IT Professional Development (ITPD) course brochure

Introduction to AI

Dive into the world of Generative AI with this introductory course designed to provide hands-on experience in crafting effective prompts. Develop a solid understanding of the technologies that drive GenAI tools, explore the common risks and challenges associated with their use, and acquire the essential skills to confidently navigate and utilize today’s GenAI tools.

Pre-requisite: None

Instructor: Pavol Chvala, Information Systems & Technology

Introduction to Confluence

This course will help new Confluence users understand how to use their Confluence space including permissions, widgets, templates.

Pre-requisite: None

Instructor: Palak Chauhan, Theepiga Sritharan, Information Systems & Technology

Introduction to Jira Service Management

This course will help new Jira Service Management users set up their first projects, boards, teams, and workflows.

Pre-requisite: None

Instructor: Kurtis Girard, Sarah McKone, Theepiga Sritharan, Information Systems & Technology

Introduction to Jira Software

This course is designed for Jira Software users who are in the developers role of their project. This course will cover an introduction to Jira Software terminology, navigating Jira Software, viewing and editing issues, starting and ending sprints, and managing boards. 

Attendees are not required to be a user in an existing project or have experience with Jira Software.

Pre-requisite: None

Instructor: Kurtis Girard, Sarah McKone, Theepiga Sritharan, Information Systems & Technology

Introduction to Jira Work Management

Jira Work Management is a part of the Atlassian product suite. It is designed for business teams to help manage projects, tasks, and processes. There is 20+ Jira Work Management templates that can be configured to meet your team’s needs.

This course will provide an overview of Jira Work Management including the various board views and their related features, issue creation using forms, approval workflows, and how to view the health of multiple projects in one place using overviews. At the end of the course participants will know how to navigate Jira Work Management as a user. 

This course is designed for beginners and no previous experience using Jira Work management or other Atlassian tools is required.

Pre-requisite: None

Instructor(s): Kurtis Girard, Sarah McKone, Theepiga Sritharan, Information Systems & Technology

Jira Assets

This course is designed for people who are interested in maintaining Atlassian Assets, an Asset Management system which can easily be integrated with Jira Service Management or Jira Work Management projects. This course will cover the terms used by Assets, how to configure your Assets schema, setting up permissions, integrating Assets with your Jira project and importing data from external sources.

We will also go over some use case examples that have already been implemented at the University.

Pre-requisite: None, previous Jira Service Management experience beneficial

Instructor: Kurtis Girard, Information Systems & Technology

Jira Query Language (JQL) Open Floor Q&A

Drop in any time during the session to ask questions regarding crafting JQL queries and creating filters or dashboards. 

Pre-requisite: None

Instructor: Kurtis Girard, Information Systems & Technology

Jira Service Management for Project Managers

This course is designed for Jira Service Management users who are administrators in their project. This course will cover configuring Jira Service Management project settings, including a high-level overview of writing Jira Query Language statements. 

Pre-requisite: Attendees should be experienced acting as an Agent (Service Desk Team) member or Administrator in a Jira Service Management project or have taken the Introduction to Jira Service Management ITPD course.

Instructor: Sarah McKone, Information Systems & Technology

UW IT Resources & Working Remotely

This course will help employees familiarize themselves with information ranging from employee computer accounts, workstation set up and security,  IT support, dealing with spam/phishing, computing software, available training, and more. This course will provide a good start to learning about IT at uWaterloo. We will also spend time reviewing working remotely.

Pre-requisite: None

Instructor: Barb Yantha, Information Systems & Technology

Web Analytics for Marketing and Communications

Looking to see how Google Analytics can further your marketing and communications efforts? This course will introduce you to how Google Analytics is integrated with our WCMS website and the importance of measurement and our measurement framework. We will then dive into how Google Analytics can support your decision-making about marketing and communications tactics. We will finish with a discussion on reporting strategy and some sample reporting you can use in your role.

Prerequisite: Access to an existing Google Analytics account and a working knowledge of Google Analytics. Please check out the Google Analytics Academy for introductory online courses to learn more about this tool.

Instructor: Erica Clement-Goudy, Manager, Web Strategy

Writing for the Web

Do you create or modify website content? Learn how to write content that meets your audience's needs, clearly communicates your message, and achieves accessibility requirements.

Pre-requisite: None

Instructor: Iva Badjari, Associate Director, Digital Communications

Select the Microsoft application you would like to learn more about:

Bookings | Excel | OneDrive | OneNote | Microsoft 365 | Outlook | Power BI | PowerPoint | SharePoint | Teams | Word

Bookings

Introduction to Microsoft Bookings

Microsoft Bookings is a scheduling tool that enables others to book appointments with you or your team. This course will provide an overview of Microsoft Bookings, common uses across campus, how to set up a booking page, and how to manage appointments. The focus will be on shared booking pages, but we will also touch on personal booking pages.

This course will be held online via Microsoft Teams.

Pre-requisite: None

Instructor: RJ Lepage and Sarah McKone, Information Systems & Technology

Excel

Excel 1: Getting Started

Want to get started with the basics? In this hands-on two half-day course you will learn the parts of the worksheet, using calculations and functions, creating charts, and more. The lab has Microsoft Excel 2016 Windows although Excel Mac users may benefit as well.

Pre-requisite: None

Instructor:

Excel 2: Fundamentals

Now that you have mastered the Excel basics, it's time to learn more! Some of the features we will cover include: sorting and filtering, counting cells, viewing spreadsheets, and an introduction to macros.

The lab has Microsoft Excel 2016 Windows although Excel Mac users may benefit as well.

Pre-requisite: Excel 1 or equivalent Excel experience

Instructor:

Excel 3: Expand Your Skills

Content for this course has been derived from suggestions/questions put forth from members of the University community and will include:

• An introduction to pivot tables. How to create and use a pivot table (managing, sorting, filtering, applying rules and more).

• Create charts from a pivot table.

• Using sparklines and slicers in tables and pivot tables.

• Using VLOOKUP with tables to find exact or approximate values

• Introduction to What-If Analysis and Goal Seek

• Use text to speech features of Excel.

Pre-requisite: Excel 1 or 2 or equivalent experience recommended

Instructor: 

OneDrive

Working with OneDrive for Business

This course will provide an overview of OneDrive for Business and how you can use OneDrive in your everyday work environment. OneDrive is the storage technology associated with our campus-approved and implemented Microsoft 365 service.

The course will also provide a quick summary of OneDrive, how to access OneDrive on Windows, MacOS, Android and iOS along with a tour of the important components.  This course will provide a more in-depth exploration for working with OneDrive in Windows 10, and with key Microsoft 365 applications such as Word and Outlook.

Pre-requisite: None

Instructor: Stephen Markan and Mike Huynh, Information Systems & Technology

OneNote

Intro to OneNote

OneNote is a note-taking app that allows you to brainstorm, save ideas, and create notes all in one place. Organize all your content using one app, take ‘free-form’ notes to structure information the way you want to, and share your work easily with others! This course will go over the basic functions of OneNote and how it can be used effectively as a productivity tool.

Pre-requisite: None

Instructor:

Microsoft 365 (M365)

M365 Overview

This course will provide an overview of the campus Microsoft M365 cloud with focus on access, sharing, file management, and business use cases. M365 is a unified cloud platform designed to let you manage and automate your work and enhance collaboration with anyone with a network connection. 

Pre-requisite: None

Instructor: Stephen Markan, Information Systems & Technology

Managing collaborations via OneDrive, Teams, and SharePoint

This course will provide an overview of how these three file storage options allow you to organize, share, and co-author files with others at the University of Waterloo, and outside the University of Waterloo. 

Structurally all three M365 file services are a type of SharePoint Online service, and share the same basic capabilities within different interfaces. 

We will discuss when to choose which service, and how you might effectively collaborate while protecting confidential data. 

Pre-requisite: None

Instructor: Stephen Markan, Information Systems & Technology

Syncs & Links - SharePoint, Teams, and OneDrive

This course will explore the use of Links and Syncs as well as the difference between these two features.  We will also explore the use of favorites and pinning used on Microsoft Teams.

Pre-requisite: None

Instructor:  Hoang Huynh,  Information Systems & Technology

Outlook

Outlook Tips and Tricks

Microsoft Exchange (Connect) is the platform used for on-campus email. In this seminar, you will learn some helpful tips and tricks to navigate through Outlook 2016. From basic functions to Microsoft integrations, you will be shown a variety of tools to make email easier.

Pre-requisite: None

Instructor: Emily Goodwin, Information Systems & Technology

Outlook for Mac

This course will focus on new Outlook for Mac users. This course will provide you with tips and tricks to make the most out of Outlook.

Pre-requisite: None

Instructor: Kenley Liu and Sarah McKone, Information Systems & Technology

Power BI

Introduction to Microsoft Power BI Reports and Analytics platform

Power BI is a collection of software services, apps, and connectors that work together to turn your unrelated sources of data into coherent, visually immersive, and interactive reports and dashboards. Your data may be an Excel spreadsheet, or a collection of cloud-based and on-premises systems and databases. Power BI lets you connect to your data sources, visualize and discover what's important, and share that with anyone or everyone you want. At the University of Waterloo, we use Power BI to enable departments to handle their operational and analytical reporting. The purpose of this workshop is to walk you through key areas of the service and describe the usage scenarios and benefits as a consumer, author, or data steward.

Pre-requisite: What is Power BI?

Instructor: Sergey Bobkin and Joel Hartrick, Information Systems & Technology

PowerPoint

Intro to PowerPoint

Microsoft PowerPoint is an electronic program that enables you to create an organized and helpful visual aid for your presentations or to include additional audio and graphical content for your audience. This course begins by introducing you to the basics many people overlook, important resources, and a hands-on approach to assist you with learning how to create a professional slide show.

Pre-requisite: None

Instructor: Keith Peck, Information Systems & Technology

SharePoint

Custom Lists in SharePoint

This advanced course will show you how to use SharePoint as a data-gathering tool by creating your own custom lists for purposes such as event sign-ups or tracking inventory. With a combination of hands-on practice and instructor-led discussion, you will learn processes, techniques and best practices - everything you will need to know to get started on your own projects.

Pre-requisite: Introduction to SharePoint or experience using SharePoint and a good understanding of SharePoint roles and permissions.

Instructor:

SharePoint for Windows/Office

This general course provides an overview of using SharePoint on a Windows desktop. This hands-on course will focus on integrating SharePoint with Windows 10 and Office ProPlus with a number of tips and tricks to make accessing files stored on SharePoint easier.

Pre-requisite: Experience with SharePoint and familiarity with both MS Office, and Windows 10. MacOS users will find some of the topics do not work for Apple devices.

Instructor: Stephen Markan, Information Systems & Technology

Managing and Configuring SharePoint Sites

As a SharePoint site manager, you control who can and cannot see your SharePoint site, and the items in your SharePoint site. Most often we use the default SharePoint groups: Owners, Members, and Visitors. Generally, those default groups work well for most sites.

This course will provide a broad overview of the features and settings you can add to your SharePoint site, some considerations for site flow and navigation, and focus on managing SharePoint Groups and permission levels when you need to restrict access to content. A SharePoint site can contain specific lists, libraries, folders, etc. containing sensitive data that may require extra security.

Pre-requisite: This course is designed for SharePoint users who have FULL CONTROL permissions on a SharePoint site as a Site Administrator or a SharePoint Site Owner.

Instructor: Stephen Markan, Information Systems & Technology

Managing Access to SharePoint and Teams Files and Folders

This course will cover managing permissions and file sharing options in using a SharePoint Online Site SharePoint Document Library. Microsoft Teams also stores files and folders in a SharePoint Document Library. We will note the minor differences between the MS Teams and SharePoint Online environments. 

Pre-requisite: Some familiarity with managing SharePoint or MS Teams content is recommended.

Instructor: Stephen Markan, Information Systems & Technology

SharePoint Online - Basics

This course will cover:

1. A brief overview of what is new in SharePoint Online in comparison to SharePoint 2016

2. An overview of how to access and use SharePoint Online

3. Why choose SharePoint Online instead of Teams?

4. A short introduction to collaboration and sharing in SP Online via Document Libraries, Understanding Permissions, and some general tips on how to organize and structure your sites and site content.

This course is intended to be a general overview of SP Online and is not intended to provide in-depth instructions on Site maintenance and management. The goal of this course is to introduce attendees to the platform and provide some examples of how the technology can help in workflow and business processes.

Prerequisite:  None.

Instructor: Heather Wey, Hoang Huynh,  Information Systems & Technology

SharePoint Permissions

Access to SharePoint is managed by Site Owners via SharePoint Permissions groups. This course will provide an overview of the following SharePoint concepts
Permissions:

• Default groups and permissions inheritance

  What are permission levels (Ful Control, Edit, Contribute, Read)

  How do I view permissions for users and groups?

  Assign permissions to accounts (internal and external users)

  Create new SharePoint permissions groups

  Break permission inheritance on an item (Library; Folder; File)

  Inherit permissions for an item

  Remove user permissions

This course will be offered on Microsoft Teams.

Prerequisite:  This course is designed for SharePoint Site Owners and Managers who have FULL CONTROL permissions on a SharePoint site. General SharePoint users are welcome to attend, and should understand they may not be able to apply these concepts to their own sites.

Instructor: Stephen Markan, Information Systems & Technology

Managing Shared Files and Folders from SharePoint Online

The files stored in a SharePoint site are available to everyone with permissions to the site, but how do you share specific files or folders with people who don't otherwise have access to the site? When you share files and folders, you can decide whether to let people edit or just view them.

This course will review

• SharePoint Site Permissions management

• Show how you can see who a SharePoint file is shared with

• How to stop sharing SharePoint files or folders,

• How to change permissions, at any time.

Prerequisite: Basic understanding of Microsoft 365 and familiarity with the SharePoint Online Site Administration interface. You should have permissions management rights on a SharePoint Online site to allow you to apply the concepts shared.

Instructor: Stephen Markan, Information Systems & Technology

Teams

Introduction to Microsoft Teams

Teams is a collaboration tool that brings group chat, file sharing, and much more together in one place. This course will cover what Teams is, what it is capable of, and how to use Teams effectively in your group and have hands-on examples of how to use Teams.

Pre-requisite: None

Instructors: Chao Yang, Farhia Hussein, Infromation Systems & Technology

Using M365 Collaboration Platforms: OneDrive/Teams/SharePoint

This course will provide an overview of the collaboration tools available for sharing files with both internal and external collaborators.
The course will cover why to choose which platform to use for collaboration and how to manage sharing and set permissions.

This will be a 60-minute course with 40 minutes of slides and a demo with 20 minutes available for questions and investigating your specific needs.

Instructor: Stephen Markan, Information Systems & Technology

Word

Word for Long Documents

Are your Word documents larger than a page or two? A long document requires formatting techniques not needed in smaller documents. The following topics will be covered in this course:

• Using Styles

• Numbering headings, including legal style numbering (2.1, 2.2)

• Numbering other document components (tables, figures)

• Adding captions to document components

• Footnotes and endnotes

• Bookmarking text

• Creating cross-references to headings, tables, figures, etc.

• Using Outline view

• Creating a table of contents

• Creating a list of figures or tables

• Page numbering/headers and footers

• Using a template

• Making the document more accessible

• Converting the document to PDF format

Note: This course is being taught using Word 2016 but the concepts apply to Word 2013 and Mac Word as well.

Pre-requisite: comfort level with Word basics.

Instructor: Cassie Bechard, Information Systems & Technology

Creating Accessible Documents

This course will provide you with the knowledge and skills needed to create accessible documents. Through hands-on activities and lecture material, you will be able to make Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel documents, as well as PDFs accessible – therefore contributing towards the University of Waterloo’s commitment in achieving accessibility, and complying with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA).

Notes: This course does not cover creating accessible PDFs in Adobe Acrobat Pro, and it is highly recommended that participants have: (1) previous experience working with Microsoft Word, and (2) completed Introduction to Web Accessibility.

Pre-requisite: None

Instructors: Cassie Bechard and Heather Wey, Information Systems & Technology