Good morning, all!

Anonymous

February 5,2023 at 2:49PM UTC

Welcome to Fairygodboss!

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Good morning, all!

I am developing a VERY basic computer class for employees at my work place who have little to no basic computer skills.

The goal? Help these employees by:

Giving them access to a computer lab so they may check their work emails, benefits, paystubs and the like.
Give them the skills to sign on to a computer, manipulate a mouse, navigate to the internet and then to our company site.
Give them the skills to open, read and send emails from their company emails.

What I'm asking you all is this:

Do you have any advice about skills, techniques, topics that I might have missed?

Do you know of, or have you taken any basic computer skills class(es) that I might look at for "flow" and inspiration?

Thank you all for your time in reading and all responses are welcomed and appreciated.

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Sandy NagelFebruary 5,2023 at 3:49PM UTC
The public library (at leadt in Cincinnati) offers basic computer classes. They are more than willing to share information on how their classes work and can give you some tips.
AnonymousFebruary 5,2023 at 5:24PM UTC
Don’t forget MS office suite work. And the good old turning a word doc into a PDF ;)
AnonymousFebruary 5,2023 at 5:43PM UTC
Is this part of your role?? I would think folks are required to come to the job with the appropriate computer skills.
I have advice. Send them
to a community college. There offer several basic computer classes year round. IMHO I wouldn’t tie up my time doing this.
AnonymousFebruary 5,2023 at 9:10PM UTC
Nice attitude. Not every person in every company is used to computer work- I wrote classes like this for carpenters, painters, and electricians. For years they'd gotten all their work orders on paper and then were forced to use computers. It was chaos, and I had guys who were absolute EXPERTS at what they did feeling like complete idiots.
AnonymousFebruary 5,2023 at 7:09PM UTC
We used to set them up with solitaire and minesweeper to work on their mouse skills.
AnonymousFebruary 5,2023 at 9:08PM UTC
I wrote similar classes years ago. Honestly- I had to start with "this is what the ON button looks like" and "this is what I mean when I say double-click."
My advice is use a LOT of photos/images and don't try to cover too much in one class.
Holly NunnallyFebruary 6,2023 at 12:12PM UTC
I have also found that creating handouts with DETAILED step-by-step instructions, including screen shots, can be a major life saver reference for people learning new skills.
Cindy GloverFebruary 8,2023 at 3:08AM UTC
Agreed!
AnonymousFebruary 6,2023 at 2:30PM UTC
Cyber security is a must for new users. How to identify spam emails and not click on viruses. Don’t provide private or company information over email, including requests for bank account information, etc.
Cindy GloverFebruary 8,2023 at 3:08AM UTC
Can these emails be quarantined by the IT department?
Cynthia Armistead NewmanFebruary 8,2023 at 1:09PM UTC
IT tries, but filters aren't perfect. Education in identifying phishing messages is vital.
AnonymousFebruary 6,2023 at 3:10PM UTC
This is a wonderful idea. So many people only know what they know because of their phone. But unfortunately, many people's phone are limited and don't show everything that they need to know.
AnonymousFebruary 6,2023 at 5:32PM UTC
As a starting point for developing this type of curriculum, you might look at the “Widows for Dummies” or “PCs for Dummies” books. They will give you a very good idea of what to cover and how to break your information down into small, practical chunks. Be sure to keep your class size small enough that each person has your individual attention when they get stuck, and twenty other people don’t have to sit and wait while you sort it out. Find out what each student already knows and structure your lessons to build on that. Give them lots of hands on practice (you can make fun exercises for them to test their skills as they go) and stress to them that they are not going to break the computer. I did this some years back for a wholesale nursery operation where many of the field and warehouse workers had never touched a mouse, opened a PDF, sent an email, etc. We made it fun and non-threatening and everyone did great!
Cynthia Armistead NewmanFebruary 8,2023 at 1:11PM UTC
Free Code Camp does a very good job with their curriculum. They recently introduced a similar course: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/computer-basics-beginners
Dawn McDonnellFebruary 8,2023 at 1:18PM UTC
You might want to consider doing some research at the local community colleges senior centers and libraries to follow their curriculum rather than reinventing the wheel - reach out to Senior Planet Community on line they maybe able to coordinate something with you.
kitty holmquistFebruary 8,2023 at 1:35PM UTC
I actually taught in my community basic skills. It's tough because some people are more basic than others. I had one elderly gentleman who wanted to learn how to use the Internet, and I was planning on teaching that, but first, I was teaching how to use Word. I everyone open the file and type something. He shouts, "it's not working!" I went over to look, and he typed Internet and thought it should go there. I tried not to laugh and to explain that we were typing letters first. I think the key is patience and a lot of encouragement.
As for using the mouse, I did have one person who shook so much that the mouse didn't work for him.
For emails, make sure to repeat this process a few times and have them write down their passwords clearly. I also made them all send emails to me, and I replied during the week. Some of them didn't know how to look at them later.
Also, some do not know how to turn on the computer. Make sure to show them the power symbol, as sometimes you have to look for it on different computers.
Hope this helps, and good luck!
AnonymousFebruary 8,2023 at 1:36PM UTC
Reassure them that it's almost impossible to delete anything permanently or break the machine. Tell them how to turn on and off the computer. Give them a handout with common terms defined and directions to expected places, for example define mouse and write the path to the time/paycheck area.
Cindy GrossFebruary 8,2023 at 4:45PM UTC
Plan for what feels like an excessive amount of time to get through each new thing. Maybe find (or make) some videos to show the basics - there are YouTube videos for everything. Be prepared that they may have had people get really frustrated and condescending with them during past attempts to teach them so they may be hesitant or defensive. Maybe spend a long time at the beginning without touching the computer so they relax and trust you and each other. A "Gracious Space" opening question. A game that uses the same movements as using a mouse. Practice asking you and each other simple questions.
Rosemarie Lopresti BusickFebruary 8,2023 at 5:06PM UTC
I would also include time with MS Word so they can learn the basics to begin building their resume.
Bosslady965399February 9,2023 at 3:08AM UTC
There are small training videos on microsoftoffice.com if you are specifically using MS Office programs. There is also https://edu.gcfglobal.org/en/ that has basic computer-based courses for people who are not tech savvy or who have lacked accessibility to technology.
jessicacarterApril 23,2024 at 1:06PM UTC
you can create paystub https://online-paystub.com/