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teaching excel

pontifex

Lifer
i was asked if i could teach an excel class or do some kind of 1 on 1 excel training at work.

i don't know much about excel other than the basics. apparently thats all they wane me to teach. stuff like formatting and headers, some formulas, etc. i do have some kind of excel training disc from work that i could use to help me create something.
i've created and done training at my other job but that was fairly easy because i pretty much knew the stuff inside out and there were specific procedures that needed to be followed.

had i had a class on excel myself it might be easier.

apparently they want me to start doing this type of thing for other programs as well, like Word and some of the programs specific to the company (some of which I haven't even been taught). I think they want to make me sort of like the software training guy or something.

anyone else teach excel before (to mostly totally computer illiterate people) that can give me advice or suggestions?
 
I used to teach Office 97.....I did this back in 1999.

Basically, to teach Excel, you need to help the students learn how to navigate around the cells, how to create formulas, and do absolute values like $A$9. (I think that's what they call them. 😛)

Anyhow, if you're teaching a class, you should have course materials to follow and lessons. Your best teaching can be done by having them use one of those step-by-step lab books and if anyone has a question, assist on a person-to-person basis. If more than 5 people don't get it, stop class and use and overhead projector to get everyone up to speed....then let them loose again.
 
Originally posted by: Scarpozzi
I used to teach Office 97.....I did this back in 1999.

Basically, to teach Excel, you need to help the students learn how to navigate around the cells, how to create formulas, and do absolute values like $A$9. (I think that's what they call them. 😛)

Anyhow, if you're teaching a class, you should have course materials to follow and lessons. Your best teaching can be done by having them use one of those step-by-step lab books and if anyone has a question, assist on a person-to-person basis. If more than 5 people don't get it, stop class and use and overhead projector to get everyone up to speed....then let them loose again.

i can tell you right now we won't be getting any kind of materials for this training. its only going to be whatever we have right now, which isn't much.
 
Other things to learn....

How to create graphs and use multiple spreadsheets in a workbook. How to copy and paste formulas and graphs between workbooks successfully.

How to use Add-ins and pre-defined functions. This is especially helpful in statistical applications when you need to calculate TVM or use the Solver to find the best solution for a complex problem.
 
Originally posted by: pontifex
Originally posted by: Scarpozzi
I used to teach Office 97.....I did this back in 1999.

Basically, to teach Excel, you need to help the students learn how to navigate around the cells, how to create formulas, and do absolute values like $A$9. (I think that's what they call them. 😛)

Anyhow, if you're teaching a class, you should have course materials to follow and lessons. Your best teaching can be done by having them use one of those step-by-step lab books and if anyone has a question, assist on a person-to-person basis. If more than 5 people don't get it, stop class and use and overhead projector to get everyone up to speed....then let them loose again.

i can tell you right now we won't be getting any kind of materials for this training. its only going to be whatever we have right now, which isn't much.
If you could at least get $10, you could hit a used book store and try to find a 2-5 year old Excel book....if you don't want to buy it, just take a snapshot picture of the table of contents with your camera phone to make a syllabus. 😀

 
Originally posted by: Scarpozzi
Other things to learn....

How to create graphs and use multiple spreadsheets in a workbook. How to copy and paste formulas and graphs between workbooks successfully.

How to use Add-ins and pre-defined functions. This is especially helpful in statistical applications when you need to calculate TVM or use the Solver to find the best solution for a complex problem.

i don't even know how to do half that stuff.
 
Originally posted by: Scarpozzi
Originally posted by: pontifex
Originally posted by: Scarpozzi
I used to teach Office 97.....I did this back in 1999.

Basically, to teach Excel, you need to help the students learn how to navigate around the cells, how to create formulas, and do absolute values like $A$9. (I think that's what they call them. 😛)

Anyhow, if you're teaching a class, you should have course materials to follow and lessons. Your best teaching can be done by having them use one of those step-by-step lab books and if anyone has a question, assist on a person-to-person basis. If more than 5 people don't get it, stop class and use and overhead projector to get everyone up to speed....then let them loose again.

i can tell you right now we won't be getting any kind of materials for this training. its only going to be whatever we have right now, which isn't much.
If you could at least get $10, you could hit a used book store and try to find a 2-5 year old Excel book....if you don't want to buy it, just take a snapshot picture of the table of contents with your camera phone to make a syllabus. 😀

well we are using office 2000.
 
..the Excel user manual is as thick as a couple phone books. You could make a career out of Excel.
 
ok, instead of telling me what to teach, can you tell me how to teach it? like come up with some sort of plan - how to start and then proceed through what i need to teach.

this is just like some when you have time type of class. i'm going to have to provide any materials with what we have here so that means i will need to create example files and stuff like that i guess. it isn't anything formal either. just the tech support guy doing in house training or whatever.

i told them i didn't really know that much about it, just pretty basic stuff. they didn't seem to care, just said to teach the basic stuff i know then. even the stuff i do know is just from playing with it. i don't know all the terms and stuff.
 
Originally posted by: pontifex
ok, instead of telling me what to teach, can you tell me how to teach it? like come up with some sort of plan - how to start and then proceed through what i need to teach.

this is just like some when you have time type of class. i'm going to have to provide any materials with what we have here so that means i will need to create example files and stuff like that i guess. it isn't anything formal either. just the tech support guy doing in house training or whatever.

i told them i didn't really know that much about it, just pretty basic stuff. they didn't seem to care, just said to teach the basic stuff i know then. even the stuff i do know is just from playing with it. i don't know all the terms and stuff.

Dude, get a fvcking book about Excel and read it. If you are just going to go over the basics, you'll only need to read about the first couple of chapters of any excel book, take notes, form your own plan based off how that book presented the ideas and go from there.

It's not like they are telling you to teach rocket surgery.
 
Originally posted by: tfinch2
Originally posted by: pontifex
ok, instead of telling me what to teach, can you tell me how to teach it? like come up with some sort of plan - how to start and then proceed through what i need to teach.

this is just like some when you have time type of class. i'm going to have to provide any materials with what we have here so that means i will need to create example files and stuff like that i guess. it isn't anything formal either. just the tech support guy doing in house training or whatever.

i told them i didn't really know that much about it, just pretty basic stuff. they didn't seem to care, just said to teach the basic stuff i know then. even the stuff i do know is just from playing with it. i don't know all the terms and stuff.

Dude, get a fvcking book about Excel and read it. If you are just going to go over the basics, you'll only need to read about the first couple of chapters of any excel book, take notes, form your own plan based off how that book presented the ideas and go from there.

It's not like they are telling you to teach rocket surgery.

i dunno, its pretty close to rocket surgey
 
I used to teach computer classes, for a well known computer company (think competitor to Dell, moo). although I feel I had decent knowledge of excel I thought it was pretty easy. I tought 3 lvls Beginner , Intermediate, and advanced. Mostly Beginner and a few Intermediate.

I absolutely hated teaching Access classes cause I had no idea lol. give me PHP and MySQL and I'm fine, but Access? huh 🙂

If you need help PM me and let me know, I'll try to help out
 
Sounds like the blind leading the blind. JUST KIDDING!! 😛. You may want to get an excel book yourself and read up on it and just relay that knowledge to other employees.
 
Originally posted by: KLin
Sounds like the blind leading the blind. JUST KIDDING!! 😛. You may want to get an excel book yourself and read up on it and just relay that knowledge to other employees.

no, it really is.

like i said, i don't have that much Excel experience and knowledge to be teaching other people, at least not properly. I think its a case of "hey, pontifex is the computer guy, he knows everything. we'll have him teach it."
 
Originally posted by: pontifex
Originally posted by: KLin
Sounds like the blind leading the blind. JUST KIDDING!! 😛. You may want to get an excel book yourself and read up on it and just relay that knowledge to other employees.

no, it really is.

like i said, i don't have that much Excel experience and knowledge to be teaching other people, at least not properly. I think its a case of "hey, pontifex is the computer guy, he knows everything. we'll have him teach it."

Maybe this is a situation where you need to tell them you don't know much about Excel and that everyone would benefit from taking a class at the local community college.
 
Originally posted by: KLin
Originally posted by: pontifex
Originally posted by: KLin
Sounds like the blind leading the blind. JUST KIDDING!! 😛. You may want to get an excel book yourself and read up on it and just relay that knowledge to other employees.

no, it really is.

like i said, i don't have that much Excel experience and knowledge to be teaching other people, at least not properly. I think its a case of "hey, pontifex is the computer guy, he knows everything. we'll have him teach it."

Maybe this is a situation where you need to tell them you don't know much about Excel and that everyone would benefit from taking a class at the local community college.

i did tell them i don't think i know enough to be teaching it. they would have sent people to classes but the company is not exactly in the best of financial terms right now.
 
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