The Experiential Learning Showcase is a website that students and faculty can access to submit completed projects or ideas that have to do with Internships, Community engagement, Mentored research, Sustainability, Global learning, and Creative Activity. It is a way to get students connected with a mentor to help move on with a proposed project. The project portal page is utilized to display completed projects or opportunities to connect with those who are interested.
Final Project Outcome
This website will be used by the multiple offices within the Experiential Learning Center to showcase the work done by students and faculty. Students will be able to interact with the website in multiple ways, to create a project proposal, to see potential projects, and to showcase past work with reflections by the students who completed them.
What I did
Within this project I have been collaborating with the Experiential Learning Center to design a website in WordPress that allows for the submission and showcase of projects. Working with my mentor Ed Beck, an instructional designer in the faculty center, I have created the design for the overall website. The Experiential Learning Center was inspired by a similar project at the University of Buffalo. We designed the appearance and features of Oneonta’s project portal after a review of the University of Buffalo’s project and creating a more streamlined and simplified design. The design of the website was first mocked up in InDesign, and once it had initial approval from the Experiential Learning Center’s offices, it was then built out in WordPress. When completed, the center will have a fully functional website to showcase work done by faculty and students, and bring people together interested in different types of experiential learning projects.
What I learned
Throughout this internship I have learned a multitude of different skills related to problem solving, professionalism, industry insight, networking, and collaboration. I also have learned technical skills, like getting more familiar with WordPress, accessibility in website, creating designs for clients and so on. This site was my first experience using WordPress’ Full Site Editing features which allowed me to create a custom theme for the experiential center and allowed me to have tight control of the WordPress templates. This experience has provided me with a wonderful learning experience, and as I move forward into a career, I will draw upon the lessons learned during my internship to help me better navigate the work force.
