We Digital Interns have lived and breathed accessibility for the last couple of months. If you were to ask any one of us for advice on how to make a document accessible, we could give you a bucket load of tips. It has now become second nature for us to use refinements to make our reports and presentations 100% accessible.
However, most of us continue to bash out an email on the keyboard without considering our dyslexic friend, or how it will translate to audio for the partially sighted students in our cohort.
Wellbeing: The state of being comfortable, happy, or healthy.
Happiness, comfort, and good health is a goal which stands at the heart of success; the Digital Student Interns have shared some of the ways in which they achieve good emotional and physical wellbeing…
First up is having time to relax– sometimes this falls into each day or week, and other times this means scheduling ‘down-time’ into your to-do list or timetable! It is easy to focus on productivity and being busy, but rest is imperative for the body to rebuild and regrow. Within this, comes sleep! It is without question that maintaining a regular sleep schedule (where possible) and getting between 7 and 10 hours of sleep per night, helps us to feel energised and positive each day. Additionally, some interns have suggested that listening to podcasts, audio-books, or using the Headspace mobile app have helped them to be mindful, and focus on relaxation. Getting outside and breathing in some fresh air, feeling the sun on your skin, and perhaps going for a short (or long) walk can provide an unrivalled boost to the system too.
With increased focus on digital learning, a self-guided approach to professional development has never been more important. Thankfully, Edge Hill’s Library and Learning Services have recently partnered with LinkedIn Learning, giving students free, unlimited access to thousands of high-quality courses developed by industry experts. Courses range from software guidance to advice on maintaining your wellbeing, and can be anywhere from short, 10-minute tutorials, to extensive, 4-hour upskilling courses.
Many LinkedIn Learning courses include exercise files that enable you to work alongside the course leader’s instructions. Upon finishing a course, you will be provided with a Certificate of Completion, which you can add to your LinkedIn profile and download for use elsewhere. The skills you have gained on the course will be added to the ‘Skills & Endorsements’ section of your LinkedIn profile, increasing your chances of appearing in relative search results. LinkedIn Learning also tailors your course suggestions based on your history. So, if you complete a course on Google Analytics, similar courses on Marketing will appear in your feed. It’s a great way to keep track of your progress and to stay on top of industry developments. Plus, by taking a self-directed approach to learning, you are demonstrating your commitment to professional development, enhancing your appeal to prospective employers.
As a Digital Intern, I have focused heavily on ensuring content is accessible to all students. Therefore, an understanding of disability requirements is imperative. Not all disabilities are visible, and some may even hide their disabilities for fear of discrimination. Therefore, it is important that we uncover gaps in our thinking to ensure working environments are as safe and inclusive as possible. This course covers vision, hearing, motor/dexterity, cognition/learning, mental health, and speech disabilities. It also includes guidance on increasing the accessibility of social media, meetings, emails, and presentations.
As anyone with an interest in marketing will know, SEO is key to understanding customers. This course gives beginners a firm foundation for exploring Google Analytics, breaking down navigation basics, essential reports, metrics and dimensions, and user engagement. It certainly takes some practice, but once you have set up a Google Analytics account and you have added the tracking tag to your chosen sites, you get start getting to grips with the basics.
I was recently appointed as a casual Communications Officer for a project I am passionate about, and my main responsibility is managing the social media. Therefore, maximising user engagement and building contacts through Twitter is crucial. This course covers branding, building a Twitter audience, and leveraging the power of your tweets. Here are some top tips I have taken away:
Include a call to action at the end of the tweet, e.g. ‘visit our website for more information’.
Add 2 keywords from any linked content to the body of your tweet.
Include images where possible, as tweets with visual elements drive more engagement.
Create Twitter lists to organise and prioritise tweets. This is useful if you don’t want to miss any content from specific users.
Use TweetDeck to schedule your Tweets. This helps to ensure a steady flow of content.
Many English graduates will know that copywriting positions are very competitive. Employers often ask for previous experience in a similar role; therefore, being able to provide evidence of adaptive writing skills is essential. This course takes you through the fundamentals of collateral, medium and style, how to construct an audience specification and how to clarify your copy. It also covers handy A/B and multivariate testing tools such as Optimizely and Unbounce for measuring Conversation Rate Optimization, so you can actually analyse the effectiveness of your copy.
I have always found Microsoft Excel intimidating. I struggle with numerical data, so the sight of formulas, graphs and grids can send me into panic mode. However, once I learned about formatting, formulas, and inserting charts, I realised that the basics of Excel are pretty straightforward. In fact, the programme’s auto functions make it a dream for those who have difficulty quantifying data, as Excel does all the hard work for you.
