Find out what a day in the life of Learn Foundation Intern looks like – Simon, Hannah, Cat, Claudia and Caitlin tell us all about it.
The day starts at 9am with a group call on MS Teams in which we catch up and cover the plan for the day! Things don’t always go to plan, but it’s nice to catch up with the team and gain an idea of how the day will progress. Today, the Law School template was ready to be implemented, so we turned to the specially designed Excel workflow and went over each of the specific tasks required. This is also a great opportunity to ask questions and clear up any uncertainties.
Using the workflow for reference, we started the major task of the day: migration! This consisted of checking the Law courses against the template to ensure they mirror it. If the course does not mirror the template, we need to make the relevant changes. For example, ensuring the formatting is aligned to the template and that the correct learning outcomes from DRPS (Degree Regulations and Programmes of Study) will be migrated over. Some courses have far more work to be done than others. Therefore, we all work through our assigned courses at a different pace. Once an intern finishes their assigned courses, they always jump into the Teams Channel chat and offer to help anyone who still has outstanding courses. This is a true reflection of the amazing teamwork that is displayed day in and day out.
Once everything is ‘complete’ we then move into the next task: the QA (quality assurance)! We then go through the entire template for every course, searching for a small mistake or oversight – this helps to ensure that the highest quality of work is turned back to each school!
In addition to periods of hard work where we need to be paying close attention to detail, our line manager encourages us to take regular breaks, which gives us a chance to get a cup of tea and some time away from the screens. As we are working remotely, this allows us to get some air, so going for a short walk is always a good idea! Today, we also had a social hour in which we got to know our fellow colleagues better. Our favourite games are scribbl and code names. These are great games that let us interact with each other, even if we could only connect via the internet. We suggest you try these games with your friends!
After social hour, we had to make sure that the migration and QA work is finished. Having completed migration and QA, we looked over the workflow to make sure we hadn’t accidentally missed out a course or any checks. If everything is done, there’s something incredibly satisfying about seeing a spreadsheet full of ‘Y’s and every row marked as ‘Completed’!
For an hour in the afternoon, we were given time to continue with our professional development – or ‘LinkedIn Learning Time’. LinkedIn Learning is a tool for skills development that we have for free during our time at university! Some people decided to continue working through a LinkedIn Learning course, while others worked on writing a blog, learned British Sign Language, or pursued a different path of personal development. This is very helpful in ensuring we make the most of our internship by gaining the skills that are most important to us. We finish up at 5pm – and not having a commute home means that we have the whole evening to chill out and enjoy our spare time!
Get to know the team:
My name is Hannah, and I work as one of the interns on the Learn Foundations project! My favourite aspect of the job has been working alongside our great group of Learn Foundations interns and expanding my understanding of accessibility in technology. In my free time, I volunteer for various climate action charities and community projects, I try to read as many books as I buy (and fail terribly) and give my dogs a lot of attention.
My name is Claudia and this summer I am working within the Information Services Group as a Learn Foundations intern. I have been working with Learn Foundations for over a year now, and this is my second summer as an intern. I am excited to be back this summer, working with lots of new and old faces, it is great how quickly we have gelled as a team! My favourite part of the role is working in the knowledge that our work will positively impact every student and staff member at the university. I graduated this summer, which can be a daunting time, but having this internship is the perfect introduction into professional life!
I’m Caitlin and I’m a Learn Foundations Student Intern. This is my second summer in the role and I’m really enjoying it! I really like the fact that this work has a direct impact on students and staff, the benefit of which I experienced as a student throughout the year. In my spare time I like to play piano, sometimes for hours on end (sorry neighbours) and watch trashy television and films (I confess I have terrible taste).
I’m Cat and I’m one of the Learn Foundations interns this summer! I am helping to prepare the Learn course pages for the next academic year by completing the migration and accessibility checks on each course page. I really enjoy the mix of independent work and teamwork. It’s great to work with and meet other people, but it is also a good experience to work individually and have that level of responsibility. I am a very active person so in my spare time I love running and walking all over Edinburgh, or just enjoying the (long awaited) summer weather!
My name is Simon and I just graduated with a psychology degree from the University of Edinburgh. As I had already been the team last two summers, I am delighted to be back to the team this summer.
For the favourite thing about my job, I would say I have gained a bunch of skills and knowledge that would be useful in my career. I have learned the importance of accessibility and I have realised that some subtle changes could render a huge improvement towards more accessible learning. For instance, students with ADHD may find san serif fonts (vs serif fonts) easier to read because these fonts have fewer distractions for them. Furthermore, this internship trains my data management skills as I need to deal with a massive dataset (e.g., accessibility data from over 5000 online courses). These skills will definitely be useful for my research career path.
Sometimes when we were waiting for the data from other schools and we had finished all assigned tasks, we had chances to engage with personal development things. I usually use these time periods to study some things that interested me. For example, as I am interested in clinical research, I have taken an online course called Good Clinical Practice by National Institute for Health Research. Moreover, when I am off from work, I sometimes go to Pleasance Sports Centre to practise archery.
(Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash)
(Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash)
(Photo by Tetiana Padurets on Unsplash.)
