Comment on EA Vouchers

I received the following comment from an EA student:

I began my training classes in Word. I found the program to be awkward and dificult to navigate. Though I knew the material in the "Starting Word" segment, I felt like I wasted my time trying to navigate rather than learning anything.


Has anyone else experienced this? Any advice?

Comments from others using EA vouchers? How long did it take you to be able to comfortably navigate through the courses? Any suggestions? Below are my suggestions to this student:

This is the program that Microsoft uses for all the courses it offers for certification. I can suggest that there is a free Office training program on the Illinois workNet site that may be easier to navigate. You might try that first, and then go back to the voucher courses when you have a larger base of knowledge to draw from. You can access those courses (also online, but without needing vouchers) at http://www.illinoisworknet.com/vos_portal/residents/en/Tools/
 Go down to Elevate America, Getting Started with Microsoft Business Worker Courses, not Requiring a Voucher - Learn about the Getting Started Microsoft Business Workers online courses that do not require a voucher.
If that is still not what you need, the ACTC has classes in Word, levels 1 and 2. You can access a schedule from http://actcstudent.blogspot.com, and click on ACTC schedule in the left hand column.

If you would like to make a comment, click on the 'comments' button at the bottom of this post. A colleague suggested:

The navigation for the e-learning courses is not as intuitive as users may initially assume. Make sure to encourage the clients to go through the course overview section of each course prior to beginning the actual modules. The course overview provides videos and specific instructions for navigating through the online courses.

That is good advice, and relative to almost any online course that one takes. Good luck to all using the vouchers, and let me know how you are doing. 

Judith Sotir