MS Office and Its Need at Educational Level - Case Study Example

Software Evaluation Roll No: Teacher: 26th August 2008 Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Software Evaluation 3 MS Office and Its Need at Educational Level 3 Features 4 Field Testing 7 Results of Field Testing 8 Merits and Demerits of MS Office 11 Works Cited 13 Appendix 14 Software Evaluation MS Office and Its Need at Educational Level With the advent of technology, computer has become a basic requirement of people all over the world. With computers, there are many software available that accommodate the users with different types of conveniences related to working (Taylor 1980). MS office is an assemblage of software applications that are able to be used on Windows and Macintosh environments. MS office facilitates the users with a user-friendly package of many applications that can be employed for business as well as educational purposes. In schools, colleges, universities and other places of education, computers are used and the basic applications that are used in educational institutions are the applications of MS Office (Roblyer 2005). For creating a document, MS Word is used, for calculation and listings, MS Excel is used, for making presentations, MS PowerPoint is used, for sending email, MS Outlook is used and for generating a database, MS Access is used (Mendelson 2006). All the mentioned applications are part of the MS Office package that is mostly used in educational institutions to accommodate the students with all kinds of knowledge that they are going to encounter in their professional lives. With the improvement of technology, the applications of MS Office are made better and new applications are introduced in the MS office package due to which, many tasks related to documentation, calculation, information gathering, information sending, record keeping and many other tasks are becoming much easier to perform. At educational level, the teachers and the administration staff has to consider various issues concerning the education of students. The teachers are required to develop a strategy for the students so that they can get the best kind of education with all the latest technology (Software Evaluation Sheets 1985). For educational purposes, the administrative staff along with the teachers should choose suitable software for the students that should be taught to them (Roblyer 2005). MS office is such software that is very significant on educational level and the teachers should select this software for the educational purpose (Squires and McDougall 1994). Features The package of MS office contains MS Word, MS Excel, MS Access, MS PowerPoint and MS Outlook that are employed on educational level generally. The package contains more applications but at educational level, only the applications that are mentioned above are employed by students, teachers and other related people (Ivers 1997). All of the applications of MS office accommodate students and teachers in order to generate documents, calculate information, develop tables, input data and many other tasks that are performed on educational level (Maddux, et.al 1997). A word processor such as MS Word is a computer program that enables one to create, edit, print, copy, paste and save documents for future retrieval and revision. One enters text into the computer by using a keyboard. As one types, one’s words are displayed on a monitor or screen, and are stored temporarily in computer memory as one is creating the document and permanently on disk once one saves the document, rather than on paper (Mendelson 2006). One of the major advantages of a word processor over a conventional typewriter is that word processor enables one to make changes to a document without retyping the entire document. For example, one can create a letter in a word processor and then after he is finished, can go back and change margins, can add sentences, delete unnecessary words, move paragraphs, correct spelling and grammatical errors and so on. With the improvement of technology, MS Word is becoming more convenient as it allows many other features to be employed by users. MS Word 2007 that is the latest version of MS Word is much more enhanced and convenient as compared to its previous versions (Luhn 2007). The entire menu that should be employed in order to create a document with all the requirements of the user is accessed easily as the user has no more to find tabs for different utilities of MS Word; everything is located in the forefront. There are styling features, editing features, letter-creating features, resume creating features, mailing features, layout features and much more (Luhn 2007). There are new program tabs, Ribbons, Quick access toolbars, status bar, screen tips, office button and many other features to provide the user with ease and convenience. MS Excel is a spreadsheet that is a graphical representation and processing of data. In an electronic spreadsheet, data is represented in a matrix or tabular form, consisting of rows and columns. The spreadsheet is useful to work with numbers and is mostly used for different business applications (Van Vliet 1996). Activities like forecasting, budgeting, financial analysis are very easily done using a spreadsheet. The most important feature of spreadsheet is recalculation that is the result of various formulae, which help in recalculation automatically, when any values on which, they depend are changed (Mendelson 2006). The powerful features of spreadsheet can be used for various applications such as planning, marketing and sales, accounting, personal management, financial analysis, record keeping and data analysis. MS Excel works under the window environment, which makes it easier to use and visual appealing (Van Vliet 1996). A user is allowed to combine figures and graph on the same page. The text can also be added, deleted, copied, pasted, underlined, made italic and bold, printed and at last saved just like is the case with MS Word. MS Excel 2007 that is a part of MS office package is much more improved as compared to its previous versions as new features are included for the convenience of users. Like MS Word 2007, the user of MS Excel also has no need to search for tabs that are hidden inside main menus (Luhn 2007). Every tab and button that is needed by users is accommodated at the menu that is displayed at the top of the page along with all its features. There are new features such as quick access toolbar, screen tips, program tabs and much more (Luhn 2007). MS Access is a tool, which is used to develop database projects on the basis of particular criteria having highly incorporated tables, which can be used with any database software (Mendelson 2006). A database is a collection of information that is particularly about a topic or has a purpose behind it. In MS Access, there are tables, forms, reports, queries, relationships and much more that are employed in order to generate a database containing information about a business system. MS Access 2007 is well-developed and enhanced version of previous MS Access and like MS Excel and MS Word; it also had new features such as quick access toolbar, screen tips, program tabs, Ribbons and much more (Luhn 2007). MS Access is a tool that can be employed by business organizations to manage their records and financial transactions, as it is fully equipped with all kind of information necessary for business transactions. MS PowerPoint is a part of MS office package that is employed to make presentations that are presented in form of chunks in order to facilitate the audience to get the idea of the detailed work performed. The educational procedures of today’s society feel that making presentations is a compulsion for the students as in business environments, the students have to generate the presentations in order to let people understand their opinions and ideas (Mendelson 2006). MS PowerPoint facilitates the user to add pictures, select styles, choose clip art, add animations and generate designs. Like other applications of MS office, it also allows to cut, paste, edit, delete, save, print and insert facilities to users. The users can create slideshows that can be used as presentations for deliverance of information. MS PowerPoint 2007 is similarly improved as other applications of MS office such as MS Word, MS Excel, MS Access and others (Luhn 2007). MS PowerPoint 2007 also has a menu that is put on a display at the top of the page through, which the user can select what he requires for designing a presentation. It also has quick access toolbar, screen tips, programs tabs and other updated features (Luhn 2007). MS Outlook is a mailing option that accommodates the user to send and receive mails securely. MS Outlook is also developed like other applications of MS office. It also has a displayed menu at the top of the page with all its features quite visible (Luhn 2007). MS office is fully enhanced and all its applications show its enhancements. The new version of MS office is made much more compatible and flexible in terms of its usage. Field Testing Field-testing enables one to evaluate the working of software by means of close examination of people by making them involved in a process where they practically make use of software (Squires and McDougall 1994). For adopting a field-testing methodology, the students that were six in number were asked to follow the following instructions in order to run the software: Read and perform as is written in the instruction file of the program. Work according to your own strategy and what you consider as right. Make mistakes and errors to check the efficacy of the program and to evaluate what is the outcome. After completing the given exercise, fill in the questionnaire that is provided to you. Give those answers that you think are appropriate and that you encounter while running the program. The students were asked to do small tasks of calculations, typing, presentation making, database development and mail generation on all the applications of MS office such as MS Word, MS Excel, MS Access, MS PowerPoint and MS Outlook. They were assigned a time of half an hour for completing their task at each application. After finishing their tasks, they were asked to fill in the questionnaire to show their understanding. The students were tested in three subjects that are English, Maths and Design. For evaluation of English, the application of MS Word was employed, for evaluation of Maths, the application of MS Excel was employed and for evaluation of Design, MS PowerPoint was employed. Results of Field Testing 1. Do you like working on the software? Four of the students responded with ‘Yes’ while other two answered with ‘No’. 2. Do you like to work on the software again? Four of the students showed interest in working on the software again while two showed no more interest. 3. Do you think that working on this software is difficult? Three of the students found working on the software difficult while other three found the working quite convenient. 4. Were you lost in the applications? Two of the students thought that they were lost in the applications while other four worked conveniently. 5. Was it convenient to use? Three students found the working convenient while three found it otherwise. 6. Was there any help when you made a mistake? Four of the students answered that when they made mistakes, they got help from the applications while two informed that they did not get any appropriate help. 7. Were you able to do every task at the first attempt? Four of the students responded with ‘Yes’ for this question while two responded with ‘No’. 8. Are you able to work on the applications without instructions? Three of the students think that they can work without instructions while others need instructions. 9. Do you find the applications user friendly? Four of the students found the applications user friendly while two of them found them complicated. 10. Do you want to use the applications at home? Four of the students wanted to use the applications at home while two were not interested. 11. Are you in need of some support to run the program? Three of the students thought some support as necessary while the other three thought that can work without support. 12. Do you think that working on these applications is just a waste of time? One of the students considered the software usage as waste of time while other five regarded it as useful. 13. Was the exercise lengthy? Two of the students found the task lengthy while four of them found it convenient. 14. Will your friends also like the software? Three of the students thought that their friends would like the software while other three negated the idea. 15. Was working at this software easy for you? Three of the students found working on software easier while other three found it otherwise. 16. Which application you liked most? Three students selected MS Word, one selected MS Excel, two selected MS PowerPoint while no one selected MS Access and MS Outlook. 17. Why you like that application most that you have selected above. The students who selected MS Word found it convenient to use and categorized it as easiest of all. One student, who selected MS Excel as his favourite, found it helpful in calculations and categorized it very helpful in studies and generating tables and recording information. No one of them found MS Access easy to use and they considered it a little complicated as compared to other applications. Two of the students liked MS PowerPoint because it allowed many styles and card patterns to be used. They have got an interest in animations and slideshow. No one selected MS Outlook as the setting of an account in MS Outlook looked to them, as a difficult task. 18. Do you think that the selected application is helpful in your studies? Five of the students responded in yes while one of them found it unnecessary. 19. Did you make spelling mistakes while working at MS Word? Five of the students responded with ‘Yes’ while one informed that he made no mistake of spelling. 20. Did you find MS Word helpful in correction of your spelling mistakes? Four of the students found MS Word supportive in correction of mistake while the other two found it not supportive. 21. Did you make grammatical mistakes while working at MS Word? Four of the students agreed that they made grammatical mistakes while two of them informed that they made no grammatical mistake. 22. Did you find MS Word helpful in correction of your grammatical mistakes? Four of the students found MS Word supportive in correction of grammatical mistakes while the other two found it otherwise. 23. Do you find MS Word supportive in writing any document in English language? All the six students found MS Word as supportive in writing any document in English language, none of them found MS Word unsupportive for English language writing. 24. Did you make formula mistake at working with MS Excel while calculating? Five of the students made formula mistake while working at MS Excel while the remaining one told that he made no mistake in terms of formula. 25. Did MS Excel help you in correction of formula? Four of the students found MS Excel helpful in correction of formula while two found it otherwise. 26. Was MS Excel responsive to your mistake? Four of the students found MS Excel responsive while other two found it unresponsive. 27. Do you find MS Excel supportive in solution of Mathematical problems? Five of the students agreed that MS Excel is supportive in solution of Mathematical problems while the remaining one negated the idea. 28. Did you make design mistake while working at MS PowerPoint? Three of the students agreed that they made designing errors while designing a presentation in PowerPoint while three of them reported that they made no mistake at all. 29. Was MS PowerPoint Supportive in informing ways about correction in terms of design handling? Three of the students found MS PowerPoint helpful in correction of designing mistakes while the other three found it unhelpful. 30. Do you find MS PowerPoint Supportive in designing of presentation? All the six students find MS PowerPoint supportive in designing of presentations. Merits and Demerits of MS Office The new MS office facilitates the users with a compatibility with all the previous versions of MS office due to which, the users of new versions are also able to check, view, edit, save and add old version files. The menu is displayed on the top of the application page due to which, the users are accommodated with all kind of needed information. The users do not need to reveal any hidden aspect because everything is clear. The applications of MS office are used at all professional and educational levels due to which, the software is considered very important in business terms. As far as security is concerned, the software has improved in provision of security. Because of provision of so many features by MS office, some of the people consider the software lengthy. Some businesspersons and other people are of the view that improvement in MS office provided little help to the businesses but the role of MS office in technology and advancement cannot be negated. MS office has improved the level of education and professionalism. MS office has helped businesses in developing and also helping in conducting various tasks that were considered very difficult before (Ivers 1997). It has boosted the market value. Moreover, it has helped businesses in their enlargement and expansion. MS office is user friendly as it helps the user on every step of working. Some users consider the operations related to MS Outlook difficult. Works Cited International Council for Computers in Education. Evaluator’s Guide for Microcomputer-based Instructional Packages. Eugene: University of Oregon, 1983. Ivers, K.S. Desktop Adventures: Building Problem Solving and Computer Skills. Learning and Leading with Technology 24.4 (1997): 6-11. Maddux, C., Johnson, D.L. and Willis, J.W. Educational Computing: Learning with Tomorrow’s Technologies. 2nd Ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1997: 17-37. Mendelson, Edward. MS Office Edges Closer. PC Magazine 25.12 (2006): 45-48. Luhn, Robert. Get Ready to Work With Office 2007s New Formats. PC World 25.4 (2007): 128-132. Roblyer, M.D. Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching. 4th Ed. Columbus, Ohio: Prentice Hall, 2005: 56-72. Software Evaluation Sheets. An Evaluator’s Guide to Educational Software and Related Material. Sydney: Department of Education, 1985: 45-51. Squires, D and McDougall, A. “Frameworks for Studying Educational Software”.Choosing and Using Educational Software: A Teacher’s Guide. London: The Falmer Press, 1994: 124-130. Taylor, R. (Ed). The Computer in the School: The Tutor, Tool, Tutee. New York: Teacher College, Columbia University, 1980: 1-10. Van Vliet, R. Computers and Numeracy: Using Spreadsheets in the Classroom. Information Transfer 16.4 (1996):27-31. Appendix Questionnaire Name: Class: Tick () the option that seems appropriate to you Questions Answers 1. Do you like working on the software? 2. Do you like to work on the software again? 3. Do you think that working on this software is difficult? 4. Were you lost in the applications? 5. Was it convenient to use? 6. Was there any help when you made a mistake? 7. Were you able to do every task at the first attempt? 8. Are you able to work on the applications without instructions? 9. Do you find the applications user friendly? 10. Do you want to use the applications at home? 11. Are you in need of some support to run the program? 12. Do you think that working on these applications is just a waste of time? 13. Was the exercise lengthy? 14. Will your friends also like the software? 15. Was working at this software easy for you? 16. Which application you liked most? 17. Why you like that application most that you have selected above. 18. Do you think that the selected application is helpful in your studies? 19. Did you make spelling mistakes while working at MS Word? 20. Did you find MS Word helpful in correction of your spelling mistakes? 21. Did you make grammatical mistakes while working at MS Word? 22. Did you find MS Word helpful in correction of your grammatical mistakes? 23. Do you find MS Word supportive in writing any document in English language? 24. Did you make formula mistake at working with MS Excel while calculating? 25. Did MS Excel help you in correction of formula? 26. Was MS Excel responsive to your mistake? 27. Do you find MS Excel supportive in solution of Mathematical problems? 28. Did you make design mistake while working at MS PowerPoint? 29. Was MS PowerPoint Supportive in informing ways about correction in terms of design handling? 30. Do you find MS PowerPoint Supportive in designing of presentation? Yes No 1- MS Word 2- MS Excel 3- MS Access 4- MS PowerPoint 5- MS Outlook Reason: Yes/No Yes/No Yes/No Yes/No Yes/No Yes/No Yes/No Yes/No Yes/No Yes/No Yes/No Yes/No Yes/No Read More