Page 12 - 2022 OIT Progress Report

“ Preparing for and taking the
Excel Associate certification exam through SMU allowed
me to obtain professional
skills that are already useful
to me as I am pursuing a career in research, skills that I otherwise may not have developed as an undergraduate. ”
ELIZABETH BELL
Certifying
World Changers
During the 2021-2022 academic year, OIT Training & Communications worked with ten faculty members offering Microsoft Office certifications across 35 class sections. The program, which kicked off in the fall of 2017, awarded its 3,000th certification on December 3, 2021, to Elizabeth Bell, a recent SMU alumna of Dedman College. Elizabeth shared with us, “Preparing for and taking the Excel Associate certification exam through SMU allowed me to obtain professional skills that
are already useful to me as I am pursuing a career in research, skills that I otherwise may not have developed as an undergraduate.” The certification program not only benefits undergraduate students but is available to all students, faculty, and staff.
At the beginning of each semester, the IT Training & Communications team collaborates with each professor offering certifications in their classes to provide the best experience possible for themselves and their students. “When a faculty member reaches out to us, we do everything from creating Canvas pages for their courses with instructions on how to access software, compiling supplemental learning materials for certification exams, providing software demos in class, facilitating proctored exams, and providing an easy process for faculty to retrieve certification grades. I love seeing their faces light up and say, ‘You do all this?’” explained Laurene Klassen, Assistant Director of IT Training & Communications.
Dr. Piyawan Charoensap-Kelly, also known as Dr. Kelly, Assistant Professor in Organizational Communication, has been requiring Microsoft Certifications in her classroom since she arrived on campus in 2020. After working with her Department Chair, Dr. Sandra Duhe, the decision was made to require Microsoft Word &
10 OIT PROGRESS REPORT 2022