Are your learning strategies preparing students for success in today’s workplace? Enhance student learning and retention by using state-of-the-art technologies to perform office jobs relevant to workplace success. Teach Word 2013 while also developing creativity, productivity, communication, and document design skills. Provide experience with projects that simulate realwork environments to give students a competitive edge in the part-time job market and relevant experience required when they graduate. Discover a solution that is easy for students to access and use and for you to train, grade, and assess keyboarding and word processing proficiency.

1. A Productivity/Project Approach to
Teaching Microsoft® Word 2013
Vicki Robertson and Susie VanHuss

2. Agenda
• Why Word 2013?
• Why a productivity/project approach?
• Benefits to students/instructors/employers
• Learning strategies to prepare students for
workplace success

3. Why Word 2013?
• Most comprehensive word processor
Word • State-of-the art
• De facto standard
MS Office • 90+% market share (Gartner, Forbes, WSJ)
• 2-year graduates – Word 16 in Beta
Workplace • 4-year graduates – Word 16 in
workplace 1-2 years (MS timeline)

4. Why a Productivity/Project Approach?
1. Addresses students’ lack of strong basic skills
(keyboarding & communication)
2. Sound pedagogical approach – simple to
complex with extensive reinforcement
3. Easy to learn and easy to teach at all levels
4. Learning-focused engagement
5. Direct career link

5. Student Realities
Huge opportunity for instructors of first-year courses to
make a real difference in the lives of their students!

6. Student Benefits from Productivity/
Project Approach
• Develop basic
keyboarding, communication, and word
processing skills needed for virtually all jobs in
the first semester
• Engaging approach clearly linking
instruction to workplace success
• Huge advantage in competing for better on-
campus and community part-time jobs
• Develop skills to gain relevant work
experience while in school

7. Instructor Realities and Benefits
• Increasing student retention is easier
and cheaper than recruiting new
students for your program
• Students employed part-time in
administrative offices on campus
showcase your program
• Students learn that your program is
the best way to get relevant part-time
work experience (Word of mouth
Enhancing students’ opportunities recruiting!)
for workplace success, makes a
real difference in their lives!
The real reward of teaching is
knowing that you made a
difference in your students’ lives!

8. Employer Benefits
Employer expectations for entry level:
Immediate productivity
from new hires
Relevant work
experience
Soft skills
Essential technical
skills
Productivity/project approach can prepare students to
meet these expectations!

9. Office Productivity
Keyboarding and communication skills (KPDO)
Essential word processing commands
and formatting
Productivity tools in Word
(Building blocks—headers, footers, cover pages, table
designs, templates, Quick Parts, styles, SmartArt, collaboration tools, etc.)

10. Illustrated Learning Strategies
Select learning strategies based on student learning outcomes.

11. Integrate Communication Skills

12. Essential Word Processing Commands
Concept
Step-by-step instructions Illustration
Immediate, simple
practice of one or two
commands

13. Apply Commands, Formats, and Basic Skills

14. Start with Model Document and Callouts

15. Apply All Formats and Reduce Directions

16. Project Approach—Realistic Work Setting
Same company setting is
used at end of each
module (3-7) to review
commands and formats
taught in that module.
Uses SOPs to minimize directions
Project 8 –
Comprehensive project

17. Minimal Instructions
Focus is on
what to do—
not how to do
it

18. Integrate Communication Skills
Requires
synthesizing
information from a
previous report as
well as composition
and editing skills

19. Summary
Consistent
• Works equally well with learning beginning and advanced
simple-to-complex command and formats
approach
Integrates a wide • Keyboarding and communications
range of skills in a • Beginning and advanced Word
realistic business • Simple and complex document formatting
• Follows business-type standard operating procedures
setting
• Shows the relevance of instruction to workplace success
Engaging and • Tool to retain students throughout first year and into
career focused second year
• Prepares students for entry-level workplace success

20. Contact Information
Susie H. VanHuss, Ph.D.
Distinguished Professor Emeritus
Moore School of Business
University of South Carolina
susievanhuss@bellsouth.net
803.799.9459
Note: Illustrations of learning strategies in this presentation are copyrighted by Cengage
Learning or Susie H. VanHuss 2013.