Week 7: Intermediate and Advanced Microsoft Office

Week 7:
Feb. 22 - March 1
This week's topic was Intermediate and Advanced Microsoft Office skills, and the class activity was for us to use MS Office checklists to check our proficiency levels and document any new skills.

I liked this activity because I like using MS Office and I consider myself somewhat of an expert in MS Office. However, I was very humbled after checking my skill level; I compared two different proficiency checklists for MS Word. Excel, and PowerPoint, and I realized that I was not as proficient as I thought.

After looking at the checklists, I realized that I was not as skilled as I initially thought.

Skill Level before Checklist:
MS Word: Expert
MS Excel: Advanced
MS Powerpoint: Advanced

Skill Level after Checklist:
MS Word: Intermediate
MS Excel: Beginner
MS PowerPoint: Intermediate

I wasn't to surprised by my rating for Excel, I rarely use it and so I quickly forget all that I learn from it. However I was definitely humbled by my Word and PowerPoint skills; I learned some new skills through the checklists and I am glad I checked because there are a lot of  new skills to be learnt.

These checklists are a helpful tool for personal and professional development, and I will try to master a new skill as frequently as I can.

You can access these checklists via:
http://danarmishaw.com/ms-office-skills-checklists/ or
http://www.concordia.ca/content/dam/concordia/services/hr/docs/employment/guides/proficiency-computer-skills.pdf


Update: A week after this exercise, I had to assist a patron with MS Word and I was able to use one of the new skills I had just learned through this activity.