School of Information Sciences

SIS holds second annual Short Course Day

10/23/2015

The School of Information Sciences (SIS) hosted Short Course Day last Friday in the third floor collaboration space for students, staff, and the interested public. Four courses on practical topics were offered throughout the day, lasting less than two hours each.

The morning started off with “Introduction to Building a Professional Portfolio” presented by Wes Lipschultz, director of student services at SIS. Attendees learned about the potential application and value of an online portfolio, as well as some tips and best practices for when creating one. Lipschultz walked through several platform options available, such as Wordpress, Github, and Jeckyll.

Next was a talk given by Olena Sherbinin, SIS data architect, about the challenging time after graduation when students will be seeking jobs. “Being a Versatile IS Professional” touched on important topics such as interview skills, experience building while in school, career resources are available to students through the University (such as career services), and the benefits of being flexible. Sherbinin offered personal stories and real-world advice based on her experiences and fielded questions from students about to enter the work force.

After lunch, the afternoon kicked off with a high-energy course on “Intro to Project Management” offered by Michael Depew, director of the iSchool Inclusion Institute (i3). Depew went through the basics of professional project management and encouraged active participation by organizing quick group projects throughout the course.

The day closed out with “Intro to Drupal as a Content Management System” presented by Mark Weixel, director of informatics for the University Center for International Studies, and Max Novelli, a software engineer with the Learning Research and Development Center. Weixel and Novelli walked through Drupal, highlighted its strengths and differences from Wordpress, and offered a brief training activity to help attendees get their feet wet with the powerful platform.

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