Training and Development - Microsoft Office Excel - Essay Example

Paper Title [Name of Student] [Name of Affiliate Institution] TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS 2 I.INTRODUCTION 3 I.LESSON PLAN 3 II.TRAINING DESIGN AND DELIVERY 4 III.TRAINING EVALUATION 6 1.1 Lesson plan 8 1.2 Questions used in evaluation 10 References 11 I. INTRODUCTION Microsoft office Excel is spreadsheet application software developed by Microsoft Corporation for use in working with raw data that requires manipulation for desired end product. There are other companies that produce other kinds of spreadsheets e.g. IBM, Lotus 1-2-3 and Mac OS X. As such Microsoft Excel provides features that allows for data input in grids which makes it easier to work with data as well as manipulate it. Spreadsheet by definition is a grid enables a person to organize raw data into rows arranged in a horizontal manner and columns arranged in a vertical manner. Microsoft Excel is the basic feature of all spreadsheets (Harvey, 2006). In our day to day activity encounter data in various forms. For example, a woman in the kitchen will always have a shopping list of items to buy and a budget for those items. In school students learn about calculations and getting average or sum total is a set of number. In the university at a higher level, students are required to do a project in which they collect data for quantitative and qualitative analysis. All these people will require a tool that will aide in calculations and sorting of information or at advanced levels to do certain test to such data after collection. Therefore with the advent of computers and computer engineering, companies like Microsoft Corporation came up with software which can be used for simple and complex data handling. This makes it easy to work out with such data like getting the frequency of a set of data quickly and easily. However, without the knowledge of how this software operates, it is not possible to enjoy the opportunities that this program offers. Where use is not known, abuse is inevitable, hence the reason for taking this lesson. The lessons learnt both theoretically and practically in this course will help a student apply them in usage of this software and any other spreadsheet. This topic was chosen because it is vital to everyone from a shopkeeper to a doctor in a hospital and a lecturer in a university. I. LESSON PLAN A lesson plan is a road map or a guide by an instructor/teacher on what trainees will be able to learn, how they will learn the content. The lesson plan includes the objectives of a lesson, activities that aid in learning and the strategies to be used to evaluate understanding of the lessons taught (Milkova). The lesson plan enables the instructor and trainees to have an organized lesson that will guide throughout and prevent time wastage or failure to cover all the content in the desired time. The lesson plan also guides who is to do what, on which day and at what time. In this lesson plan (Appendix 1.1) details are shown of the lesson to be taught, lesson day and time and the objectives to be achieved in each lesson. The training will last two weeks starting on Monday and ending on a Friday. The total hours taught will be 15 hours of active sessions and exam sessions. Training hours will involve both theory and practice in each and every lesson. Consequently in learning Microsoft Excel students will study nine key areas of this software for them to achieve the basics for application. Important to note is that once the student leans these basics, they will be able to apply them even in advanced levels or in more complex data outputs and in any other spreadsheet. This lesson plan is a guide for every student on the subtopics to be covered, how long they will cover and objectives of study. Every student is expected to learn and achieve some personal goal but this lesson plan also gives you what to achieve at the end of the two weeks course. II. TRAINING DESIGN AND DELIVERY Training design covers four key areas which include training objectives, training content, training methods and learning principles. There are key differences between adult learning (Andradogy) and children learning (pedalogy). Andradogy is a word that was coined by Malcolm Knowles that means adult learning and he went ahead to specify how adult learning is different from children learning. There are a few factors that make adult learning different and they include the following Adults bring specific characteristics into their learning environment. Adults have a myriad of life experiences and therefore bring with them to the classroom. Adults want a problem to solve as a source of motivation and, Adults want specifics of a topic than its generalities (Gusdorf, 2009). Therefore in training adults, a trainer must be concise and straight to the point and must be interactive to maintain concentration and encourage sharing for effective training result. Training objectives and content As shown in the lesson plan training content will include nine areas that have been borrowed from University of Miami School of law and information technology. These key areas include the following; Starting Microsoft Excel. In this area student will be able to open a Microsoft excel worksheet from scratch and open an existing or saved worksheet as well as locate and open a Microsoft excel icon. This will take one hour to learn. Worksheet basics. Students will learn the most basic functions of a worksheet. These include but are not limited to, cells, rows and columns, contents of the ribbon in an excel worksheet like changing font, alignment of data, editing data like sorting in ascending and descending manner. This will take about one hour to cover them all. Formatting a worksheet. In formatting a work sheet students will be able to change the outlook of the worksheet by changing the paper orientation, adjust margins, insert and delete rows and columns, hide and unhide rows and columns, name a worksheet and move a worksheet. The fourth lesson will talk about working with data. This is core to using excel spreadsheet and students shall learn how to input data into a new worksheet, copy and paste data, or open an existing worksheet. In the fifth lesson students will be taught formatting data in a worksheet. This will be more detailed and extensive hence lasting two hours since there are many items to be covered though simple. These include how to centre texts, borders and filling, bold, underline and italics, number formats, aligning data, font color and sorting of data in an excel worksheet. The sixth lesson involves learning how to work with formulas i.e. most basic of addition (+), subtraction (-), multiplication (*), division (/) and equals (=) signs and how they are applied in cells. Checking for spelling errors will last only 1 hour. In the eight lesson students will learn to save their data and the various ways data can be saved or retrieved, or saved into a different format. The final lesson will be on printing of completed work (Remenyi et al., 2009). Training methods For this training to be effective several things have to be in place. These include the number of trainees which will determine the size of the room and room layout. A requirement for this training is that students must each have a laptop to use in practice, a notebook and a pen. The sessions shall be interactive and therefore each room shall have a maximum of 20 trainees to achieve best results. Handouts shall be prepared for and handed to students in every training session and the trainers will use a power point presentation. For every session that is 2 hours there shall be a break of 15 minutes between the two hours. Practice shall be given equal importance hence theory and practice shall share 50/50 of the total time. Two exams will be done at the end of the training to evaluate learning and gauge the level of understanding of the trainees. III. TRAINING EVALUATION For any training activity completion, evaluation is of utmost importance in testing the outcomes of any training. Evaluation also helps in adjusting training method or improving on weak areas in a training process. Kirkpatrick’s hierarchical model has been selected for use in this training since it’s the most commonly used and is appropriate for this kind of training that is theorized and practical as well. The model has got four stages which has got four levels. Level one is reactions from participants normally done at the end of each session. This will be incorporated into the training and feedback from students will be taken 5-10 minutes before each session is over and a report will be written and given to the management. The second level is the knowledge level where principles, concepts, facts or techniques learnt and can remember as a result of training are evaluated. The evaluation questions listed in Appendix 1.2 have questions testing on this area and each trainee will be graded. The third level is the behavior level which will assess how the training is being applied in every day activity. The final level is the results level which assesses the actual impact on the business. The trainees should be able to use Microsoft excel should be able to apply lessons learnt in the day to day running of their organization and the business should get results in terms of efficiency and effectiveness of using this software (Imparta). Feedback will not only be meant for the organization but also for the training process. The trainees will give feedback on the content of training, the trainers and how effective the whole process was. Trainees will also receive the results of the tests at the end of the training. APPENDICES 1.1 Lesson plan LESSON PLAN HOW TO USE MICROSOFT OFFICE EXCEL LESSON SESSION OBJECTIVES Starting Microsoft excel Monday – 1hour To know how to open a new or existing excel worksheet Worksheet basics Tuesday – 1 hour To learn the basics of an excel work book i.e. the contents of the ribbon. Formatting a work sheet Wednesday -2 hours To learn how to format an existing work sheet i.e. orientation, margins, deleting rows and columns, cut and paste, hiding rows and columns… Working with data Thursday – 2 hours To learn how to input data directly to a work book. To learn how to export data from other sources To learn how to copy and paste data and Inserting data into cells Formatting data in a worksheet Friday – 1 hour Changing column width To learn how to Centre data across columns To learn how to Format numbers and To learn aligning and sorting numbers Test evaluation Saturday Exam -1 hour To test the first five sessions learnt. Working with formulas Monday- 2 hours To learn working with cell addresses To learn to add, divide, multiply and subtract in excel. Checking for spelling errors Tuesday – 1 hour To learn to check for errors in data. Saving a worksheet Wednesday – 1 hour To learn how to save the work done. Printing a worksheet Thursday – 1 hour To learn how to print data. Final test Friday Exam- 2 hours To test the skills learnt in the last four sessions 1.2 Questions used in evaluation EVALUATION QUESTIONS (100%) Each question carries 10 marks Q1. Describe the process of opening new and existing worksheets in Microsoft excel. Q2. Explain the key areas in formatting a worksheet. Q3. Give 10 items that an excel ribbon has and explain their functions. Q4. Input the following data in an excel worksheet in rows and columns. The data shows a list of items bought from a shop by Mrs. Samuel. Mangoes-10, oranges-28, cups-30, tomatoes-15, plates-26, sweets-92, onions-58, pencils-87, pens-69 and match boxes16. Q5. Format the above data using bold, centre and sort in ascending order. Q6. Describe how to add, subtract, multiply and divide. Using the data, above carry out addition and give the sum total, give the average number for items bought. Q7. What is the shortcut for checking spelling and grammar errors? Q8. Save your works in documents with your two names on it. Q9. Connect your laptop to the compute and follow print procedures taught to print your work. Q10. Give a detailed reflection of what you have learnt in the whole course. References Gusdorf, M. (2009). Training design development and implementation. Society of human resource management. Retrieved from http://www.shrm.org/education/hreducation/documents/09-0171%20gusdorf_t%20and%20d%20final.pdf. Harvey, Greg. (2006). Excel 2007 For Dummies. Wiley. ISBN 0-470-03737-7. Imparta 2002-2007. Measuring training impacts: Examples of advanced training evaluation in practice. Imparta Ltd. Retrieved from http://www.activatum.dk/media/190.pdf. Remenyi, D., Onofrei, G. & English, J. (2009). An introduction to statistics using Microsoft excel. UK: Academic publishing limited. University of Miami School of law and information technology. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.law.miami.edu/it/pdf/faq/excel-training-guide.pdf. Read More