DIGITAL WEDNESDAYS: Digital labs open afternoon

Wednesday 23 September 2026 12pm - 4pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: Harry Fairhurst Building (University Library, Campus West)
Open to: Everyone

We have two digital labs in the Library, open to all members of the University: the Creativity Lab has high-end workstations, 3D capture and modelling software, podcasting and video recording studios and more, while YorCreate is a makerspace with 3D printers and a range of crafting materials. Drop by any time this afternoon between 12 and 4 as we open our doors to the two labs to demonstrate how the tech works and show off the sort of things you can do in there.

No booking required.

You can find the Creativity Lab in LFA/103 and YorCreate in LFA/132, both on the first floor of the Fairhurst Building in the Library.

Get a 3D selfie of yourself

Thursday 24 September 2026 10am - 4pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: LFA/103 Creativity Lab (Harry Fairhurst Building, Campus West)
Open to: Everyone

Ever wanted to grab a digital snapshot of yourself in a 3D model and see a 3D scanner?

This is the session for you, and bring your friends too! Come and take a 3D selfie in the Creativity Lab. In this fun session, we'll introduce you to our handheld 3D scanners to take a full detailed scan of your head and shoulders. We will create a 3D model file you can then take away and keep for yourself. We'll also chat about what you can then do with the model, whether that's animating it, or even 3D print it. No booking required, just pop in to the Creativity Lab (Harry Fairhurst Library building) between 10am and 4pm.

Please note that our standard 3D scanners use a bright flashing light and may affect those with photo-sensitivity. For any questions around this, please email us via lib-creativitylab@york.ac.uk and we can discuss other options.

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DIGITAL WEDNESDAYS: An introduction to useful digital tools available at York

Wednesday 30 September 2026 2pm - 4pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Open to: Everyone

At York you have access to a wealth of software, from general 'Office' applications like Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 through to more specific programs to help you be organised or be creative. This session (aimed at all members of the University, however long you've been here) will provide an overview of some of the digital tools available that you might find useful, with a particular focus on applications for organising information, keeping track of your notes, working collaboratively, and keeping up to date. We will share some of our tips for making the best use of technology, and there'll be time to ask questions and share any of your own IT tips.

This session is being delivered hybridly. You can attend either virtually (via Zoom) or face-to-face (in LFA/144, Fairhurst Building, University Library). Follow the booking link for more details.

Skills Guides

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No-code Micro-games

Thursday 1 October 2026 1pm - 3pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Open to: Everyone

Let's make a simple platform game. Games can be a brilliant tool to aid learning, share your study/research or just make for a bit of fun. Anyone is welcome to come to this session, whether you already have an idea or not. Using a tool called Gdevelop, we'll look at the beginner steps to build your first simple game, with step-by-step instructions and lots of time to have a go yourself.

No coding knowledge is involved, it instead uses some 'event-based' instructions to set up the rules for the game. We'll look at some of the key areas of game mechanics, and have some time to plan out our ideas for a simple game.

This workshop is available to attend both online or in-person.

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DIGITAL WEDNESDAYS: How do you engage with generative AI ethics?

Wednesday 7 October 2026 3.30pm - 5.30pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

Generative AI has been a hot topic for several years now, whether that's hype about what it might do or fear about the impacts it will have on our world. The University of York has its own position statement on generative AI. You probably have your own thoughts and feelings about generative AI and its use.

In this face-to-face workshop, you will explore some of the issues and limitations associated with generative AI and discuss what the impact of these might be on the future of education and our world in general. You will consider how you can engage with these issues, keeping up to date and thinking about practical ways to have an impact on the future.

Skills Guide: Generative AI

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Learn to code: Introduction to coding

Thursday 8 October 2026 10am - 12pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

Want to know more about what computer coding is, how it works, and how you can start learning to code?

This introductory workshop is for anyone who is new to writing computer programs or learning coding languages. The workshop will look at useful coding concepts and some basics of the coding language Python to demonstrate these, and will cover:

• How computers work and how this applies to coding
• What are coding languages?
• Key concepts in coding, such as variables, loops, and data types
• How to get started with learning coding.

Coding Practical Guide

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How to start a podcast

Thursday 8 October 2026 2pm - 4pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Open to: Everyone

Let’s make some noises. Then record them, publish them, and distribute them online. This two hour online workshop will introduce you to the fundamentals of podcasting, going over some of the basics of podcast production, and looking at how an idea turns into an audio file that can be shared online. We’ll explore podcast formats and how to generate ideas along with our top recording tips. No prior knowledge of audio production or media creation is required. This workshop is perfect for you if you are interested in making a podcast yourself but aren’t sure where to start, and to find out more about podcasting facilities here at the Creativity Lab. This session runs alongside our other '10 tips for Audio editing' session (bookable separately), which will delve into the practicalities of editing audio.

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Spreadsheets basics

Tuesday 13 October 2026 1pm - 3pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

Spreadsheets are tools designed to store, analyse and manipulate data. They are commonly used for working with sets of data containing both text and numbers, and for generating graphs and charts. This online workshop will take you through the first principles of working with data in spreadsheets - whether Google or Excel - including:

• understanding the parts of a spreadsheet;
• entering, editing, and formatting data;
• performing calculations;
• using basic functions.

The workshop will also serve as a primer for our five-week-long Essential Spreadsheets training course.

Come along and really start to get to grips with data.

Essential Spreadsheets: a Practical Guide

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Clay, but digital: Intro to 3D modelling

Wednesday 14 October 2026 2pm - 3.30pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

Let's explore the world of 3D models. In this introductory online session, we'll quickly share our top tips for getting started with designing and creating a 3D model from scratch. We'll try out out a few tools that let us manipulate a shape, like sculping clay.

Open for everyone, we'll get practical with some easy-to-use free tools to help you get started with modelling your own creations. 3D models are great for 3D printing, using in a virtual environment and sharing ideas. They are also an interesting way to help explain a topic or engage people with your work. Feel free to come along with an idea of your own!

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Creating Google Forms

Thursday 15 October 2026 1pm - 2pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

Our Bitesize training session on Google Forms will help guide you through the essentials of creating sleek and effective online surveys. Whether you are brand new to Forms or just looking for a refresher, this session will give you the confidence to craft user-friendly forms with ease!

We will explore topics including:

• Google Form basics
• Implementing conditional survey logic
• Sharing and sending your form securely
• Real-time data analysis features
• Navigating advanced form settings

Data: Gathering data

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Slicing models to 3D print with Bambu Studio

Friday 16 October 2026 1pm - 2pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

Slicing is the process of turning a digital 3D model into instructions for a 3D printer. In this session we'll look at the practicalities of how to slice models using Bambu Studio — the software that's used with our Bambu Labs 3D printers in YorCreate. We'll look at how to slice for those printers, and we'll also offer some tips and tricks for getting the best out of your 3D prints.

This session is open to all members of the University, but if you want to try 3D printing using the printers in YorCreate you'll also need to come along to a separate induction.

Skills Guides: YorCreate

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3D capture with Photogrammetry

Wednesday 21 October 2026 2pm - 4pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: LFA/103 Creativity Lab (Harry Fairhurst Building, Campus West)
Open to: Everyone

Have you ever come across a detailed 3D model of a real object and wondered how it was made? In this hands-on session, you’ll discover how a series of standard photographs, combined with some software magic, can be transformed into a 3D digital model—a process known as photogrammetry.

We’ll start by photographing a university sculpture and sharing some top tips for capturing great images. Then, you’ll get a chance to process the photos yourself. Along the way, we’ll explore what to do when things don’t go quite as planned and share helpful tricks to refine and tidy up your model for viewing.

This session will show you how to digitize objects related to your work or study and demonstrate how 3D scans can captivate and engage audiences with the unique aspects of your research or interests.

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Editing content for Social Media

Thursday 22 October 2026 10am - 12pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

Need to edit media content for social media? In this practical workshop, we’ll demonstrate tools and tips for editing some video and image content, thinking about what works best for social media. There will be advice on how to record content in the right size and scale, and how to plan your content to clearly portray your message. We’ll explore:

• Basics of social media
• Different platforms, types of post and choosing what works best
• Tips for capturing and filming content
• Key techniques of video and image editing
• Demonstrations of free-to-use editing tools
• Ensuring your posts are accessible

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Creating surveys with Qualtrics

Thursday 22 October 2026 1pm - 2pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

Tried Google Forms and feel the need for something stronger? Or maybe you’ve heard of Qualtrics but don’t know where to start? Dive into our Essential Qualtrics Bitesize training session, where we'll guide you through the basics of this advanced survey design platform. We will explore topics including:

• Qualtrics basics & getting started
• Survey formatting & customisation
• Implementing skip logic and survey flow for a tailored respondent experience
• Settings & sharing.

Data: Gathering data

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Academic posters: Designing posters in PowerPoint

Tuesday 27 October 2026 10am - 12pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

Informative posters are a popular way to share research findings and other information at conferences and exhibitions. There are many desktop publishing applications you could use to design posters but in this session we'll demonstrate Microsoft PowerPoint: although intended for presentations, it shares many features with other publishing applications and generally has the advantage of familiarity, making it a popular and effective choice for poster design.

In this session we’ll look at the design principles behind what makes a successful poster, and how to configure PowerPoint for the creation of both large-format printed posters and virtual poster presentations. We'll look at how to plan your layout, and how to make best use of images and text in your design.

Academic Posters Practical Guide

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Google Vids: quick video creation

Tuesday 27 October 2026 1pm - 2.30pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

Google Vids is a web-based video editing tool, available as part of Google Workspace. In this bitesize session, we’ll show you how to easily compile and edit your own videos. We’ll explore, using the in-built recording feature, AI videos tools, importing pre-existing videos and how to cut your video clips. This is an online session held via Zoom.

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Create models for 3D printing

Thursday 29 October 2026 10am - 12pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

This in-person interactive workshop is intended for anyone who would like to come and try out 3D modelling, and learn a new digital skill. Even if you're not sure what you would use it for, come along and we will share lots of ideas that relate to your own study, teaching or research.

Have a brilliant idea for a 3D design? Let's sketch it and then turn it into a digital 3D model. In this practical session, we'll look at using Computer Aided Design (CAD) software to learn how we can design our own models and how we can alter our designs ready for 3D printing. No previous experience needed, we'll show you how to get started in a modelling tool and work through some of the key tips. We'll include information at the end of the session how you can then get access to our YorCreate makerspace to 3D print your design. Please note: to use our YorCreate 3D printers, you must also attend a separate safety induction before or after this session, see the YorCreate webpage for upcoming dates

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10 tips for better surveys

Thursday 29 October 2026 1pm - 2pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

Let's make badly designed forms and surveys a thing of the past! In this session, we'll take a look at the principles of survey design, from what kinds of questions to ask to get the data you're looking for to how to choose question types and use logic.

Data: Gathering data

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Top Tips for Accessible Social Media Content

Monday 9 November 2026 1pm - 2pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

What good is trying to reach people with social media content if it's inaccessible for some people? In this bitesize session we will look at:

• A range of transferable principles and tips for making accessible social media content
• Tips on using some social media platforms like Instagram and YouTube
• A checklist of considerations while writing and creating content

There will be chance to ask questions and share your own useful methods and tips.

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Organise your life with Google!

Tuesday 10 November 2026 10am - 11.30am

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

Sort your life out!

Join us for this session as we share tips on how to use Google’s tools to help you stay organised. Whether it’s using note taking apps to stay on top of your to-do list, managing your time effectively in Google Calendar, staying on top of your emails or organising your files in Google Drive, we’ve got you covered.

We will look at helping you get organised with:

• Gmail
• Google Calendar
• Google Keep
• Google Tasks
• Google Drive
• Google Chrome
• Google Contacts.

Google Workspace: a Practical Guide

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Designing presentations in PowerPoint and Google Slides

Tuesday 10 November 2026 1pm - 3pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

How can you create presentation slides that are memorable and impactful while also being accessible? PowerPoint and Google Slides include many under-exploited features that can help you create more effective presentations (as well as other resources). This session explores the principles of designing presentations, including templates, animation, accessibility principles, and working with media. We'll also look at presentation features in these tools that can help you as you convey your material to an audience.

Presentations Practical Guide

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Get started with Audio Editing

Wednesday 11 November 2026 2pm - 3pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Open to: Everyone

Needing to edit a podcast or audio track? In this hybrid session, we'll share our top tips for when it comes to editing an audio file. We'll take you through some tools and advice on how to edit any sound file; whether you're making a podcast, playing around with music or just recording yourself. From trimming and splitting your clips to our favourite tools, this session will get you ready for creating and combining your own audio files. This session is useful if you have any audio like music, podcast or recordings. We'll show you the fundamentals to start having a go yourself.

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Essential Spreadsheets (a 5 week course)

Thursday 12 November 2026 10am - 12pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

In these sessions you will learn how to exploit the capabilities of both Excel and Google Sheets for storing and analysing data, including features that are particularly helpful when working collaboratively.

All five sessions take place over five weeks, on Thursday mornings.

This course will take place online via Zoom.

Essential Spreadsheets: a Practical Guide

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Essential Video Editing

Thursday 12 November 2026 3pm - 5pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: LFA/103 Creativity Lab (Harry Fairhurst Building, Campus West)
Open to: Everyone

Want to be able to edit video content?

Video is a really useful medium for storytelling, educating, and sharing your ideas. Whether you're making a longer film, or short videos for social media, we'll cover tips on many types of video. Based in the Creativity lab, this session will go through key video editing concepts and techniques to help you get started, from gathering your material to exporting your completed video. We’ll explore top tips for recording video and sound, along with how to put everything together using video editing software. During the session, you'll have a go at editing pre-recorded footage using some recommended tools and you will be able to begin your own creation.

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Generative AI for students: Google Gemini

Friday 13 November 2026 1pm - 2pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

Generative AI tools can be used effectively to work through problems or to develop your understanding of a topic, but you need to think carefully about the ‘prompts’ (the questions and commands) you're using if you're to get good quality results. In this hour-long bitesize workshop we will explore how to craft effective and safe prompts for the main AI tools we have at York — Google Gemini and NotebookLM — and how this compares to more traditional ways of finding academic information. We will also consider how to adapt and interpret your outputs, and how to make best use of advanced models and features within the tools.

This session will be particularly useful for taught students but is open to anyone at the University.

Generative AI: a Practical Guide

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Voice and scripting skills for recording yourself

Monday 16 November 2026 1pm - 3pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: LFA/144 Academic Skills workshop room (Harry Fairhurst Building, Campus West)
Open to: Everyone

Need to record yourself in an audio or video for a task, or would like to explore how to record yourself effectively? This in-person skills session focuses on tips and techniques to help build your confidence, specifically when recording your own voice. We’ll study some existing examples of videos and podcasts, along with different ways to help engage your audience. This session will cover:

• Vocal warm-ups and exercising your voice
• Finding the right tone of voice
• Use of different types of language to appeal to your audience
• Key tips for writing a script
• Technical recording advice and using recording equipment effectively

We’ll have a go at some fun, practical exercises to try these techniques out, with a chance to meet other people who are completing similar tasks.

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Getting better at Google Docs: from essentials to advanced (and everything in-between!)

Tuesday 17 November 2026 1pm - 3pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

In this session, we will look at making the most of Google Docs and all of the clever features it has to offer, showing you how it is so much more than just a simple word processor.

We will cover all the essentials for those new to Google Docs or transferring from Microsoft Word, as well as the more advanced features for those already familiar. This is a chance to get the full inside scoop on how others are working effectively with Google Docs and see everything it has to offer!

Creating documents

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Creating accessible documents and presentations

Wednesday 18 November 2026 10am - 12pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

An online workshop demonstrating how ‘universal design’ can help everyone, not just those with declared accessibility needs.

This session aims to empower you in making your Word & Google-based documents accessible, boost your confidence with digital accessibility, and provide you with simple universal design principles to apply across all other digital content platforms! We will also cover specific accessibility considerations when designing Google Slides and Powerpoint presentations.

Skills Guide: Digital accessibility Skills Guide: Presentations Skills Guide: Creating documents

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Using AI for Creative Media

Wednesday 18 November 2026 1pm - 2pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Open to: Everyone

Generative AI isn't just for text; it is being used to generate images, audio, video, and lots of other creative outputs. But is it actually helpful? And what do you need to know if you're considering using generative AI to help with creating things? In this session, we'll look at some of the ways that generative AI might be used to help with creating media and some of the pitfalls with doing so. We'll look at the tools available at the University and how to use their features more effectively when creating things. And we'll showcase alternatives for digital creativity so you can choose the right tool for the job, rather than assuming generative AI is good at everything. Before attending this session, we recommend you make sure you are familiar with the relevant University of York generative AI policies for you.

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Create advanced 3D models in Blender

Thursday 19 November 2026 1pm - 3pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Open to: Everyone

Interested in how more complex 3D models are created from scratch?

Blender is a free, open-source and advanced tool for creating detailed 3D models and is widely used for many purposes, from video games to 3D printing. In this two-week course, we will explore how to get started with this tool and explore some of brilliant ways it can be used to help your study, teaching or research. We will cover:

• Key tools and keyboard shortcuts for getting started
• Using automated tools to make changes to models
• Lots of practice in creating your own objects from scratch
• Creating a number of parts and putting them together

On signing up to this session, you are signing up for two two-hour sessions, with the second session held the same time the following week:

• Session 1 takes place on Thursday 19th November 2026, 1pm - 3pm
• Session 2 takes place on Thursday 26th November 2026, 1pm - 3pm

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3D model a new business idea

Tuesday 24 November 2026 10am - 12pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Open to: Everyone

Let's get prototyping! Got an idea for an object or invention? In this 3D modelling workshop, we'll look at how to get started with the process of sketching, designing and creating a 3D prototype, using some easy-to-learn web-based 3D modelling software to help visualise it. It doesn't need to be related to your work or study.

We'll talk about how to test and check your product, along with chance to chat to staff and give feedback on your idea. If you don't have an idea yet, do still come along, we can help you with that too.

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Generative AI for students: Gemini Notebook

Monday 30 November 2026 1pm - 2pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

Generative AI tools can be used effectively to work through problems or to develop your understanding of a topic, but you need to think carefully about the ‘prompts’ (the questions and commands) you're using if you're to get good quality results. In this hour-long bitesize workshop we will explore how to craft effective and safe prompts for the main AI tools we have at York — Google Gemini and NotebookLM — and how this compares to more traditional ways of finding academic information. We will also consider how to adapt and interpret your outputs, and how to make best use of advanced models and features within the tools.

This session will be particularly useful for taught students but is open to anyone at the University.

Generative AI: a Practical Guide

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Record and edit a voice recording

Tuesday 1 December 2026 1pm - 2.30pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: LFA/103 Creativity Lab (Harry Fairhurst Building, Campus West)
Open to: Everyone

Looking to speedily record a voice recording for a podcast, voiceover or presentation? This practical session is focusses on the recording process by getting you in our podcast recording studio to record a short audio file. We'll then look at how to edit that audio into a publishable file. This session is perfect for those looking to record a short, single voice clip for an project or task, and for those looking for support on how to record something easily without too much work or development.

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DIGITAL WEDNESDAYS: Learn to code websites with HTML & CSS

Wednesday 2 December 2026 2pm - 4pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

Do you want to build a website? If you want to have full control over your web pages you really need to know HTML (HyperText Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). We go back to basics to give you the essential building blocks of web design, whether you want to build a site from scratch or customise a site built in a website editor.

Coding Practical Guide

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YorCreate: Festive crafts drop-in

Thursday 3 December 2026 12pm - 3pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: LFA/132 YorCreate (Harry Fairhurst Building, Campus West)
Open to: Everyone

Get festive at YorCreate!

Join our festive crafts drop-in session in the Library's makerspace. Take a break to create your own holiday decorations, unique gifts, or just something fun.

Let your seasonal creativity flow

• 3D print
• Paint
• Make decorations
• Decorate pre-made decorations
• Make jewellery
• Make cards
• And get creative!

This is a drop-in session but filling in the linked form will help us know numbers in advance. This session does not constitute a YorCreate induction. To get full access to the space outside of this drop-in, you can sign up to an induction session.

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Reference management

Friday 4 December 2026 2pm - 4pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

How do you manage your reading and keep track of the material you find? In this workshop, we'll take a look at how managing your reading fits into the academic reading and citing process, reflect on what might work for you, and explore options for keeping track of your reading. We'll then look at how reference management software can help you store, organise, and use citation information, looking at how specific features of Zotero and Paperpile can be used for this process.

Reference Management Practical Guide

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Microsoft Word for dissertations and theses

Tuesday 8 December 2026 1pm - 3pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

When producing a long piece of academic writing such as a dissertation or thesis, you will save time and effort if you take advantage of the most appropriate features in Microsoft Word. In this session we'll explore approaches to using Word that are particularly important when you need to produce material as efficiently as possible to match academic guidelines. We'll explore the power of using styles to make it easier to add outline headings, tables of contents and to make your document accessible. We'll also look at making the most of the tools available, such as adding automatic page numbers, tables of contents, and captions.

Creating documents

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DIGITAL WEDNESDAYS: Data visualisation: All I got for Christmas was this stupid graph

Wednesday 9 December 2026 2pm - 4pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

How you present your data has a massive impact on audience understanding and engagement. Using different data visualisations can also provide you with new insights into your data findings.

In this workshop we will take a festive look at some of the main principles for working with data, from cleaning messy data and getting it into a processable state to the creation of effective charts and infographics.

Data: Data visualisation

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Create logos and images with graphic design software

Thursday 10 December 2026 3pm - 5pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Open to: Everyone

Interested to try out a graphic designer tool for the first time? Using the free tools like Inkscape or the Creativity Lab's access to Adobe Illustrator, this practical session will guide you through creating an design such as a logo or simple clip art graphic. We will focus on the technical aspects of using the program, including some of the most useful tools and effects to create a range of shapes and text. There'll be ideas for how you could practice further and learn a really useful digital skill. No prior knowledge is required. We will also share information on other alternate tools that can be used.

This session will take place with hybrid joining options. You can join either online via Zoom or in-person at the Creativity Lab LFA/103 with Creativity Lab staff. You can choose from these options when booking.

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Creating graphics and videos with Canva

Tuesday 15 December 2026 1pm - 3pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

Want to create eye-catching images, social media graphics, animations and videos without needing a graphic design background?

Canva is an online graphic design tool with a range of templates allowing you to create everything from social media graphics to animated videos, posters to presentations, and all sorts of other things. We'll take a look at what you can use in the free version of Canva, including their templates and colour schemes to help your design look as good as possible, and offer advice on creating and sharing simple designs that will be clear and accessible to others.

Media editing: a Practical Guide

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Organise your life with Google!

Thursday 4 February 2027 1pm - 2.30pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

Sort your life out!

Join us for this session as we share tips on how to use Google’s tools to help you stay organised. Whether it’s using note taking apps to stay on top of your to-do list, managing your time effectively in Google Calendar, staying on top of your emails or organising your files in Google Drive, we’ve got you covered.

We will look at helping you get organised with:

• Gmail
• Google Calendar
• Google Keep
• Google Tasks
• Google Drive
• Google Chrome
• Google Contacts.

Google Workspace: a Practical Guide

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Learn to code: Introduction to programming with Python (a 2 week course)

Wednesday 17 February 2027 2pm - 4pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

Looking to start learning Python?

This introductory hands-on 2 week course gets you familiar with the coding language Python and using Python for basic data analysis and visualisation. Over the two 2-hour long sessions, you will learn the basics of how to:

• Start using Python in notebooks
• Create variables and work with data types
• Process data, from analysis to data visualisation
• Repeat actions with loops and use decisions in your code
• Use functions to improve your programs
• Deal with errors

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Academic posters: Designing posters in PowerPoint

Thursday 18 February 2027 10am - 12pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

Informative posters are a popular way to share research findings and other information at conferences and exhibitions. There are many desktop publishing applications you could use to design posters but in this session we'll demonstrate Microsoft PowerPoint: although intended for presentations, it shares many features with other publishing applications and generally has the advantage of familiarity, making it a popular and effective choice for poster design.

In this session we’ll look at the design principles behind what makes a successful poster, and how to configure PowerPoint for the creation of both large-format printed posters and virtual poster presentations. We'll look at how to plan your layout, and how to make best use of images and text in your design.

Academic Posters Practical Guide

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Creating accessible documents and presentations

Thursday 18 February 2027 1pm - 3pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

An online workshop demonstrating how ‘universal design’ can help everyone, not just those with declared accessibility needs.

This session aims to empower you in making your Word & Google-based documents accessible, boost your confidence with digital accessibility, and provide you with simple universal design principles to apply across all other digital content platforms! We will also cover specific accessibility considerations when designing Google Slides and Powerpoint presentations.

Skills Guide: Digital accessibility Skills Guide: Presentations Skills Guide: Creating documents

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Learn to code: Introduction to coding

Monday 22 February 2027 1pm - 3pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

Want to know more about what computer coding is, how it works, and how you can start learning to code?

This introductory workshop is for anyone who is new to writing computer programs or learning coding languages. The workshop will look at useful coding concepts and some basics of the coding language Python to demonstrate these, and will cover:

• How computers work and how this applies to coding
• What are coding languages?
• Key concepts in coding, such as variables, loops, and data types
• How to get started with learning coding.

Coding Practical Guide

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Designing presentations in PowerPoint and Google Slides

Friday 5 March 2027 1pm - 3pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

How can you create presentation slides that are memorable and impactful while also being accessible? PowerPoint and Google Slides include many under-exploited features that can help you create more effective presentations (as well as other resources). This session explores the principles of designing presentations, including templates, animation, accessibility principles, and working with media. We'll also look at presentation features in these tools that can help you as you convey your material to an audience.

Presentations Practical Guide

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Microsoft Word for dissertations and theses

Friday 12 March 2027 10am - 12pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

When producing a long piece of academic writing such as a dissertation or thesis, you will save time and effort if you take advantage of the most appropriate features in Microsoft Word. In this session we'll explore approaches to using Word that are particularly important when you need to produce material as efficiently as possible to match academic guidelines. We'll explore the power of using styles to make it easier to add outline headings, tables of contents and to make your document accessible. We'll also look at making the most of the tools available, such as adding automatic page numbers, tables of contents, and captions.

Creating documents

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Top Tips for Accessible Social Media Content

Thursday 18 March 2027 1pm - 2pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

What good is trying to reach people with social media content if it's inaccessible for some people? In this bitesize session we will look at:

• A range of transferable principles and tips for making accessible social media content
• Tips on using some social media platforms like Instagram and YouTube
• A checklist of considerations while writing and creating content

There will be chance to ask questions and share your own useful methods and tips.

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Creating Google Forms

Tuesday 6 April 2027 1pm - 2pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

Our Bitesize training session on Google Forms will help guide you through the essentials of creating sleek and effective online surveys. Whether you are brand new to Forms or just looking for a refresher, this session will give you the confidence to craft user-friendly forms with ease!

We will explore topics including:

• Google Form basics
• Implementing conditional survey logic
• Sharing and sending your form securely
• Real-time data analysis features
• Navigating advanced form settings

Data: Gathering data

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Spreadsheets basics

Thursday 8 April 2027 10am - 12pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

Spreadsheets are tools designed to store, analyse and manipulate data. They are commonly used for working with sets of data containing both text and numbers, and for generating graphs and charts. This online workshop will take you through the first principles of working with data in spreadsheets - whether Google or Excel - including:

• understanding the parts of a spreadsheet;
• entering, editing, and formatting data;
• performing calculations;
• using basic functions.

The workshop will also serve as a primer for our five-week-long Essential Spreadsheets training course.

Come along and really start to get to grips with data.

Essential Spreadsheets: a Practical Guide

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Creating surveys with Qualtrics

Tuesday 13 April 2027 1pm - 2pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

Tried Google Forms and feel the need for something stronger? Or maybe you’ve heard of Qualtrics but don’t know where to start? Dive into our Essential Qualtrics Bitesize training session, where we'll guide you through the basics of this advanced survey design platform. We will explore topics including:

• Qualtrics basics & getting started
• Survey formatting & customisation
• Implementing skip logic and survey flow for a tailored respondent experience
• Settings & sharing.

Data: Gathering data

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Creating graphics and videos with Canva

Monday 19 April 2027 1pm - 3pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

Want to create eye-catching images, social media graphics, animations and videos without needing a graphic design background?

Canva is an online graphic design tool with a range of templates allowing you to create everything from social media graphics to animated videos, posters to presentations, and all sorts of other things. We'll take a look at what you can use in the free version of Canva, including their templates and colour schemes to help your design look as good as possible, and offer advice on creating and sharing simple designs that will be clear and accessible to others.

Media editing: a Practical Guide

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10 tips for better surveys

Tuesday 20 April 2027 1pm - 2pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

Let's make badly designed forms and surveys a thing of the past! In this session, we'll take a look at the principles of survey design, from what kinds of questions to ask to get the data you're looking for to how to choose question types and use logic.

Data: Gathering data

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DIGITAL WEDNESDAYS: Working with data in spreadsheets

Wednesday 21 April 2027 2pm - 4pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

It's one thing getting some data; it's another thing knowing what to do with it. In this session we'll take a look at methods for finding, importing, and cleaning up data, and performing simple analyses in a spreadsheet. We'll also consider principles for structuring data, and how you can reshape it to suit different needs.

Essential Spreadsheets

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Getting better at Google Docs: from essentials to advanced (and everything in-between!)

Thursday 22 April 2027 10am - 12pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

In this session, we will look at making the most of Google Docs and all of the clever features it has to offer, showing you how it is so much more than just a simple word processor.

We will cover all the essentials for those new to Google Docs or transferring from Microsoft Word, as well as the more advanced features for those already familiar. This is a chance to get the full inside scoop on how others are working effectively with Google Docs and see everything it has to offer!

Creating documents

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Academic posters: Designing posters in PowerPoint

Friday 23 April 2027 1pm - 3pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

Informative posters are a popular way to share research findings and other information at conferences and exhibitions. There are many desktop publishing applications you could use to design posters but in this session we'll demonstrate Microsoft PowerPoint: although intended for presentations, it shares many features with other publishing applications and generally has the advantage of familiarity, making it a popular and effective choice for poster design.

In this session we’ll look at the design principles behind what makes a successful poster, and how to configure PowerPoint for the creation of both large-format printed posters and virtual poster presentations. We'll look at how to plan your layout, and how to make best use of images and text in your design.

Academic Posters Practical Guide

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DIGITAL WEDNESDAYS: Data visualisation & infographics

Wednesday 28 April 2027 2pm - 4pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

How you present your data has a massive impact on audience understanding and engagement. Using different data visualisations can also provide you with new insights into your data findings. In this workshop we will cover the principles for working with data, from data cleaning to visualisation.

Data: Data visualisation

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Essential Spreadsheets (a 5 week course)

Friday 30 April 2027 10am - 12pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

In these sessions you will learn how to exploit the capabilities of both Excel and Google Sheets for storing and analysing data, including features that are particularly helpful when working collaboratively.

All five sessions take place over five weeks, on Thursday mornings.

This course will take place online via Zoom.

Essential Spreadsheets: a Practical Guide

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DIGITAL WEDNESDAYS: An intro to NVivo

Wednesday 19 May 2027 2pm - 4pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

NVivo is a qualitative data analysis (QDA) software package. It has been designed for qualitative researchers working with very rich text-based and/or multimedia information, where deep levels of analysis on small or large volumes of data are required.

In this introductory session we will cover the basics of importing files into NVivo, data coding and classification principles, and basic data analysis and visualisation.

Data: Qualitative data analysis

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