Techforlearning

After thinking about it and talking to a colleague whose schooled has offered MOS certification I thought to write this post.

The Burning Question

Does the effort put forth outweigh the benefits for students?

What is the benefit of students having certification?

• Students have a certificate showing that are certified proficient/expert users of MSOffice.
• Students could be considered more employable than the competition because they have the foundations of office technology
• Student will successfully complete tasks at work.

I think that the certification is helpful to a student who is already a good candidate for a job based on their other qualities. It will help someone who lacks the job experience also.

On the other hand, I feel that students should be able to general produce documents, spreadsheets, and presentations for business communications not necessarily using Microsoft products. It is true that most businesses support MSOffice. But that may change within the next ten years to more varied business use of Apple, Linux, or Open Source Applications. It will be interesting to see if MSOffice (the brand) Certification is valued by companies in years to come.

A colleague who teaches in a school where MOS was implemented said there was a few stumbling blocks, such as, the test not giving credit for a completed task because the method the student used was the not same as was programmed for the test. The students used hotkeys instead of pull down menus.

The standard powerpoint presentation is already being seen old technology to some companies who are pushing the curve by using video conferencing  and staff training web tools such as ellimunate, blogging tools and wikis and embedded video or presentations in their web page or blog. Ning is a social networking website that students can join just as professionals join to discuss areas of interest, goals and challenges of a company. I think that business students should practice these communication tools that are and will be commonplace in addition to office applications.

I think teaching the MOS Standards is key. The school district could locate the most convenient testing sites for students, provide that literature regarding cost, dates, times at the beginning, middle and end of course for students to take home. Ultimately, students could become certified at a remote testing site.

The first step would be to research and plan how the Business Depts “MOS certification program” will work if students test off site.