rapid-fire Excel training - topics?

[iliace]

I am once again stuck running an internal training at our organization for MS Office, my topic being Excel. I've been given an hour for presentation + 15 minutes for Q&A. Currently I have it down to 1.5 hours of presentation, which has been okayed so far, but I'm still weary of what topics to cover. I suggested 3 days, 8 hours each, but they didn't go for that.

Audience is directors, executives, and some middle management. Our CEO is insisting that everyone learn to use Excel proficiently, as he recently got into it and loves it. Anyway, these folks are mostly case workers, with backgrounds in psychology, nursing, education etc - not anyone with significant computer background.

Here is what I'm working with so far (if anyone cares enough to read the full version it's here http://www.iasafiev.com/Fall2008_Excel2003_outline.htm):

1. Introduction - questions about experience and types of problems people use Excel for
2. Demo - VisiCalc vs Excel 2007 - this is to preempt the objection of "But I haven't used a spreadsheet since 1991, it's so different now!"
3. Demo - samples of spreadsheets I use; a fill-in form with a few calculations; a calculation-heavy financial model; and a database with charts and PivotTables.

That all will be roughly 10-15 minutes. For the rest of it:

4. Workbooks (including file types) and worksheets
5. Cells and ranges - including attributes such as address, value, type, various formats, etc
6. Interface - menus, toolbars, and basic customization (Excel 2003)
7. Data Entry - ways to navigate, using find, series fill, cut/paste
8. Layout - split screen, window, freeze panes, page break preview; also, printing options (page setup)
9. Formulas - order of operations, addresses (rel vs abs), some basic functions, etc
10. Databases - I will demonstrate a list which we will use as a mail merge demo in the Outlook portion of the training; also, using Subtotals, inserting charts, and possibly PivotTables.

At the conclusion I will talk about where to go for help, and there will be a 15-20 minutes of Q&A.

Now ok, all that in 1.5 hours, to a group of (largely) beginners. Is this a waste of time (theirs, mostly)? I'm looking for suggestions of possibly (a) reducing the amount of material, or (b) reorganizing some sections to demonstrate multiple concepts in one pass.

Last year, it was slightly different: http://www.iasafiev.com/Fall2007_Excel2003_outline.htm and didn't really go too well. Many people requested charts (for whatever reason) so we spent 40 minutes on charts and most attendees walked out empty-handed otherwise. We are not taking requests this year, and I have some uncertainty as to what to present.

Thanks for any feedback.

 

[sous2817]

I recently had to give a presentation to a group of people who generally use excel to hold numbers while they type them in to a calculator or use a different color for each cell so their trackers look like a rainbow puked on a spread sheet...

anyway, what seemed to help get them to understand best was coming up with a situation that you could carry out through your whole presentation, with each step building on the last. That way, if someone gets lost they can go back and retrace what you've done up to that point.

Not sure if that's the feedback you're looking for or if it will fit in your presentation, but that method seemed to work with my group.

Good luck!

 

[btadams]

I love management! Give someone an hour or two of training and expect them to be a subject matter expert the next day!

I used to do Excel training in a previous life, mostly for scientists and engineers whom I assumed to have at least a basic understanding of Excel.

I take it this is not going to be hands-on training? If yes, you're gonna set a lot of heads spinning. If no, then your best bet is to use examples they will be familiar with and then do your best to apply the "shock & awe" method to interest them in what Excel is capable of.

 

[iliace]

Single solution approach is a good idea. I'll look into that and see if I can coordinate some interop with the Word/Outlook team. We still have over a month to prepare, but the first planning meeting is this Friday and I need an outline/lesson plan.

We plan to have 4-5 workstations available for hands-on, with 2-3 people at each. Last year was entirely demo mode (no hands-on) and it was largely a waste of time. As early as the next day these people were coming to me with problems I had covered in the demonstration. Hopefully we can get at least one somewhat knowledgeable person at each workstation to move things along. They will have all example files available to them.

 

[sdurocher]

If they are mostly case workers, maybe an example of how Excel can automate a portion of thier job or make their job easier. Give them some reduction in their work load and they become great listeners.

I have done Pivot Table presentations to people who actually know Excel (financial employees)and only a hand few use Pivot tables now. The people that do use it, are people I did automation projects with. They saw their normal work load drop and the value of pivot tables. They then wanted to create pivot tables on thier own. The others that I didn't have a work example or automation project didn't see any value, so weren't interested in learning.

 

[coasterfreak]

My last job was working in an office with salesmen and customer service people, ones that use computers all the time. I wrote programs to make their job easier. They were basic answer the question and let the program do the work and give them the answers. lol, you would think it would be easy. People that do not know and work with excel do not have a clue. May the force be with you my friend trying to teach Excel to non-Excel using people. And in 1.5 hrs... My one sugestion is KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid). That was how I started my programs - This is a KISS Production. I would like to know how it turns out for you.