using myitlab training in microsoft word, excel, access and powerpoint

Using MyITLab

Training in Microsoft Word, Excel, Access and PowerPoint

About Me and My Course

Worked as Lab Instructor and part-time faculty at WLU for 9 years

Began training others in software in 1994 Started using MyITLab last year Almost 500 students per term, 13 lab sections per

week, 2 Lab Instructors, 24+ Instructional assistants (2 per lab, extras to help mark assignments)

90%+ business and economics students

WatITis | Strengthening Collaboration | December 8, 2009 | Using MyITLab

About You

How many academics in the room? How many techies? How many of you recommend instructional

technologies to instructors or professors?


Why use MyITLab?

Interested in using technology to teach in different ways

More students in recent years Wanted less instruction time

More “Help” time for those who needed it

Students think they know what they are doing, but they don’t


What is MyITLab?

Product of Pearson Education Competitor: SAM2007 – Wiley / Cengage

Web based simulator for Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access

Like an interactive Camtasia video’ Similar training system can be developed with

Flash (Abobe Captivate) but time consuming Why not give a demonstration? My Starting Page


What happened?

First year: Kept lab material the same, added MyITLab

Some frustration over problems with Windows Vista Students needed more training on using MyITLab

than I had anticipated When it didn’t work, students complained to me


The Second Year (ongoing!)

Year 2, Semester 1 now complete… time to start all over again

Gave less intro material, told them to jump right into Training and Assessments

Students still didn’t have a theoretical grounding, or even basic intro to the new Office 2007 interface

Learned quickly we still needed to EXPLAIN features of Word and where to find them

Some students were watching the training and memorizing what needed to be done


Year 2 Continued…

Problems with scheduling in the beginning, overloaded the work while trying to keep labs in line with lecture

Give more demo and explanation now before telling them to do the assessments

Meant for distance learning, should allow students to complete at home

Still need a pedagogical tool for making sure students complete skills on their own (assignments and in lab testing)


Lessons Learned

Probably eliminate position based questions (drag the image so its top left corner is at the -3.5 inch mark on the horizontal axis and +3 on the

vertical) Assistants need training in how the software works,

and not giving the answers or helping with it Students should get some wrong Start early by showing students how to contact

MyITLab Tech support and how to do browser check


Support in Vista is “iffy” – some assessments I’ve seen fail, but some students have reported no problems.

Fully supported in Windows 7 as of January 2010 with IE 7


New in 2010 – GRADER!

Saw it previewed at a Pearson conference in the summer

Tested in colleges in the US and Canada Helps detect academic misconduct Detects if files have been shared Can automatically mark assignments from

supported textbooks (capstone exercises)


RTFS


using myitlab training in microsoft word, excel, access and powerpoint

Documents

myitlab slide

myitlab training

use myitlab

economics students watitis

assessments students

myitlab tech support

powerpoint slide

windows vista students