Today, Thursday 27th July 2023, is National Interns Day and to celebrate we want to recognise all the achievements and hard work our digital interns have been doing while working with us over the summer.
This is the third year we have ran the digital student internship and this year we were lucky enough to welcome 20 new student interns to come and work alongside the Learning Technology Development Team.
As part of the internship the students have been working with staff and academics to transition modules from Blackboard Original to Blackboard Ultra, this includes creating course areas, creating banners and documents pages and making documents accessible.
The aim of the internship is to develop the students employability skills as well as taking on work related projects. We hope the internship will enhance their Graduate Attributes, from communication, team working and organisation skills to digital and literacy skills.
At this point, the interns are just over half way through the 10 week programme and this is a great celebration to look back and see how far they have all come since their interview date.
Ailsa
Ailsa is a returning student digital intern and has excelled in her role. Ailsa presented in person to the whole computer science department, demonstrating the innovative course design in Blackboard Ultra during a departmental meeting. She has implemented best practice for the accessibility of courses across the department. Ailsa is a great advocate for accessibility and has recently attended a LS Communications meeting to discuss the importance of Alt Text and explained the ways we can all improve our accessibility.
Alexi
Alexi is a great team player, we have enjoyed seeing how much he has got involved in the project plans and working with his department. Alexi has shown great problem solving and networking skills, especially during team meetings and attending various social activities across the university.
Bee
Bee has been working on some amazing video tutorials which are going to be a great asset to future students, helping them navigate the new Blackboard Ultra platform in the coming year. It has been great to see her working independently and see her creative skills come to life.
Cai
Cai has been a great addition to the team and has fully immersed into the internship. He has taken on additional roles such as chairing meetings with the interns and leading the team. We can see how much his confidence has grown since starting in May.
Charlie
Charlie has shown great resilience after being faced with some technical limitations during the first week, it was great to see him able to navigate the situation and develop problem solving skills. Charlie has also improved his digital skills and is looking forward to applying his skills within PGCE to create learning resources for students.
Daniel
Daniel was given a huge task within his department to create videos and media content, he has taken to this task brilliantly and worked hard throughout. He has also shown great networking skills whilst attending the Ultra Knowledge Exchange conference.
Grace
Grace also joined Daniel in creating videos and media content for her department, she has shown great initiative by using external resources to further develop her skills and applied these skills as an alumni within her previous department to support tutors in preparation for a show at the Liverpool Theatre Festival. It is great to see Grace taking on new challenges and stepping out of her comfort zone.
Jordan
Jordan is also a returning student digital intern, he has always been proactive and eager to learn. Jordan has been a tireless worker for creative arts, sharing his experience and ideas for their course areas. He is always happy to volunteer and get involved and has created some great work throughout the internship from creating videos to being involved in the social media squad.
Judea
Judea has grown in confidence since starting the internship and received a lot of positive feedback from their department for completing tasks efficiently and on time. She is a great ambassador for accessibility and inclusion
Kien
Kien has been a great team player and it has been great to see how involved within the team chat. Kian is confident and professional in his working practices, working well within his team, he learns and disseminates information quickly and positively, making the most of every opportunity, thus successfully tackling some resistant circumstances along the way.
Lawrence
Lawrence has the ability to create effective working place such as to understand objectives, recognise how to achieve tasks effectively and able to communicate with others the best working method possible. Lawrence has been a catalyst of change within the department as his respected opinions have created better working practices.
Maddison
Maddy’s professional contributions have been highly commended within her department, not just regarding specific working activity with module tutors but also in front of audiences that contain a vast hierarchy of colleagues and senior leaders. Being able to provide the student voice and perspective for the use of Ultra has been gratefully received by all on the project.
Michelle
Michelle has also returned for a second year of the internship. Michelle is a great team player and a very pro-active member of the student interns. She has taken on a great leadership role within the team and has created some great work, as well as being involved within the social media squad and attending the Ultra Knowledge Exchange conference as a guest speaker.
Rosie
Rosie is confident, well spoken and professionally driven, often leading the way when speaking in group discussions and asking questions or seeking perspectives that challenge others and enriching the learning environment. I believe Rose has been and will continue to be a great influence to others.
Thomas
Thomas has been an oracle of information within the internship as his team skills have ensured that he has kept in touch with fellow interns over the working weeks. With an oversight of the working environment he has been able to identify best practice, adopt methods to be his own and disseminate ideas to others – a full team player.
Yasmin
Yasmin has developed great networking skills by interacting with different project leads each week, which has opened up an array of further study and career opportunities. Her professional and communication skills have been developed as well as showing good problem solving skills when faced with some technical limitations during the first week.
Connor
Connor has shown great problem solving skills and has received great feedback and praise from academic colleagues within his department, especially for diligence and effective communication. Connor has also shown great engagement within the team and communication channels.
Nathan
Nathan has been great at getting involved in team meetings and always giving valuable and insightful updates and comments. In addition to working hard on his project plan and creating informative videos for Blackboard Ultra, it has been great to see his confidence grow and interact with his colleagues.
Alice
Alice has been very proactive in her role as a student intern, as well as taking on her project plan within the department she has volunteered for additional tasks, such as working in the social media squad and attending the Ultra Knowledge Exchange conference. Alice often uses her initiative to come up with creative ways to create course content in the absence of final course areas in Blackboard and creating appealing infographics within the social media squad.
Erin
Erin has shown examples of problem solving and using her initiative while working on course size limitations, ensuring the most appropriate use of software to access content on Blackboard Ultra.