Abstract

This Share-a-thon presentation will present and sharing of an open educational resource Excel tutorial (CC 4.0 BY NC SA). This Excel tutorial was created to introduce Earth, Environmental and Geographic science students to basic spreadsheet functions. It is written for 100 level students. The Excel tutorial will be available for every user to download prior to the Rendezvous. Participants will gain an overview of the material covered in the tutorial and how it can be incorporated into departmental or program level curriculum for developing quantitative skills.

Context

This tutorial is intended to be used by 1st year students in Earth and Environmental Science or Physical Geography. It was included as part of the Laboratory Manual for Introduction to Physical Geography, First British Columbia Edition (https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/geoglabs2020/). In this open educational resource lab manual, instructors can choose from 22 labs. A separate Excel tutorial was developed to allow instructors flexibility in teaching labs in any order. All our departmental 100 level courses now give students access to the same tutorial. It is posted in our learning management system as an open access resource for all majors. Department instructors can specify specific sections of the tutorial as prerequisites for any particular teaching activity.

Why It Works

This self-paced spreadsheet tutorial covers the basic essential functions of Excel in one location. The whole department can refer students to a single resource, reducing the need for duplication of effort in individual courses. The tutorial being built into a spreadsheet itself makes the tutorial more hands on and more directly guided than instructions given outside the spreadsheet. Student feedback from one year of province-wide testing has been positive.