By April Leonard
QuickStart classes begin again June 1 for students and faculty who are looking to learn basic computer and programming skills on campus.
The Office of Information and Technology offers three separate levels of computer training for the beginner to the advanced. Undergraduate and graduate students instruct QuickStart, QuickSkill, and Excellerated QuickSkill classes throughout the year.
'Students are trying to get faster and in a little amount of time, so that''s two hours to pump them full of information,' said Rob Packer, training instructor for the Office of IT.
During spring and summer terms, QuickStart completes in two weeks, with classes meeting twice a week for three and a half hours. Classes are available during the day and the evening at five different skill levels.
QuickStart classes are one credit courses earned for post-graduate credit and are graded on a pass/fail basis. Participants who wish to receive credit turn in a final project at the completion of the course. Students may also audit the class.
For students that cannot commit to the longer course, QuickSkills classes are two-hour seminars that cover one topic each meeting. Excellerated QuickSkill classes are geared toward students and cover a topic from start to finish, not going into depth.
Classes are offered covering computer basics including Microsoft Windows and using the Internet along with Microsoft applications such as Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint and Word. Graphics and Web design classes such as Illustrator, HTML, Web development and Photoshop are also offered.
Communications and Training manager for the Office of IT Relia Smith said the Web development class is very popular.
'Almost every business now has a Web presence,' Smith said. 'Regardless of what kind of industry you are involved in, you need to be able to use computers and use the Internet in order to really compete commercially.'
Stephanie Packer, an advertising/marketing major from South Sioux, Neb. is taking the Illustrator class to help her at work where she designs advertisements. She said she feels the courses offered are profitable.
'These classes can make you very marketable,' she said. 'It is easy to learn and it is so cheap to learn something that is valuable that could take forever to learn on your own.'
The majority of the participants enrolled in the courses are faculty members training for employment purposes.
'There are still a lot of people who don''t have the computer skills that are necessary for today''s world,' Smith said. 'We feel like it is so important to be able have those skills in order to do the basic functions in any job, and that we need to be able to offer those.'
Rob Packer said he feels students learn a lot from the classes.
'Most are coming in without any knowledge of the program or the subject matter and they go out being able to create a web page or being able to design things and be pretty well versed in the program,' he said.