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IT Training Services Supervisor Sheila Flory says it's rewarding to be providing training that is helping U of S faculty and staff do their jobs better. |
As Information Technology Services (ITS) staff member Sheila Flory looks back on the 18 months she has been the IT Training Services Supervisor for campus, she has two main feelings.
The first is a sense of madly scrambling to keep up with the exploding growth in demand from U of S faculty and staff for more and more training on more and more topics.
And the second is the feeling of accomplishment, knowing that she and her instructors are delivering valuable courses that are tangibly helping people across the University do their jobs better.
Flory is at a bit of a crossroads right now, having just last week put up a new website to handle the rapidly growing listings of computer-related courses offered to campus folks.
She says it keeps the previous website's functions where the user is able to see each course's full description, schedules, availability, any cost, and allowing for online registration.
But the new website, at http://focus.usask.ca/courses helps users sort through the large number of courses, by listing them under six main topics: Internet, IT Systems, IT and Teaching, Statistical Software, Mapping Software, and Productivity Software.
Right now, Flory notes, there are more than 80 courses listed - 54 in these main areas offered as in-class lessons, and another 30 web-based courses. The new ITS training website also lists more than a dozen other web-based courses offered by outside organizations.
Beyond all this, Flory says, her unit offers custom training, where her staff will make a free "needs assessment" visit to the person inquiring, and help design a customized training session for the individual or small staff group that wants the training.
"The new website should make it easier for people to find courses. We've made it as intuitive as possible," Flory says.
The new site will help her deal with the skyrocketing demand for courses.
She says in an eight-month period in 2001, 400 campus people enrolled in ITS training courses, and for the same period in 2002, just one year later, the enrolment had tripled, to more than 1,200 people.
Trying to keep up with that demand also means constantly working to come up with the courses that people want, often on new software programs that become popular and highly used in campus offices. So, for instance, the current mix of more than 80 programs includes training on surfing the Internet, building websites, how to use Windows and Macintosh operating systems, using scanners, using WebCT online course development software, using computer projectors in classrooms, using statistical and leading-edge mapping software, using spreadsheets, how to do desktop publishing and photo software, and creating and using PowerPoint presentations.
Flory says she is helped by top-notch instructors for the ITS courses - including full-time training specialists Brad Hanaback and Crystal Stadnyk, and four or five part-time trainers.
Much of her satisfaction comes from knowing that her unit knows the needs and the environment of the U of S and is able to tailor training courses to the exact needs of campus faculty and staff. So, for instance, she works closely with the Division of Media and Technology and other units to ensure her courses are consistent with their standards.
While people can sit in their own offices and work through manuals to solve their problems, she knows the ITS courses are really working for people.
"It's exciting when you can give people in an hour something they would have taken four or five days to struggle with.
"A lot of people across campus are able to do their jobs more effectively as a result. It's very rewarding."
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