Translate Training & IT Acronyms and Phrases
These pages are here to translate training and IT acronyms and phrases seen across the internet into plain English.
Here you will find acronyms and terms used within IT, Social Media and Training.
Scroll down the page, or click on the letter below.
For more explanations and thoughts, have a look at the Learning Blog.
C
CMS – Content Management System
Software used to create and manage digital software, often websites.
CPD – Continuing Professional Development
The term used to describe the learning activities professionals engage in to develop and enhance their abilities. It enables learning to become conscious and proactive, rather than passive and reactive.
D
DMS – Document Management System
Document management, often referred to as Document Management Systems (DMS), is the use of a computer system and software to store, manage and track electronic documents and electronic images of paper-based information captured through the use of a document scanner. Popular with Legal firms.
Domain
A set of websites on the internet that end with the same letters. Popular domains include .com, .co.uk
E
ECDL – European Computer Driving License
ECDL is recognised by employers across the globe as the benchmark in digital and IT user skills. Focusing on the skills, rather than the specific program, for the identified 7 key areas.
G
GDPR – Generalised Data Protection Regulation
The General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 is a regulation in EU law on data protection and privacy in the European Union and the European Economic Area. It also addresses the transfer of personal data outside the EU and EEA areas.
H
HTML – HyperText Markup Language
All of the pages on the internet have code in the background, explaining how the web browser should display the content on the screen. As a number of languages exist, each page’s code needed to explain which one was being used, so that it can be read properly.
The current evolution is HTML5
HTTP – HyperText Transfer Protocol
Telling other computers which language is being used to communicate with other internet sites. In the beginning of the internet, there was more than one language for sharing information, so all pages needed to announce the one being used.
Today, HTTP is the standard around the world.
I
IT – Information Technology
Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to store, retrieve, transmit, and manipulate data or information. IT is typically used within the context of business operations as opposed to personal or entertainment technologies.
ICT – Information and Communications Technology
Information and communications technology (ICT) is an extensional term for information technology (IT) that stresses the role of unified communications and the integration of telecommunications (telephone lines and wireless signals) and computers, as well as necessary enterprise software, middleware, storage and audio/visual, that enable users to access, store, transmit, and manipulate information.
Examples include: Skype for Business, MS Teams, Slack
Internet
A global computer network providing a variety of information and communication facilities, consisting of interconnected networks using standardized communication protocols.
This includes: Email, WWW, Transfer Protocols.
ITQ – IT Qualification
L
LMS – Learning Management System
A learning management system is a software application for the administration, documentation, tracking, reporting, automation and delivery of educational courses, training programs, or learning and development programs.
M
MMS – Multi Media Service
It is the media version of an SMS message, for messages that includes images, videos, or audio via a traditional mobile network. This was a common way of sending pictures, also known as Picture Messages, to friends and colleagues before mobile applications began using mobile Internet networks to send larger files.
MOOC – Massive Open Online Course
An online course aimed at unlimited participation and open access via the Web.
MOS – Microsoft Office Specialist
End-user certification on Microsoft Products – Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Access. Once passed, allows you to prove your skills in the specific application and version. Administered by www.certiport.com.
R
ROI – Return on Investment
Return on Investment (ROI) is a performance measure used to evaluate the efficiency or profitability of an investment or compare the efficiency of a number of different investments.
S
SaaS – Software as a Service
Monthly or yearly paid subscription for software – downloaded or used via a web browser.
SEO – Search Engine Optimisation
Search engine optimization is the process of improving the quality and quantity of website traffic to a website or a web page from search engines. SEO targets unpaid traffic rather than direct traffic or paid traffic.
Scraping
Scraping is an automated process where sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn collect data from your web pages. The scraped data is used to create a little preview of the page in question when you post a link to it on social media
You are looking to see if the website shows an image, the site name, logo.
SMS – Short Message Service
It’s the most common form of text messaging used. With a single text message is limited to 160 characters including spaces.
Social Media
Websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking. Popular ones include: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Instagram.
SOP – Standard Operating Procedure/Process
A standard operating procedure is a set of step-by-step instructions compiled by an organisation to help workers carry out routine operations. SOPs aim to achieve efficiency, quality output and uniformity of performance, while reducing miscommunication.
SSD – Solid State Drive
A solid-state drive is a storage device that uses non-moving parts to store data. Until traditional hard drives, the solid state drive doesn’t have a ‘head’ (that writes and reads data), that could damage the surface is dropped. It’s also offers faster speeds to access your data. Due to it (relative) expense, smaller SSD drives are installed compared to hard disk drives.
T
TLA – Three Letter Acronym(s)
Have you ever notice how many of the acronyms are three letters? Someone did, and created an acronym to explain them 😅
U
UAT – User Acceptance Testing
The IT department will always test any new software, but they are only making sure it works, and doesn’t interfere with the rest of the network. It’s the people who need to use the software everyday that need to test if it does the job. They need to test ad accept the new system.
UC – Unified Communication(s)
Unified communications (UC) is a business and marketing concept describing the integration of enterprise communication services such as instant messaging (chat), presence information, voice (telephone over the computer – telephony) and information sharing (i.e. screen, whiteboards, file). UC is not necessarily a single product, but a set of products that provides a consistent unified user interface and user experience across multiple devices and media types.
Examples include: Skype, Skype for Business, MS Teams, Zoom and Slack.
URL – Uniform Resource Location/Locator
This is the official term for what is usually referred to as web address. The ‘address’ of the page/site that you want to visit.
In reality, the URL is a sequence of numbers that identify, however to make it friendlier to humans, a name that is easier to remember (and type in) is used, and internet technology decodes it to the right number sequence. E.g www.bbc.co.uk
URL Shortener
With larger sites, you have many pages, often organised into folders to make it easier to find specific pages. However, this means that the URL gets longer as it needs to show the levels needed to get to the right page.
This long URL can be difficult to remember and hard to type in, using a URL Shortener allows you to replace it with a smaller version – often random letters and number e.g. https://bit.ly/32zZMWM
Popular URL Shortener’s include Bit.ly and Tiny URL
W
W3C – World Wide Web Consortium
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international community where Member organizations, a full-time staff, and the public work together to develop Web standards. Led by Web inventor and Director Tim Berners-Lee and CEO Jeffrey Jaffe, W3C’s mission is to lead the Web to its full potential.
WWW – World Wide Web
While many people think of WWW as the internet, it is actually just one part of it.
X
XML – eXtensible Markup Language
Extensible Markup Language is a markup language that defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable.
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