Technology is a critical component of the Spartan experience. It’s essential to our teaching, learning, research, outreach, and daily work no matter which modality we’re using. Therefore, MSU IT reinstated its Training Team to educate users about the technology services available at the university. The team’s goal is to increase skill sets and areas of expertise in how technology is used effectively. It also seeks to bring awareness to what is possible with available tools and solutions. Training supports sustainability and stewardship by helping ensure that MSU-invested enterprise technology solutions for the campus community are adopted and utilized effectively.
TheMSU IT Training Team’s first initiative focused on educating users about the most commonly used collaborative tools at the university. MSU IT training courses are available for essential, primary collaboration tools like Zoom, Spartan 365, and specific Microsoft applications like Teams, OneNote, OneDrive, and Forms. All trainings are offered at no cost to any MSU faculty, staff, or student and the Training Team maintains regular weekly office hours to provide assistance and answer questions.
Based on stakeholder feedback, the team will also be expanding its training catalog to meet some of the university’s greatest needs. This includes raising cybersecurity awareness and addressing data management, in particular data collection and storage resources in the research space.
The MSU IT Training Team endeavors to meet learners where they are. The team provides a variety of modalities that meet varying skill levels and busy schedules. In addition, in its effort to support success in teaching, learning, research, and outreach collaboration, the team has challenged itself to instill a sense of comfort and confidence in using available technology among tech users on campus.
To plan, design, produce, and deliver trainings the team uses instructional design, user-experience design principles, and technical knowledge. Trainings are available as on-demand course recordings as well as live virtual instructor-led trainings and in-person trainings.
“The connection we make with learners ensures each gets the most out of the course,” said Training Team manager Laura Nagy. “When faced with issues, we look at what’s best for learners and those delivering content.”
One key difference between current technology training services and past practices is that the team is resourced to prioritize sustainable support of the campus community’s greatest enterprise technology education needs. Even though embedded, short-term project support for technology implementations is out of scope, the training team provides consulting-style support on projects to set them up for success. The Training Team supports the model where business partners and subject matter experts are responsible for project-based training. By allocating them to deliver training from the outset, it helps address the difficult knowledge transfer during the typically tight end-user education windows built into most implementations. It also facilitates greater long-term sustainability as it ensures they create assets that they can be updated and managed over time.
“We are looking at performing a further needs assessment to ensure we are covering the needs on campus,” Nagy said. “Our goal is to be the best of the best on campus. Not only do we want to create interactive classes that are the most helpful for our MSU students, faculty, and staff, but we also want to make them exciting to attend.”
Prioritizing user experience is at the heart of all MSU IT Training Team courses, so that campus communities understand how to make the most out of the technology tools available to them, in their specific role or context.
“We want the learner to feel that their interaction with the instructor is vital to make the learning experience informative and fun,” said Todd Ring, training developer. “We want the learners to walk away understanding the concepts they just learned.”
“At the end of the day, it is all about the value the learners get from each interaction,” said Michael Julian, training developer. “Learning happens in so many arenas, not just through formal means. As Todd said, learning should be fruitful and fun.”
Another way the training team prioritizes user experience is by working closely with the MSU IT Communications team to enhance communications about campus technology. Many communications about IT new or existing services also need a training component to show users how to best use the service. Training allows users to better understand IT services by adding a more robust level of knowledge.
“We believe in professional development and continuing to learn and develop as a team,” Nagy said. “We will continue to enrich how we deliver and develop content. Creativity and innovation will help us reach more learners and improve our product.”
In-person training courses, virtual-led training courses, and on-demand course recordings are all available in addition to weekly office hours for those who have questions or need help. You can find the entire catalog of courses the MSU IT Training Team offers at SpartansLearn.msu.edu.
