Web Pros

In order to keep up with the speed of technological advances and accommodate the needs of diverse audiences, a one-size-fits-all approach to technology training is not a viable strategy. For these reasons, IT Learning & Development (ITLD) has spent the past year expanding its range of training methods, focusing on eLearning and asynchronous resources, in addition to live instruction, to better meet the needs of Penn State faculty and staff.

Remediating an inaccessible PDF within Adobe Acrobat is time consuming and finicky process, partly because PDFs are meant to be shared as a "finished product." But if you start with an accessible source file, creating a tagged PDF or other accessible format can be streamlined to a click of a button. This session will explore different options for using Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Microsoft Office, InDesign or an HTML editor to transition your workflows which output accessible content. The session will include demos and links to different templates and tutorials.

Session Description: 
How do your project teams define success? Are meeting deadlines enough to say a project was successful? The world today is face-paced and full of change, but high-quality, successful deliveries that satisfy customers’ needs are still the goal. Quality Assurance (QA) can play a pivotal role in enhancing the overall performance and outcomes of project teams. In this session, attendees will hear about what Quality Assurance Analysts can (and cannot) do to add value at every stage of the project lifecycle.

This session will discuss key AI technologies used to help both users with disabilities and those responsible for providing accessible content. The IT Accessibility team will showcase tools which uses AI for image recognition, automatic speech recognition (ASR), PDF remediation and others from both a AT user’s and editor’s perspective.  As with other areas of AI, some tools show great promise for streamlining accessibility, but also come with the need to ensure quality control. 

Anyone can lead a project. Project management requires no title, no certification. In fact, project management is a skill included in many PSU job profiles. This presentation describes basic project management concepts and actions that anyone can apply to grow professionally and get work done.

In higher education web development and maintenance there is a great need for simple, efficient, and easy-to-manage database applications. We have recently employed WordPress, and one of its plugins, Formidable, in two different projects: a graduate program students and alumni database, and a Research Experts database.

Do you feel like you are missing a key part of something every time you are wearing the Business Analyst Hat? Do you think if I could just organize my stuff in another way, this would be better. Do you ever think, what are other Business Analysts doing at Penn State? In this session, attendees will hear how the Business Analysts have developed their toolbox by hearing from internal stakeholders to achieve project success. 

Join us for an engaging and casual session designed for attendees to connect, share experiences, and exchange insights on website editing/management and digital strategies. This lightly-structured discussion will provide a space to explore common challenges, best practices, and innovative ideas in web management across the Penn State campuses.