How time flies hey?!

So, since November 2010 I now have not one new job but two and have just recently completed another large freelance website for a client!

Firstly in February of this year I started my new job as E-Learning Support Officer (ELSO) at MMU. I’m based at the Cheshire campus and work within the Exercise and Sports Science faculty. The role entails me training and preparing staff for the transition from the WebCT learning platform to Moodle which will be happening in September. I work with a number of ELSOs based around the University and have been involved in the testing and developing stage of the new Moodle launch. Another key part of my position is to improve the current learning resources for the ESS Distance Learning students. I’m working on improving these through creating mini websites and incorporating Moodle activities. I am also involved in an e-book development project which will see a five year plan of online distance learning resources being created specifically with the iPad and iPhone in mind.

It’s pretty exciting and challenging work – but I really enjoy the satisfaction from being part of such an important transition for the University and take pride in ensuring that the ESS faculty will have the some of the most engaging and stimulating learning resources for the students.

Also in more job related news, I now work part-time for John Carroll University which is based in Cleveland, Ohio – USA. I saw the job advertised online, applied for it and after a few Skype interviews was taken on as a part-time WordPress Consultant. John Carroll is a large University which is in the process of transferring it’s website from a static system to a fully interactive WordPress system. I’ve been tasked with helping to develop customised solutions for a lot of different specific requests. One such example has been to enable faculty admin staff to manage staff profile listings through a custom post type. The system I’ve created enables a new member of the faculty to be added along with a photo, relevant information, CV, links to websites and contact details – all from the one page. This information is then displayed on a customised page within the site. Solutions like this I am developing on a pretty much daily basis and it’s all coming together to make one highly advanced and customised WordPress content management system.

Working with the team in America is a great experience and I have a lot of fun, as well as the chance to stretch my WordPress/PHP coding skills to the max!

And finally in freelance news – I’ve just recently launched a custom built WordPress based website for a online hotel booking agency that specialise in the female travel market. GirlyWeekend.com wanted a website that would appeal to an affluent professional female customer base and allow them to sell exclusive hotel packages. The site has proved to be very popular already with great feedback from visitors and partner hotels.

So, all-in-all, lots of exciting things happening…

Hopefully it won’t be another 8 months before I next update this blog!

Adam.

I’m pretty pleased with how this version of the site has turned out. It took me just over a weekend to design and put together using Photoshop, Dreamweaver and WordPress – and I’ve picked up a few neat tricks along the way.

I’ve been developing with WordPress over a year now and once you get your head around how it works it really does become a joy to use. Any challenge you want to throw it’s way it can handle, and do so with style. The numerous plugins available will always help to extend your site’s capabilities and as a whole WordPress gives you a foundation for a successful, professional website.

The blog section of my site is going to be for me to document all the latest web work I’ve been doing for clients, to share some of the exciting projects that I have on the go, to note any helpful or interesting bits of information I’ve found online, or just to let you know what I’ve been up to lately.

Adam.