Vicki Weidler grins when she says, "I actually do look forward to coming onto campus every day. My job is always changing--what I teach is changing and there is always something new to learn. There's also still a need for technology training at Penn State and I'm interested in figuring out what the faculty and staff need to know and how to get that information to them."
Vicki is a training specialist for ITS Training Services, which provides technology training to the Penn State community through seminars, Web-Based Training, and Training on Demand. She teaches a series of free seminars on Microsoft Access and on Adobe Photoshop, explaining not only how to use the software, but also the overall picture behind the software and what it's used for. For example, in her Access course, Vicki explains the different types of databases and why using a relational database is appropriate for one scenario but not others.
Courses taught in a series allow Vicki to see the same person in multiple classes and help her establish relationships with faculty and staff learners. She spends part of each day answering e-mails or phone calls from seminar participants seeking help with software that they used in the training seminars. Frequently, seminar participants have had some experience with the software and are looking for troubleshooting help on a particular project.
"One of the most challenging things about teaching seminars is the on-the-spot troubleshooting in the classroom, when I might not have all the information about a project or file, or have time to research how to figure out a person's problem with it" says Vicki. She tries to suit everyone's needs in her seminars by also offering tips and tricks for using software. Streamlining a process for people helps them do their job more efficiently. Improving efficiency is part of Training Services' goal to "facilitate learning, teaching, and professional development activities."
Delivering technology training to the entire Penn State community is a daunting charge, and finding new ways to reach faculty and staff and to determine what they need and would like to be learning is another aspect of Vicki's job. She is part of a team that is working on a training needs assessment that surveys people about the ITS Training Services seminars. Discovering whether a person has taken an ITS seminar, which course he or she took, and what he or she thought of it helps hone Training Services' understanding of their huge clientele. Recently, they surveyed people who have never registered for ITS Training Services seminars to discover why some people don't take advantage of the training. Determining if people aren't aware of the seminars, if they don't need them because they already have a certain skill set, where their skills came from, if they're using other Training services like Web-based Training instead, all gets to the heart of how Training Services can best serve Penn State.
Training Services also serves Penn State faculty and staff through the Human Resource Development Center (HRDC). The HRDC offers professional development opportunities such as programs in leadership and management, customer relations, and computer skills. (To learn more about the HRDC, visit http://www.ohr.psu.edu/hrdc/). Vicki coordinates the computer skills classes offered through the HRDC because they are taught by Training Services' trainers. She books the labs and trainers that the HRDC course will need, and coordinates marketing for the courses with the HRDC.
Vicki is involved with technology training at Penn State on several levels, from figuring out how to reach potential learners to determining which courses should be offered to booking rooms for HRDC courses to teaching seminars. Vicki sums up why her job is well suited to her, saying, "To me it's exciting because there's always something new, we're always reaching for the cutting edge (in teaching our seminars), and I'm always on the move, interacting with people." To learn more please see http://tlt.its.psu/training.