Office 2007 Training Plans, part 1

Church IT, on the job, training

We’re taking the plunge! I’m working out the specifics with our Administrative pastor, but my goal is to make the switch at the end of May/beginning of June. It looks like we’ll have two training sessions – one for directors and one for support staff. Our training team includes Kent, Lorna, and me, and we’ve been brainstorming some ideas for these training sessions.

At first, we figured we’d each take a single app and generate an outline for what we wanted to communicate (with directors and support staff getting tailored topics). Along the way, I discovered some nifty online training by Microsoft, but realized most of it would be useless in a classroom environment in which the students do not have access to their own PC. Absent a computer lab and realizing that hands-on training is a must we started brainstorming. Do we simply ask people to follow the tutorials online? I don’t think so. In fact, there were several challenges:

1. Do we simply train on the new interface or do we also include training on new features?
2. How do we offer “hands-on” training without a computer lab environment?
3. How do we minimize the frustration of decreased productivity while learning?
4. How do we maximize the shared learning experience (enabling users to help other users, decreasing the load on the instructor)?

So here’s our working solution. We’re calling it 007 Training. After showing the 7 minute “Ribbon” interface overview in a classroom environment (and then giving each member an official “License to Create”), we’ll divide the students into teams of 3 and give them “missions” to accomplish. For instance, the Outlook mission will have 3-4 components. One of those components will involve physically going to one of the team members’ PC, scheduling a meeting and then inviting the other team members to the meeting. Then, the team must go to the other two members’ PCs and accept the meeting.

This idea has the potential to address each of the above challenges.

1. It provides training on the new interface as well as new features (or at least features that people do not currently use, e.g., Outlook scheduling!).
2. It provides hands-on training by moving the people to the computers (instead of creating a short-term computer lab and moving all the computers).
3. It sounds fun—most staff meetings do not involve running around the office, competing with the other teams.
4. It combines knowledge of three people. If one of them isn’t familiar with scheduling a meeting and inviting attendees, one of the others can help instruct (further cementing the learning in the mind of the student-helper).

It is just a skeleton right now, but it has great potential.

Dave Stone @ April 10, 2007