DevDays festival – putting users first

By Leslie Ahern, itslearning
October, 2022

itslearning is excited to announce that after a break due to the pandemic, we were finally able to hold DevDays again!

DevDays, short for Developer Days, is an event during which developers are encouraged to take days off from their regular work to focus on ideas they wouldn’t otherwise have time for. It’s a great way to invest in employees and promote continuous learning.

itslearning DevDays are wonderfully social and really boost team spirit. People share ideas and collaborate on solutions for users, which reinforces the idea of putting users first – not just during the festival, but also in our day-to-day work.

On World Teachers’ Day, October 5th, thirty developers and quality assurance colleagues from Finland, Austria and all over Norway gathered at our Bergen headquarters to kick-off the event. After that, they divided into teams and took over our conference rooms to brainstorm ideas and collaborate for the next few days.

“At itslearning, our engineers are the beating heart of our application. They are passionate about the product and the engineering behind it. During DevDays, they have a chance to share their enthusiasm with colleagues and to watch their experimental ideas materialize.”
Kristian Rye Vennesland, Global Development Manager, itslearning

This year’s theme is: “Better, Faster, Stronger, Cooler!” In past years, team presentations – held in front of a jury – have consisted of songs, plays and prototypes which were almost fully functioning implementations of very challenging ideas.

The results this year were outstanding, and as usual, they challenged the perception of what engineering really is. Prizes were awarded for the Best Presentation, Best Educational Idea, Best Prototype and of course the most coveted Nerd Award.

DevDays Award Winners

Ask an Engineer

As part of DevDays, we held a live session called “Ask an Engineer” during which a panel of our developers answered questions from colleagues like, “Why does it take four weeks to change the color of a button?”

From left: Bent Audun Hesvik, Kristian Rye Vennesland, Boris Bushmelev, and Anna Tarsia

“What I like about being an engineer at itslearning is having a network of good people. It’s a very stimulating, enriching environment.”
Anna Tarsia, Software Developer, itslearning

This 7th incarnation of itslearning DevDays was a great success! Now we are back at our desks working on incorporating those amazing ideas into our platform to make it even easier for teachers to use. Thank you to all the participants and prize winners! I’m looking forward to the next one already!

Leslie Ahern, itslearning
October 10, 2022