Student Technology Assistant Program

Mission Statement

Information and Technology Services recognizes that departments of Minnesota State University, Mankato need student workers who are prepared to provide technological support for their administrative and academic activities. To meet this need, we have developed the Student Technology Assistant (STA) training program. STAs will be provided the opportunity to participate in staff and faculty computer training offered by Information and Technology Services. Student workers in administrative and academic departments can be referred for participation in this program.

Goals

1. Train student technology assistants to provide administrative and instructional technology support to staff and faculty of Minnesota State University, Mankato.
2. Provide STAs with technology training for entry into the workforce upon graduation.
3. Provide a certificate of accomplishment to STAs who complete a series of classes in a specific area.

Eligibility

Deans, Directors, Chairpersons, and other administrative personnel may refer a student worker for participation in this program. Participation in this program should be considered an integral part of the student's responsibilities to the department.

Requirements

Departments should identify administrative and instructional technology areas in which STA support is needed.

Departments must identify a student worker within their department who wishes to participate in this program. Student participation in this program shall be credited toward the student's time commitment to the department.

A STA must thoroughly read the provided information as well as the computer training information and schedule.

Registration is available by contacting Shannon Jeffries at 507-389-3205 or on the Class Registration page. Registrations will be accepted on a space available basis.

Certificates

Listed below are certificates that can be earned.

Microsoft Office Certificate

Learn basic skills to assist staff and faculty working with Microsoft Office products. The following courses are required.

• Basic Microsoft Access - Part 1
• Basic Microsoft Excel - Part 1
• Basic Microsoft PowerPoint - Part 1
• Basic Microsoft Word - Part 1
• Basic Microsoft Outlook - Part 1

Microsoft Word Certificate

Learn skills to assist staff and faculty with typing letters, papers, syllabi, opening & saving documents, using proofing tools, and setting up tables for staff and faculty. The following courses are required.

• Basic Microsoft Word
• Mail Merge in Microsoft Word
• Using Word to Create Multi-Page Documents

Microsoft Excel Certificate

Learn skills to assist staff and faculty in managing department, conferences, and research budgets by setting up spreadsheets and creating formulas. The following courses are required.

• Basic Microsoft Excel - Part 1
• Basic Microsoft Excel - Part 2
• More Microsoft Excel
• Creating Charts in Excel

Microsoft PowerPoint Certificate

These sessions will show you how you can assist in the development of presentations for use in teaching and workshops, publishing presentations to the web, adding graphics, audio, tables, charts. The following courses are required.

• Basic Microsoft PowerPoint
• More Microsoft PowerPoint

Microsoft Access Certificate

Gain database skills to assist staff and faculty with maintaining mailing lists, resources, supply inventories, and research activities related to databases. The following courses are required.

• Basic Microsoft Access - Part 1
• Basic Microsoft Access - Part 2
• Basic Microsoft Access - Part 3
• Basic Microsoft Access - Part 4
• Optional: More Microsoft Access

Microsoft FrontPage Certificate

Learn skills to develop and maintain web pages, use products for publishing web pages – FTP and FETCH, understand how to publish to the web, basic HTML code. The following courses are required.

• Create Web Pages @ Minnesota State Mankato
• Editing Web Pages at MSU, Dreamweaver or Nvu

Adobe Certificate

Attend these sessions to develop skills in Adobe Photoshop as well as Adobe Acrobat. Photoshop classes offer hands on instruction for image manipulation, discussion of file formats as well as information on scanners and cameras. An Adobe Acrobat session will give you the skills necessary to convert Office documents to pdf formatted files. The following courses are required.

• Adobe Photoshop Introduction
• Adobe Photoshop Intermediate
• Adobe Acrobat