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<description><![CDATA[I had the pleasure of attending the PHP UK Conference in London this year. It was my second time, and it was even more exciting than the last! We had three simultaneous sessions, with 19 carefully chosen speakers and a new venue to welcome over 200 attendees. We got to connect with experienced developers, newcomers […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I had the pleasure of attending the PHP UK Conference in London this year. It was my second time, and it was even more exciting than the last! We had three simultaneous sessions, with 19 carefully chosen speakers and a new venue to welcome over 200 attendees.</p>
<p>We got to connect with experienced developers, newcomers and speakers, sharing ideas, concerns and developments across the developer community. This year, the speakers covered a wide range of technical topics, from seasoned open-source contributors like Sebastian Bergmann (the creator of PHPUnit), new product launches like Simon Hamp (the creator of NativePhp), performance enthusiasts like Volker Dusch (PHP 8.5 Release Manager) and long-time PHP contributors like Sara Golemon (PHP release manager at the PHP Foundation).</p>
<p>With so many fascinating and insightful talks, Gary Hockin’s talk on technical trade-offs really stood out to me. His talk, ‘It Depends’, aimed to explain why tech experts rarely give a straightforward ‘yes or no’ answer. It showed that every choice involves a trade-off – a ‘slider’ where getting one benefit often means giving up something else. I have had conversations with colleagues who are exploring tools to make their daily tasks easier, from visualising data within Learn, optimising queries to the database or setting up an application to try out a new AI tool – the question always is, which tool is the best?</p>
<p>Hockin’s main point is that there are no set answers when it comes to technology. Knowing that ‘it depends’ isn’t just a way out, but rather the first step towards making better, more thoughtful choices. It often means realising that every decision we make usually doesn’t have a single ‘right’ answer, rather well-considered compromises. Instead of looking for a one-size-fits-all ‘best’ solution, successful teams learn to ask more specific questions. Picking a programming language, database or framework can sometimes feel like choosing the ‘best’ car. A car that’s perfect for a racetrack won’t work for a snowy driveway and probably won’t be good for a school run with four kids. The same idea applies to our everyday jobs and decisions that come with it. The ‘best’ choice depends entirely on the situation, like the team’s experience, how much money and time we have and what the project needs to achieve.</p>
<p>From picking the best room to book for your non-anchor day at FH to deciding what lunch to have at the ISG Spring event, we need to ask the right questions and have the complete view of the slider before making the right choice. As i retreat to my everyday tasks and the decisions I must make, I am more conscious to seek the full picture, assess the slider in its entirety to ensure I have a good understanding of all the negatives and positives and ask the right questions. It is not as easy as it sounds, but with practice and constant refinement, “it depends” becomes a part of every decision we need to make.</p>
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<title>Lights, Camera, Learn!</title>
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<description><![CDATA[I had the pleasure of attending the 2025 PHP UK Conference in London on 19th of February. The speakers were amazing, and each session gave us practical tips on the challenges we face as software developers and the cutting-edge tech being developed by other developers. The conference had two tracks concurrently running most of the […]]]></description>
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<p class="p1">I had the pleasure of attending the 2025 PHP UK Conference in London on 19th of February. The speakers were amazing, and each session gave us practical tips on the challenges we face as software developers and the cutting-edge tech being developed by other developers.</p>
<p class="p1">The conference had two tracks concurrently running most of the day, so you could choose which talks were most interesting. Luckily, I was there with a work colleague, so we were able to cover both tracks and not miss out on any talks. I have highlighted some of the talks that really inspired me to think differently and unlock a toolkit of ideas to level up my developer skills.</p>
<p class="p1">Craig Francis talked about “Ending Injection Vulnerabilities,” a topic that every developer should know about. Even though PHP has improved, SQL injection attacks still happen a lot. Craig showed us real-world examples that were used in production which left many reviewing their code bases. He stressed that languages make it easy to add vulnerable code with just one line of code (which works), but it’s harder to make secure code with several lines of code – something that should change by making secure code just as easy to write as insecure one. He also said that escaping inputs or using Object-Relational Mapping (ORM like Eloquent) isn’t enough. Instead, we should take a “zero-trust” approach to any data that users send and make sure that security principles like using prepared statements and validating every user input are followed. On top of that, we should make sure that we actually use the functions provided by these ORMs as they’re meant to be used, so we don’t open backdoors on otherwise secure code.</p>
<p class="p1">Liam Hammett’s session, “Beyond Requests: Supercharging API Monitoring with Guzzle Middleware,” was a real eye-opener for me. I have used Guzzle before, but Liam showed me how to use middleware to log requests, view traces, and observe metrics. This way, I can easily monitor my application’s performance. He also showed us how to use Graphana, Tempo, Prometheus, and Loki to monitor different log levels and API telemetry from our application. We have a few apps that could really benefit from this kind of logging and monitoring, like our Class Group Builder, Bulk unenrol tool or our infrastructure servers that currently host the Short Courses Platform.</p>
<p class="p1">Ivo Lukac’s shared “Learn to Appreciate Legacy,” a heartwarming story about a fictional developer named Zed, was also really moving. Through Zed’s struggles with a messy and old codebase, Ivo showed us how legacy code often contains important business logic and institutional knowledge. It hit home for me because I have often complained about “legacy code” that we have running on some of our old apps, instead of seeing its value. Ivo’s positive outlook has me rethinking how I approach maintenance work. He shared some strategies for maintaining and refactoring such code without breaking everything and leaving every file that you’ve worked on better than you found it. The lesson? Legacy code is just code that’s been pushed to production!</p>
<p class="p1">Finally, Kevin Dunglas closed off the talks with “Give Your PHP Apps Superpowers with FrankenPHP”. This modern PHP server, built on Caddy, handles concurrency easily and supports real-time features out of the box. It also boosts performance by preloading classes. The “worker mode” was the coolest part for me, as it lets you run persistent processes for tasks like queued jobs without external services. I can’t wait to try it on a side project, maybe a chat app, and see how it simplifies my workflow. As far as I could tell, for developers, it’s a game-changer, combining PHP’s simplicity with the enterprise-grade power of Go.</p>
<p class="p1">With so many exciting talks happening at the same time on two tracks, it’s easy to miss out on others. It would be awesome if the organisers could split the talks over two days so everyone can hear everything. On the bright side, this conference made me realise that PHP is still evolving and there’s always something new and exciting coming from the community.</p>
<p class="p1">As I get back to my projects, I’m inspired to pay closer attention to every input, monitor APIs smartly, respect legacy code, and use tools that push PHP to its limits. Conferences aren’t just about learning new tricks—they remind us why we love this craft. We have the chance to build a better world, one line of code at a time!</p>
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<description><![CDATA[As an eLearning Systems Developer in a dynamic small team, my role revolves around creating custom web applications, university-wide platforms, and extensions for the central virtual learning environment, Blackboard Learn. With over 20 applications under our belt, each presenting unique challenges and varying complexities, my days are a blend of technical expertise, collaboration, and continuous […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: left"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-28 alignleft" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/lramutsa/wp-content/uploads/sites/9865/2024/01/Leopold-Photo-300x300.jpg" alt="Leopold Ramutsamaya Photo" width="300" height="300" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/lramutsa/wp-content/uploads/sites/9865/2024/01/Leopold-Photo-300x300.jpg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/lramutsa/wp-content/uploads/sites/9865/2024/01/Leopold-Photo-150x150.jpg 150w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/lramutsa/wp-content/uploads/sites/9865/2024/01/Leopold-Photo-768x768.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/lramutsa/wp-content/uploads/sites/9865/2024/01/Leopold-Photo.jpg 960w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />As an eLearning Systems Developer in a dynamic small team, my role revolves around creating custom web applications, university-wide platforms, and extensions for the central virtual learning environment, Blackboard Learn. With over 20 applications under our belt, each presenting unique challenges and varying complexities, my days are a blend of technical expertise, collaboration, and continuous learning.</p>
<p style="text-align: left">The day kicks off with catching up on both personal and team support emails. This ensures I am aware of any potential challenges or issues that may shape my workday. Whether it’s a student seeking support or a system alert for an application running out of storage, addressing these promptly ensures a smooth workflow. Following this, our daily team scrum meetings provide a platform for brief but vital discussion on completed tasks, ongoing work, and potential roadblocks. These meetings help the team keep on tabs on all the work at hand and the progress being made, as well as offer help on any issues you are facing – more often than not, someone else may have faced similar issue and already have a solution or a way to handle the issue.</p>
<p style="text-align: left">With the morning meetings concluded, the day unfolds into a solo venture of coding and project planning for the rest of the day – the ability to manage and prioritise your own work becomes very crucial. Working with sprint tickets, our team follows a meticulous process that includes peer code review and writing of automated tests. This not only enhances code quality by minimizing errors but also provides a unique opportunity for professional growth as different viewpoints and solutions emerge during code reviews, creating a fertile ground for the exchange of ideas. Writing automated tests ensures that new features align with specifications without disrupting existing logic.</p>
<p style="text-align: left">Reflection becomes a crucial part of the daily routine, providing insights into lessons learned, challenges faced, and opportunities for improvement. In the ever-evolving realm of software development, challenges serve as stepping stones for professional growth. Crucially, the supportive ecosystem within the team and the section at large is the cornerstone of our success. Knowing that assistance is just an inquiry away fosters a collaborative spirit, making the complex web of software development more manageable.</p>
<p style="text-align: left">One of the most rewarding aspects of my job is the opportunity to work on a multitude of applications, employing various technologies and catering to different stakeholders across the university. This diversity exposes me to processes beyond my immediate scope, allowing me to contribute to the resolution of challenges faced by staff and students throughout their daily routines. Each day is a unique opportunity to shape the digital future of education, one line of code at a time.</p>
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<description><![CDATA[I had the pleasure of attending the PHP UK Conference in London this year. It was my second time, and it was even more exciting than the last! We had three simultaneous sessions, with 19 carefully chosen speakers and a new venue to welcome over 200 attendees. We got to connect with experienced developers, newcomers […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I had the pleasure of attending the PHP UK Conference in London this year. It was my second time, and it was even more exciting than the last! We had three simultaneous sessions, with 19 carefully chosen speakers and a new venue to welcome over 200 attendees.</p>
<p>We got to connect with experienced developers, newcomers and speakers, sharing ideas, concerns and developments across the developer community. This year, the speakers covered a wide range of technical topics, from seasoned open-source contributors like Sebastian Bergmann (the creator of PHPUnit), new product launches like Simon Hamp (the creator of NativePhp), performance enthusiasts like Volker Dusch (PHP 8.5 Release Manager) and long-time PHP contributors like Sara Golemon (PHP release manager at the PHP Foundation).</p>
<p>With so many fascinating and insightful talks, Gary Hockin’s talk on technical trade-offs really stood out to me. His talk, ‘It Depends’, aimed to explain why tech experts rarely give a straightforward ‘yes or no’ answer. It showed that every choice involves a trade-off – a ‘slider’ where getting one benefit often means giving up something else. I have had conversations with colleagues who are exploring tools to make their daily tasks easier, from visualising data within Learn, optimising queries to the database or setting up an application to try out a new AI tool – the question always is, which tool is the best?</p>
<p>Hockin’s main point is that there are no set answers when it comes to technology. Knowing that ‘it depends’ isn’t just a way out, but rather the first step towards making better, more thoughtful choices. It often means realising that every decision we make usually doesn’t have a single ‘right’ answer, rather well-considered compromises. Instead of looking for a one-size-fits-all ‘best’ solution, successful teams learn to ask more specific questions. Picking a programming language, database or framework can sometimes feel like choosing the ‘best’ car. A car that’s perfect for a racetrack won’t work for a snowy driveway and probably won’t be good for a school run with four kids. The same idea applies to our everyday jobs and decisions that come with it. The ‘best’ choice depends entirely on the situation, like the team’s experience, how much money and time we have and what the project needs to achieve.</p>
<p>From picking the best room to book for your non-anchor day at FH to deciding what lunch to have at the ISG Spring event, we need to ask the right questions and have the complete view of the slider before making the right choice. As i retreat to my everyday tasks and the decisions I must make, I am more conscious to seek the full picture, assess the slider in its entirety to ensure I have a good understanding of all the negatives and positives and ask the right questions. It is not as easy as it sounds, but with practice and constant refinement, “it depends” becomes a part of every decision we need to make.</p>
<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area">
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</span>
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<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/lramutsa/2025/03/02/lights-camera-learn/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[lramutsa]]></dc:creator>
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<description><![CDATA[I had the pleasure of attending the 2025 PHP UK Conference in London on 19th of February. The speakers were amazing, and each session gave us practical tips on the challenges we face as software developers and the cutting-edge tech being developed by other developers. The conference had two tracks concurrently running most of the […]]]></description>
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<p class="p1">I had the pleasure of attending the 2025 PHP UK Conference in London on 19th of February. The speakers were amazing, and each session gave us practical tips on the challenges we face as software developers and the cutting-edge tech being developed by other developers.</p>
<p class="p1">The conference had two tracks concurrently running most of the day, so you could choose which talks were most interesting. Luckily, I was there with a work colleague, so we were able to cover both tracks and not miss out on any talks. I have highlighted some of the talks that really inspired me to think differently and unlock a toolkit of ideas to level up my developer skills.</p>
<p class="p1">Craig Francis talked about “Ending Injection Vulnerabilities,” a topic that every developer should know about. Even though PHP has improved, SQL injection attacks still happen a lot. Craig showed us real-world examples that were used in production which left many reviewing their code bases. He stressed that languages make it easy to add vulnerable code with just one line of code (which works), but it’s harder to make secure code with several lines of code – something that should change by making secure code just as easy to write as insecure one. He also said that escaping inputs or using Object-Relational Mapping (ORM like Eloquent) isn’t enough. Instead, we should take a “zero-trust” approach to any data that users send and make sure that security principles like using prepared statements and validating every user input are followed. On top of that, we should make sure that we actually use the functions provided by these ORMs as they’re meant to be used, so we don’t open backdoors on otherwise secure code.</p>
<p class="p1">Liam Hammett’s session, “Beyond Requests: Supercharging API Monitoring with Guzzle Middleware,” was a real eye-opener for me. I have used Guzzle before, but Liam showed me how to use middleware to log requests, view traces, and observe metrics. This way, I can easily monitor my application’s performance. He also showed us how to use Graphana, Tempo, Prometheus, and Loki to monitor different log levels and API telemetry from our application. We have a few apps that could really benefit from this kind of logging and monitoring, like our Class Group Builder, Bulk unenrol tool or our infrastructure servers that currently host the Short Courses Platform.</p>
<p class="p1">Ivo Lukac’s shared “Learn to Appreciate Legacy,” a heartwarming story about a fictional developer named Zed, was also really moving. Through Zed’s struggles with a messy and old codebase, Ivo showed us how legacy code often contains important business logic and institutional knowledge. It hit home for me because I have often complained about “legacy code” that we have running on some of our old apps, instead of seeing its value. Ivo’s positive outlook has me rethinking how I approach maintenance work. He shared some strategies for maintaining and refactoring such code without breaking everything and leaving every file that you’ve worked on better than you found it. The lesson? Legacy code is just code that’s been pushed to production!</p>
<p class="p1">Finally, Kevin Dunglas closed off the talks with “Give Your PHP Apps Superpowers with FrankenPHP”. This modern PHP server, built on Caddy, handles concurrency easily and supports real-time features out of the box. It also boosts performance by preloading classes. The “worker mode” was the coolest part for me, as it lets you run persistent processes for tasks like queued jobs without external services. I can’t wait to try it on a side project, maybe a chat app, and see how it simplifies my workflow. As far as I could tell, for developers, it’s a game-changer, combining PHP’s simplicity with the enterprise-grade power of Go.</p>
<p class="p1">With so many exciting talks happening at the same time on two tracks, it’s easy to miss out on others. It would be awesome if the organisers could split the talks over two days so everyone can hear everything. On the bright side, this conference made me realise that PHP is still evolving and there’s always something new and exciting coming from the community.</p>
<p class="p1">As I get back to my projects, I’m inspired to pay closer attention to every input, monitor APIs smartly, respect legacy code, and use tools that push PHP to its limits. Conferences aren’t just about learning new tricks—they remind us why we love this craft. We have the chance to build a better world, one line of code at a time!</p>
<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area">
<time datetime="2025-03-02" itemprop="dateModified">Mar 2, 2025</time>
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<title>A day in the life of an eLearning Systems Developer</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/lramutsa/2024/01/26/a-day-in-the-life-of-an-elearning-systems-developer/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/lramutsa/2024/01/26/a-day-in-the-life-of-an-elearning-systems-developer/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[lramutsa]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 26 Jan 2024 14:10:31 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[As an eLearning Systems Developer in a dynamic small team, my role revolves around creating custom web applications, university-wide platforms, and extensions for the central virtual learning environment, Blackboard Learn. With over 20 applications under our belt, each presenting unique challenges and varying complexities, my days are a blend of technical expertise, collaboration, and continuous […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: left"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-28 alignleft" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/lramutsa/wp-content/uploads/sites/9865/2024/01/Leopold-Photo-300x300.jpg" alt="Leopold Ramutsamaya Photo" width="300" height="300" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/lramutsa/wp-content/uploads/sites/9865/2024/01/Leopold-Photo-300x300.jpg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/lramutsa/wp-content/uploads/sites/9865/2024/01/Leopold-Photo-150x150.jpg 150w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/lramutsa/wp-content/uploads/sites/9865/2024/01/Leopold-Photo-768x768.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/lramutsa/wp-content/uploads/sites/9865/2024/01/Leopold-Photo.jpg 960w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />As an eLearning Systems Developer in a dynamic small team, my role revolves around creating custom web applications, university-wide platforms, and extensions for the central virtual learning environment, Blackboard Learn. With over 20 applications under our belt, each presenting unique challenges and varying complexities, my days are a blend of technical expertise, collaboration, and continuous learning.</p>
<p style="text-align: left">The day kicks off with catching up on both personal and team support emails. This ensures I am aware of any potential challenges or issues that may shape my workday. Whether it’s a student seeking support or a system alert for an application running out of storage, addressing these promptly ensures a smooth workflow. Following this, our daily team scrum meetings provide a platform for brief but vital discussion on completed tasks, ongoing work, and potential roadblocks. These meetings help the team keep on tabs on all the work at hand and the progress being made, as well as offer help on any issues you are facing – more often than not, someone else may have faced similar issue and already have a solution or a way to handle the issue.</p>
<p style="text-align: left">With the morning meetings concluded, the day unfolds into a solo venture of coding and project planning for the rest of the day – the ability to manage and prioritise your own work becomes very crucial. Working with sprint tickets, our team follows a meticulous process that includes peer code review and writing of automated tests. This not only enhances code quality by minimizing errors but also provides a unique opportunity for professional growth as different viewpoints and solutions emerge during code reviews, creating a fertile ground for the exchange of ideas. Writing automated tests ensures that new features align with specifications without disrupting existing logic.</p>
<p style="text-align: left">Reflection becomes a crucial part of the daily routine, providing insights into lessons learned, challenges faced, and opportunities for improvement. In the ever-evolving realm of software development, challenges serve as stepping stones for professional growth. Crucially, the supportive ecosystem within the team and the section at large is the cornerstone of our success. Knowing that assistance is just an inquiry away fosters a collaborative spirit, making the complex web of software development more manageable.</p>
<p style="text-align: left">One of the most rewarding aspects of my job is the opportunity to work on a multitude of applications, employing various technologies and catering to different stakeholders across the university. This diversity exposes me to processes beyond my immediate scope, allowing me to contribute to the resolution of challenges faced by staff and students throughout their daily routines. Each day is a unique opportunity to shape the digital future of education, one line of code at a time.</p>
<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area">
<time datetime="2024-01-26" itemprop="dateModified">Jan 26, 2024</time>
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<description><![CDATA[I had the pleasure of attending the PHP UK Conference in London this year. It was my second time, and it was even more exciting than the last! We had three simultaneous sessions, with 19 carefully chosen speakers and a new venue to welcome over 200 attendees. We got to connect with experienced developers, newcomers […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I had the pleasure of attending the PHP UK Conference in London this year. It was my second time, and it was even more exciting than the last! We had three simultaneous sessions, with 19 carefully chosen speakers and a new venue to welcome over 200 attendees.</p>
<p>We got to connect with experienced developers, newcomers and speakers, sharing ideas, concerns and developments across the developer community. This year, the speakers covered a wide range of technical topics, from seasoned open-source contributors like Sebastian Bergmann (the creator of PHPUnit), new product launches like Simon Hamp (the creator of NativePhp), performance enthusiasts like Volker Dusch (PHP 8.5 Release Manager) and long-time PHP contributors like Sara Golemon (PHP release manager at the PHP Foundation).</p>
<p>With so many fascinating and insightful talks, Gary Hockin’s talk on technical trade-offs really stood out to me. His talk, ‘It Depends’, aimed to explain why tech experts rarely give a straightforward ‘yes or no’ answer. It showed that every choice involves a trade-off – a ‘slider’ where getting one benefit often means giving up something else. I have had conversations with colleagues who are exploring tools to make their daily tasks easier, from visualising data within Learn, optimising queries to the database or setting up an application to try out a new AI tool – the question always is, which tool is the best?</p>
<p>Hockin’s main point is that there are no set answers when it comes to technology. Knowing that ‘it depends’ isn’t just a way out, but rather the first step towards making better, more thoughtful choices. It often means realising that every decision we make usually doesn’t have a single ‘right’ answer, rather well-considered compromises. Instead of looking for a one-size-fits-all ‘best’ solution, successful teams learn to ask more specific questions. Picking a programming language, database or framework can sometimes feel like choosing the ‘best’ car. A car that’s perfect for a racetrack won’t work for a snowy driveway and probably won’t be good for a school run with four kids. The same idea applies to our everyday jobs and decisions that come with it. The ‘best’ choice depends entirely on the situation, like the team’s experience, how much money and time we have and what the project needs to achieve.</p>
<p>From picking the best room to book for your non-anchor day at FH to deciding what lunch to have at the ISG Spring event, we need to ask the right questions and have the complete view of the slider before making the right choice. As i retreat to my everyday tasks and the decisions I must make, I am more conscious to seek the full picture, assess the slider in its entirety to ensure I have a good understanding of all the negatives and positives and ask the right questions. It is not as easy as it sounds, but with practice and constant refinement, “it depends” becomes a part of every decision we need to make.</p>
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<time datetime="2026-03-27" itemprop="dateModified">Mar 27, 2026</time>
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<title>Lights, Camera, Learn!</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/lramutsa/2025/03/02/lights-camera-learn/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/lramutsa/2025/03/02/lights-camera-learn/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[lramutsa]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Sun, 02 Mar 2025 19:56:58 +0000</pubDate>
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<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/lramutsa/?p=32</guid>
<description><![CDATA[I had the pleasure of attending the 2025 PHP UK Conference in London on 19th of February. The speakers were amazing, and each session gave us practical tips on the challenges we face as software developers and the cutting-edge tech being developed by other developers. The conference had two tracks concurrently running most of the […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-35 alignleft" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/lramutsa/wp-content/uploads/sites/9865/2025/02/PHP-UK-Conference-300x100.jpeg" alt="PHP UK Conference 2025" width="300" height="100" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/lramutsa/wp-content/uploads/sites/9865/2025/02/PHP-UK-Conference-300x100.jpeg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/lramutsa/wp-content/uploads/sites/9865/2025/02/PHP-UK-Conference-1024x341.jpeg 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/lramutsa/wp-content/uploads/sites/9865/2025/02/PHP-UK-Conference-768x256.jpeg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/lramutsa/wp-content/uploads/sites/9865/2025/02/PHP-UK-Conference-1440x480.jpeg 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/lramutsa/wp-content/uploads/sites/9865/2025/02/PHP-UK-Conference.jpeg 1500w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></p>
<p class="p1">I had the pleasure of attending the 2025 PHP UK Conference in London on 19th of February. The speakers were amazing, and each session gave us practical tips on the challenges we face as software developers and the cutting-edge tech being developed by other developers.</p>
<p class="p1">The conference had two tracks concurrently running most of the day, so you could choose which talks were most interesting. Luckily, I was there with a work colleague, so we were able to cover both tracks and not miss out on any talks. I have highlighted some of the talks that really inspired me to think differently and unlock a toolkit of ideas to level up my developer skills.</p>
<p class="p1">Craig Francis talked about “Ending Injection Vulnerabilities,” a topic that every developer should know about. Even though PHP has improved, SQL injection attacks still happen a lot. Craig showed us real-world examples that were used in production which left many reviewing their code bases. He stressed that languages make it easy to add vulnerable code with just one line of code (which works), but it’s harder to make secure code with several lines of code – something that should change by making secure code just as easy to write as insecure one. He also said that escaping inputs or using Object-Relational Mapping (ORM like Eloquent) isn’t enough. Instead, we should take a “zero-trust” approach to any data that users send and make sure that security principles like using prepared statements and validating every user input are followed. On top of that, we should make sure that we actually use the functions provided by these ORMs as they’re meant to be used, so we don’t open backdoors on otherwise secure code.</p>
<p class="p1">Liam Hammett’s session, “Beyond Requests: Supercharging API Monitoring with Guzzle Middleware,” was a real eye-opener for me. I have used Guzzle before, but Liam showed me how to use middleware to log requests, view traces, and observe metrics. This way, I can easily monitor my application’s performance. He also showed us how to use Graphana, Tempo, Prometheus, and Loki to monitor different log levels and API telemetry from our application. We have a few apps that could really benefit from this kind of logging and monitoring, like our Class Group Builder, Bulk unenrol tool or our infrastructure servers that currently host the Short Courses Platform.</p>
<p class="p1">Ivo Lukac’s shared “Learn to Appreciate Legacy,” a heartwarming story about a fictional developer named Zed, was also really moving. Through Zed’s struggles with a messy and old codebase, Ivo showed us how legacy code often contains important business logic and institutional knowledge. It hit home for me because I have often complained about “legacy code” that we have running on some of our old apps, instead of seeing its value. Ivo’s positive outlook has me rethinking how I approach maintenance work. He shared some strategies for maintaining and refactoring such code without breaking everything and leaving every file that you’ve worked on better than you found it. The lesson? Legacy code is just code that’s been pushed to production!</p>
<p class="p1">Finally, Kevin Dunglas closed off the talks with “Give Your PHP Apps Superpowers with FrankenPHP”. This modern PHP server, built on Caddy, handles concurrency easily and supports real-time features out of the box. It also boosts performance by preloading classes. The “worker mode” was the coolest part for me, as it lets you run persistent processes for tasks like queued jobs without external services. I can’t wait to try it on a side project, maybe a chat app, and see how it simplifies my workflow. As far as I could tell, for developers, it’s a game-changer, combining PHP’s simplicity with the enterprise-grade power of Go.</p>
<p class="p1">With so many exciting talks happening at the same time on two tracks, it’s easy to miss out on others. It would be awesome if the organisers could split the talks over two days so everyone can hear everything. On the bright side, this conference made me realise that PHP is still evolving and there’s always something new and exciting coming from the community.</p>
<p class="p1">As I get back to my projects, I’m inspired to pay closer attention to every input, monitor APIs smartly, respect legacy code, and use tools that push PHP to its limits. Conferences aren’t just about learning new tricks—they remind us why we love this craft. We have the chance to build a better world, one line of code at a time!</p>
<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area">
<time datetime="2025-03-02" itemprop="dateModified">Mar 2, 2025</time>
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<title>A day in the life of an eLearning Systems Developer</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/lramutsa/2024/01/26/a-day-in-the-life-of-an-elearning-systems-developer/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/lramutsa/2024/01/26/a-day-in-the-life-of-an-elearning-systems-developer/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[lramutsa]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 26 Jan 2024 14:10:31 +0000</pubDate>
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<category><![CDATA[leopold ramutsamaya]]></category>
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<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/lramutsa/?p=9</guid>
<description><![CDATA[As an eLearning Systems Developer in a dynamic small team, my role revolves around creating custom web applications, university-wide platforms, and extensions for the central virtual learning environment, Blackboard Learn. With over 20 applications under our belt, each presenting unique challenges and varying complexities, my days are a blend of technical expertise, collaboration, and continuous […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: left"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-28 alignleft" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/lramutsa/wp-content/uploads/sites/9865/2024/01/Leopold-Photo-300x300.jpg" alt="Leopold Ramutsamaya Photo" width="300" height="300" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/lramutsa/wp-content/uploads/sites/9865/2024/01/Leopold-Photo-300x300.jpg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/lramutsa/wp-content/uploads/sites/9865/2024/01/Leopold-Photo-150x150.jpg 150w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/lramutsa/wp-content/uploads/sites/9865/2024/01/Leopold-Photo-768x768.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/lramutsa/wp-content/uploads/sites/9865/2024/01/Leopold-Photo.jpg 960w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />As an eLearning Systems Developer in a dynamic small team, my role revolves around creating custom web applications, university-wide platforms, and extensions for the central virtual learning environment, Blackboard Learn. With over 20 applications under our belt, each presenting unique challenges and varying complexities, my days are a blend of technical expertise, collaboration, and continuous learning.</p>
<p style="text-align: left">The day kicks off with catching up on both personal and team support emails. This ensures I am aware of any potential challenges or issues that may shape my workday. Whether it’s a student seeking support or a system alert for an application running out of storage, addressing these promptly ensures a smooth workflow. Following this, our daily team scrum meetings provide a platform for brief but vital discussion on completed tasks, ongoing work, and potential roadblocks. These meetings help the team keep on tabs on all the work at hand and the progress being made, as well as offer help on any issues you are facing – more often than not, someone else may have faced similar issue and already have a solution or a way to handle the issue.</p>
<p style="text-align: left">With the morning meetings concluded, the day unfolds into a solo venture of coding and project planning for the rest of the day – the ability to manage and prioritise your own work becomes very crucial. Working with sprint tickets, our team follows a meticulous process that includes peer code review and writing of automated tests. This not only enhances code quality by minimizing errors but also provides a unique opportunity for professional growth as different viewpoints and solutions emerge during code reviews, creating a fertile ground for the exchange of ideas. Writing automated tests ensures that new features align with specifications without disrupting existing logic.</p>
<p style="text-align: left">Reflection becomes a crucial part of the daily routine, providing insights into lessons learned, challenges faced, and opportunities for improvement. In the ever-evolving realm of software development, challenges serve as stepping stones for professional growth. Crucially, the supportive ecosystem within the team and the section at large is the cornerstone of our success. Knowing that assistance is just an inquiry away fosters a collaborative spirit, making the complex web of software development more manageable.</p>
<p style="text-align: left">One of the most rewarding aspects of my job is the opportunity to work on a multitude of applications, employing various technologies and catering to different stakeholders across the university. This diversity exposes me to processes beyond my immediate scope, allowing me to contribute to the resolution of challenges faced by staff and students throughout their daily routines. Each day is a unique opportunity to shape the digital future of education, one line of code at a time.</p>
<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area">
<time datetime="2024-01-26" itemprop="dateModified">Jan 26, 2024</time>
</span>
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<title>Data Visualization: The Intersection between Science and Art</title>
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<dc:creator><![CDATA[tli4]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 15 Aug 2025 08:48:10 +0000</pubDate>
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<category><![CDATA[Digital Learning Applications and Media]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[DLAM Feed]]></category>
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<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>
<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area">
<time datetime="2024-07-05" itemprop="dateModified">Jul 5, 2024</time>
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<title>Tallulah Thompson – What I have learnt from the Media and Podcasting Internship</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2024/05/27/tallulah-thompson-what-i-have-learnt-from-the-media-and-podcasting-internship/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2024/05/27/tallulah-thompson-what-i-have-learnt-from-the-media-and-podcasting-internship/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[tthompso]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 27 May 2024 08:14:32 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Digital Learning Applications and Media]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Internships]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=2426</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 3</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>Programme of Study and Year: 1st year Informatics (MInf) Intern Position: Media and Podcasting Intern I have now been working with the Digital Learning Applications and Media (DLAM) group as the Media and Podcasting Intern since February. It’s been an amazing experience – I’ve had the opportunity to get involved in so many interesting things and […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 3</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span><p><strong>Programme of Study and Year: </strong>1st year Informatics (MInf)<br />
<strong>Intern Position: </strong>Media and Podcasting Intern</p>
<hr />
<p>I have now been working with the Digital Learning Applications and Media (DLAM) group as the Media and Podcasting Intern since February. It’s been an amazing experience – I’ve had the opportunity to get involved in so many interesting things and to work with a brilliant team led by Karen Howie. I’m really grateful to Karen and my colleagues for stretching me and supporting me in equal measure. As my internship comes to an end soon, I have decided to share my reflections and what I have learnt.</p>
<p><!-- notionvc: 0025adfe-330e-429b-a7a2-3092aef75b03 --></p>
<h3>Why I applied for this internship</h3>
<p>At the end of my first semester, I decided I wanted to find a job for the following semester that would allow me to interact with more people across the university, and that ideally would involve a project that would benefit others. After looking through many Computer Science related jobs, I found that most were exclusive to penultimate/final year students, and I realised I would have to broaden my search. I started looking for jobs, that despite being less directly related to my field of study, would still be relevant to my interests and help me gain professional experience and valuable skills. That was when I came across the Media and Podcasting Intern job opportunity on MyCareerHub; when I read the job description, I knew I had to apply! It was so appealing because it would allow me to bridge two of my main interests: technology and data, and content creation.</p>
<h3>What I have been doing</h3>
<p>My job has mainly entailed looking through videos uploaded to Media Hopper Create, and analysing their metadata to see how it can be improved, coming up with a metadata guidance document and checklist, collating videos to display on the front page that correspond to monthly themes, collaborating with content owners to improve the accessibility of their media, and, most excitingly, helping design the layout of the front page of the new Media Hopper Create website.</p>
<h3>What I have learnt</h3>
<p>This experience has taught me so much about metadata (<a href="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2024/03/20/2398/">see my previous blogpost</a>) and really highlighted the importance of having good metadata when it comes to improving the accessibility and findability of media. A small yet surprising fact I have learnt is that podcasts do not have to be audio only, and in order for media to be classed as a podcast on Media Hopper Create, it needs to be designed to be consumed in an episodic format, although, majority of the time, a podcast is audio only. I had used Media Hopper Create prior to my internship, however, this was mainly for watching lecture recordings, I hadn’t appreciated the range in content on the website and will continue to use it even after my internship ends. Another thing I hadn’t realised was how useful my ability to code is. I was asked to look through 2 data files and identify the entries that were in one and not the other; and being the Computer Science student that I am, rather than doing this manually/through Excel, I wrote a Python program to do this, which meant that I could complete this task in a much faster and more accurate way. I also used my Python skills to analyse metadata, identify trends and representing them as graphs. I so happy to discover how laterally applicable my skillset is!<!-- notionvc: 1730fcf1-c979-4f30-a932-ddc83022c226 --></p>
<h3>My thoughts</h3>
<p>Overall, this internship has not only expanded my understanding of metadata and media management but also reinforced the value of my technical skills in real-world applications. I’m excited to carry forward these lessons and continue exploring the intersection of technology and media in my future endeavours. I would like to thank Karen, Liam and the rest of the wonderful DLAM team for this amazing experience.</p>
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<time datetime="2024-05-27" itemprop="dateModified">May 27, 2024</time>
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<title>Tallulah Thompson – Reflections on metadata</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2024/03/20/2398/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2024/03/20/2398/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[tthompso]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 20 Mar 2024 14:10:54 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Digital Asset Management System Metadata Intern]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Digital Learning Applications and Media]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Digital Media Assistant]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Internships]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=2398</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 4</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>Programme of Study and Year: 1st year Informatics (MInf) Intern Position: Media and Podcasting Intern Introduction Hi! I’m Tallulah and I’m in my 4th week as the Media and Podcasting Intern with Media Hopper Create. So far, I’ve been looking through videos uploaded to Media Hopper Create to analyse their metadata and see how it could […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 4</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span><p><strong>Programme of Study and Year: </strong>1st year Informatics (MInf)</p>
<p><strong>Intern Position: </strong>Media and Podcasting Intern</p>
<hr />
<h3>Introduction</h3>
<p>Hi! I’m Tallulah and I’m in my 4th week as the Media and Podcasting Intern with Media Hopper Create. So far, I’ve been looking through videos uploaded to Media Hopper Create to analyse their metadata and see how it could be improved, coming up with a metadata guidance sheet, and I’ve collated videos to display on the front page that correspond to monthly themes.</p>
<h3>Metadata</h3>
<p>Most of my internship so far has involved looking at metadata. Metadata essentially is data about data. In the context of Media Hopper Create, it is the information associated with the different videos that have been uploaded, for example, title, video description, tags, captions, publisher, etc. Having good metadata will make it easier for users of Media Hopper Create to find videos. Unfortunately, the quality in the metadata across the videos is quite inconsistent, which is why one of my jobs is to write guidance to help improve the quality and to make the media easier to find.</p>
<h3>What is good metadata?</h3>
<p>Good metadata will help organise, find and understand data. It should serve as the bridge between content and users. When it comes to videos uploaded to Media Hopper Create, this is what good metadata should look like for media:</p>
<p><strong>Title:</strong> should be clear and give context, for example, if it is a lecture., a good format would be: [Course Name] [Video Subject], rather than just naming a video “Overview” or “Summary”, e.g., “Object Oriented Programming, Lecture 2: Conditionals and Loops”. The users should be able to have a good idea what the video is about based on the title.</p>
<p><strong>Description:</strong> brief description of what the video is about. It should not just be the title repeated, and it should be detailed enough so that users should not have to watch the whole video to see if it is going to be useful to them</p>
<p><strong>Tags:</strong> should be relevant and specific to the video and should not be too general, for example having the tag “acts” on a video about climate change is not specific enough to the video. If the video is a podcast, adding the tag “podcast” will help users who are specifically finding a podcast, and/or if the video is only audio, adding the tag “audio only” will help users who are specifically finding audio only videos . It is better to have fewer tags that are specific and relevant to the video that will help the users find what they are looking for rather than having many tags that are not specific enough. Tags are added from frequently used words in the auto-generated captions, but sometimes these are not the most relevant, so after captioning is complete, it would be good to go through the tags and remove the irrelevant ones. Having a consistent format for tags will make it easier to organise videos, for example, a video with the tag “#artificialintelligence” will be considered different to a video with the tag “artificial intelligence”. A good format for tags is having them completely lowercase.</p>
<p><strong>Captions:</strong> key accessibility feature for many, including but not limited to: people who are deaf or hard of hearing, people who have difficulty processing auditory information, and people whose native language is not English. At the very least, auto-generated captions should be requested for videos uploaded to Media Hopper Create, although at times they can be inaccurate, it is still better than nothing. These captions can either be corrected by the uploader or a request can be put in to have them reviewed and corrected by the captioning team, to make them as accurate as possible.</p>
<p><strong>Attachments:</strong> The transcript, which is created from the auto-generated captions should be uploaded automatically. It is useful to not remove the transcript as it will allow users to search through it to see if the video is relevant. If a presentation is included in the video, uploading the slides will make it more convenient for the user.</p>
<p><strong>Chapters:</strong> divides the video into different sections based on what it is about. Adding in chapters is very useful especially when the video is longer than 30 mins, because it will allow the user to find what they are looking for in a video without having to watch the whole video.</p>
<h3>What is “bad” metadata?</h3>
<p>When videos uploaded to Media Hopper Create have “bad” metadata, it can lead to poor content sorting, making it harder for users to find videos that they are looking for. For instance, when the title for a lecture video is just “0.0”, rather than having the course the lecture is from and more information about the video, it makes it very difficult for users to find this video unless they specifically have the link/know exactly where to find it. It also means that users are less likely to watch the video as they will not know if it is relevant to them. If a video has too many tags that aren’t specific or relevant to the video, when users try searching based on tags, many less relevant videos might come up, making it harder for the user to find what they are looking for.</p>
<h3>My thoughts</h3>
<p>In my opinion, the main issue with the metadata associated with videos uploaded to Media Hopper Create is that it is inconsistent. Having inconsistent metadata makes it much harder for videos to be organised, which will then make it harder for users to find what they are looking for. As part of my internship, I have been tasked with writing a metadata guidance sheet for video uploaders, which I hope will increase the consistency in quality of metadata of videos uploaded. Although this guidance won’t necessarily be able to change the metadata of the already uploaded videos, by hopefully improving the metadata for future videos, it will mean that users can access the most up to date and relevant videos to them much more easily.</p>
<h3>What I have learned so far</h3>
<p>Before I started this internship, I thought I had quite a good idea of what metadata was and its importance. Although I have only been interning with Media Hopper Create for 3 weeks, I realised, I have already learned a lot. I’ve learned a lot about Media Hopper Create and how useful it is as a service for the University, and I didn’t realise how such small details in metadata could make such a big difference in the user experience. I’m looking forward to the rest of my internship and learning even more about metadata.</p>
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<time datetime="2024-03-20" itemprop="dateModified">Mar 20, 2024</time>
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<title>Lewis Forbes – LaTeX and Accessibility</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2023/08/15/lewis-forbes-latex-and-accessibility/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2023/08/15/lewis-forbes-latex-and-accessibility/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[lforbes3]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 15 Aug 2023 14:46:31 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Digital Learning Applications and Media]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Digital Learning Intern]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=2152</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 5</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>Programme of Study and Year: Informatics (MInf), going into final year. Intern Position: Digital Learning Intern As a former Computer Science and Maths student (now just a Computer Science student), LaTeX has brought me much grief over my time at university. Writing my 30+ page dissertation using the software definitely increased my confidence in using […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 5</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span><hr />
<p><strong>Programme of Study and Year: </strong>Informatics (MInf), going into final year.</p>
<p><strong>Intern Position: </strong>Digital Learning Intern</p>
<hr />
<p>As a former Computer Science and Maths student (now just a Computer Science student), LaTeX has brought me much grief over my time at university. Writing my 30+ page dissertation using the software definitely increased my confidence in using it, but to be honest I still don’t really understand how it works and frequently rely on StackOverflow.</p>
<p>As such, it was saddening but somewhat validating to learn that the problem of accessibility in LaTeX is one which has been plaguing the community for years – it’s maintained by a team of volunteers who have struggled to implement features which are becoming standard in electronic documents. In this post I’ll share my attempts at creating the most accessible LaTeX documents possible and conclude with steps you can take to achieve this. The speed at which LaTeX seems to advance (and break) led to a lot of trial and error in this process, and it’s possible that things which worked for me might not work for you.</p>
<p>I used the <a href="http://edin.ac/ally">accessibility evaluation software Ally</a> to determine what makes documents accessible, which gives documents an accessibility percentage and suggests where improvements can be made. Ally gave the initial PDF I provided a score of 5%, but guided me to create a document with a score of 96%. It did not comment on maths however, which is not accessible by default in LaTeX as explained in this <a href="https://asarantsev.github.io/WebArchive/access.pdf" class="mtli_attachment mtli_pdf">report by Massie and Sarantsev</a>.</p>
<figure id="attachment_2238" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-2238" style="width: 277px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" class="wp-image-2238" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2023/08/image-218x300.png" alt="" width="277" height="382" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2023/08/image-218x300.png 218w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2023/08/image.png 569w" sizes="(max-width: 277px) 100vw, 277px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-2238" class="wp-caption-text">Ally’s initial rating and comments for an unchanged LaTeX document.</figcaption></figure>
<p>Based on Ally’s guidance and the information in the report mentioned, the inaccessible aspects of default LaTeX documents are their lack of tagging and headers, lack of alt text, lack of metadata, and maths which cannot be meaningfully read by screen readers.</p>
<h2>LaTeX Accessibility Summary</h2>
<p>If your document contains a lot of maths, I recommend creating an HTML5 file using <a href="https://pandoc.org/index.html">Pandoc</a>. See the checklist in the ‘Maths’ section below for information on this.</p>
<p>If your document has no maths, follow these steps:</p>
<ol>
<li>Add alt text as explained in the first two bullet points in the ‘Alt Text’ section below.</li>
<li>Add metadata as explained in the ‘Metadata’ section below.</li>
<li>Add tags/headings using the using <a href="https://pdfix.io/make-pdf-accessible/">this PDFix tool</a>.</li>
</ol>
<p>As mentioned, following these steps produced <a href="https://www.overleaf.com/read/wnfhnwdpbfmy">96% accessible LaTeX project</a>, based on Ally’s score of its PDF after tagging.</p>
<hr />
<p>I will now go into more detail about each of the different inaccessible areas mentioned.</p>
<h2>Alt Text</h2>
<p>Alternative text is often included for those <a href="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/website-communications/improving-alt-text-at-the-university/">using screen readers</a>, but thanks to the <a href="https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/the-curb-cut-effect-8a6b68d6485">curb cut effect</a> has uses for many people – both visually impaired and sighted. Different sources recommend different ways of including this:</p>
<p>I successfully added alt text using the following methods:</p>
<ul>
<li>Using a parameter on caption <code>\caption[alt text]{caption text}</code>, as recommended by ChatGPT. This should be used when <code>\includegraphics{}</code> is used within a <code>\figure{}</code> environment.</li>
<li>Using <code>\pdftooltip{}</code> from the <a href="https://ctan.org/pkg/pdfcomment?lang=en">pdfcomment interface</a> successfully added tooltips with user-specified text to the document, which Ally recognized as alt text. This should be used when <code>\includegraphics{}</code> is being used with no <code>\caption{}</code>. For example, I used it in a <code>\subfloat{}</code> environment. This was advised in this <a href="https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/75102/need-alt-text-for-images-in-pdf-for-screen-readers?answertab=modifieddesc#tab-top">StackExchange forum</a>.</li>
</ul>
<p>The following methods were recommended by various sources, but did not allow me to successfully add alt text to images:</p>
<ul>
<li>Using <code>\Description{}</code> as recommended in this <a href="https://authors.acm.org/journals/how-to-write-alt-text-and-why">Association for Computing Machinery article</a>. This command was not recognized by the compiler, and no packages to include were mentioned.</li>
<li>Using <code>\nextalt{}</code> as recommended in this <a href="https://people.bath.ac.uk/cspehj/maths-access/latex-instructions/sect0049.html">webpage by Emma Cliffe at Bath University</a>. This command was not recognized by the compiler even with the inclusion of the graphicsx package as mentioned.</li>
<li>Using the accessibility package and the <code>\alt{}</code> comment as recommended in this <a href="https://libguides.lib.msu.edu/c.php?g=995742&p=8207771">Michigan State University Library guide</a>. This also didn’t work.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Metadata</h2>
<p>Ally highlights the need for the inclusion of a PDF’s title and language. This allows screen readers to introduce the document, which can be included with the following lines in the document preamble:</p>
<p><code>\usepackage{hyperref}<br />
\hypersetup{pdftitle={Document Name}, pdflang={en-GB}}</code></p>
<h2>PDF Tagging & Headings</h2>
<p>There does not appear to be a way of reliably generating tagged PDFs using LaTeX. The unsuitability of two potential solutions I came across follows:</p>
<ul>
<li>As outlined in the <a href="https://ctan.math.illinois.edu/macros/latex/contrib/tagpdf/tagpdf.pdf" class="mtli_attachment mtli_pdf">tagpdf documentation</a>, the tagpdf package is not meant for normal document production. As such, the syntax required to use it is complicated and the package likely contains bugs.</li>
<li>As outlined on the <a href="https://github.com/AndyClifton/accessibility"><!--StartFragment --><span class="cf0">Accessibility package GitHub page</span></a>, the accessibility package is also not suitable for production and is no longer maintained. Although it does produces tagged PDFs according to Ally, it sometimes leads to documents not compiling, and sometimes causes unexpected behaviour. As an example:
<ul>
<li>This <a href="https://www.overleaf.com/read/jhnbjpgkbfgy">compilable project</a> does not contain the package, but otherwise identical <a href="https://www.overleaf.com/read/xrqdvtbrksds">uncompilable project</a> contains the package.</li>
<li>In this <a href="https://www.overleaf.com/read/vjnnqxjwtnvy">incorrectly compiled project</a> some of the text is duplicated whereas in this <a href="https://www.overleaf.com/read/grpjgthrpcvq">correctly compiled project</a> no duplication occurs.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Tags can be added to a PDF once it’s been created by a few different services, namely Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, Microsoft Word, and PDFix. Since Acrobat Pro isn’t free to use and Word seems to often ruin the format, I found PDFix’s <a href="https://pdfix.io/make-pdf-accessible/">‘Make PDF Accessible’ tool</a> to be the best solution. This also allows metadata to be changed. The company appear reputable with the <a href="https://pdfix.net/privacy-policy/">PDFix privacy policy</a> stating they delete all provided files for 30 days and pass data to third parties “only within the extent necessary to meet its obligations”.</p>
<p>The only problem I found with this service was its inability to render a <code>.pdf</code> vector image. This format is unusual, and was easily fixed by converting the image to a <code>.png</code> file.</p>
<h2>Maths</h2>
<p>Making maths accessible in LaTeX does appear to be possible but is a little complex. Most sources seem to recommend converting LaTeX documents to HTML5 documents via a semi-automated process using various tools. This aforementioned <a href="https://asarantsev.github.io/WebArchive/access.pdf" class="mtli_attachment mtli_pdf">Massie and Sarantsev paper</a> provides a good overview of the topic.</p>
<p>I found <a href="https://pandoc.org/index.html">Pandoc</a> to be the easiest tool to do this conversion. To convert maths it uses <a href="https://www.mathjax.org/">MathJax</a> – a JavaScript engine which creates “beautiful and accessible math in all browsers”. HTML documents are accessible by default since they are tagged, and contain conventions for setting alt text and metadata. See this <a href="https://docs.mathjax.org/en/v2.7-latest/misc/accessibility-features.html#screenreader-support">MathJax documentation page</a> for information on screen readers for maths it helps display.</p>
<p>Once installing Pandoc, LaTeX documents can be converted on Windows as follows:</p>
<ol>
<li>Open command prompt (press <code>Win+R</code>, type cmd, press enter).</li>
<li>Copy the location of the folder containing the <code>.tex</code> file you wish to convert. The <code>.bib</code> file should be in the same directory.</li>
<li>In command prompt, enter:
<ul>
<li><code>cd "the folder location you copied"</code></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Enter the following command, replacing <code>myTex.tex</code> and <code>myBib.bib</code> with your filenames.
<ul>
<li><code>pandoc myTex.tex -f latex -t html -s -o output.html --bibliography myTex.bib --citeproc --mathjax</code></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Move the new file <code>output.html</code> up one folder level. For example, from <code>C:/folder1/folder2/folder3/output.html</code> to <code>C:/folder1/folder2/output.html</code>. This is so images’ paths are correct.</li>
<li>Open <code>output.html</code>.</li>
</ol>
<p>You might find Pandoc is <span class="NormalTextRun SCXW204967602 BCX0">less forgiving with syntax errors than your usual </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW204967602 BCX0">compiler when it comes to your bibliography</span>. A verifier such as <a href="https://flamingtempura.github.io/bibtex-tidy/">BibTeX Tidy</a> can be used to identify and correct errors.</p>
<h2>The Future</h2>
<p>Decreasing the steps authors have to take to make their LaTeX documents accessible is an area of active development, as outlined in <a href="https://www.latex-project.org/publications/indexbytopic/pdf/">The LaTex Project’s accessibility publications</a>. The most recent update I’ve seen comes from this <a href="https://www.latex-project.org/news/2023/05/27/latex-dev-2/">LaTeX news article</a> introducing the final pre-release of the June 2023 version of LaTeX.</p>
<p>This pre-releases produced viable, tagged documents for simple files, but cannot format some complex files, as shown in the image below. For documents with tables it produced well-compiled PDFs, but they were untagged. This means the pre-release is currently no better than the tagging methods mentioned above.</p>
<figure id="attachment_2203" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-2203" style="width: 967px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" class="wp-image-2203 size-full" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2023/08/image-3.png" alt="A screenshot of a unreadable document, containing text which overflows to off of the page and displayed commands." width="967" height="559" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2023/08/image-3.png 967w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2023/08/image-3-300x173.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2023/08/image-3-768x444.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 967px) 100vw, 967px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-2203" class="wp-caption-text">A poorly formatted document produced by the final June pre-release of LaTeX.</figcaption></figure>
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<title>Ioana-Sabina Susanu – My Digital Learning Internship, in a nutshell.</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2023/06/07/ioana-sabina-susanu-my-digital-learning-internship-in-a-nutshell/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2023/06/07/ioana-sabina-susanu-my-digital-learning-internship-in-a-nutshell/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[lforbes3]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 07 Jun 2023 14:48:11 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Digital Learning Intern]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=1905</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 2</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>Programme of Study and Year: 3rd year Astrophysics Hobbies: Reading, music, karate Intern Position: Digital Learning Intern Describe your role in 4 words: interesting, challenging (at times), rewarding I wanted to take the time to do a blog post on how my internship has been for the past year. I have worked full-time during the […]]]></description>
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<p><strong>Programme of Study and Year: </strong>3rd year Astrophysics</p>
<p><strong>Hobbies: </strong>Reading, music, karate</p>
<p><strong>Intern Position: </strong>Digital Learning Intern</p>
<p><strong>Describe your role in 4 words: </strong>interesting, challenging (at times), rewarding</p>
<hr />
<p>I wanted to take the time to do a blog post on how my internship has been for the past year. I have worked full-time during the summer in the DLAM TEL team (Digital Learning Applications and Media, Technology Enhanced Learning – so many acronyms!), and part-time during the academic year.</p>
<p>I have done mostly Accessibility testing on various applications, including Turnitin, Moodle, Echo360, Collaborate and Ally, but also other tasks like caption verification or blog editing. I have had a lot to learn about all of the different software types and environments used within the University, and how important each piece of technology is.</p>
<p>Wrapping up my time in DLAM, I wanted to share once again how important the topic of Accessibility is, since it is what the vast majority of my work consisted of. Even though it seems that most of the regulations and adaptive software is concentrated on visual impairment (and too few regulations cover physical impairment – but this is a discussion for another time), it is certain that every little element that is made accessible on a page/application/platform makes a huge difference. Every colour combination, every button, every description and every message matters and can make the navigation better for users if accessibility is taken into consideration.</p>
<p>That being said, my work has been varied, and I never got a chance to get ‘bored’ as every thing I had to do was different from the previous one. I had the opportunity of working with a lot of different people, and I had a lot to learn from everyone I’ve met during my internship. The fact that the team has been welcoming and helpful made a great difference for me and my work – being relaxed and confident in my actions made me more productive, efficient and attentive to details</p>
<h2>Make the most of Learning Technology!</h2>
<p>I would like to end this blog post with a big ‘Thank you’ to the DLAM TEL team, and the wider Learning, Teaching and Web community for the continued support throughout the year.</p>
<p>I certainly recommend giving Learning Technology a chance, regardless of your degree – in the end, it is used by everyone at University, and it’s a very diverse field that will never make you bored.</p>
<p>And lastly, make the most of the resources available – there is a wide variety of them (books, software, databases, videos, courses, trainings), all available at a few clicks’ distance.</p>
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<time datetime="2023-06-07" itemprop="dateModified">Jun 7, 2023</time>
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<title>Eva Spanachi – The journey of being a Digital Learning Intern</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2022/08/04/__trashed/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2022/08/04/__trashed/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[espanach]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Thu, 04 Aug 2022 14:15:15 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Digital Learning Intern]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=1629</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 4</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>Programme of Study and Year: 4th Year Chemistry Hobbies: Art, reading, yoga, baking Intern Position: Digital learning Intern Describe your role in 4 words: Write a blog guys! “Known as” at the office: That annoying person who wouldn’t stop sending emails about the ISG Student Employee blog The opportunity to be part of the ISG […]]]></description>
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<hr />
<p><strong>Programme of Study and Year:</strong> 4<sup>th</sup> Year Chemistry</p>
<p><strong>Hobbies:</strong> Art, reading, yoga, baking</p>
<p><strong>Intern Position:</strong> Digital learning Intern</p>
<p><strong>Describe your role in 4 words:</strong> Write a blog guys!</p>
<p><strong>“Known as” at the office:</strong> That annoying person who wouldn’t stop sending emails about the ISG Student Employee blog</p>
<hr />
<h2>The opportunity to be part of the ISG team</h2>
<p>In mid-April, having the usual mid-semester crisis I started thinking of what I would be doing over the summer! So I started a search to find an internship and I came across the various roles offered by ISG on MyCareerHub and everything looked very interesting (and not chemistry related, which would allow my brain to have a break from all the science). Having my interview with some of the Digital Learning Applications and Media (DLAM) members, I immediately realized that I really wanted to become part of that lovely team and was therefore really happy to receive an offer for the digital learning role.</p>
<h2>The internship so far…</h2>
<p>Part of my internship consists of general testing, as well as accessibility testing on University platforms. After undergoing some training on accessibility, I was so surprised to realize how unfamiliar I was with the whole concept and I definitely learned a lot about how to make things more accessible by considering things like using a correct colour contrast, alternative text when using images, captions in videos and the general structure of a site to make it easy to navigate when someone is not using a mouse or using a speech navigator for example. The general lesson I learned however, was to actually keep in mind the various audiences and not just assume that we all use computers and technology in the same way, but we definitely all deserve to be able to access and navigate through all online environments.</p>
<p>Another part of my role has been to create screencasts using MediaHopper to provide instructions on how to navigate around some teaching and learning sites such as Learn. I now know the struggle of having to record your own voice, and the need to have approximately a hundred takes before you decide to give up and use whatever you have recorded by convincing yourself that it is good enough! The first video I had to script and record was 1.5 mins long and it took me a day to perfect, caption and finally post so I can only imagine how difficult it must be to record an hour long lecture!</p>
<p>I was also recently able to observe how the Unidesk side of the team works and see how they keep the Learning Technology of the University working, and ensure that any issue that occurs is resolved. So I had the opportunity to follow through the process of how an issue, that a staff member or student may be dealing with on different university platforms, such as Turnitin and Learn, is handled and eventually resolved. In the next few weeks I will also be able to go through a few issues and try to propose a way to resolve the problem, and become familiar with the different stages of coming up with a solution.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-1805 " src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2022/07/IMG20220328150556-scaled-e1659605487903-300x241.jpg" alt="" width="467" height="375" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2022/07/IMG20220328150556-scaled-e1659605487903-300x241.jpg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2022/07/IMG20220328150556-scaled-e1659605487903-1024x822.jpg 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2022/07/IMG20220328150556-scaled-e1659605487903-768x617.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2022/07/IMG20220328150556-scaled-e1659605487903-1536x1233.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2022/07/IMG20220328150556-scaled-e1659605487903.jpg 1919w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 467px) 100vw, 467px" /></p>
<p> </p>
<h2>Getting familiar with Blogs.ed!</h2>
<p>The general and accessibility testing I did was on Blogs.ed which was really useful because it helped me get familiar with the website as I had to use it daily as part of having the role of the student intern blog editor. My first task with this role was to come up with a template for the blog posts (a challenging task considering I had never written a single blog post or anything similar before). So I had to come up with a plan!</p>
<p>-> <strong>Plan A:</strong> Read all the previous blogs written by interns and get inspired. Well, I discovered that there were too many previous interns and hence too many previous blogs and too little time! -> <strong>Plan B:</strong> Read <em>a few</em> blogs from each past summer to get inspired and create a template. That actually worked and I managed to structure a template. Step 1 done! <strong>Step 2-</strong> Get the template approved and come up with a strategy on how to approach the other interns. I knew immediately that I had to find a way to make my fellow interns want to write blog posts without being too annoying. <strong> Step 3-</strong> After annoying the interns I then had to edit and proofread their blogs and finally post them on <a href="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/">the Information Services Group: Student Employee Blog</a>. It has been great to see that the plan actually worked and interns did offer to write a blog, and I definitely enjoyed reading them all!</p>
<h2>A few weeks left…</h2>
<p>Only a few weeks left for the end of my internship and I am thankful that I had the opportunity to be part of such a lovely team, where everyone was very welcoming and supportive throughout the internship. Also very grateful that Covid managed to calm down and allow us to go to the office now and then and enjoy each other’s company in person, and got to meet other interns during the great Unitemps social events!</p>
<p><strong>I hope all the interns had a great time during their internships and enjoyed their summers as well! Hopefully the rest of the staff in ISG enjoyed having us around and I am sure all of us appreciate their work and effort a lot more now that we got to see what is happening behind ‘the scenes’.</strong></p>
<p> </p>
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<title>Ioana -Uncovering the depths of accessibility testing in the Digital Learning Internship</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2022/07/25/ioana-uncovering-the-depths-of-accessibility-testing-in-the-digital-learning-internship/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2022/07/25/ioana-uncovering-the-depths-of-accessibility-testing-in-the-digital-learning-internship/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[espanach]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 25 Jul 2022 13:10:59 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Digital Learning Intern]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=1727</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 3</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>Programme of Study and Year: Astrophysics (MPhys), going into 3rd year Hobbies: Reading, listening to music, taking walks, watching TV series Intern Position: Digital Learning Intern within Learning, Teaching and Web (LTW) Fun fact about your internship: I have become knowledgeable in Accessibility testing, even though this was not the plan initially Describe your role […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 3</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span><hr />
<p><strong>Programme of Study and Year:</strong> Astrophysics (MPhys), going into 3<sup>rd</sup> year</p>
<p><strong>Hobbies:</strong> Reading, listening to music, taking walks, watching TV series</p>
<p><strong>Intern Position:</strong> Digital Learning Intern within Learning, Teaching and Web (LTW)</p>
<p><strong>Fun fact about your internship:</strong> I have become knowledgeable in Accessibility testing, even though this was not the plan initially</p>
<p><strong>Describe your role in 4 words: </strong> Challenging, rewarding, technical, awesome</p>
<hr />
<h2>The internship experience in a nutshell</h2>
<p>I have found out about these internships from the Unitemps website. I kept checking it in March, as I knew that was the time when the summer roles would be advertised. I have also received notifications over e-mail regarding the roles and how to apply. My role requires me to become familiar with a variety of learning technology applications, and do the accessibility testing based on a specific script and using assistive software. The most enjoyable part is that I get to see, learn, experience and test a lot of the University’s platforms, applications and integrations, and I have the chance to see these from a developer point of view. Additionally, it is just enjoyable to collaborate with my team members and socialise with other interns when we are in the office. Speaking of socialising, the Unitemps social events for interns are the best – the food is great and I always get to meet and talk to lots of interesting people with various experiences.</p>
<h2>Highlights of Digital Learning – Creating documentation and conducting accessibility testing</h2>
<p>I find the 9-5 life surprisingly relaxing, especially when I work from home. Office days can be a bit more tiring, but they are the most fun as almost everyone is there on certain days. My team is welcoming and friendly, even in busy and stressful times – for which I admire them greatly. I really enjoy that communication is very efficient within the team, both when we are in the office and when we are working remotely.</p>
<p>My role so far has helped me overcome certain ‘fears’, for example listening to my own voice. I had to create some videos with instructions on how to use one of the applications within the University. I already had the script, I just had to record my screen while navigating the application. Even though it seems like a simple task, the idea of recording my own voice felt strange. After talking to my manager and some of the members of my team about this, I found that my feeling was quite common – no-one likes to record and listen to their own voice! Therefore I was a bit more confident that nothing could go wrong and I recorded the videos. Listening to my own voice while doing the captioning was not that bad – especially since I was focused on the quality of the sound and the content itself. The feedback I received for the videos was good, which boosted my confidence for this type of task.</p>
<p>As my work requires me to do accessibility testing, I had the opportunity to discover how complex this field is, and how many regulations need to be taken into account for a webpage/application/platform to be considered accessible. As an example, I was aware of captioning being needed for videos, but I wasn’t aware of the exact ratios needed for colour contrasts within a page. In addition, I could see how certain types of assistive software interact with the University platforms and applications, and which issues are encountered. While I still have some training sessions to do, I have developed an awareness for accessibility and I feel that this subject should be promoted more.</p>
<p>The internship has been a great experience so far. I feel lucky that I am a part of a lovely team (DLAM TEL – Digital Learning Applications and Media, Tech Enhanced Learning) where everyone is friendly and willing to help. I have a lot to learn from all of the team members, and also the other interns. The working environment is very good and inspiring, and it allows me to develop valuable skills that will certainly be beneficial in future assignments.</p>
<p><strong>Through this blog post, I would like to wish all the other interns the best of luck in their internships and projects, and to thank all the staff members for being welcoming and supportive in every matter. And last but not least, I encourage every student to apply for a summer internship within the Information Services Group – it’s definitely a fantastic experience!</strong></p>
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<time datetime="2022-07-25" itemprop="dateModified">Jul 25, 2022</time>
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<title>How I develop skills as a continuing App Developer Intern – Martin Lewis</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2022/04/20/how-i-develop-skills-as-a-continuing-app-developer-intern-martin-lewis/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2022/04/20/how-i-develop-skills-as-a-continuing-app-developer-intern-martin-lewis/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[awilso35]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 20 Apr 2022 11:59:17 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Learn Foundations Learning Applications Developer]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=1581</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 2</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>Martin Lewis is a final year student in BSc (Hons) Computer Science, and started working as a Summer Intern in ISG in 2020, as one of our interns auditing Learn. Martin really impressed the Learn team with his initiative in finding a chance to automate some work, so since summer 2021 he has since been […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 2</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span><p><em>Martin Lewis is a final year student in BSc (Hons) Computer Science, and started working as a Summer Intern in ISG in 2020, as one of our interns auditing Learn. Martin really impressed the Learn team with his initiative in finding a chance to automate some work, so since summer 2021 he has since been working with the Learn team in a more technical role, doing programming.</em></p>
<p>I started work in Information Services Group (ISG) at the University as a <strong>Summer Intern</strong> in 2020 and 2021, and <strong>since then I’ve been working for ISG doing technical bits and pieces</strong>. In this blog post I’ll be discussing <strong>what I’ve been doing as a part of my work for ISG and what skills this has helped me develop.</strong></p>
<p>Initially I was doing rather non-technical work as part of the Learn Foundations project getting the University’s Learn courses prepared for the new academic year. This was adding things like the course outline and organiser details into these fresh courses. <strong>However, I managed to find a way to automate parts of the workflow I was assigned to and from there began to do technical work for the ISG.</strong><br />
I now have the very long winded title of ‘Learn Foundations Applications Developer Intern’ in which I do development work, making applications that are usually, sometime tangentially, related to the Learn Foundations Project.</p>
<p>For those more technically minded, I’m working in the PHP programming language doing full stack (front and backend) work using the Laravel framework. An excellent opportunity to learn a new language and framework. <strong>There is also the chance to work on real world projects that contain issues and experiences that cannot be found in the classroom or in a coursework assignment.</strong> With real team members (big thanks to Andrew and his team who I have been working with) and <strong>projects that have a real outcome (not just a grade).</strong></p>
<p>Now this is not only a good opportunity to hone skills but it also looks very good on a CV. Already having practical software development experience is fantastic and it also is a great source of discussion <strong>during interviews being able to bring up situations and decisions you made outside of a classroom is great.</strong></p>
<p>Now let’s look at the day to day practicalities (this is just my experience your mileage may vary with role and when you might work). The work is remote, as you could probably guess, which fits well alongside my majority remote learning these past few years. Over the summers I’ve worked full time, 35 hours a week, being treated as a standard member of university staff. Then over the semesters only 7 hours a week which I find easy to fit around my studies and personal life but it does often mean rather slow progress in the projects you work on.</p>
<p><strong>Both of the line managers I’ve had have been wonderful and very understanding about the need to change work patterns last minute or take time off around major deadlines and exams.</strong> The pay isn’t too bad and goes a long way towards covering my rent.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if I’ll be continuing to work for the University after May as I am finally graduating. I will however apologise in advance to any potential future intern who has to work with my code! But the last two years have gone a long way to making me a much more employable graduate.</p>
<p>So do consider applying for an ISG internship,<strong> I’ve personally gotten a lot out of it and I think any proactive student can benefit greatly from such a role.</strong></p>
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<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>
<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area">
<time datetime="2024-07-05" itemprop="dateModified">Jul 5, 2024</time>
</span>
]]></content:encoded>
<wfw:commentRss>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2024/07/05/elia-muller-initial-thoughts-on-doing-accessibility-checks/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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<item>
<title>Tallulah Thompson – What I have learnt from the Media and Podcasting Internship</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2024/05/27/tallulah-thompson-what-i-have-learnt-from-the-media-and-podcasting-internship/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2024/05/27/tallulah-thompson-what-i-have-learnt-from-the-media-and-podcasting-internship/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[tthompso]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 27 May 2024 08:14:32 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Digital Learning Applications and Media]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Internships]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=2426</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 3</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>Programme of Study and Year: 1st year Informatics (MInf) Intern Position: Media and Podcasting Intern I have now been working with the Digital Learning Applications and Media (DLAM) group as the Media and Podcasting Intern since February. It’s been an amazing experience – I’ve had the opportunity to get involved in so many interesting things and […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 3</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span><p><strong>Programme of Study and Year: </strong>1st year Informatics (MInf)<br />
<strong>Intern Position: </strong>Media and Podcasting Intern</p>
<hr />
<p>I have now been working with the Digital Learning Applications and Media (DLAM) group as the Media and Podcasting Intern since February. It’s been an amazing experience – I’ve had the opportunity to get involved in so many interesting things and to work with a brilliant team led by Karen Howie. I’m really grateful to Karen and my colleagues for stretching me and supporting me in equal measure. As my internship comes to an end soon, I have decided to share my reflections and what I have learnt.</p>
<p><!-- notionvc: 0025adfe-330e-429b-a7a2-3092aef75b03 --></p>
<h3>Why I applied for this internship</h3>
<p>At the end of my first semester, I decided I wanted to find a job for the following semester that would allow me to interact with more people across the university, and that ideally would involve a project that would benefit others. After looking through many Computer Science related jobs, I found that most were exclusive to penultimate/final year students, and I realised I would have to broaden my search. I started looking for jobs, that despite being less directly related to my field of study, would still be relevant to my interests and help me gain professional experience and valuable skills. That was when I came across the Media and Podcasting Intern job opportunity on MyCareerHub; when I read the job description, I knew I had to apply! It was so appealing because it would allow me to bridge two of my main interests: technology and data, and content creation.</p>
<h3>What I have been doing</h3>
<p>My job has mainly entailed looking through videos uploaded to Media Hopper Create, and analysing their metadata to see how it can be improved, coming up with a metadata guidance document and checklist, collating videos to display on the front page that correspond to monthly themes, collaborating with content owners to improve the accessibility of their media, and, most excitingly, helping design the layout of the front page of the new Media Hopper Create website.</p>
<h3>What I have learnt</h3>
<p>This experience has taught me so much about metadata (<a href="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2024/03/20/2398/">see my previous blogpost</a>) and really highlighted the importance of having good metadata when it comes to improving the accessibility and findability of media. A small yet surprising fact I have learnt is that podcasts do not have to be audio only, and in order for media to be classed as a podcast on Media Hopper Create, it needs to be designed to be consumed in an episodic format, although, majority of the time, a podcast is audio only. I had used Media Hopper Create prior to my internship, however, this was mainly for watching lecture recordings, I hadn’t appreciated the range in content on the website and will continue to use it even after my internship ends. Another thing I hadn’t realised was how useful my ability to code is. I was asked to look through 2 data files and identify the entries that were in one and not the other; and being the Computer Science student that I am, rather than doing this manually/through Excel, I wrote a Python program to do this, which meant that I could complete this task in a much faster and more accurate way. I also used my Python skills to analyse metadata, identify trends and representing them as graphs. I so happy to discover how laterally applicable my skillset is!<!-- notionvc: 1730fcf1-c979-4f30-a932-ddc83022c226 --></p>
<h3>My thoughts</h3>
<p>Overall, this internship has not only expanded my understanding of metadata and media management but also reinforced the value of my technical skills in real-world applications. I’m excited to carry forward these lessons and continue exploring the intersection of technology and media in my future endeavours. I would like to thank Karen, Liam and the rest of the wonderful DLAM team for this amazing experience.</p>
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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>
<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area">
<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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<time datetime="2023-08-15" itemprop="dateModified">Aug 15, 2023</time>
</span>
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<title>Ioana-Sabina Susanu – My Digital Learning Internship, in a nutshell.</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2023/06/07/ioana-sabina-susanu-my-digital-learning-internship-in-a-nutshell/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2023/06/07/ioana-sabina-susanu-my-digital-learning-internship-in-a-nutshell/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[lforbes3]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 07 Jun 2023 14:48:11 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Digital Learning Intern]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=1905</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 2</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>Programme of Study and Year: 3rd year Astrophysics Hobbies: Reading, music, karate Intern Position: Digital Learning Intern Describe your role in 4 words: interesting, challenging (at times), rewarding I wanted to take the time to do a blog post on how my internship has been for the past year. I have worked full-time during the […]]]></description>
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<p><strong>Programme of Study and Year: </strong>3rd year Astrophysics</p>
<p><strong>Hobbies: </strong>Reading, music, karate</p>
<p><strong>Intern Position: </strong>Digital Learning Intern</p>
<p><strong>Describe your role in 4 words: </strong>interesting, challenging (at times), rewarding</p>
<hr />
<p>I wanted to take the time to do a blog post on how my internship has been for the past year. I have worked full-time during the summer in the DLAM TEL team (Digital Learning Applications and Media, Technology Enhanced Learning – so many acronyms!), and part-time during the academic year.</p>
<p>I have done mostly Accessibility testing on various applications, including Turnitin, Moodle, Echo360, Collaborate and Ally, but also other tasks like caption verification or blog editing. I have had a lot to learn about all of the different software types and environments used within the University, and how important each piece of technology is.</p>
<p>Wrapping up my time in DLAM, I wanted to share once again how important the topic of Accessibility is, since it is what the vast majority of my work consisted of. Even though it seems that most of the regulations and adaptive software is concentrated on visual impairment (and too few regulations cover physical impairment – but this is a discussion for another time), it is certain that every little element that is made accessible on a page/application/platform makes a huge difference. Every colour combination, every button, every description and every message matters and can make the navigation better for users if accessibility is taken into consideration.</p>
<p>That being said, my work has been varied, and I never got a chance to get ‘bored’ as every thing I had to do was different from the previous one. I had the opportunity of working with a lot of different people, and I had a lot to learn from everyone I’ve met during my internship. The fact that the team has been welcoming and helpful made a great difference for me and my work – being relaxed and confident in my actions made me more productive, efficient and attentive to details</p>
<h2>Make the most of Learning Technology!</h2>
<p>I would like to end this blog post with a big ‘Thank you’ to the DLAM TEL team, and the wider Learning, Teaching and Web community for the continued support throughout the year.</p>
<p>I certainly recommend giving Learning Technology a chance, regardless of your degree – in the end, it is used by everyone at University, and it’s a very diverse field that will never make you bored.</p>
<p>And lastly, make the most of the resources available – there is a wide variety of them (books, software, databases, videos, courses, trainings), all available at a few clicks’ distance.</p>
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<time datetime="2023-06-07" itemprop="dateModified">Jun 7, 2023</time>
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<title>Eva Spanachi – The journey of being a Digital Learning Intern</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2022/08/04/__trashed/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2022/08/04/__trashed/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[espanach]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Thu, 04 Aug 2022 14:15:15 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Digital Learning Intern]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=1629</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 4</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>Programme of Study and Year: 4th Year Chemistry Hobbies: Art, reading, yoga, baking Intern Position: Digital learning Intern Describe your role in 4 words: Write a blog guys! “Known as” at the office: That annoying person who wouldn’t stop sending emails about the ISG Student Employee blog The opportunity to be part of the ISG […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 4</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span><h1></h1>
<hr />
<p><strong>Programme of Study and Year:</strong> 4<sup>th</sup> Year Chemistry</p>
<p><strong>Hobbies:</strong> Art, reading, yoga, baking</p>
<p><strong>Intern Position:</strong> Digital learning Intern</p>
<p><strong>Describe your role in 4 words:</strong> Write a blog guys!</p>
<p><strong>“Known as” at the office:</strong> That annoying person who wouldn’t stop sending emails about the ISG Student Employee blog</p>
<hr />
<h2>The opportunity to be part of the ISG team</h2>
<p>In mid-April, having the usual mid-semester crisis I started thinking of what I would be doing over the summer! So I started a search to find an internship and I came across the various roles offered by ISG on MyCareerHub and everything looked very interesting (and not chemistry related, which would allow my brain to have a break from all the science). Having my interview with some of the Digital Learning Applications and Media (DLAM) members, I immediately realized that I really wanted to become part of that lovely team and was therefore really happy to receive an offer for the digital learning role.</p>
<h2>The internship so far…</h2>
<p>Part of my internship consists of general testing, as well as accessibility testing on University platforms. After undergoing some training on accessibility, I was so surprised to realize how unfamiliar I was with the whole concept and I definitely learned a lot about how to make things more accessible by considering things like using a correct colour contrast, alternative text when using images, captions in videos and the general structure of a site to make it easy to navigate when someone is not using a mouse or using a speech navigator for example. The general lesson I learned however, was to actually keep in mind the various audiences and not just assume that we all use computers and technology in the same way, but we definitely all deserve to be able to access and navigate through all online environments.</p>
<p>Another part of my role has been to create screencasts using MediaHopper to provide instructions on how to navigate around some teaching and learning sites such as Learn. I now know the struggle of having to record your own voice, and the need to have approximately a hundred takes before you decide to give up and use whatever you have recorded by convincing yourself that it is good enough! The first video I had to script and record was 1.5 mins long and it took me a day to perfect, caption and finally post so I can only imagine how difficult it must be to record an hour long lecture!</p>
<p>I was also recently able to observe how the Unidesk side of the team works and see how they keep the Learning Technology of the University working, and ensure that any issue that occurs is resolved. So I had the opportunity to follow through the process of how an issue, that a staff member or student may be dealing with on different university platforms, such as Turnitin and Learn, is handled and eventually resolved. In the next few weeks I will also be able to go through a few issues and try to propose a way to resolve the problem, and become familiar with the different stages of coming up with a solution.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-1805 " src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2022/07/IMG20220328150556-scaled-e1659605487903-300x241.jpg" alt="" width="467" height="375" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2022/07/IMG20220328150556-scaled-e1659605487903-300x241.jpg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2022/07/IMG20220328150556-scaled-e1659605487903-1024x822.jpg 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2022/07/IMG20220328150556-scaled-e1659605487903-768x617.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2022/07/IMG20220328150556-scaled-e1659605487903-1536x1233.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2022/07/IMG20220328150556-scaled-e1659605487903.jpg 1919w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 467px) 100vw, 467px" /></p>
<p> </p>
<h2>Getting familiar with Blogs.ed!</h2>
<p>The general and accessibility testing I did was on Blogs.ed which was really useful because it helped me get familiar with the website as I had to use it daily as part of having the role of the student intern blog editor. My first task with this role was to come up with a template for the blog posts (a challenging task considering I had never written a single blog post or anything similar before). So I had to come up with a plan!</p>
<p>-> <strong>Plan A:</strong> Read all the previous blogs written by interns and get inspired. Well, I discovered that there were too many previous interns and hence too many previous blogs and too little time! -> <strong>Plan B:</strong> Read <em>a few</em> blogs from each past summer to get inspired and create a template. That actually worked and I managed to structure a template. Step 1 done! <strong>Step 2-</strong> Get the template approved and come up with a strategy on how to approach the other interns. I knew immediately that I had to find a way to make my fellow interns want to write blog posts without being too annoying. <strong> Step 3-</strong> After annoying the interns I then had to edit and proofread their blogs and finally post them on <a href="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/">the Information Services Group: Student Employee Blog</a>. It has been great to see that the plan actually worked and interns did offer to write a blog, and I definitely enjoyed reading them all!</p>
<h2>A few weeks left…</h2>
<p>Only a few weeks left for the end of my internship and I am thankful that I had the opportunity to be part of such a lovely team, where everyone was very welcoming and supportive throughout the internship. Also very grateful that Covid managed to calm down and allow us to go to the office now and then and enjoy each other’s company in person, and got to meet other interns during the great Unitemps social events!</p>
<p><strong>I hope all the interns had a great time during their internships and enjoyed their summers as well! Hopefully the rest of the staff in ISG enjoyed having us around and I am sure all of us appreciate their work and effort a lot more now that we got to see what is happening behind ‘the scenes’.</strong></p>
<p> </p>
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<time datetime="2022-08-04" itemprop="dateModified">Aug 4, 2022</time>
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<title>Ioana -Uncovering the depths of accessibility testing in the Digital Learning Internship</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2022/07/25/ioana-uncovering-the-depths-of-accessibility-testing-in-the-digital-learning-internship/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2022/07/25/ioana-uncovering-the-depths-of-accessibility-testing-in-the-digital-learning-internship/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[espanach]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 25 Jul 2022 13:10:59 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Digital Learning Intern]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=1727</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 3</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>Programme of Study and Year: Astrophysics (MPhys), going into 3rd year Hobbies: Reading, listening to music, taking walks, watching TV series Intern Position: Digital Learning Intern within Learning, Teaching and Web (LTW) Fun fact about your internship: I have become knowledgeable in Accessibility testing, even though this was not the plan initially Describe your role […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 3</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span><hr />
<p><strong>Programme of Study and Year:</strong> Astrophysics (MPhys), going into 3<sup>rd</sup> year</p>
<p><strong>Hobbies:</strong> Reading, listening to music, taking walks, watching TV series</p>
<p><strong>Intern Position:</strong> Digital Learning Intern within Learning, Teaching and Web (LTW)</p>
<p><strong>Fun fact about your internship:</strong> I have become knowledgeable in Accessibility testing, even though this was not the plan initially</p>
<p><strong>Describe your role in 4 words: </strong> Challenging, rewarding, technical, awesome</p>
<hr />
<h2>The internship experience in a nutshell</h2>
<p>I have found out about these internships from the Unitemps website. I kept checking it in March, as I knew that was the time when the summer roles would be advertised. I have also received notifications over e-mail regarding the roles and how to apply. My role requires me to become familiar with a variety of learning technology applications, and do the accessibility testing based on a specific script and using assistive software. The most enjoyable part is that I get to see, learn, experience and test a lot of the University’s platforms, applications and integrations, and I have the chance to see these from a developer point of view. Additionally, it is just enjoyable to collaborate with my team members and socialise with other interns when we are in the office. Speaking of socialising, the Unitemps social events for interns are the best – the food is great and I always get to meet and talk to lots of interesting people with various experiences.</p>
<h2>Highlights of Digital Learning – Creating documentation and conducting accessibility testing</h2>
<p>I find the 9-5 life surprisingly relaxing, especially when I work from home. Office days can be a bit more tiring, but they are the most fun as almost everyone is there on certain days. My team is welcoming and friendly, even in busy and stressful times – for which I admire them greatly. I really enjoy that communication is very efficient within the team, both when we are in the office and when we are working remotely.</p>
<p>My role so far has helped me overcome certain ‘fears’, for example listening to my own voice. I had to create some videos with instructions on how to use one of the applications within the University. I already had the script, I just had to record my screen while navigating the application. Even though it seems like a simple task, the idea of recording my own voice felt strange. After talking to my manager and some of the members of my team about this, I found that my feeling was quite common – no-one likes to record and listen to their own voice! Therefore I was a bit more confident that nothing could go wrong and I recorded the videos. Listening to my own voice while doing the captioning was not that bad – especially since I was focused on the quality of the sound and the content itself. The feedback I received for the videos was good, which boosted my confidence for this type of task.</p>
<p>As my work requires me to do accessibility testing, I had the opportunity to discover how complex this field is, and how many regulations need to be taken into account for a webpage/application/platform to be considered accessible. As an example, I was aware of captioning being needed for videos, but I wasn’t aware of the exact ratios needed for colour contrasts within a page. In addition, I could see how certain types of assistive software interact with the University platforms and applications, and which issues are encountered. While I still have some training sessions to do, I have developed an awareness for accessibility and I feel that this subject should be promoted more.</p>
<p>The internship has been a great experience so far. I feel lucky that I am a part of a lovely team (DLAM TEL – Digital Learning Applications and Media, Tech Enhanced Learning) where everyone is friendly and willing to help. I have a lot to learn from all of the team members, and also the other interns. The working environment is very good and inspiring, and it allows me to develop valuable skills that will certainly be beneficial in future assignments.</p>
<p><strong>Through this blog post, I would like to wish all the other interns the best of luck in their internships and projects, and to thank all the staff members for being welcoming and supportive in every matter. And last but not least, I encourage every student to apply for a summer internship within the Information Services Group – it’s definitely a fantastic experience!</strong></p>
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<time datetime="2022-07-25" itemprop="dateModified">Jul 25, 2022</time>
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<title>How I develop skills as a continuing App Developer Intern – Martin Lewis</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2022/04/20/how-i-develop-skills-as-a-continuing-app-developer-intern-martin-lewis/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2022/04/20/how-i-develop-skills-as-a-continuing-app-developer-intern-martin-lewis/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[awilso35]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 20 Apr 2022 11:59:17 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Learn Foundations Learning Applications Developer]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=1581</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 2</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>Martin Lewis is a final year student in BSc (Hons) Computer Science, and started working as a Summer Intern in ISG in 2020, as one of our interns auditing Learn. Martin really impressed the Learn team with his initiative in finding a chance to automate some work, so since summer 2021 he has since been […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 2</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span><p><em>Martin Lewis is a final year student in BSc (Hons) Computer Science, and started working as a Summer Intern in ISG in 2020, as one of our interns auditing Learn. Martin really impressed the Learn team with his initiative in finding a chance to automate some work, so since summer 2021 he has since been working with the Learn team in a more technical role, doing programming.</em></p>
<p>I started work in Information Services Group (ISG) at the University as a <strong>Summer Intern</strong> in 2020 and 2021, and <strong>since then I’ve been working for ISG doing technical bits and pieces</strong>. In this blog post I’ll be discussing <strong>what I’ve been doing as a part of my work for ISG and what skills this has helped me develop.</strong></p>
<p>Initially I was doing rather non-technical work as part of the Learn Foundations project getting the University’s Learn courses prepared for the new academic year. This was adding things like the course outline and organiser details into these fresh courses. <strong>However, I managed to find a way to automate parts of the workflow I was assigned to and from there began to do technical work for the ISG.</strong><br />
I now have the very long winded title of ‘Learn Foundations Applications Developer Intern’ in which I do development work, making applications that are usually, sometime tangentially, related to the Learn Foundations Project.</p>
<p>For those more technically minded, I’m working in the PHP programming language doing full stack (front and backend) work using the Laravel framework. An excellent opportunity to learn a new language and framework. <strong>There is also the chance to work on real world projects that contain issues and experiences that cannot be found in the classroom or in a coursework assignment.</strong> With real team members (big thanks to Andrew and his team who I have been working with) and <strong>projects that have a real outcome (not just a grade).</strong></p>
<p>Now this is not only a good opportunity to hone skills but it also looks very good on a CV. Already having practical software development experience is fantastic and it also is a great source of discussion <strong>during interviews being able to bring up situations and decisions you made outside of a classroom is great.</strong></p>
<p>Now let’s look at the day to day practicalities (this is just my experience your mileage may vary with role and when you might work). The work is remote, as you could probably guess, which fits well alongside my majority remote learning these past few years. Over the summers I’ve worked full time, 35 hours a week, being treated as a standard member of university staff. Then over the semesters only 7 hours a week which I find easy to fit around my studies and personal life but it does often mean rather slow progress in the projects you work on.</p>
<p><strong>Both of the line managers I’ve had have been wonderful and very understanding about the need to change work patterns last minute or take time off around major deadlines and exams.</strong> The pay isn’t too bad and goes a long way towards covering my rent.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if I’ll be continuing to work for the University after May as I am finally graduating. I will however apologise in advance to any potential future intern who has to work with my code! But the last two years have gone a long way to making me a much more employable graduate.</p>
<p>So do consider applying for an ISG internship,<strong> I’ve personally gotten a lot out of it and I think any proactive student can benefit greatly from such a role.</strong></p>
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<time datetime="2022-04-20" itemprop="dateModified">Apr 20, 2022</time>
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<title>Top Five Things I Like About my Internship</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2021/08/11/top-five-things-i-like-about-my-internship/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2021/08/11/top-five-things-i-like-about-my-internship/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[rcormac3]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 11 Aug 2021 11:07:16 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Digital Media Assistant]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=1543</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 3</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>Hazel is the Digital Media Assistant Intern and is responsible for making promotional videos for some of the Ed Web Services and self-enroll courses that are available for staff with the aim of explaining the system and services better to encourage higher usage. She enjoys her job because it allows for creativity and also loves […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 3</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span><p><em>Hazel is the Digital Media Assistant Intern and is responsible for making promotional videos for some of the Ed Web Services and self-enroll courses that are available for staff with the aim of explaining the system and services better to encourage higher usage. She enjoys her job because it allows for creativity and also loves singing, dancing, cooking and has just recently starting learning the ukulele!</em></p>
<hr />
<p>“It’s summer again!” This was what I thinking as I finished my semester. Then what? What should I do this summer? I wanted to make myself useful and gain some experience, which led me to browse for internship opportunities, and fortunately, I was accepted as a Digital Media Assistant Intern under Learning, Teaching and Web services (LTW)!</p>
<p>Impacted by COVID-19, the ways in which we learn and work have changed drastically. As a student, I’m not really a big fan of online learning but to my surprise, I have enjoyed my remote-working internship experience. Here are the top five things I like about my internship experience, and I hope some of that resonate with yours too <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/16.0.1/72x72/1f642.png" alt="🙂" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /></p>
<h3>1) Have my own input and make things happen!</h3>
<p>I’d never really had any internship experience before I joined. From my what my friends said, they described it as more of a rigid form of working, which means managers tell them exactly what they need to do and manage all the tasks with frequent reporting. It seems like it curbs much of their own creative input into the work as they are only following what they are asked to do.</p>
<p>However, my internship experience is totally different! To my surprise, I am given a plethora of opportunities to have my own input in creative tasks. For example, I initiated ideas of the video storyboards and the design of them. The fact that most of them were accepted truly makes me feel empowered as my manager and colleagues trust my skills in making the videos happen.<em><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class=" wp-image-1545 aligncenter" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2021/08/andrew-neel-cckf4TsHAuw-unsplash-300x200.jpg" alt="Table with laptop, mug, pen and paper and a mobile phone." width="411" height="274" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2021/08/andrew-neel-cckf4TsHAuw-unsplash-300x200.jpg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2021/08/andrew-neel-cckf4TsHAuw-unsplash-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2021/08/andrew-neel-cckf4TsHAuw-unsplash-768x512.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2021/08/andrew-neel-cckf4TsHAuw-unsplash-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2021/08/andrew-neel-cckf4TsHAuw-unsplash-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 411px) 100vw, 411px" /></em></p>
<h3>2) Effective communication</h3>
<p>Since the internship is entirely remote, we have used different methods of communication. Making use of Microsoft Teams and Outlook Email functions facilitates effective communication and avoids long-winded boring meetings (which usually happens in a physical setting). With all the technology available, it makes Working from Home possible and seemingly more effective, saving travelling time and speeding up work productivity. Therefore, although we cannot see each other physically, I am still able to communicate with my line manager and other team members easily on a weekly basis and get things going.</p>
<h3>3) High flexibility (time management skills are required!)</h3>
<p>My internship experience is very flexible with the whole project timeline. I can take on the role to plan when things should be delivered and manage when I should sort out the ideas, video storyboards and drafts, etc. This has certainly strengthened my time management skills, as I have to ensure that I am not falling behind the schedule and the project can progress swiftly.</p>
<p>The high flexibility also enables me to schedule other commitments around it. This allows me to achieve a good work-life balance during this period. I know that having an unexpected flexibility with time might seem to be a bit too good to be true, but to be honest, it does require a lot of self-control and time management skills!</p>
<h3>4) Gaining diverse skills</h3>
<p>It is a pleasant surprise to be able to gain other skills outside of what I’ve already learned! My project requires collaboration with other team members in the project and that has enabled me to learn so much more in other aspects, such as content writing, visual design, persona creation etc. These are all valuable opportunities and relevant skillsets that will be very helpful in a workplace. The fact that I can gain all these diverse skills makes the whole experience much more fulfilling!</p>
<h3>5) Supportive environment</h3>
<p>Last but not least, I’ve got to say I’m so grateful to have a really supportive manager that has kindly guided me all along. My colleagues have been really welcoming and encouraging with what I have done. Also, other team members in LTW have helped me so much with their constructive feedback! This whole working environment is surely a great add-on to this internship experience as who wouldn’t love to be surrounded by smart and friendly people?</p>
<hr />
<p>I’m certain that some of you may have a similar/ different internship experience according to your own department/ projects. Feel free to comment down below and share yours too! <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/16.0.1/72x72/1f642.png" alt="🙂" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /></p>
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<time datetime="2021-08-11" itemprop="dateModified">Aug 11, 2021</time>
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<title>Digital Learning Applications and Media – Information Services Group: Student Employee Blog</title>
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<description>Hear from students about their experience working in the University's Information Services Group</description>
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<title>Digital Learning Applications and Media – Information Services Group: Student Employee Blog</title>
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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>
<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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<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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<title>Tallulah Thompson – What I have learnt from the Media and Podcasting Internship</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2024/05/27/tallulah-thompson-what-i-have-learnt-from-the-media-and-podcasting-internship/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2024/05/27/tallulah-thompson-what-i-have-learnt-from-the-media-and-podcasting-internship/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[tthompso]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 27 May 2024 08:14:32 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Digital Learning Applications and Media]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Internships]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=2426</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 3</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>Programme of Study and Year: 1st year Informatics (MInf) Intern Position: Media and Podcasting Intern I have now been working with the Digital Learning Applications and Media (DLAM) group as the Media and Podcasting Intern since February. It’s been an amazing experience – I’ve had the opportunity to get involved in so many interesting things and […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 3</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span><p><strong>Programme of Study and Year: </strong>1st year Informatics (MInf)<br />
<strong>Intern Position: </strong>Media and Podcasting Intern</p>
<hr />
<p>I have now been working with the Digital Learning Applications and Media (DLAM) group as the Media and Podcasting Intern since February. It’s been an amazing experience – I’ve had the opportunity to get involved in so many interesting things and to work with a brilliant team led by Karen Howie. I’m really grateful to Karen and my colleagues for stretching me and supporting me in equal measure. As my internship comes to an end soon, I have decided to share my reflections and what I have learnt.</p>
<p><!-- notionvc: 0025adfe-330e-429b-a7a2-3092aef75b03 --></p>
<h3>Why I applied for this internship</h3>
<p>At the end of my first semester, I decided I wanted to find a job for the following semester that would allow me to interact with more people across the university, and that ideally would involve a project that would benefit others. After looking through many Computer Science related jobs, I found that most were exclusive to penultimate/final year students, and I realised I would have to broaden my search. I started looking for jobs, that despite being less directly related to my field of study, would still be relevant to my interests and help me gain professional experience and valuable skills. That was when I came across the Media and Podcasting Intern job opportunity on MyCareerHub; when I read the job description, I knew I had to apply! It was so appealing because it would allow me to bridge two of my main interests: technology and data, and content creation.</p>
<h3>What I have been doing</h3>
<p>My job has mainly entailed looking through videos uploaded to Media Hopper Create, and analysing their metadata to see how it can be improved, coming up with a metadata guidance document and checklist, collating videos to display on the front page that correspond to monthly themes, collaborating with content owners to improve the accessibility of their media, and, most excitingly, helping design the layout of the front page of the new Media Hopper Create website.</p>
<h3>What I have learnt</h3>
<p>This experience has taught me so much about metadata (<a href="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2024/03/20/2398/">see my previous blogpost</a>) and really highlighted the importance of having good metadata when it comes to improving the accessibility and findability of media. A small yet surprising fact I have learnt is that podcasts do not have to be audio only, and in order for media to be classed as a podcast on Media Hopper Create, it needs to be designed to be consumed in an episodic format, although, majority of the time, a podcast is audio only. I had used Media Hopper Create prior to my internship, however, this was mainly for watching lecture recordings, I hadn’t appreciated the range in content on the website and will continue to use it even after my internship ends. Another thing I hadn’t realised was how useful my ability to code is. I was asked to look through 2 data files and identify the entries that were in one and not the other; and being the Computer Science student that I am, rather than doing this manually/through Excel, I wrote a Python program to do this, which meant that I could complete this task in a much faster and more accurate way. I also used my Python skills to analyse metadata, identify trends and representing them as graphs. I so happy to discover how laterally applicable my skillset is!<!-- notionvc: 1730fcf1-c979-4f30-a932-ddc83022c226 --></p>
<h3>My thoughts</h3>
<p>Overall, this internship has not only expanded my understanding of metadata and media management but also reinforced the value of my technical skills in real-world applications. I’m excited to carry forward these lessons and continue exploring the intersection of technology and media in my future endeavours. I would like to thank Karen, Liam and the rest of the wonderful DLAM team for this amazing experience.</p>
<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area">
<time datetime="2024-05-27" itemprop="dateModified">May 27, 2024</time>
</span>
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<wfw:commentRss>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2024/05/27/tallulah-thompson-what-i-have-learnt-from-the-media-and-podcasting-internship/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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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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<time datetime="2023-08-15" itemprop="dateModified">Aug 15, 2023</time>
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<title>Ioana-Sabina Susanu – My Digital Learning Internship, in a nutshell.</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2023/06/07/ioana-sabina-susanu-my-digital-learning-internship-in-a-nutshell/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2023/06/07/ioana-sabina-susanu-my-digital-learning-internship-in-a-nutshell/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[lforbes3]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 07 Jun 2023 14:48:11 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Digital Learning Intern]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=1905</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 2</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>Programme of Study and Year: 3rd year Astrophysics Hobbies: Reading, music, karate Intern Position: Digital Learning Intern Describe your role in 4 words: interesting, challenging (at times), rewarding I wanted to take the time to do a blog post on how my internship has been for the past year. I have worked full-time during the […]]]></description>
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<p><strong>Programme of Study and Year: </strong>3rd year Astrophysics</p>
<p><strong>Hobbies: </strong>Reading, music, karate</p>
<p><strong>Intern Position: </strong>Digital Learning Intern</p>
<p><strong>Describe your role in 4 words: </strong>interesting, challenging (at times), rewarding</p>
<hr />
<p>I wanted to take the time to do a blog post on how my internship has been for the past year. I have worked full-time during the summer in the DLAM TEL team (Digital Learning Applications and Media, Technology Enhanced Learning – so many acronyms!), and part-time during the academic year.</p>
<p>I have done mostly Accessibility testing on various applications, including Turnitin, Moodle, Echo360, Collaborate and Ally, but also other tasks like caption verification or blog editing. I have had a lot to learn about all of the different software types and environments used within the University, and how important each piece of technology is.</p>
<p>Wrapping up my time in DLAM, I wanted to share once again how important the topic of Accessibility is, since it is what the vast majority of my work consisted of. Even though it seems that most of the regulations and adaptive software is concentrated on visual impairment (and too few regulations cover physical impairment – but this is a discussion for another time), it is certain that every little element that is made accessible on a page/application/platform makes a huge difference. Every colour combination, every button, every description and every message matters and can make the navigation better for users if accessibility is taken into consideration.</p>
<p>That being said, my work has been varied, and I never got a chance to get ‘bored’ as every thing I had to do was different from the previous one. I had the opportunity of working with a lot of different people, and I had a lot to learn from everyone I’ve met during my internship. The fact that the team has been welcoming and helpful made a great difference for me and my work – being relaxed and confident in my actions made me more productive, efficient and attentive to details</p>
<h2>Make the most of Learning Technology!</h2>
<p>I would like to end this blog post with a big ‘Thank you’ to the DLAM TEL team, and the wider Learning, Teaching and Web community for the continued support throughout the year.</p>
<p>I certainly recommend giving Learning Technology a chance, regardless of your degree – in the end, it is used by everyone at University, and it’s a very diverse field that will never make you bored.</p>
<p>And lastly, make the most of the resources available – there is a wide variety of them (books, software, databases, videos, courses, trainings), all available at a few clicks’ distance.</p>
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<time datetime="2023-06-07" itemprop="dateModified">Jun 7, 2023</time>
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<title>Eva Spanachi – The journey of being a Digital Learning Intern</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2022/08/04/__trashed/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2022/08/04/__trashed/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[espanach]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Thu, 04 Aug 2022 14:15:15 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Digital Learning Intern]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=1629</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 4</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>Programme of Study and Year: 4th Year Chemistry Hobbies: Art, reading, yoga, baking Intern Position: Digital learning Intern Describe your role in 4 words: Write a blog guys! “Known as” at the office: That annoying person who wouldn’t stop sending emails about the ISG Student Employee blog The opportunity to be part of the ISG […]]]></description>
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<hr />
<p><strong>Programme of Study and Year:</strong> 4<sup>th</sup> Year Chemistry</p>
<p><strong>Hobbies:</strong> Art, reading, yoga, baking</p>
<p><strong>Intern Position:</strong> Digital learning Intern</p>
<p><strong>Describe your role in 4 words:</strong> Write a blog guys!</p>
<p><strong>“Known as” at the office:</strong> That annoying person who wouldn’t stop sending emails about the ISG Student Employee blog</p>
<hr />
<h2>The opportunity to be part of the ISG team</h2>
<p>In mid-April, having the usual mid-semester crisis I started thinking of what I would be doing over the summer! So I started a search to find an internship and I came across the various roles offered by ISG on MyCareerHub and everything looked very interesting (and not chemistry related, which would allow my brain to have a break from all the science). Having my interview with some of the Digital Learning Applications and Media (DLAM) members, I immediately realized that I really wanted to become part of that lovely team and was therefore really happy to receive an offer for the digital learning role.</p>
<h2>The internship so far…</h2>
<p>Part of my internship consists of general testing, as well as accessibility testing on University platforms. After undergoing some training on accessibility, I was so surprised to realize how unfamiliar I was with the whole concept and I definitely learned a lot about how to make things more accessible by considering things like using a correct colour contrast, alternative text when using images, captions in videos and the general structure of a site to make it easy to navigate when someone is not using a mouse or using a speech navigator for example. The general lesson I learned however, was to actually keep in mind the various audiences and not just assume that we all use computers and technology in the same way, but we definitely all deserve to be able to access and navigate through all online environments.</p>
<p>Another part of my role has been to create screencasts using MediaHopper to provide instructions on how to navigate around some teaching and learning sites such as Learn. I now know the struggle of having to record your own voice, and the need to have approximately a hundred takes before you decide to give up and use whatever you have recorded by convincing yourself that it is good enough! The first video I had to script and record was 1.5 mins long and it took me a day to perfect, caption and finally post so I can only imagine how difficult it must be to record an hour long lecture!</p>
<p>I was also recently able to observe how the Unidesk side of the team works and see how they keep the Learning Technology of the University working, and ensure that any issue that occurs is resolved. So I had the opportunity to follow through the process of how an issue, that a staff member or student may be dealing with on different university platforms, such as Turnitin and Learn, is handled and eventually resolved. In the next few weeks I will also be able to go through a few issues and try to propose a way to resolve the problem, and become familiar with the different stages of coming up with a solution.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-1805 " src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2022/07/IMG20220328150556-scaled-e1659605487903-300x241.jpg" alt="" width="467" height="375" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2022/07/IMG20220328150556-scaled-e1659605487903-300x241.jpg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2022/07/IMG20220328150556-scaled-e1659605487903-1024x822.jpg 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2022/07/IMG20220328150556-scaled-e1659605487903-768x617.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2022/07/IMG20220328150556-scaled-e1659605487903-1536x1233.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/wp-content/uploads/sites/197/2022/07/IMG20220328150556-scaled-e1659605487903.jpg 1919w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 467px) 100vw, 467px" /></p>
<p> </p>
<h2>Getting familiar with Blogs.ed!</h2>
<p>The general and accessibility testing I did was on Blogs.ed which was really useful because it helped me get familiar with the website as I had to use it daily as part of having the role of the student intern blog editor. My first task with this role was to come up with a template for the blog posts (a challenging task considering I had never written a single blog post or anything similar before). So I had to come up with a plan!</p>
<p>-> <strong>Plan A:</strong> Read all the previous blogs written by interns and get inspired. Well, I discovered that there were too many previous interns and hence too many previous blogs and too little time! -> <strong>Plan B:</strong> Read <em>a few</em> blogs from each past summer to get inspired and create a template. That actually worked and I managed to structure a template. Step 1 done! <strong>Step 2-</strong> Get the template approved and come up with a strategy on how to approach the other interns. I knew immediately that I had to find a way to make my fellow interns want to write blog posts without being too annoying. <strong> Step 3-</strong> After annoying the interns I then had to edit and proofread their blogs and finally post them on <a href="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/">the Information Services Group: Student Employee Blog</a>. It has been great to see that the plan actually worked and interns did offer to write a blog, and I definitely enjoyed reading them all!</p>
<h2>A few weeks left…</h2>
<p>Only a few weeks left for the end of my internship and I am thankful that I had the opportunity to be part of such a lovely team, where everyone was very welcoming and supportive throughout the internship. Also very grateful that Covid managed to calm down and allow us to go to the office now and then and enjoy each other’s company in person, and got to meet other interns during the great Unitemps social events!</p>
<p><strong>I hope all the interns had a great time during their internships and enjoyed their summers as well! Hopefully the rest of the staff in ISG enjoyed having us around and I am sure all of us appreciate their work and effort a lot more now that we got to see what is happening behind ‘the scenes’.</strong></p>
<p> </p>
<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area">
<time datetime="2022-08-04" itemprop="dateModified">Aug 4, 2022</time>
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<title>Ioana -Uncovering the depths of accessibility testing in the Digital Learning Internship</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2022/07/25/ioana-uncovering-the-depths-of-accessibility-testing-in-the-digital-learning-internship/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2022/07/25/ioana-uncovering-the-depths-of-accessibility-testing-in-the-digital-learning-internship/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[espanach]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 25 Jul 2022 13:10:59 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Digital Learning Intern]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=1727</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 3</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>Programme of Study and Year: Astrophysics (MPhys), going into 3rd year Hobbies: Reading, listening to music, taking walks, watching TV series Intern Position: Digital Learning Intern within Learning, Teaching and Web (LTW) Fun fact about your internship: I have become knowledgeable in Accessibility testing, even though this was not the plan initially Describe your role […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 3</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span><hr />
<p><strong>Programme of Study and Year:</strong> Astrophysics (MPhys), going into 3<sup>rd</sup> year</p>
<p><strong>Hobbies:</strong> Reading, listening to music, taking walks, watching TV series</p>
<p><strong>Intern Position:</strong> Digital Learning Intern within Learning, Teaching and Web (LTW)</p>
<p><strong>Fun fact about your internship:</strong> I have become knowledgeable in Accessibility testing, even though this was not the plan initially</p>
<p><strong>Describe your role in 4 words: </strong> Challenging, rewarding, technical, awesome</p>
<hr />
<h2>The internship experience in a nutshell</h2>
<p>I have found out about these internships from the Unitemps website. I kept checking it in March, as I knew that was the time when the summer roles would be advertised. I have also received notifications over e-mail regarding the roles and how to apply. My role requires me to become familiar with a variety of learning technology applications, and do the accessibility testing based on a specific script and using assistive software. The most enjoyable part is that I get to see, learn, experience and test a lot of the University’s platforms, applications and integrations, and I have the chance to see these from a developer point of view. Additionally, it is just enjoyable to collaborate with my team members and socialise with other interns when we are in the office. Speaking of socialising, the Unitemps social events for interns are the best – the food is great and I always get to meet and talk to lots of interesting people with various experiences.</p>
<h2>Highlights of Digital Learning – Creating documentation and conducting accessibility testing</h2>
<p>I find the 9-5 life surprisingly relaxing, especially when I work from home. Office days can be a bit more tiring, but they are the most fun as almost everyone is there on certain days. My team is welcoming and friendly, even in busy and stressful times – for which I admire them greatly. I really enjoy that communication is very efficient within the team, both when we are in the office and when we are working remotely.</p>
<p>My role so far has helped me overcome certain ‘fears’, for example listening to my own voice. I had to create some videos with instructions on how to use one of the applications within the University. I already had the script, I just had to record my screen while navigating the application. Even though it seems like a simple task, the idea of recording my own voice felt strange. After talking to my manager and some of the members of my team about this, I found that my feeling was quite common – no-one likes to record and listen to their own voice! Therefore I was a bit more confident that nothing could go wrong and I recorded the videos. Listening to my own voice while doing the captioning was not that bad – especially since I was focused on the quality of the sound and the content itself. The feedback I received for the videos was good, which boosted my confidence for this type of task.</p>
<p>As my work requires me to do accessibility testing, I had the opportunity to discover how complex this field is, and how many regulations need to be taken into account for a webpage/application/platform to be considered accessible. As an example, I was aware of captioning being needed for videos, but I wasn’t aware of the exact ratios needed for colour contrasts within a page. In addition, I could see how certain types of assistive software interact with the University platforms and applications, and which issues are encountered. While I still have some training sessions to do, I have developed an awareness for accessibility and I feel that this subject should be promoted more.</p>
<p>The internship has been a great experience so far. I feel lucky that I am a part of a lovely team (DLAM TEL – Digital Learning Applications and Media, Tech Enhanced Learning) where everyone is friendly and willing to help. I have a lot to learn from all of the team members, and also the other interns. The working environment is very good and inspiring, and it allows me to develop valuable skills that will certainly be beneficial in future assignments.</p>
<p><strong>Through this blog post, I would like to wish all the other interns the best of luck in their internships and projects, and to thank all the staff members for being welcoming and supportive in every matter. And last but not least, I encourage every student to apply for a summer internship within the Information Services Group – it’s definitely a fantastic experience!</strong></p>
<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area">
<time datetime="2022-07-25" itemprop="dateModified">Jul 25, 2022</time>
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<title>How I develop skills as a continuing App Developer Intern – Martin Lewis</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2022/04/20/how-i-develop-skills-as-a-continuing-app-developer-intern-martin-lewis/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2022/04/20/how-i-develop-skills-as-a-continuing-app-developer-intern-martin-lewis/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[awilso35]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 20 Apr 2022 11:59:17 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Learn Foundations Learning Applications Developer]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=1581</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 2</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span>Martin Lewis is a final year student in BSc (Hons) Computer Science, and started working as a Summer Intern in ISG in 2020, as one of our interns auditing Learn. Martin really impressed the Learn team with his initiative in finding a chance to automate some work, so since summer 2021 he has since been […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<span class="span-reading-time rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time"> 2</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span><p><em>Martin Lewis is a final year student in BSc (Hons) Computer Science, and started working as a Summer Intern in ISG in 2020, as one of our interns auditing Learn. Martin really impressed the Learn team with his initiative in finding a chance to automate some work, so since summer 2021 he has since been working with the Learn team in a more technical role, doing programming.</em></p>
<p>I started work in Information Services Group (ISG) at the University as a <strong>Summer Intern</strong> in 2020 and 2021, and <strong>since then I’ve been working for ISG doing technical bits and pieces</strong>. In this blog post I’ll be discussing <strong>what I’ve been doing as a part of my work for ISG and what skills this has helped me develop.</strong></p>
<p>Initially I was doing rather non-technical work as part of the Learn Foundations project getting the University’s Learn courses prepared for the new academic year. This was adding things like the course outline and organiser details into these fresh courses. <strong>However, I managed to find a way to automate parts of the workflow I was assigned to and from there began to do technical work for the ISG.</strong><br />
I now have the very long winded title of ‘Learn Foundations Applications Developer Intern’ in which I do development work, making applications that are usually, sometime tangentially, related to the Learn Foundations Project.</p>
<p>For those more technically minded, I’m working in the PHP programming language doing full stack (front and backend) work using the Laravel framework. An excellent opportunity to learn a new language and framework. <strong>There is also the chance to work on real world projects that contain issues and experiences that cannot be found in the classroom or in a coursework assignment.</strong> With real team members (big thanks to Andrew and his team who I have been working with) and <strong>projects that have a real outcome (not just a grade).</strong></p>
<p>Now this is not only a good opportunity to hone skills but it also looks very good on a CV. Already having practical software development experience is fantastic and it also is a great source of discussion <strong>during interviews being able to bring up situations and decisions you made outside of a classroom is great.</strong></p>
<p>Now let’s look at the day to day practicalities (this is just my experience your mileage may vary with role and when you might work). The work is remote, as you could probably guess, which fits well alongside my majority remote learning these past few years. Over the summers I’ve worked full time, 35 hours a week, being treated as a standard member of university staff. Then over the semesters only 7 hours a week which I find easy to fit around my studies and personal life but it does often mean rather slow progress in the projects you work on.</p>
<p><strong>Both of the line managers I’ve had have been wonderful and very understanding about the need to change work patterns last minute or take time off around major deadlines and exams.</strong> The pay isn’t too bad and goes a long way towards covering my rent.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if I’ll be continuing to work for the University after May as I am finally graduating. I will however apologise in advance to any potential future intern who has to work with my code! But the last two years have gone a long way to making me a much more employable graduate.</p>
<p>So do consider applying for an ISG internship,<strong> I’ve personally gotten a lot out of it and I think any proactive student can benefit greatly from such a role.</strong></p>
<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area">
<time datetime="2022-04-20" itemprop="dateModified">Apr 20, 2022</time>
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<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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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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Diag| Considering item [https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=2426] "Tallulah Thompson – What I have learnt from the Media and Podcasting Internship"
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Diag| Considering item [https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=2398] "Tallulah Thompson – Reflections on metadata"
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Diag| Considering item [https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=2152] "Lewis Forbes – LaTeX and Accessibility"
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Diag| Considering item [https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=1905] "Ioana-Sabina Susanu – My Digital Learning Internship, in a nutshell."
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Diag| Considering item [https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=1629] "Eva Spanachi – The journey of being a Digital Learning Intern"
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Diag| Considering item [https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=1727] "Ioana -Uncovering the depths of accessibility testing in the Digital Learning Internship"
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Diag| Considering item [https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=1581] "How I develop skills as a continuing App Developer Intern – Martin Lewis"
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Diag| Considering item [https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/?p=1543] "Top Five Things I Like About my Internship"
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<dc:creator><![CDATA[Edward Green]]></dc:creator>
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<description><![CDATA[This February I was back at the PHPUK conference in London. The venue this year was 1 America Square with a historic wall through the middle of one of the rooms. There were three tracks to follow so unfortunately we couldn’t go to all the talks, but managed to cover two thirds. It Depends – […]]]></description>
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<p>This February I was back at the PHPUK conference in London. The venue this year was 1 America Square with a historic wall through the middle of one of the rooms. There were three tracks to follow so unfortunately we couldn’t go to all the talks, but managed to cover two thirds.</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">It Depends – Gary Hockin</h2>
<p>After a short welcome to the conference (and the new venue), Gary Hockin gave a talk about how decisions that we make every day have different outcomes based on the context. There are always trade-offs to consider for every choice we make and because one option is not chosen in one instance, it doesn’t mean it is unsuitable for all situations.</p>
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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Know Your Enemies: Live Exploit of a PHP Engine Security Breach – Alexandre Daubois</h2>
<p>Alexandre presented an interesting talk on real exploits or attempted exploits in PHP. The most interesting example to me was an attempt to add malicious code that would allow executing any code on a server running PHP as long as it’s connected to the internet. This was done by interpreting a specific header on incoming requests as code to run when given a certain prefix. It even made it to a release candidate before it was noticed by other contributors. This was done by exploiting a vulnerability in the version control server that allowed the malicious actor to submit the code changes under a different user. Luckily the code was spotted and removed before becoming widely available in a full release. This also influenced the decision to move the code into GitHub, so maintainers didn’t have to worry as much about the security of the code.</p>
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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Packets, Protocols and PHP: Networking Fundamentals for Developers – Jessica Smith</h2>
<p>This next talk discussed what happens behind the scenes whenever a network request is made over the internet. Jessica covered a lot during the 45 minutes and even though it isn’t knowledge that I’d usually consider a key part to my job, I think it is very useful to understand what is happening in the background when users are accessing your website. It still amazes me how we can send information across the world in seconds (or less) over the internet. Even with an explanation on how data is split into packets and how they are routed, it’s still hard to comprehend.</p>
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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The Four Pillars of Observability – Florian Engelhardt</h2>
<p>Next came a guide to monitoring live applications and how to quickly find when something is wrong with Florian. I found a lot of the tips to be relevant to websites I have worked on within the university such as the Short Courses Platform (SCP). Occasionally we have a bug in the site, and it can be very difficult to find what the actual cause of it is. Using metrics, logging, tracing, and profiling we can get a better idea of what is causing an issue and why it has started happening. As a developer, I’m used to using logs and error messages to get an idea about what is going wrong when something breaks, but Florian gave some interesting ideas that aren’t completely code related like monitoring live sales (or course enrolments for the SCP) and visualising them. If the numbers start to drop rapidly, then something has probably broken which means people can’t use the website properly.</p>
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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Saving Time by Using a Debugger – Derick Rethans</h2>
<p>Derick gave a demonstration on ways to use Xdebug to improve developer efficiency. Once setup, it can be a useful tool for stepping through PHP code and inspecting the current state of the web application to find out what is happening. Personally, I have used debuggers with C# and C++ code and found it useful there since I don’t have to recompile anything to add in some logs and inspect data. In interpreted languages like PHP, this isn’t something I have considered before, however I will definitely be finding it useful in my future work. Even though some technical issues disrupted the live demonstrations, Derick still managed to inspire me to check out Xdebug for myself and use with both personal and work projects.</p>
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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Stepping away from the code… but not quite… – Wim Godden</h2>
<p>This was one of my favourite talks of the day from Wim about how stakeholders in a project should approach the code, particularly emphasising when people in management or non-development roles need to <em>step away from the code</em> and let developers do their job. He talked about how people from outside of development teams, especially those with development experience, can often try to dictate the implementation of a feature rather than what the result of having that feature should be which can cause issues with development and often makes the process of adding a feature take longer. Providing high quality user stories that have good coverage of what the users need to be able to do on the application will be far more valuable to developers. He also talked about how the career progression of a developer doesn’t have to be continuously upwards within an organisation. Instead, it’s ok to move up and down or stay where we’re comfortable.</p>
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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Escaping the Code Maze – Yannick Chenot</h2>
<p>To finish off the day, Yannick discussed how we can make our code easier to understand by reducing the assumptions that can be made. Some languages are already stricter on some of the methods of explaining code such as providing types to variables with static types, whereas languages like PHP don’t enforce many rules like this. He demonstrated a few PHP classes and how the assumptions can be reduced by making simple changes that can greatly improve the readability of the code.</p>
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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">In conclusion</h2>
<p>There were lots of interesting topic discussed throughout the day and plenty to think about afterwards. I will definitely be looking into Xdebug and different tools for monitoring and observing web applications. I found Wim Godden’s talk about how we should see code in different roles across an organisation interesting. I’d highly recommend watching/listening to the recording as this one is also relevant to less technical people who work with developers.</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Elephants </h2>
<p>I’ve also started a collection of PHP elephants with two from this conference.</p>
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<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/egreen2/2025/08/19/phpuk-conference-2025/</link>
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<dc:creator><![CDATA[Edward Green]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 19 Aug 2025 11:09:19 +0000</pubDate>
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<p>Before splitting into separate tracks, Daniel Terhorst-North gave a talk on behaviour driven development (BDD) and the 20 years of history behind it. He showed how even though it was started by one person, the community has kept it going.</p>
<p>The next speaker I listened to was Wim Godden who spoke about deploying software at both small and large scales and automating the processes behind it as much as possible. He showed a real-world example of deploying software to rental lockers for a Belgium based company. They used a tool called Ansible to remotely connect to each computer and run tasks for setting up the computer, installing software, and running the company’s software that operates the lockers. This talk felt especially relevant to the Short Courses Platform I am currently working on, since we are also using Ansible to deploy the website onto multiple servers and update it when required.</p>
<p>After a quick break and discussion about the talks we’d listened to, I attended a talk about how large codebases can be compared to onions from Katy Ereira. She explained how large systems can be broken down into smaller, more understandable parts and comparing them to different parts of an onion to help understand their function.</p>
<p>Nils Adermann gave a talk on securing software supply chains. When most people add a library to their codebase, they don’t always think about the security of the library itself, and especially not the dependencies required by it. However, a dependency of a dependency of a library used for something as simple as logging messages could have a security vulnerability that affects the whole codebase. Nils talked about ways to protect against that using tools like GitHub Dependabot or Conductor, which Private Packagist is currently developing. He also revealed how many widely used and often open source libraries receive extremely little funding, which can make it difficult finding volunteers to maintain security.</p>
<p>Over lunch, we discussed the speakers we had listened to and spoke to other attendees of the conference.</p>
<p>Next was a talk from Gina Banyard about discovering edge cases in the PHP language. As a PHP core maintainer, they had an interesting perspective on how bugs are diagnosed and discussions about the expected functionality. Some examples of recently addressed bugs were demonstrated, along with how PHP now handles them.</p>
<p>After the final break, I attended a talk about OpenAPI from Lorna Mitchell, which discussed what the OpenAPI specification is and how it can benefit both developers and users of APIs. The specification assists developers in designing APIs and creating extensive documentation for them through a schema written in either JSON or YAML. Since it is language agnostic, it can be applied to any API.</p>
<p>The conference provided some interesting perspectives and ideas that I will be sharing with other colleagues and may encourage us to consider in current or future projects. Many of the talks were not just relevant to PHP, so can be applied to other projects such as the short courses platform, which already uses Ansible for deployment.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Information about all the speakers and recordings of the talks can be found on the <a href="https://www.phpconference.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">PHPUK Conference website</a></p>
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<dc:creator><![CDATA[Edward Green]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 17 Apr 2026 15:08:58 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Conference]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/egreen2/?p=21</guid>
<description><![CDATA[This February I was back at the PHPUK conference in London. The venue this year was 1 America Square with a historic wall through the middle of one of the rooms. There were three tracks to follow so unfortunately we couldn’t go to all the talks, but managed to cover two thirds. It Depends – […]]]></description>
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<p>This February I was back at the PHPUK conference in London. The venue this year was 1 America Square with a historic wall through the middle of one of the rooms. There were three tracks to follow so unfortunately we couldn’t go to all the talks, but managed to cover two thirds.</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">It Depends – Gary Hockin</h2>
<p>After a short welcome to the conference (and the new venue), Gary Hockin gave a talk about how decisions that we make every day have different outcomes based on the context. There are always trade-offs to consider for every choice we make and because one option is not chosen in one instance, it doesn’t mean it is unsuitable for all situations.</p>
<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe loading="lazy" src="about:blank" data-bs-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/w5Ja7Gysm_w?feature=oembed" width="660" height="544" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></figure>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Know Your Enemies: Live Exploit of a PHP Engine Security Breach – Alexandre Daubois</h2>
<p>Alexandre presented an interesting talk on real exploits or attempted exploits in PHP. The most interesting example to me was an attempt to add malicious code that would allow executing any code on a server running PHP as long as it’s connected to the internet. This was done by interpreting a specific header on incoming requests as code to run when given a certain prefix. It even made it to a release candidate before it was noticed by other contributors. This was done by exploiting a vulnerability in the version control server that allowed the malicious actor to submit the code changes under a different user. Luckily the code was spotted and removed before becoming widely available in a full release. This also influenced the decision to move the code into GitHub, so maintainers didn’t have to worry as much about the security of the code.</p>
<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe loading="lazy" src="about:blank" data-bs-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jXkBWNLUO2M?feature=oembed" width="660" height="544" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></figure>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Packets, Protocols and PHP: Networking Fundamentals for Developers – Jessica Smith</h2>
<p>This next talk discussed what happens behind the scenes whenever a network request is made over the internet. Jessica covered a lot during the 45 minutes and even though it isn’t knowledge that I’d usually consider a key part to my job, I think it is very useful to understand what is happening in the background when users are accessing your website. It still amazes me how we can send information across the world in seconds (or less) over the internet. Even with an explanation on how data is split into packets and how they are routed, it’s still hard to comprehend.</p>
<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
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</div></figure>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The Four Pillars of Observability – Florian Engelhardt</h2>
<p>Next came a guide to monitoring live applications and how to quickly find when something is wrong with Florian. I found a lot of the tips to be relevant to websites I have worked on within the university such as the Short Courses Platform (SCP). Occasionally we have a bug in the site, and it can be very difficult to find what the actual cause of it is. Using metrics, logging, tracing, and profiling we can get a better idea of what is causing an issue and why it has started happening. As a developer, I’m used to using logs and error messages to get an idea about what is going wrong when something breaks, but Florian gave some interesting ideas that aren’t completely code related like monitoring live sales (or course enrolments for the SCP) and visualising them. If the numbers start to drop rapidly, then something has probably broken which means people can’t use the website properly.</p>
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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Saving Time by Using a Debugger – Derick Rethans</h2>
<p>Derick gave a demonstration on ways to use Xdebug to improve developer efficiency. Once setup, it can be a useful tool for stepping through PHP code and inspecting the current state of the web application to find out what is happening. Personally, I have used debuggers with C# and C++ code and found it useful there since I don’t have to recompile anything to add in some logs and inspect data. In interpreted languages like PHP, this isn’t something I have considered before, however I will definitely be finding it useful in my future work. Even though some technical issues disrupted the live demonstrations, Derick still managed to inspire me to check out Xdebug for myself and use with both personal and work projects.</p>
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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Stepping away from the code… but not quite… – Wim Godden</h2>
<p>This was one of my favourite talks of the day from Wim about how stakeholders in a project should approach the code, particularly emphasising when people in management or non-development roles need to <em>step away from the code</em> and let developers do their job. He talked about how people from outside of development teams, especially those with development experience, can often try to dictate the implementation of a feature rather than what the result of having that feature should be which can cause issues with development and often makes the process of adding a feature take longer. Providing high quality user stories that have good coverage of what the users need to be able to do on the application will be far more valuable to developers. He also talked about how the career progression of a developer doesn’t have to be continuously upwards within an organisation. Instead, it’s ok to move up and down or stay where we’re comfortable.</p>
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</div></figure>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Escaping the Code Maze – Yannick Chenot</h2>
<p>To finish off the day, Yannick discussed how we can make our code easier to understand by reducing the assumptions that can be made. Some languages are already stricter on some of the methods of explaining code such as providing types to variables with static types, whereas languages like PHP don’t enforce many rules like this. He demonstrated a few PHP classes and how the assumptions can be reduced by making simple changes that can greatly improve the readability of the code.</p>
<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe loading="lazy" src="about:blank" data-bs-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0emNLJAsfcM?feature=oembed" width="660" height="544" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></figure>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">In conclusion</h2>
<p>There were lots of interesting topic discussed throughout the day and plenty to think about afterwards. I will definitely be looking into Xdebug and different tools for monitoring and observing web applications. I found Wim Godden’s talk about how we should see code in different roles across an organisation interesting. I’d highly recommend watching/listening to the recording as this one is also relevant to less technical people who work with developers.</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Elephants </h2>
<p>I’ve also started a collection of PHP elephants with two from this conference.</p>
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<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/egreen2/2025/08/19/phpuk-conference-2025/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/egreen2/2025/08/19/phpuk-conference-2025/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Edward Green]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 19 Aug 2025 11:09:19 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Uncategorised]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/egreen2/?p=7</guid>
<description><![CDATA[In February, a colleague and I got the chance to attend the PHPUK conference 2025. Throughout the day, we attended talks from various contributors to the PHP community. The conference had two tracks, which allowed us to split up and cover as much as possible with plenty of breaks to discuss what we’ve learnt about. […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>In February, a colleague and I got the chance to attend the PHPUK conference 2025. Throughout the day, we attended talks from various contributors to the PHP community. The conference had two tracks, which allowed us to split up and cover as much as possible with plenty of breaks to discuss what we’ve learnt about.</p>
<p>Before splitting into separate tracks, Daniel Terhorst-North gave a talk on behaviour driven development (BDD) and the 20 years of history behind it. He showed how even though it was started by one person, the community has kept it going.</p>
<p>The next speaker I listened to was Wim Godden who spoke about deploying software at both small and large scales and automating the processes behind it as much as possible. He showed a real-world example of deploying software to rental lockers for a Belgium based company. They used a tool called Ansible to remotely connect to each computer and run tasks for setting up the computer, installing software, and running the company’s software that operates the lockers. This talk felt especially relevant to the Short Courses Platform I am currently working on, since we are also using Ansible to deploy the website onto multiple servers and update it when required.</p>
<p>After a quick break and discussion about the talks we’d listened to, I attended a talk about how large codebases can be compared to onions from Katy Ereira. She explained how large systems can be broken down into smaller, more understandable parts and comparing them to different parts of an onion to help understand their function.</p>
<p>Nils Adermann gave a talk on securing software supply chains. When most people add a library to their codebase, they don’t always think about the security of the library itself, and especially not the dependencies required by it. However, a dependency of a dependency of a library used for something as simple as logging messages could have a security vulnerability that affects the whole codebase. Nils talked about ways to protect against that using tools like GitHub Dependabot or Conductor, which Private Packagist is currently developing. He also revealed how many widely used and often open source libraries receive extremely little funding, which can make it difficult finding volunteers to maintain security.</p>
<p>Over lunch, we discussed the speakers we had listened to and spoke to other attendees of the conference.</p>
<p>Next was a talk from Gina Banyard about discovering edge cases in the PHP language. As a PHP core maintainer, they had an interesting perspective on how bugs are diagnosed and discussions about the expected functionality. Some examples of recently addressed bugs were demonstrated, along with how PHP now handles them.</p>
<p>After the final break, I attended a talk about OpenAPI from Lorna Mitchell, which discussed what the OpenAPI specification is and how it can benefit both developers and users of APIs. The specification assists developers in designing APIs and creating extensive documentation for them through a schema written in either JSON or YAML. Since it is language agnostic, it can be applied to any API.</p>
<p>The conference provided some interesting perspectives and ideas that I will be sharing with other colleagues and may encourage us to consider in current or future projects. Many of the talks were not just relevant to PHP, so can be applied to other projects such as the short courses platform, which already uses Ansible for deployment.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Information about all the speakers and recordings of the talks can be found on the <a href="https://www.phpconference.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">PHPUK Conference website</a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
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<description><![CDATA[This February I was back at the PHPUK conference in London. The venue this year was 1 America Square with a historic wall through the middle of one of the rooms. There were three tracks to follow so unfortunately we couldn’t go to all the talks, but managed to cover two thirds. It Depends – […]]]></description>
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<p>This February I was back at the PHPUK conference in London. The venue this year was 1 America Square with a historic wall through the middle of one of the rooms. There were three tracks to follow so unfortunately we couldn’t go to all the talks, but managed to cover two thirds.</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">It Depends – Gary Hockin</h2>
<p>After a short welcome to the conference (and the new venue), Gary Hockin gave a talk about how decisions that we make every day have different outcomes based on the context. There are always trade-offs to consider for every choice we make and because one option is not chosen in one instance, it doesn’t mean it is unsuitable for all situations.</p>
<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe loading="lazy" src="about:blank" data-bs-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/w5Ja7Gysm_w?feature=oembed" width="660" height="544" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></figure>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Know Your Enemies: Live Exploit of a PHP Engine Security Breach – Alexandre Daubois</h2>
<p>Alexandre presented an interesting talk on real exploits or attempted exploits in PHP. The most interesting example to me was an attempt to add malicious code that would allow executing any code on a server running PHP as long as it’s connected to the internet. This was done by interpreting a specific header on incoming requests as code to run when given a certain prefix. It even made it to a release candidate before it was noticed by other contributors. This was done by exploiting a vulnerability in the version control server that allowed the malicious actor to submit the code changes under a different user. Luckily the code was spotted and removed before becoming widely available in a full release. This also influenced the decision to move the code into GitHub, so maintainers didn’t have to worry as much about the security of the code.</p>
<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe loading="lazy" src="about:blank" data-bs-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jXkBWNLUO2M?feature=oembed" width="660" height="544" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></figure>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Packets, Protocols and PHP: Networking Fundamentals for Developers – Jessica Smith</h2>
<p>This next talk discussed what happens behind the scenes whenever a network request is made over the internet. Jessica covered a lot during the 45 minutes and even though it isn’t knowledge that I’d usually consider a key part to my job, I think it is very useful to understand what is happening in the background when users are accessing your website. It still amazes me how we can send information across the world in seconds (or less) over the internet. Even with an explanation on how data is split into packets and how they are routed, it’s still hard to comprehend.</p>
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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The Four Pillars of Observability – Florian Engelhardt</h2>
<p>Next came a guide to monitoring live applications and how to quickly find when something is wrong with Florian. I found a lot of the tips to be relevant to websites I have worked on within the university such as the Short Courses Platform (SCP). Occasionally we have a bug in the site, and it can be very difficult to find what the actual cause of it is. Using metrics, logging, tracing, and profiling we can get a better idea of what is causing an issue and why it has started happening. As a developer, I’m used to using logs and error messages to get an idea about what is going wrong when something breaks, but Florian gave some interesting ideas that aren’t completely code related like monitoring live sales (or course enrolments for the SCP) and visualising them. If the numbers start to drop rapidly, then something has probably broken which means people can’t use the website properly.</p>
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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Saving Time by Using a Debugger – Derick Rethans</h2>
<p>Derick gave a demonstration on ways to use Xdebug to improve developer efficiency. Once setup, it can be a useful tool for stepping through PHP code and inspecting the current state of the web application to find out what is happening. Personally, I have used debuggers with C# and C++ code and found it useful there since I don’t have to recompile anything to add in some logs and inspect data. In interpreted languages like PHP, this isn’t something I have considered before, however I will definitely be finding it useful in my future work. Even though some technical issues disrupted the live demonstrations, Derick still managed to inspire me to check out Xdebug for myself and use with both personal and work projects.</p>
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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Stepping away from the code… but not quite… – Wim Godden</h2>
<p>This was one of my favourite talks of the day from Wim about how stakeholders in a project should approach the code, particularly emphasising when people in management or non-development roles need to <em>step away from the code</em> and let developers do their job. He talked about how people from outside of development teams, especially those with development experience, can often try to dictate the implementation of a feature rather than what the result of having that feature should be which can cause issues with development and often makes the process of adding a feature take longer. Providing high quality user stories that have good coverage of what the users need to be able to do on the application will be far more valuable to developers. He also talked about how the career progression of a developer doesn’t have to be continuously upwards within an organisation. Instead, it’s ok to move up and down or stay where we’re comfortable.</p>
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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Escaping the Code Maze – Yannick Chenot</h2>
<p>To finish off the day, Yannick discussed how we can make our code easier to understand by reducing the assumptions that can be made. Some languages are already stricter on some of the methods of explaining code such as providing types to variables with static types, whereas languages like PHP don’t enforce many rules like this. He demonstrated a few PHP classes and how the assumptions can be reduced by making simple changes that can greatly improve the readability of the code.</p>
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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">In conclusion</h2>
<p>There were lots of interesting topic discussed throughout the day and plenty to think about afterwards. I will definitely be looking into Xdebug and different tools for monitoring and observing web applications. I found Wim Godden’s talk about how we should see code in different roles across an organisation interesting. I’d highly recommend watching/listening to the recording as this one is also relevant to less technical people who work with developers.</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Elephants </h2>
<p>I’ve also started a collection of PHP elephants with two from this conference.</p>
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<title>PHPUK Conference 2025</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/egreen2/2025/08/19/phpuk-conference-2025/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/egreen2/2025/08/19/phpuk-conference-2025/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Edward Green]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 19 Aug 2025 11:09:19 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[In February, a colleague and I got the chance to attend the PHPUK conference 2025. Throughout the day, we attended talks from various contributors to the PHP community. The conference had two tracks, which allowed us to split up and cover as much as possible with plenty of breaks to discuss what we’ve learnt about. […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>In February, a colleague and I got the chance to attend the PHPUK conference 2025. Throughout the day, we attended talks from various contributors to the PHP community. The conference had two tracks, which allowed us to split up and cover as much as possible with plenty of breaks to discuss what we’ve learnt about.</p>
<p>Before splitting into separate tracks, Daniel Terhorst-North gave a talk on behaviour driven development (BDD) and the 20 years of history behind it. He showed how even though it was started by one person, the community has kept it going.</p>
<p>The next speaker I listened to was Wim Godden who spoke about deploying software at both small and large scales and automating the processes behind it as much as possible. He showed a real-world example of deploying software to rental lockers for a Belgium based company. They used a tool called Ansible to remotely connect to each computer and run tasks for setting up the computer, installing software, and running the company’s software that operates the lockers. This talk felt especially relevant to the Short Courses Platform I am currently working on, since we are also using Ansible to deploy the website onto multiple servers and update it when required.</p>
<p>After a quick break and discussion about the talks we’d listened to, I attended a talk about how large codebases can be compared to onions from Katy Ereira. She explained how large systems can be broken down into smaller, more understandable parts and comparing them to different parts of an onion to help understand their function.</p>
<p>Nils Adermann gave a talk on securing software supply chains. When most people add a library to their codebase, they don’t always think about the security of the library itself, and especially not the dependencies required by it. However, a dependency of a dependency of a library used for something as simple as logging messages could have a security vulnerability that affects the whole codebase. Nils talked about ways to protect against that using tools like GitHub Dependabot or Conductor, which Private Packagist is currently developing. He also revealed how many widely used and often open source libraries receive extremely little funding, which can make it difficult finding volunteers to maintain security.</p>
<p>Over lunch, we discussed the speakers we had listened to and spoke to other attendees of the conference.</p>
<p>Next was a talk from Gina Banyard about discovering edge cases in the PHP language. As a PHP core maintainer, they had an interesting perspective on how bugs are diagnosed and discussions about the expected functionality. Some examples of recently addressed bugs were demonstrated, along with how PHP now handles them.</p>
<p>After the final break, I attended a talk about OpenAPI from Lorna Mitchell, which discussed what the OpenAPI specification is and how it can benefit both developers and users of APIs. The specification assists developers in designing APIs and creating extensive documentation for them through a schema written in either JSON or YAML. Since it is language agnostic, it can be applied to any API.</p>
<p>The conference provided some interesting perspectives and ideas that I will be sharing with other colleagues and may encourage us to consider in current or future projects. Many of the talks were not just relevant to PHP, so can be applied to other projects such as the short courses platform, which already uses Ansible for deployment.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Information about all the speakers and recordings of the talks can be found on the <a href="https://www.phpconference.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">PHPUK Conference website</a></p>
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Diag====| Feed Error: [https://thinking.is.ed.ac.uk/noteable/feed/] update returned error: A feed could not be found at `https://thinking.is.ed.ac.uk/noteable/feed/`. This does not appear to be a valid RSS or Atom feed.
Diag========| Feed Update Error: [https://thinking.is.ed.ac.uk/noteable/feed/] returning errors since Thu, 07 Aug 2025 15:12:13 +0000:<br/><code>A feed could not be found at `https://thinking.is.ed.ac.uk/noteable/feed/`. This does not appear to be a valid RSS or Atom feed.</code>
All the edtech shenanigans that's fit to print
A guest blog post from one of our human-captioners, Ellie Kerr. Ellie joined us back in 2023 and is one of our original captioners – when we only had a team of 2. Now we have 20 part-time captioners who work on correcting automated captions across our lecture recordings and other media. I never […]
Diag| Memory: Current usage: 9 MB
Diag| Memory: Peak usage: 9 MB
Hi Jackie, This sounds like an exciting creative project. Designing and animating custom stick figures from scratch is not that…
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