5 Computer Skills You Need to Succeed in Online Education

To succeed in online education, you need to have the following computer skills: You need to know Windows, Word, Email, Internet Explorer, and PowerPoint.

You need to know Windows. Windows is the operating system that Microsoft Office runs on. It's what is under the hood of your car-your car, in this case, is the various Microsoft Office programs: Word, Excel, Access, Internet Explorer, Outlook, and PowerPoint. As I was saying, you need to know Windows so that you know how to size the window (i.e. screen) that you are working on. By sizing I mean that you have to know how to minimize, maximize, and restore the window that you are working on. By knowing Windows, you will know how to select objects in a document, close or open a program, resize a window, click and drag objects on a screen, and various other basic skills that allow the many programs of Microsoft Office to run on your computer.

You also need to know how to use Word, Microsoft Office's word processing program. In an online education program, most of the documents that you create are created in Word. You write your papers in Word. You take notes using Word. For instance, when I was enrolled in the University of Phoenix's online program, I created a template in Word that I named "scratch paper" to take notes both from my e-books and library research. The notes I wanted to keep, I saved. The notes that I wanted to discard, I deleted. To continue where I left off, you need to know Word so that you know how to open a document, how to type a document, how to copy-and-paste, how to select an object, how to save, how to close, and how to exist a document. Word is the paper, pen, and eraser that you will use just about every single day to do most of your assignments so that you can succeed in an online learning institution.

In addition to knowing Windows and Word, you also need to know how to email. You need to know both how to compose it and send it. While I was a student at the University of Phoenix, email was used primarily to communicate privately with your instructor and your fellow classmates. For instance, if you were sick and would not be able to attend class for a week, how would go about communicating with your instructor? Answer: You send her an email. Likewise, if you wanted to discuss something in private with one of your fellow students, you would do the same thing: You would send them an email as well. So email is another computer skill that you need to know if you are to succeed in online educational environment.

Surfing the Internet is a fourth computer skill that you need to know in order to succeed at an online learning institution. You need to know how to use Internet Explorer, Netscape or some other lesser known Internet search program. You need to know how to navigate online. It's like having a car and knowing how to get around from one place to the next and return home without getting lost. In this instance, your computer is your car. The only difference is that you use the Internet program installed on your computer to navigate from one place on the Net to the other and return back to where you started from without getting lost. At the University of Phoenix Online the institution I attended and received my Masters in Adult Learning and Distance Education from, you had to do a heck of a lot of navigation. You had to navigate to the folder that held your assignments. You had to navigate to the virtual library. You had to navigate to the student lounge. Wherever you wanted to go in the program, you had to get there by way of computer navigation. Instead of walking from one room or office to the next as you would do in a traditional brick-and-mortar educational environment, you navigated there by using your computer mouse.

Finally, in addition to all the other computer programs discussed earlier, you also need to know PowerPoint to succeed in an online learning environment. Although Word is your major writing utensil, so to speak, PowerPoint is often needed as well. In several of my classes at the University of Phoenix, for instance, I was forced to do a PowerPoint presentation. Instead of giving the usual classroom presentation in a traditional classroom setting using notes, handouts and an overhead projector, in an online presentation, you might be expected to give that same kind of presentation using PowerPoint. This is why it is necessary to know PowerPoint. You just might need to use in an online class.

These, then, are the five computer skills that you need to possess if you are to succeed at a non-traditional online college or university. They are, again, Windows, Word, Outlook, an Internet program such as Internet Explorer or Netscape, and PowerPoint.