What are the best ways to help my mother improve her computer skills?

October 17, 2017 3:14 PM

How can I best help my semi-retired mother bolster her Microsoft Office skills? The programs and tutorials that I have found so far at the library seem to be geared towards people who can barely click a mouse and the programs at community colleges seem geared towards tech-savvy students. I am looking for something in-between. What are some of the best methods to boost her proficiency from a 1.5/5 to a 3/5 or better?

She currently works in a book store and it is a seasonal position so she while she loves her current job, she will soon be looking for another job and has personally asked me how she could develop her skills specifically to find work that requires MS Office.

Recently she asked me how she could improve her computer skills when it comes to using a word processor, spreadsheet program, database program, quickbooks, etc. so that she might be able to expand the range of available jobs.

She is not computer illiterate, just not super proficient with Word/Excel. She plays games on Facebook, sends emails, and does light web browsing with decent proficiency. However, she lacks any in-depth knowledge or education when it comes to the MS Office suite. She recently was making a resume for herself and ended up crafting one in LibreOffice using some rather unorthodox techniques and taking several days. (It was actually a bit impressive she managed to do that.. but I can't imagine how frustrating the process must have been for her).

I have been looking for a decent training regiment of any sort for her to learn the office programs. Looking online, there are countless websites offering tutorials but I have been unable to filter the good ones from the bad ones. She has been asking me if she should just use Google and Youtube to learn, and I have tentatively said that she could, but promised I would try and find something better. Essentially I am hoping there are some excellent tutorials out there anyone could suggest, or even something that gives some sort of testing or "diploma" of sorts.

Any ideas? Any one experience similar situations? I would be most grateful for any direction on this situation. Online would be preferred.

posted by beatThedealer to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

Lynda.com is a great resourse for learning new skills like this!
posted by moonphases at 3:17 PM on October 17, 2017 [7 favorites]

I was going to say that a lot of public libraries provide free access to lynda.com. I would definitely start there.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 3:19 PM on October 17, 2017 [2 favorites]

How about these? Definitely geared for someone computer literate but not aspiring to be a power user. Some of the lessons have practice files/exercises.
posted by eeek at 4:36 PM on October 17, 2017 [1 favorite]

I came here to recommend Lynda.com. At least in SF and LA, this is available for free electronically by logging in via my local library’s Website. The Lynda videos are high quality and paced appropriately for this skill level transition. They also sometimes include practice exercises.
posted by samthemander at 5:19 PM on October 17, 2017

Best answer: Your mom sounds smart and adaptable. Remind her that learning as an older adult (that's me too, so I know) takes more time and more practice, so remind her to pace herself, and to forgive and even enjoy her errors as she learns.

The university where I work has Lynda, and it is really good. I've found that people do better with a little orientation to its features:

• Every video has searchable transcriptions of *every word* the instructor says, so you can search for specific terms, and read what theyre talking about, before watching one second of video (take that, YouTube tutorials!).
• Lynda has curated Learning Paths: groups of videos and courses for specific goals, like Specialist in MS Word or MS Excel.
• The video player lets you adjust speed, in increments from 2.0x to .5x, double-speed to half-speed, great for zipping through intros or slowing down to follow complex instructions.
• Tap the left arrow key to back up 10 seconds. This is a wonderful feature.
• Switch captions on and off. 
• The premium level, $29.99/month, also lets you watch videos offline in the Lynda app (which is not bad) and lets you work with an exact copy of the same file an instructor is using for demonstration (which is great). Take the free trial, pay for just one month, and you have 60 days for $30. Not bad for really good training

A year or so ago, Microsoft bought LinkedIn (for $23 billion -- oof). LinkedIn had bought Lynda... So now Office product training keeps current with updates, while training for older versions stays available. Complete a course and add it to your LinkedIn profile with two clicks. (Have mom do their LinkedIn training too.) Lynda has different subscription levels; don't know what level your library might have. They have a 30-day free trial, too. You can learn a lot in a month; do the free trial, pay for one more month, and you it's like two months for half-price each.
posted by conscious matter at 6:15 PM on October 17, 2017 [1 favorite]

I work in a law office, so these suggestions might be too specific for your mom, but I like Legal Office Guru and Excel Esquire. Even if she never needs to format an appellate brief, reading through those and trying some of the things described on those blogs might help with understanding the structures and capabilities of the programs.
posted by Tentacle of Trust at 6:48 PM on October 17, 2017 [1 favorite]

LYNDA! As people have said. The best thing is to have a task oriented project that's just a little outside of her skill range ("Hey great resume, let's redo it using a template in MS Word...") and then stepping through the useful tutorials to get the steps right. Same with Excel, find a little project, it's really hard to learn spreadsheets without having some sort of task you want to accomplish. My library also had Universal Class which I don't think has stuff specifically about stepping through MS tools but may have "concept classes" for learning about related topics like "what is a database" and etc.
posted by jessamyn at 1:31 PM on October 18, 2017 [1 favorite]