Background There has been a shift in priorities relating to data and storage of end user data over the last decade particularly in relation to services hosted by DLAM, one of the constants has always been around security, as we move forward there is an increasing expectation that we should retain the minimum required amount […]

The numbers have been crunched, the results are in.  We’ve had record usage of our lecture recording service by our staff and students this year! We’ve had a whopping 40,160 recordings created since June 2024 and a massive 28,945,731 minutes of lectures watched in the same time frame. Of course, …

I’ve had an exciting week so far (and it’s only Thursday), in a good way rather than a bad exciting week (which sometimes happens but is less fun….!).   We had 3 new interns join us in DLAM (David, Hera and Otis) more about that in a future blog post) to …

I’ve long been interested in the value of AI and where and when it is particularly useful or gimmicky.  Given the impact of AI on the environment (and costs), I often reflect on whether the AI input is worth-the-impact. I have been using ELM to help tidy up and reword …

Many of you will be aware of our FLORA project (if you aren’t, find out more on Melissa’s helpful FLORA blog post).  Named after Flora Stevenson, a pioneer of education for girls and women but also a quirky acronym – Feedback, Learning, Online Rubrics and Assessment.  FLORA was really our …

The past few weeks have reminded me that failure is a part of everything we do. Whether it’s in our professional lives or personal pursuits, from breaking an application to playing a game incorrectly and not winning, failure happens. The term ‘failure’ sounds harsh, but for me, it is about becoming comfortable with it and […]

I recently attended the ITIL 4 Foundation training course organised by ISG and successfully passed the exam. Here’s some thoughts about my experience and some tips that I learned while studying for the exam. This is a 3 days in-person course that prepares attendees for the ITIL exam. It was delivered by a training partner […]

I wrote a blog post in January 2023 (where did the time go!?!) about the work we’ve been doing on data retention for our services.  Work has continued in the background and currently we are almost at the point of: Automating the deletion of courses and users in Learn.  Sean …

Estimated reading time: < 1 minute. It’s been a busy, but rewarding, week at work and home. In the last 24 hours The Lego Group have published two personal videos documenting my sight loss disability and love for building with Braille bricks.

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 […]