Outside-the-box referenceMicrosoft Office Specialist certification testing atHuntsville Madison County Public Library

Agenda• What’s this grant all about?• What are Microsoft Office Specialist certification exams?• Why MOS exams?• Are there other kinds of certifications?• How can we get started?• Decisions, decisions• Statistics, statistics• The personal touch• If I could do things over again …• The sites and the cites• Miscellany

What’s this grant all about?• What we wanted to offer• A new kind of help for jobseekers

• Why we wanted to offer it• High area unemployment• Technological bent of area employers

• Why we picked this approach• Complemented our class offerings• Never done by a public library before• In-house expertise• Little impact on day-to-day operations

What are Microsoft Office Specialist certification exams?• Objective validation of the full range of skills in a particular

Office program• For more information, see http://guides.hmcpl.org/MOS.• Timed test involving 20 to 40 randomized questions about a

program• Immediate grading feedback• Results transmitted automatically to Certiport• Certificate suitable for framing and online transcripts

• Difficult exams provide the value of the certification• Three levels of certification• Specialist – End users• Expert – Advanced knowledge• Master – Comprehensive knowledge

Why MOS exams?• In-depth comprehension• Tests a wider range of features than most users will experience,

but a pool that services a wider range of user needs• Proof of competency• Requires fast and thorough knowledge

• Sometimes required by workplace – but valuable even if not• Even if not required, shows personal improvement, motivation

and verifiable skills• Personal satisfaction and motivation• Gives jobseekers who may be emotionally shaken increased

confidence, which spills over into interview performance

Are there other kinds of certifications?• HP Accredited Technical Associate• Adobe Certified Associate• Autodesk Certified User• Quickbooks Certified User• HP Accredited Technical Associate• Internet and Computing Core Certification• CompTIA Strata

… and those are just the ones offered by Certiport

How can we get started?Who – will administer? Is the target audience?What – certifications do we want to administer?When – can exams be made available?Where – can exams be administered? Can we find candidates?Why – offer a certification program in the first place? Do this for patrons?How – will you get the money to pay for it?

And don’t forget the technical requirements. (See www.certiport.com for more information.)

Decisions, decisions

A few of the things we had to think about:

• Should we charge for anything? (no, not even proctoring fee)

• How will we provide information to patrons? (brochures, ads, presentations, media appearances)

• How will we circulate study materials in the fairest way possible? (Scholar’s Pass, no renewals, secure material location)

• How will we obtain and track information? (surveys, interviews, Certiport features)

• How will we decide who gets to take the certification exam? (objective pre-tests)

• Where should we administer testing? (proctoring room)

• How many exams can someone take? (four, enough to earn Master designation)

Statistics, statistics

We all know statistics are proof of what we do for those who aren’t there to see our work all day. So what could we measure?

• Circulation• Online usage statistics• Pretests taken and passed• Exams taken and passed• Exam statistics gathered by Certiport• Materials prepared• Opportunities to discuss program

Statistics, statistics

What else could we learn from statistics?• What kind of people were interested in our program?• What kind of people weren’t we seeing?• What are ways we might change the program to help more

people?

The personal touch

Anecdotal, but important:• Support offered by the library was really important to

test-takers• Jobseekers need to feel successful• Jobseekers need to believe in personal proficiency• People learned a lot even from failure• Be available to help• Be available for questions• Think about peer support groups – we got several

requests and had nothing to offer

If I could do things over again …

•More online resources•More pre-publicity• Configure classes to support certifications• Better signage•More copies of popular resources• Online classes

A gradereport

A certificate example

The sites and the cites• For more information about Huntsville’s grant, go to

http://guides.hmcpl.org/MOS• For more information about certification programs, go to

http://www.certiport.com• To find ebooks for Overdrive, go to

http://search.overdrive.com and use search terms like computer, technology, exam, microsoft

• To find general books on computer technology and certification, search your vendor for similar terms, or try http://www.amazon.com

• To find computer training resources, use your favorite non-human search engine for similar terms

Questions?Michael C. Steffenshttp://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelcsteffens/