Ally: Getting started with alternative accessible formats – Blackboard Help for Students – University of Reading</a></p>
<p>Guidelines for Assessment Descriptions <a href="https://www.nwea.org/uploads/2022/11/Image-Description-Guidelines-for-Assessments_NWEA_2021.pdf" class="mtli_attachment mtli_pdf">NWEA Image Description Guidelines for Assessments</a></p>
<p>Guide to writing ALT text <a href="https://matthewdeeprose.github.io/alt-text-images-charts-graphs.html">What is alternative text? How do I write it for images, charts, and graphs? (matthewdeeprose.github.io)</a></p>
<p>Accessibility Resources Portfolio <a href="https://inclusiveinstructionaldesign.com/favorite-resources/#STEM_Accessibility">Favorite Resources – Inclusive Instructional Design</a></p>
<h4>Visuals and Graphics around Accessibility</h4>
<p>Designing for Accessibility Dos and Dont’s – https://accessibility.blog.gov.uk/2016/09/02/dos-and-donts-on-designing-for-accessibility/</p>
<h4>Accessibility standards, compliance legislation and tools</h4>
<p><a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2018/952/contents/made">The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (legislation.gov.uk)</a></p>
<p><a href="https://aha.elliance.com/2017/12/30/ada-accessibility-compliance-for-college-and-university-websites/">ADA Accessibility Compliance for College and University Websites | Aha! :: Elliance Blog</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG-EM/">Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM) 1.0 (w3.org)</a><br /><a href="https://www.w3.org/WAI/test-evaluate/#conformance">Evaluating Web Accessibility Overview | Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) | W3C</a></p>
<p>Maintaining Accessibility <a href="https://www.w3.org/WAI/planning-and-managing/sustain/">Sustain | Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) | W3C</a></p>
<p>Contrast Checker <a href="https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/">WebAIM: Contrast Checker</a></p>
<p>MS Office Accessibility Inspector <a href="https://matthewdeeprose.github.io/inspector_for_all">Accessibility Inspector for Everyone (matthewdeeprose.github.io)</a></p>
<p>Nvda Screen Reader <a href="https://www.nvaccess.org/download/">NV Access | Download NVDA</a></p>
<h4>Reporting around Accessibility</h4>
<p>University of Edinburgh – <a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/equality-diversity/about/reports">Monitoring and Data | The University of Edinburgh</a></p>
<h4>Community</h4>
<p>Anthology Accessibility Discussion Board <a href="https://community.anthology.com/discuss/viewcategory/91">Accessibility – The Anthology Community</a></p>
<p>Anthology Ally User Group <a href="https://usergroup.ally.ac/dashboard">Dashboard – Ally User Group</a></p>
<p>Digital Accessibility at the University of Reading <a href="https://www.reading.ac.uk/digital-accessibility/digital-accessibility-section/user-stories">User stories (reading.ac.uk)</a></p>
<p>AbilityNet <a href="https://abilitynet.org.uk/accessibility-services/what-digital-accessibility">What is Digital Accessibility? | AbilityNet</a></p>
<p>Champians of Accessibility Network <a href="https://www.skyscanner.net/company-news/introducing-the-champions-of-accessibility-network">Introducing the Champions of Accessibility Network | Skyscanner’s Travel Blog</a></p>
<p>UoE Intern view of LaTeX <a href="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2023/08/15/lewis-forbes-latex-and-accessibility/">Lewis Forbes – LaTeX and Accessibility – Information Services Group: Student Employee Blog (ed.ac.uk)</a></p>
<h4>Self-help and training materials</h4>
<p>Discovering Learning styles <a href="https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/learner/front-matter/introduction/">Enter The Learning – Liberated Learners (pressbooks.pub)</a></p>
<p>ABC Teaching toolkit <a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/learning-technology/learning-design/abc/toolkit-for-facilitators">Toolkit for facilitators | The University of Edinburgh</a></p>
<p><a href="https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/make-your-powerpoint-presentations-accessible-to-people-with-disabilities-6f7772b2-2f33-4bd2-8ca7-dae3b2b3ef25">Make your PowerPoint presentations accessible to people with disabilities – Microsoft Support</a></p>
<h4>University of Edinburgh Resources</h4>
<p><a href="https://media.ed.ac.uk/playlist/details/1_qd3s9zbx">Playlist Details – Global Accessibility Awareness Day – 18 May 2023 – Media Hopper Create</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/help-consultancy/accessibility/creating-materials">Creating accessible materials | The University of Edinburgh</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/learning-technology/accessibility">Learning Technology and Accessibility | The University of Edinburgh</a></p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>

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		<title>Welcome!</title>
		<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/2018/08/08/hello-world/</link>
					<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/2018/08/08/hello-world/#comments</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Blog administrator]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 08 Aug 2018 14:05:17 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[#general]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/?p=1</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Welcome to Digital Sojourns! Thanks for stopping by. I hope you will find my content interesting, and if, like me, you get excited over IT drop me a comment if you think there are things out there I haven’t seen and maybe should! Together we can make this into a diverting and educational space. I’m […]]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<h1>Welcome to Digital Sojourns!</h1>
<p>Thanks for stopping by.</p>
<p>I hope you will find my content interesting, and if, like me, you get excited over IT drop me a comment if you think there are things out there I haven’t seen and maybe should! Together we can make this into a diverting and educational space.</p>
<p>I’m leaving the little guidance notes underneath for reference until I made a bit of progress on the content for this blog… hopefully you will see development along the way.</p>
<blockquote><p>For help and advice on getting started with a WordPress blog, see the <a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/learning-technology/blogging">Academic Blogging help pages</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Your blog is private by default</strong></p>
<p>You can open your blog up to as many or as few people as you like in <strong>Dashboard > Settings > Reading > Site Visibility</strong>:</p>
<ul>
<li>You can open your blog up to specific University members by adding them as users to your blog.</li>
<li>You can open your blog up to all University members who have an EASE login.</li>
<li>You can make you blog open to the world.</li>
</ul>
<p> </p>
<p>The featured image on this post comes from the University Collections. If you want to use more images in your blog posts, or perhaps use your own choice of image in your blog header, you can:<strong><br />
</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/crcedinburgh/albums/with/72157651943511750">Browse a selection of images on Flickr</a> from the Collections that are available for you to use on open licenses.</li>
<li><a href="https://images.is.ed.ac.uk/">Search the full online image collections</a>.</li>
<li><a href="http://open.ed.ac.uk/how-to-guides/">Find more information about searching for and using openly licensed images</a> on the Open.ed site.</li>
</ul>
<p> </p>
<p>You should read the <a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/is/blogging/terms">Terms of Use</a> if you haven’t already.</p></blockquote>
<p>			<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area"><br />
				<time datetime="2018-08-08" itemprop="dateModified">Aug 8, 2018</time><br />
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	<title>Digital Sojourns</title>
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	<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2</link>
	<description>This blog is set out as a chronicle of my digital skills development and interests - and the useful and less useful discoveries made along the road.</description>
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		<title>Working hand in hand</title>
		<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/2025/12/10/working-hand-in-hand/</link>
					<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/2025/12/10/working-hand-in-hand/#respond</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kat]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 10 Dec 2025 10:10:05 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[general]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dlam-feed]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/?p=126</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[A lot of the time IT services are supporting users – that is, students and teaching staff – or work quietly in the background to assure systems and infrastructure are in good shape and fit for purpose. In my own role I rarely have an opportunity to see what happens “on the ground”, in the […]]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>A lot of the time IT services are supporting users – that is, students and teaching staff – or work quietly in the background to assure systems and infrastructure are in good shape and fit for purpose. In my own role I rarely have an opportunity to see what happens “on the ground”, in the physical teaching environments. However, recently I was attending a staff training event for Data Protection Champions, and it ended up being an exciting little showcase of how our services work together to make learning and teaching happen. Not just for students <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>
<p>What are Data Protection Champions? These are a group of staff members who commit to staying up to date on current developments across the university on matters intersecting with Data Protection and to help keep information otherwise available on the web current in discussions and work locally. The Community Meetings help to exchange knowledge and ask questions to understand in better detail what processes and procedures are designed to do and to disambiguate the legalese that necessarily accompanies legal and compliance rules and regulations.</p>
<p>In other words, understanding the details is important, and summarising this “second hand” is not always easy. This prompted some champions to reach out to the organiser asking if the event could be recorded.</p>
<p>This was not a Teams meeting. But, it was set at a lecture theatre with Lecture recording facilities. So after a little consideration of alternatives (recording in segments on a mobile phone? recording via Kaltura video recorder from a laptop?) we set to work out what might need to happen to make use of the lecture recording equipment.</p>
<ul>
<li>Sound check – oh my. Somehow feedback reverberating in stereo through the theatre makes for a great alarm clock, but it transpired quite quickly that we were in need of support. A colleague from Digital Spaces Tech attended within minutes – and some troubleshooting later had all the microphones operating normally. Sigh of relief – we can all hear and know this will be captured in the recording.</li>
<li>Recording – typically recordings are linked to course delivery in our VLE, Learn. And timetabling allows for lectures to be added to the courses automatically. When requesting an ad-hoc recording, this is available to instructors; or can be supported from the Media Service team with a little notice. In our case, notice was very limited, and the support from the service team was invaluable. The lights of the recording equipment turned red – on time for the meeting to start.</li>
<li>Processing – with the event being a full morning, including a break for coffee and networking, the recording took some time to process on the system. With help from the service team, this time duly recorded using our ticketing system Unidesk, the recording was modified to exclude the break to make this more convenient for champions to review once shared.</li>
</ul>
<p>Since the event was not associated with a course or programme, and the default of our lecture recordings setup via the VLE did not apply, sharing recordings is not automatic. The system is designed to safeguard teaching activities and keep permissions for processing and sharing details in line with the terms and conditions of service. Data Protection compliance at its best. Staff training, still falls within the remit of teaching, but staff training is not hosted on our VLE Learn, again, in order to comply with the terms and conditions of service for the VLE. On guidance from the Media Service team we requested for the migration of the video to our other media channel, Media Hopper Create. With this being the first interaction on the service the help and support with this process was incredibly appreciated by the organiser and all involved in the event.</p>
<ul>
<li>Migrating – as part of this whole process, I discovered a whole new set of environments that can be logged into, alas, because my account is linked to a playground account, and I was not the owner of the video recording, we took up the kind offer of support from the Media Service team who brought the video into Media Hopper Create, which offers captioning and wider sharing permissions.</li>
<li>Sharing – as with many of our services, the ability to secure content is shared with the appropriate user groups is really important. Materials can be set to only exist for the video owner (private), made accessible only to users who have been given the link (unlisted) or be made public to all users. In addition, licensing selections assure that users are informed of what is permissible with regards to use of the content and copyright.</li>
</ul>
<p>The support and efforts across the different teams was a really good reminder of why working in ISG / LTW / DLAM is such a rewarding experience. Sometimes we end up being in the role of our own users, and colleagues come to our rescue and support to make the most of the teaching and training that keeps our service provisions compliant and up to date.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>

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				<time datetime="2025-12-10" itemprop="dateModified">Dec 10, 2025</time>
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		<title>What’s in a measure? Considerations on Anthology Ally</title>
		<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/2023/12/04/whats-in-a-measure-considerations-on-anthology-ally/</link>
					<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/2023/12/04/whats-in-a-measure-considerations-on-anthology-ally/#respond</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kat]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 04 Dec 2023 11:09:51 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorised]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[accessibility]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dlam-feed]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/?p=85</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Let me take a moment to share my thoughts around one of our newer services with Learning, Teaching and Web: Anthology Ally. Accessibility is fast becoming one of my favourite topics working within DLAM. A Humanities graduate myself, maybe the link between Hermeneutics (Interpretation theory) and digital transformations in accessible design play a part. Whilst […]]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Let me take a moment to share my thoughts around one of our newer services with Learning, Teaching and Web: Anthology Ally. Accessibility is fast becoming one of my favourite topics working within DLAM. A Humanities graduate myself, maybe the link between Hermeneutics (Interpretation theory) and digital transformations in accessible design play a part. Whilst I used to be primarily concerned about the meaning behind the words, I now find myself deeply fascinated by the (digital) transactions that take place to transmit and present information, and the tools it takes to make this happen!</p>
<p><span class="TextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8" lang="EN-GB" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="auto"><span class="NormalTextRun CommentStart CommentHighlightPipeRest CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">Digital accessibility refers to </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">digital content </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">that has been reviewed and tested to be </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">accessible to the widest possible audience and be free from any avoidable access restrictions when using assisti</span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">ve technologies. </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">In the broad landscape of software, programmes and platforms, readability and interoperability </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">are crucial if we are to enable our users to interact with out content in an output format suited to th</span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">eir needs. Thus, for accessibility to </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">translate to digital media </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">educational design (content focussed), interoperability, and user navigation and software availability</span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8"> all play a part</span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">. </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">To achieve this, </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">the ability </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">to review and revise </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightPipeRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">core information – such as</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8"> file properties,</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8"> logical </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">input</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8"> and design </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">elements</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8"> – </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">this data </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">must be clearly readable to </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">a variety of </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">software </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">before the </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">output</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8"> can be guaranteed</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">. Who else remembers the wonders of opening a foreign file extension with Word and being faced with code </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">rendered</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8"> in Webdings?</span></span><span class="EOP SCXW170933220 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}"> </span></p>
<p><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW185165916 BCX8">Our ability to alter and edit our content and </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW185165916 BCX8">render</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW185165916 BCX8"> it accessible at all levels, is critical. </span>Anthology Ally offers us a window into the system level dialogue of our digital learning environment and the digital media we populate our classrooms with. Ally is a software integration on our primary VLE that scans contents for digital accessibility, its meta text, settings and requirements hidden behind the on-the-face output. It allows the users to identify accessibility issues at software level and supports some measures of fixing these; as well as enabling the conversion of files into alternative formats. Alternative formats can make teaching resources more adaptable to the diverse needs and wants of our students. Changing file type may help in presenting a file more adaptive to screen size; opting for a different display modus can support reading; access to audio can allow you to listen back on materials whilst working out, running chores or on the commute… with a diverse student body, we have the opportunity to fit all our teaching courses into a more flexible learning style. An improved digital experience supports all our learners, and having a chance to gauge better what poses a hindrance to assistive technology will make an impact to our users!</p>
<figure id="attachment_87" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-87" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-87" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/wp-content/uploads/sites/8190/2023/11/accessibility-formats-300x224.png" alt="Image title: Know your options. Chose a format that's right for you. List of alternative formats and their advantages shows 8 items. Item 1 Format: OCRed PDF for automatically extracted text. Advantage: Improved scanned documents for better reading and text search. Item 2 Format: Tagged PDF for a structured PDF for assistive technology. Advantage: Improved structure for navigation, essential for screen readers. Item 3 Format: HTML for browser and mobile. Advantage: Customize your text with a file that adapts text to mobile screen sizes. Item 4 Format: ePub for reading on tablets and e-book readers. Advantage: usable for ebooks on tablets to annotate and highlight. Item 5 Format: Electronic braille in BRF file format. Advantage: supports tactile reading and offers relief from screenreaders. Item 6 Format: Audio as MP3 recording of text. Advantage: Listen and learn on the go by engaging different modalities. Item 7 Format: BeeLine Reader. This creates a machine translated version of the document. Advantage: Improved on-screen reading to read faster and with greater focus. Item 8 Format: Translated version (this is an opt-in product) offering a machine translated version of the document. Advantage: Translates text to one of 50 different languages. Speak to Information Services if you are interested in this version." width="300" height="224" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/wp-content/uploads/sites/8190/2023/11/accessibility-formats-300x224.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/wp-content/uploads/sites/8190/2023/11/accessibility-formats.png 343w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-87" class="wp-caption-text">Table of available alternative formats</figcaption></figure>
<p>Here at DLAM testing out our service solutions to assure that they work as intended and integrate seamlessly (we can but try!) into our existing service environment is a wonderful part of the job. The <a href="https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/">Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1</a> (version 2.2 has been launched in October) offer a detailed list of criteria when reviewing all our websites and applications for legal compliance <span class="TextRun SCXW56190171 BCX8" lang="EN-GB" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="auto"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW56190171 BCX8"> under the </span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW56190171 BCX8" lang="EN-GB" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="auto"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW56190171 BCX8">Equality Act (2010)</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW56190171 BCX8" lang="EN-GB" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="auto"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW56190171 BCX8"> and </span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW56190171 BCX8" lang="EN-GB" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="auto"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW56190171 BCX8">The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Regulations 2012 (<a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/about/website/accessibility/guidelines-policy-legislation">https://www.ed.ac.uk/about/website/accessibility/guidelines-policy-legislation</a>)</span></span>. One of the core efforts in the standard is that organisations have to lay bare how they identified and thought about accessibility for their products and services, and where possible, mitigated any avoidable shortcomings. In broad terms, our applications are challenged on three aspects: audio, visual and navigation / workflow; the touch points of our digital environment. It is a “dimension of interoperability” to assess whether “assistive technologies [are] working predictably with different combinations of browsers, mobile operating systems, and devices“ (<a href="https://link-springer-com.ezproxy.is.ed.ac.uk/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4842-7948-9_7">The Next Frontier – Expanding the Definition of Accessibility | SpringerLink</a>).  When testing for Ally, a core challenge for me was using assistive technology, often for the first time, and to interpret the behaviour. Whilst I was reasonably familiar with Ease of Access settings for my PC and browser, other more specialist tools I found hard to judge. What if my lack of familiarity with assistive technology in the test makes for a poor result due to difficulties with the assistive tool rather than the target interface? It is the hard to judge places that lead us to use tools to scan and evaluate what meets compliance criteria and helps us to correlate our own experience with the data we interact with.</p>
<p>To guide instructors about digital accessibility, Ally produces a score. It is meant as a guide to how clean a file is in digital terms, i.e. how successful it will be in converting to an alternative file format or being negotiated by any common assistive technology tool. So taking a moment to demystify the scoring for a moment should clear our view to how Ally supports our wider mission to produce accessible learning and teaching materials.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-86" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/wp-content/uploads/sites/8190/2023/11/Low-gauge.png" alt="Fuel gauge symbol pictured in red pointing to low level to denote 0-33% success rate" width="22" height="19" /> <strong>Low </strong>(0-33%): Needs help! There are severe accessibility issues.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-89" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/wp-content/uploads/sites/8190/2023/11/Medium-gauge.png" alt="Fuel gauge symbol pictured in amber pointing to mid-level to denote 34-66% success rate" width="22" height="19" /> <strong>Medium </strong>(34-66%): A little better. The file is somewhat accessible and needs improvement.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-88" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/wp-content/uploads/sites/8190/2023/11/high-gauge.png" alt="Fuel gauge symbol pictured in light green pointing to high level to denote 67-99% success rate" width="22" height="19" /> <strong>High </strong>(67-99%): Almost there. The file is accessible but more improvements are possible.</p>
<p><strong><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-90" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/wp-content/uploads/sites/8190/2023/11/Perfect-gauge.png" alt="Fuel gauge symbol pictured in dark green pointing to full tank level to denote 100% success rate" width="22" height="19" /> Perfect </strong>(100%): Perfect! Ally didn’t identify any accessibility issues but further improvements may still be possible.</p>
<p>Now, a scan for alternative text, in spite of the potential for AI to play a part here in future, cannot infer the context for the teaching resource and the focus the image might have in the lesson plan in the assessment of the appropriateness of ALT text. Ally is first and foremost an editing tool for the instructor, and a convenient conversion tool for the students. Accessibility needs remain to be assessed at the human level. So what do we do to assure we keep the service on track?</p>
<ul>
<li>Training; we must foster a keen awareness of what constitute accessible design in our digital service landscape</li>
<li>Testing; we must test out applications and websites to identify and mitigate challenges in accessibility</li>
<li>Research; we must continue to learn about digital trends, possible new solutions and developments in assistive technology, and accessible design</li>
<li>Feedback; we must actively listen to user feedback to satisfy ourselves that we are not merely offering a legally compliant but a practical and usable service solution and that users understand the benefits and limits of the tools we provide; evaluating our service data can support this conversation (and I hope to go into more detail about this in my next blog).</li>
</ul>
<p>What I have found in the course of the launch of Ally is that users, academics and technologists alike, need to know not only what the barriers of student users may be, and what assistive technologies might be employed, but how to make the leap between the informational content, the educational experience or activities, and the digital needs of the programmes to make it operate for other software.  Whilst it is important to point out that accessibility needs are as diverse as the subjects we offer in teaching, focused on honing different skills and abilities, the same goes for assistive technologies. There will never be a one-size-fits-all. And that is a positive thing. It curtails our tendency to reduce accessibility to a tick box exercise. Checking for accessibility remains at all times an iterative process. With Ally, we have one more tool to help us orientate ourselves amidst this ever evolving digital landscape.</p>
<p> </p>

			<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area">
				<time datetime="2023-12-04" itemprop="dateModified">Dec 4, 2023</time>
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		<title>Accessible by design</title>
		<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/2023/07/25/accessible-by-design/</link>
					<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/2023/07/25/accessible-by-design/#respond</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kat]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 25 Jul 2023 07:20:48 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[general]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[#digitalaccessibility]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/?p=59</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[For many years I have worked as a proof-reader and editor on an assignment basis. It seemed a suitable outlet to my fastidious nature and relentless drive for detail (attributes that I have only marginally been able to tamper for polite society since). What it has given me, however, is a deep appreciation of the […]]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[
<p>For many years I have worked as a proof-reader and editor on an assignment basis. It seemed a suitable outlet to my fastidious nature and relentless drive for detail (attributes that I have only marginally been able to tamper for polite society since). What it has given me, however, is a deep appreciation of the intricacies of good type setting, clean style guides and accurate referencing.</p>
<p>Fast forward to the present day, I am starting to learn more about the digital footprint all these choices and settings create and which of them support interoperability with assistive technologies. What used to be, to my untrained eye, just a flat surface, a 2-dimensional choice of matching the style to the words for the benefit of the reader, suddenly had 3 dimensions: making the text comprehensible to technology to assist in its easy transformation across media by means of tags and codes and alt text… and with it opening up to a more agile interaction with that all-important source material that was being communicated.</p>
<p>So I have set myself two goals: to collate reference material in support of accessibility that may help in designing documents at the outset with accessibility in mind; and to work on some style sheets that can meaningfully integrate what characteristics might be required for different materials to make them meaningfully accessible in their own context and user groups. </p>
<p>What does it take to annotate an art textbook in digital print? What software best integrates disciplinary challenges like specialist symbols and characters? What etiquette rules should be followed in the landscape of gifs and emoji?  How can good editing eliminate additional workflows and processes to create differently accessible materials? Is there really ever going to be a “golden copy”?</p>
<p>Let the journey begin <img decoding="async" src="https://statics.teams.cdn.office.net/evergreen-assets/personal-expressions/v2/assets/emoticons/mmm/default/50_f.png?v=v17" alt="Mmmmm…" width="20px" height="20px" aria-label="Mmmmm…" /></p>
<h4>Accessibility Resources </h4>
<p>Government Digital Service – <a href="https://accessibility.blog.gov.uk/2017/10/23/an-accessibility-reading-list/">An accessibility reading list – Accessibility in government (blog.gov.uk)</a></p>
<p>TextBox Digital – Designing Accessibly – <a href="https://www.textboxdigital.com/aspiredatabase-education/university-of-kent">University of Kent (textboxdigital.com)</a></p>
<p>Universal Design for Learning Guidelines <a href="https://udlguidelines.cast.org/">UDL: The UDL Guidelines (cast.org)</a></p>
<p>Ally Accessibility Formats <a href="https://sites.reading.ac.uk/tel-support-for-students/2018/09/21/blackboard-ally-getting-started-with-alternative-accessible-formats/">Blackboard Ally: Getting started with alternative accessible formats – Blackboard Help for Students – University of Reading</a></p>
<p>Guidelines for Assessment Descriptions <a href="https://www.nwea.org/uploads/2022/11/Image-Description-Guidelines-for-Assessments_NWEA_2021.pdf" class="mtli_attachment mtli_pdf">NWEA Image Description Guidelines for Assessments</a></p>
<p>Guide to writing ALT text <a href="https://matthewdeeprose.github.io/alt-text-images-charts-graphs.html">What is alternative text? How do I write it for images, charts, and graphs? (matthewdeeprose.github.io)</a></p>
<p>Accessibility Resources Portfolio <a href="https://inclusiveinstructionaldesign.com/favorite-resources/#STEM_Accessibility">Favorite Resources – Inclusive Instructional Design</a></p>
<h4>Visuals and Graphics around Accessibility</h4>
<p>Designing for Accessibility Dos and Dont’s – https://accessibility.blog.gov.uk/2016/09/02/dos-and-donts-on-designing-for-accessibility/</p>
<h4>Accessibility standards, compliance legislation and tools</h4>
<p><a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2018/952/contents/made">The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (legislation.gov.uk)</a></p>
<p><a href="https://aha.elliance.com/2017/12/30/ada-accessibility-compliance-for-college-and-university-websites/">ADA Accessibility Compliance for College and University Websites | Aha! :: Elliance Blog</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG-EM/">Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM) 1.0 (w3.org)</a><br /><a href="https://www.w3.org/WAI/test-evaluate/#conformance">Evaluating Web Accessibility Overview | Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) | W3C</a></p>
<p>Maintaining Accessibility <a href="https://www.w3.org/WAI/planning-and-managing/sustain/">Sustain | Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) | W3C</a></p>
<p>Contrast Checker <a href="https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/">WebAIM: Contrast Checker</a></p>
<p>MS Office Accessibility Inspector <a href="https://matthewdeeprose.github.io/inspector_for_all">Accessibility Inspector for Everyone (matthewdeeprose.github.io)</a></p>
<p>Nvda Screen Reader <a href="https://www.nvaccess.org/download/">NV Access | Download NVDA</a></p>
<h4>Reporting around Accessibility</h4>
<p>University of Edinburgh – <a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/equality-diversity/about/reports">Monitoring and Data | The University of Edinburgh</a></p>
<h4>Community</h4>
<p>Anthology Accessibility Discussion Board <a href="https://community.anthology.com/discuss/viewcategory/91">Accessibility – The Anthology Community</a></p>
<p>Anthology Ally User Group <a href="https://usergroup.ally.ac/dashboard">Dashboard – Ally User Group</a></p>
<p>Digital Accessibility at the University of Reading <a href="https://www.reading.ac.uk/digital-accessibility/digital-accessibility-section/user-stories">User stories (reading.ac.uk)</a></p>
<p>AbilityNet <a href="https://abilitynet.org.uk/accessibility-services/what-digital-accessibility">What is Digital Accessibility? | AbilityNet</a></p>
<p>Champians of Accessibility Network <a href="https://www.skyscanner.net/company-news/introducing-the-champions-of-accessibility-network">Introducing the Champions of Accessibility Network | Skyscanner’s Travel Blog</a></p>
<p>UoE Intern view of LaTeX <a href="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2023/08/15/lewis-forbes-latex-and-accessibility/">Lewis Forbes – LaTeX and Accessibility – Information Services Group: Student Employee Blog (ed.ac.uk)</a></p>
<h4>Self-help and training materials</h4>
<p>Discovering Learning styles <a href="https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/learner/front-matter/introduction/">Enter The Learning – Liberated Learners (pressbooks.pub)</a></p>
<p>ABC Teaching toolkit <a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/learning-technology/learning-design/abc/toolkit-for-facilitators">Toolkit for facilitators | The University of Edinburgh</a></p>
<p><a href="https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/make-your-powerpoint-presentations-accessible-to-people-with-disabilities-6f7772b2-2f33-4bd2-8ca7-dae3b2b3ef25">Make your PowerPoint presentations accessible to people with disabilities – Microsoft Support</a></p>
<h4>University of Edinburgh Resources</h4>
<p><a href="https://media.ed.ac.uk/playlist/details/1_qd3s9zbx">Playlist Details – Global Accessibility Awareness Day – 18 May 2023 – Media Hopper Create</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/help-consultancy/accessibility/creating-materials">Creating accessible materials | The University of Edinburgh</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/learning-technology/accessibility">Learning Technology and Accessibility | The University of Edinburgh</a></p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>

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				<time datetime="2023-07-25" itemprop="dateModified">Jul 25, 2023</time>
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		<title>Welcome!</title>
		<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/2018/08/08/hello-world/</link>
					<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/2018/08/08/hello-world/#comments</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Blog administrator]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 08 Aug 2018 14:05:17 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[#general]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/?p=1</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Welcome to Digital Sojourns! Thanks for stopping by. I hope you will find my content interesting, and if, like me, you get excited over IT drop me a comment if you think there are things out there I haven’t seen and maybe should! Together we can make this into a diverting and educational space. I’m […]]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<h1>Welcome to Digital Sojourns!</h1>
<p>Thanks for stopping by.</p>
<p>I hope you will find my content interesting, and if, like me, you get excited over IT drop me a comment if you think there are things out there I haven’t seen and maybe should! Together we can make this into a diverting and educational space.</p>
<p>I’m leaving the little guidance notes underneath for reference until I made a bit of progress on the content for this blog… hopefully you will see development along the way.</p>
<blockquote><p>For help and advice on getting started with a WordPress blog, see the <a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/learning-technology/blogging">Academic Blogging help pages</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Your blog is private by default</strong></p>
<p>You can open your blog up to as many or as few people as you like in <strong>Dashboard > Settings > Reading > Site Visibility</strong>:</p>
<ul>
<li>You can open your blog up to specific University members by adding them as users to your blog.</li>
<li>You can open your blog up to all University members who have an EASE login.</li>
<li>You can make you blog open to the world.</li>
</ul>
<p> </p>
<p>The featured image on this post comes from the University Collections. If you want to use more images in your blog posts, or perhaps use your own choice of image in your blog header, you can:<strong><br />
</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/crcedinburgh/albums/with/72157651943511750">Browse a selection of images on Flickr</a> from the Collections that are available for you to use on open licenses.</li>
<li><a href="https://images.is.ed.ac.uk/">Search the full online image collections</a>.</li>
<li><a href="http://open.ed.ac.uk/how-to-guides/">Find more information about searching for and using openly licensed images</a> on the Open.ed site.</li>
</ul>
<p> </p>
<p>You should read the <a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/is/blogging/terms">Terms of Use</a> if you haven’t already.</p></blockquote>
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				<time datetime="2018-08-08" itemprop="dateModified">Aug 8, 2018</time><br />
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		<title>Working hand in hand</title>
		<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/2025/12/10/working-hand-in-hand/</link>
					<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/2025/12/10/working-hand-in-hand/#respond</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kat]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 10 Dec 2025 10:10:05 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[general]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dlam-feed]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/?p=126</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[A lot of the time IT services are supporting users – that is, students and teaching staff – or work quietly in the background to assure systems and infrastructure are in good shape and fit for purpose. In my own role I rarely have an opportunity to see what happens “on the ground”, in the […]]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>A lot of the time IT services are supporting users – that is, students and teaching staff – or work quietly in the background to assure systems and infrastructure are in good shape and fit for purpose. In my own role I rarely have an opportunity to see what happens “on the ground”, in the physical teaching environments. However, recently I was attending a staff training event for Data Protection Champions, and it ended up being an exciting little showcase of how our services work together to make learning and teaching happen. Not just for students <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>
<p>What are Data Protection Champions? These are a group of staff members who commit to staying up to date on current developments across the university on matters intersecting with Data Protection and to help keep information otherwise available on the web current in discussions and work locally. The Community Meetings help to exchange knowledge and ask questions to understand in better detail what processes and procedures are designed to do and to disambiguate the legalese that necessarily accompanies legal and compliance rules and regulations.</p>
<p>In other words, understanding the details is important, and summarising this “second hand” is not always easy. This prompted some champions to reach out to the organiser asking if the event could be recorded.</p>
<p>This was not a Teams meeting. But, it was set at a lecture theatre with Lecture recording facilities. So after a little consideration of alternatives (recording in segments on a mobile phone? recording via Kaltura video recorder from a laptop?) we set to work out what might need to happen to make use of the lecture recording equipment.</p>
<ul>
<li>Sound check – oh my. Somehow feedback reverberating in stereo through the theatre makes for a great alarm clock, but it transpired quite quickly that we were in need of support. A colleague from Digital Spaces Tech attended within minutes – and some troubleshooting later had all the microphones operating normally. Sigh of relief – we can all hear and know this will be captured in the recording.</li>
<li>Recording – typically recordings are linked to course delivery in our VLE, Learn. And timetabling allows for lectures to be added to the courses automatically. When requesting an ad-hoc recording, this is available to instructors; or can be supported from the Media Service team with a little notice. In our case, notice was very limited, and the support from the service team was invaluable. The lights of the recording equipment turned red – on time for the meeting to start.</li>
<li>Processing – with the event being a full morning, including a break for coffee and networking, the recording took some time to process on the system. With help from the service team, this time duly recorded using our ticketing system Unidesk, the recording was modified to exclude the break to make this more convenient for champions to review once shared.</li>
</ul>
<p>Since the event was not associated with a course or programme, and the default of our lecture recordings setup via the VLE did not apply, sharing recordings is not automatic. The system is designed to safeguard teaching activities and keep permissions for processing and sharing details in line with the terms and conditions of service. Data Protection compliance at its best. Staff training, still falls within the remit of teaching, but staff training is not hosted on our VLE Learn, again, in order to comply with the terms and conditions of service for the VLE. On guidance from the Media Service team we requested for the migration of the video to our other media channel, Media Hopper Create. With this being the first interaction on the service the help and support with this process was incredibly appreciated by the organiser and all involved in the event.</p>
<ul>
<li>Migrating – as part of this whole process, I discovered a whole new set of environments that can be logged into, alas, because my account is linked to a playground account, and I was not the owner of the video recording, we took up the kind offer of support from the Media Service team who brought the video into Media Hopper Create, which offers captioning and wider sharing permissions.</li>
<li>Sharing – as with many of our services, the ability to secure content is shared with the appropriate user groups is really important. Materials can be set to only exist for the video owner (private), made accessible only to users who have been given the link (unlisted) or be made public to all users. In addition, licensing selections assure that users are informed of what is permissible with regards to use of the content and copyright.</li>
</ul>
<p>The support and efforts across the different teams was a really good reminder of why working in ISG / LTW / DLAM is such a rewarding experience. Sometimes we end up being in the role of our own users, and colleagues come to our rescue and support to make the most of the teaching and training that keeps our service provisions compliant and up to date.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>

			<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area">
				<time datetime="2025-12-10" itemprop="dateModified">Dec 10, 2025</time>
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		<title>What’s in a measure? Considerations on Anthology Ally</title>
		<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/2023/12/04/whats-in-a-measure-considerations-on-anthology-ally/</link>
					<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/2023/12/04/whats-in-a-measure-considerations-on-anthology-ally/#respond</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kat]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 04 Dec 2023 11:09:51 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorised]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[accessibility]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dlam-feed]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/?p=85</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Let me take a moment to share my thoughts around one of our newer services with Learning, Teaching and Web: Anthology Ally. Accessibility is fast becoming one of my favourite topics working within DLAM. A Humanities graduate myself, maybe the link between Hermeneutics (Interpretation theory) and digital transformations in accessible design play a part. Whilst […]]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Let me take a moment to share my thoughts around one of our newer services with Learning, Teaching and Web: Anthology Ally. Accessibility is fast becoming one of my favourite topics working within DLAM. A Humanities graduate myself, maybe the link between Hermeneutics (Interpretation theory) and digital transformations in accessible design play a part. Whilst I used to be primarily concerned about the meaning behind the words, I now find myself deeply fascinated by the (digital) transactions that take place to transmit and present information, and the tools it takes to make this happen!</p>
<p><span class="TextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8" lang="EN-GB" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="auto"><span class="NormalTextRun CommentStart CommentHighlightPipeRest CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">Digital accessibility refers to </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">digital content </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">that has been reviewed and tested to be </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">accessible to the widest possible audience and be free from any avoidable access restrictions when using assisti</span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">ve technologies. </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">In the broad landscape of software, programmes and platforms, readability and interoperability </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">are crucial if we are to enable our users to interact with out content in an output format suited to th</span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">eir needs. Thus, for accessibility to </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">translate to digital media </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">educational design (content focussed), interoperability, and user navigation and software availability</span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8"> all play a part</span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">. </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">To achieve this, </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">the ability </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">to review and revise </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightPipeRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">core information – such as</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8"> file properties,</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8"> logical </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">input</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8"> and design </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">elements</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8"> – </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">this data </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">must be clearly readable to </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">a variety of </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">software </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">before the </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">output</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8"> can be guaranteed</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">. Who else remembers the wonders of opening a foreign file extension with Word and being faced with code </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">rendered</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8"> in Webdings?</span></span><span class="EOP SCXW170933220 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}"> </span></p>
<p><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW185165916 BCX8">Our ability to alter and edit our content and </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW185165916 BCX8">render</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW185165916 BCX8"> it accessible at all levels, is critical. </span>Anthology Ally offers us a window into the system level dialogue of our digital learning environment and the digital media we populate our classrooms with. Ally is a software integration on our primary VLE that scans contents for digital accessibility, its meta text, settings and requirements hidden behind the on-the-face output. It allows the users to identify accessibility issues at software level and supports some measures of fixing these; as well as enabling the conversion of files into alternative formats. Alternative formats can make teaching resources more adaptable to the diverse needs and wants of our students. Changing file type may help in presenting a file more adaptive to screen size; opting for a different display modus can support reading; access to audio can allow you to listen back on materials whilst working out, running chores or on the commute… with a diverse student body, we have the opportunity to fit all our teaching courses into a more flexible learning style. An improved digital experience supports all our learners, and having a chance to gauge better what poses a hindrance to assistive technology will make an impact to our users!</p>
<figure id="attachment_87" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-87" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-87" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/wp-content/uploads/sites/8190/2023/11/accessibility-formats-300x224.png" alt="Image title: Know your options. Chose a format that's right for you. List of alternative formats and their advantages shows 8 items. Item 1 Format: OCRed PDF for automatically extracted text. Advantage: Improved scanned documents for better reading and text search. Item 2 Format: Tagged PDF for a structured PDF for assistive technology. Advantage: Improved structure for navigation, essential for screen readers. Item 3 Format: HTML for browser and mobile. Advantage: Customize your text with a file that adapts text to mobile screen sizes. Item 4 Format: ePub for reading on tablets and e-book readers. Advantage: usable for ebooks on tablets to annotate and highlight. Item 5 Format: Electronic braille in BRF file format. Advantage: supports tactile reading and offers relief from screenreaders. Item 6 Format: Audio as MP3 recording of text. Advantage: Listen and learn on the go by engaging different modalities. Item 7 Format: BeeLine Reader. This creates a machine translated version of the document. Advantage: Improved on-screen reading to read faster and with greater focus. Item 8 Format: Translated version (this is an opt-in product) offering a machine translated version of the document. Advantage: Translates text to one of 50 different languages. Speak to Information Services if you are interested in this version." width="300" height="224" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/wp-content/uploads/sites/8190/2023/11/accessibility-formats-300x224.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/wp-content/uploads/sites/8190/2023/11/accessibility-formats.png 343w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-87" class="wp-caption-text">Table of available alternative formats</figcaption></figure>
<p>Here at DLAM testing out our service solutions to assure that they work as intended and integrate seamlessly (we can but try!) into our existing service environment is a wonderful part of the job. The <a href="https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/">Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1</a> (version 2.2 has been launched in October) offer a detailed list of criteria when reviewing all our websites and applications for legal compliance <span class="TextRun SCXW56190171 BCX8" lang="EN-GB" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="auto"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW56190171 BCX8"> under the </span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW56190171 BCX8" lang="EN-GB" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="auto"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW56190171 BCX8">Equality Act (2010)</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW56190171 BCX8" lang="EN-GB" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="auto"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW56190171 BCX8"> and </span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW56190171 BCX8" lang="EN-GB" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="auto"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW56190171 BCX8">The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Regulations 2012 (<a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/about/website/accessibility/guidelines-policy-legislation">https://www.ed.ac.uk/about/website/accessibility/guidelines-policy-legislation</a>)</span></span>. One of the core efforts in the standard is that organisations have to lay bare how they identified and thought about accessibility for their products and services, and where possible, mitigated any avoidable shortcomings. In broad terms, our applications are challenged on three aspects: audio, visual and navigation / workflow; the touch points of our digital environment. It is a “dimension of interoperability” to assess whether “assistive technologies [are] working predictably with different combinations of browsers, mobile operating systems, and devices“ (<a href="https://link-springer-com.ezproxy.is.ed.ac.uk/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4842-7948-9_7">The Next Frontier – Expanding the Definition of Accessibility | SpringerLink</a>).  When testing for Ally, a core challenge for me was using assistive technology, often for the first time, and to interpret the behaviour. Whilst I was reasonably familiar with Ease of Access settings for my PC and browser, other more specialist tools I found hard to judge. What if my lack of familiarity with assistive technology in the test makes for a poor result due to difficulties with the assistive tool rather than the target interface? It is the hard to judge places that lead us to use tools to scan and evaluate what meets compliance criteria and helps us to correlate our own experience with the data we interact with.</p>
<p>To guide instructors about digital accessibility, Ally produces a score. It is meant as a guide to how clean a file is in digital terms, i.e. how successful it will be in converting to an alternative file format or being negotiated by any common assistive technology tool. So taking a moment to demystify the scoring for a moment should clear our view to how Ally supports our wider mission to produce accessible learning and teaching materials.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-86" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/wp-content/uploads/sites/8190/2023/11/Low-gauge.png" alt="Fuel gauge symbol pictured in red pointing to low level to denote 0-33% success rate" width="22" height="19" /> <strong>Low </strong>(0-33%): Needs help! There are severe accessibility issues.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-89" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/wp-content/uploads/sites/8190/2023/11/Medium-gauge.png" alt="Fuel gauge symbol pictured in amber pointing to mid-level to denote 34-66% success rate" width="22" height="19" /> <strong>Medium </strong>(34-66%): A little better. The file is somewhat accessible and needs improvement.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-88" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/wp-content/uploads/sites/8190/2023/11/high-gauge.png" alt="Fuel gauge symbol pictured in light green pointing to high level to denote 67-99% success rate" width="22" height="19" /> <strong>High </strong>(67-99%): Almost there. The file is accessible but more improvements are possible.</p>
<p><strong><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-90" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/wp-content/uploads/sites/8190/2023/11/Perfect-gauge.png" alt="Fuel gauge symbol pictured in dark green pointing to full tank level to denote 100% success rate" width="22" height="19" /> Perfect </strong>(100%): Perfect! Ally didn’t identify any accessibility issues but further improvements may still be possible.</p>
<p>Now, a scan for alternative text, in spite of the potential for AI to play a part here in future, cannot infer the context for the teaching resource and the focus the image might have in the lesson plan in the assessment of the appropriateness of ALT text. Ally is first and foremost an editing tool for the instructor, and a convenient conversion tool for the students. Accessibility needs remain to be assessed at the human level. So what do we do to assure we keep the service on track?</p>
<ul>
<li>Training; we must foster a keen awareness of what constitute accessible design in our digital service landscape</li>
<li>Testing; we must test out applications and websites to identify and mitigate challenges in accessibility</li>
<li>Research; we must continue to learn about digital trends, possible new solutions and developments in assistive technology, and accessible design</li>
<li>Feedback; we must actively listen to user feedback to satisfy ourselves that we are not merely offering a legally compliant but a practical and usable service solution and that users understand the benefits and limits of the tools we provide; evaluating our service data can support this conversation (and I hope to go into more detail about this in my next blog).</li>
</ul>
<p>What I have found in the course of the launch of Ally is that users, academics and technologists alike, need to know not only what the barriers of student users may be, and what assistive technologies might be employed, but how to make the leap between the informational content, the educational experience or activities, and the digital needs of the programmes to make it operate for other software.  Whilst it is important to point out that accessibility needs are as diverse as the subjects we offer in teaching, focused on honing different skills and abilities, the same goes for assistive technologies. There will never be a one-size-fits-all. And that is a positive thing. It curtails our tendency to reduce accessibility to a tick box exercise. Checking for accessibility remains at all times an iterative process. With Ally, we have one more tool to help us orientate ourselves amidst this ever evolving digital landscape.</p>
<p> </p>

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		<title>Accessible by design</title>
		<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/2023/07/25/accessible-by-design/</link>
					<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/2023/07/25/accessible-by-design/#respond</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kat]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 25 Jul 2023 07:20:48 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[general]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[#digitalaccessibility]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/?p=59</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[For many years I have worked as a proof-reader and editor on an assignment basis. It seemed a suitable outlet to my fastidious nature and relentless drive for detail (attributes that I have only marginally been able to tamper for polite society since). What it has given me, however, is a deep appreciation of the […]]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[
<p>For many years I have worked as a proof-reader and editor on an assignment basis. It seemed a suitable outlet to my fastidious nature and relentless drive for detail (attributes that I have only marginally been able to tamper for polite society since). What it has given me, however, is a deep appreciation of the intricacies of good type setting, clean style guides and accurate referencing.</p>
<p>Fast forward to the present day, I am starting to learn more about the digital footprint all these choices and settings create and which of them support interoperability with assistive technologies. What used to be, to my untrained eye, just a flat surface, a 2-dimensional choice of matching the style to the words for the benefit of the reader, suddenly had 3 dimensions: making the text comprehensible to technology to assist in its easy transformation across media by means of tags and codes and alt text… and with it opening up to a more agile interaction with that all-important source material that was being communicated.</p>
<p>So I have set myself two goals: to collate reference material in support of accessibility that may help in designing documents at the outset with accessibility in mind; and to work on some style sheets that can meaningfully integrate what characteristics might be required for different materials to make them meaningfully accessible in their own context and user groups. </p>
<p>What does it take to annotate an art textbook in digital print? What software best integrates disciplinary challenges like specialist symbols and characters? What etiquette rules should be followed in the landscape of gifs and emoji?  How can good editing eliminate additional workflows and processes to create differently accessible materials? Is there really ever going to be a “golden copy”?</p>
<p>Let the journey begin <img decoding="async" src="https://statics.teams.cdn.office.net/evergreen-assets/personal-expressions/v2/assets/emoticons/mmm/default/50_f.png?v=v17" alt="Mmmmm…" width="20px" height="20px" aria-label="Mmmmm…" /></p>
<h4>Accessibility Resources </h4>
<p>Government Digital Service – <a href="https://accessibility.blog.gov.uk/2017/10/23/an-accessibility-reading-list/">An accessibility reading list – Accessibility in government (blog.gov.uk)</a></p>
<p>TextBox Digital – Designing Accessibly – <a href="https://www.textboxdigital.com/aspiredatabase-education/university-of-kent">University of Kent (textboxdigital.com)</a></p>
<p>Universal Design for Learning Guidelines <a href="https://udlguidelines.cast.org/">UDL: The UDL Guidelines (cast.org)</a></p>
<p>Ally Accessibility Formats <a href="https://sites.reading.ac.uk/tel-support-for-students/2018/09/21/blackboard-ally-getting-started-with-alternative-accessible-formats/">Blackboard Ally: Getting started with alternative accessible formats – Blackboard Help for Students – University of Reading</a></p>
<p>Guidelines for Assessment Descriptions <a href="https://www.nwea.org/uploads/2022/11/Image-Description-Guidelines-for-Assessments_NWEA_2021.pdf" class="mtli_attachment mtli_pdf">NWEA Image Description Guidelines for Assessments</a></p>
<p>Guide to writing ALT text <a href="https://matthewdeeprose.github.io/alt-text-images-charts-graphs.html">What is alternative text? How do I write it for images, charts, and graphs? (matthewdeeprose.github.io)</a></p>
<p>Accessibility Resources Portfolio <a href="https://inclusiveinstructionaldesign.com/favorite-resources/#STEM_Accessibility">Favorite Resources – Inclusive Instructional Design</a></p>
<h4>Visuals and Graphics around Accessibility</h4>
<p>Designing for Accessibility Dos and Dont’s – https://accessibility.blog.gov.uk/2016/09/02/dos-and-donts-on-designing-for-accessibility/</p>
<h4>Accessibility standards, compliance legislation and tools</h4>
<p><a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2018/952/contents/made">The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (legislation.gov.uk)</a></p>
<p><a href="https://aha.elliance.com/2017/12/30/ada-accessibility-compliance-for-college-and-university-websites/">ADA Accessibility Compliance for College and University Websites | Aha! :: Elliance Blog</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG-EM/">Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM) 1.0 (w3.org)</a><br /><a href="https://www.w3.org/WAI/test-evaluate/#conformance">Evaluating Web Accessibility Overview | Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) | W3C</a></p>
<p>Maintaining Accessibility <a href="https://www.w3.org/WAI/planning-and-managing/sustain/">Sustain | Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) | W3C</a></p>
<p>Contrast Checker <a href="https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/">WebAIM: Contrast Checker</a></p>
<p>MS Office Accessibility Inspector <a href="https://matthewdeeprose.github.io/inspector_for_all">Accessibility Inspector for Everyone (matthewdeeprose.github.io)</a></p>
<p>Nvda Screen Reader <a href="https://www.nvaccess.org/download/">NV Access | Download NVDA</a></p>
<h4>Reporting around Accessibility</h4>
<p>University of Edinburgh – <a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/equality-diversity/about/reports">Monitoring and Data | The University of Edinburgh</a></p>
<h4>Community</h4>
<p>Anthology Accessibility Discussion Board <a href="https://community.anthology.com/discuss/viewcategory/91">Accessibility – The Anthology Community</a></p>
<p>Anthology Ally User Group <a href="https://usergroup.ally.ac/dashboard">Dashboard – Ally User Group</a></p>
<p>Digital Accessibility at the University of Reading <a href="https://www.reading.ac.uk/digital-accessibility/digital-accessibility-section/user-stories">User stories (reading.ac.uk)</a></p>
<p>AbilityNet <a href="https://abilitynet.org.uk/accessibility-services/what-digital-accessibility">What is Digital Accessibility? | AbilityNet</a></p>
<p>Champians of Accessibility Network <a href="https://www.skyscanner.net/company-news/introducing-the-champions-of-accessibility-network">Introducing the Champions of Accessibility Network | Skyscanner’s Travel Blog</a></p>
<p>UoE Intern view of LaTeX <a href="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2023/08/15/lewis-forbes-latex-and-accessibility/">Lewis Forbes – LaTeX and Accessibility – Information Services Group: Student Employee Blog (ed.ac.uk)</a></p>
<h4>Self-help and training materials</h4>
<p>Discovering Learning styles <a href="https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/learner/front-matter/introduction/">Enter The Learning – Liberated Learners (pressbooks.pub)</a></p>
<p>ABC Teaching toolkit <a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/learning-technology/learning-design/abc/toolkit-for-facilitators">Toolkit for facilitators | The University of Edinburgh</a></p>
<p><a href="https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/make-your-powerpoint-presentations-accessible-to-people-with-disabilities-6f7772b2-2f33-4bd2-8ca7-dae3b2b3ef25">Make your PowerPoint presentations accessible to people with disabilities – Microsoft Support</a></p>
<h4>University of Edinburgh Resources</h4>
<p><a href="https://media.ed.ac.uk/playlist/details/1_qd3s9zbx">Playlist Details – Global Accessibility Awareness Day – 18 May 2023 – Media Hopper Create</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/help-consultancy/accessibility/creating-materials">Creating accessible materials | The University of Edinburgh</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/learning-technology/accessibility">Learning Technology and Accessibility | The University of Edinburgh</a></p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>

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		<title>Welcome!</title>
		<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/2018/08/08/hello-world/</link>
					<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/2018/08/08/hello-world/#comments</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Blog administrator]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 08 Aug 2018 14:05:17 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[#general]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/?p=1</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Welcome to Digital Sojourns! Thanks for stopping by. I hope you will find my content interesting, and if, like me, you get excited over IT drop me a comment if you think there are things out there I haven’t seen and maybe should! Together we can make this into a diverting and educational space. I’m […]]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<h1>Welcome to Digital Sojourns!</h1>
<p>Thanks for stopping by.</p>
<p>I hope you will find my content interesting, and if, like me, you get excited over IT drop me a comment if you think there are things out there I haven’t seen and maybe should! Together we can make this into a diverting and educational space.</p>
<p>I’m leaving the little guidance notes underneath for reference until I made a bit of progress on the content for this blog… hopefully you will see development along the way.</p>
<blockquote><p>For help and advice on getting started with a WordPress blog, see the <a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/learning-technology/blogging">Academic Blogging help pages</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Your blog is private by default</strong></p>
<p>You can open your blog up to as many or as few people as you like in <strong>Dashboard > Settings > Reading > Site Visibility</strong>:</p>
<ul>
<li>You can open your blog up to specific University members by adding them as users to your blog.</li>
<li>You can open your blog up to all University members who have an EASE login.</li>
<li>You can make you blog open to the world.</li>
</ul>
<p> </p>
<p>The featured image on this post comes from the University Collections. If you want to use more images in your blog posts, or perhaps use your own choice of image in your blog header, you can:<strong><br />
</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/crcedinburgh/albums/with/72157651943511750">Browse a selection of images on Flickr</a> from the Collections that are available for you to use on open licenses.</li>
<li><a href="https://images.is.ed.ac.uk/">Search the full online image collections</a>.</li>
<li><a href="http://open.ed.ac.uk/how-to-guides/">Find more information about searching for and using openly licensed images</a> on the Open.ed site.</li>
</ul>
<p> </p>
<p>You should read the <a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/is/blogging/terms">Terms of Use</a> if you haven’t already.</p></blockquote>
<p>			<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area"><br />
				<time datetime="2018-08-08" itemprop="dateModified">Aug 8, 2018</time><br />
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