Current Sta
During my 5th week as STA I continued my Web Dev Basic training using Interneting is Hard tutorials.
I also began working on a web development project. I am integrating Google Analytics into the university’s websites using VS Code.
UTFC Greenscreen Edits
Project: Reverse Greenscreen Image Sourcing
Notes: A handful of STAs were tasked with finding royalty-free images and uploading them into a PowerPoint. This assignment is similar to the green screen image search for vocabulary words except I’ve been using Google Images to reverse image search the pictures that have been used for previous assignments for proper attribution. In addition, I’ve been finding substitutional photos for the images that have no attribution or not from a royalty- free site.
UTFC Studio Testing
Project: Backdrop Color Testing
Notes: Since UTFC plans on recording its lectures this summer, I had the opportunity to go inside the recording studio to test backdrops for the lecturer. I could see the backdrops in real time and edit them to the correct display such as altering contrast and saturation inside Photoshop. So far we’re almost done with the first course for recording. This time around Valerie and I went in to look over all of the backdrops for course 2.
UTFC Backdrop Edits
Project: Backdrop Edits
Notes: Aside from doing studio backdrop testing for UTFC, I also have to heavily edit some of the backdrops. It’s a fun process but some of the backdrops require more labor such as removing people or advertisements like in this example in Abidjan here:
This was the main thing I worked on after finishing the biostats logo. I had a list of edits and a suggested layout from the clients, but had trouble making it fit exactly right… the end result was 3 alternative layouts. One closer to the original, one with a larger map, and one with 2 columns. Waiting to hear back which is preferred.
Project: Bio 311D backdrops
Client /Prof: (?)
completion status: Done
staff guidance: Maddy K
STA team members: Adrian
description/plans: Unit backdrops for Bio
To be completed: Friday 5/26
This was a fun one! While it may have been mostly photo sourcing, it required some bio research (yay!). For making 3 backdrops for different units of a bio course, the professor provided some guidance in the form of example clipart. Also, Maddy provided a nice template she used to make unit 4 (ecology) already.
The first unit was genetics and micro-evolution, which entails individual speciation, heredity, and cell biology. The provided pictures were this:
Final backdrop (a mixture of pictures from stock sites and wikimedia) ended up like this:
The second unit was macroevolution, a little more abstract. The only example graphics were a few phylogeny trees.
The topic itself includes larger evolutionary changes such as evolution of new organs, mass extinctions, adaptive radiation such as the Cambrian explosion, and horizontal gene transfer. I took some liberties and included more paleontological stuff to make it more visually interesting.
Final unit was physiology, the most straightforward.
I found some nice Unsplash photos of plastic organ models, which are more interesting than flat diagrams/clipart and less grisly than real anatomy photos. Perfect.
Project: Online Course Graphics
Client /Prof: Internal
Completion Status: Finished
Description: Quick update for an upcoming summer course
I was tasked with a quick update of the CC 303 Classical Mythology class, just switching out the instructor’s name. It’s truly summertime once the online course graphics are back!
Project: TXDST Website Redesign
Client /Prof: TXDST
Completion Status: To be finished fall 2023 semester
Staff Guidance: Maddy
Description: Mocking up ideas for story segment on homepage in Figma
This week, I’ve been working on how to lay out individual stories/articles/blog posts on the site’s homepage. It’s important to strike a balance between giving the user a starting point and not overwhelming the homepage with information. Here are a few of my ideas mocked up:
During my fourth week as an STA, I cataloged data from the WordPress Multisite into the LAITS Site Hosting List using Airtable. I also worked on a few more trainings. There are some screenshots of my work below.
