Professional Development and Training

Ida Gropper, Director

Director's Message

There’s a renewed energy and excitement at UNF as we continue to provide extraordinary learning opportunities to our students while reaffirming our commitment to enriching the Jacksonville community and beyond. So much is happening at UNF, that it takes effort to keep up with everything. Like most things worthwhile in life, learning also takes effort and commitment. CPDT is here to help you attain your commitment to continuous learning through an array of professional development programs.

As a new calendar year begins, we hope that you will take advantage of our programs and give us suggestions on how we can help you develop professionally. Please send us your comments at training@unf.edu or call ext. 1707.

CPDT Recognized with Two Excellence in Employee Development Awards

The 7th Annual Excellence in Employee Development Awards, sponsored by SHRM, ASTD & UNF CE was held Wednesday, Dec. 5th. Nominations were made by a wide-range of community organizations, including Baptist Health, Community First Credit Union, FCCJ, Mayo, Shands Jacksonville Medical Center, Department of Highway & Motor Vehicles, Blue Cross/Blue Shield and others.

CPDT won the trainer excellence award in the category of companies with 400+ employees - Ronda Mitchell was the winner. CPDT also won in the same category for excellence in e-learning for the Golf Cart Course developed in collaboration with Environmental Health & Safety.

Congratulations to Ronda for the trainer excellence award. Special congratulations to both Ronda & Jim Starr for working collaboratively with EHS to develop the e-learning course.

New Learning Programs for the Spring Term

What's new in Vista/Office 2007 - 1-hour instructor-led demonstrations. Learn the new look and feel of UNF's next generation of computer Operating System and Microsoft Office Suite. This short, demonstration-only presentation will cover new features and important user functions.

Adobe Basics - 2-hour instructor-led hands-on class.
In this class you will compare capabilities of Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat, compile a list of Acrobat tools most useful to your job, create PDF files from other file types, review settings for Acrobat Distiller, combine multiple files into a single document, and set securities on PDF documents.

Adobe Collaboration - 3-hour instructor-led hands-on class.
In this class you will annotate PDF files using editing and commenting tools in Adobe Acrobat. You'll also create a digital signature for signing PDF files that adds additional security to your documents during a review process. You'll practice using the E-mail Review and eEnvelope features for document sharing using Acrobat.

Adobe Forms - 3-hour instructor-led hands-on class.
In this class you will design an electronic form from scratch, create a form from a template, and convert a static PDF form to a fillable form. You'll practice exporting information from a filled form into a spreadsheet or other file type to use in other systems.

Travel Training Class - This is a collaborative effort with CPDT and the Controller’s Office. Learn to prepare a TAR, voucher for reimbursement & get your questions about domestic & international travel answered. This is a 3-hour instructor-led hands-on class.

LearnUNF - Valuing the Past; Shaping the Future - January 28th 3 p.m. 45/1200. President Delaney will be the keynote speaker, and the panelists will include president's office staff. Topics to be covered include: What's UNF's future direction? What have we achieved during the past 2 years? What's new from Tallahassee? What is the Jacksonville Commitment? Where are we on NCAA Division I status?

Finance Smarts Series - will return through First Community Credit Union.

Keep it Safe - Your rights as a consumer.
To Your Credit - How your credit history will affect your credit future.
Charge It Right - How to make a credit card work for you.

HOLD THE DATE - April 1 - Professional Development Forum - University Center
Jon Gordon, author of "The Energy Bus" is the keynote speaker. Bill Catlette, author of Contented Cows, will present a leadership workshop. President Delaney will honor recipients of the Excellence Awards program during the luncheon ceremony.

Spring 2008 Book Club

Members of the book club have chosen the following books to read during the spring 2008. Come join us! You’ll meet new colleagues and learn while reading. Refreshments are provided.

To register call ext. 1707 or email training@unf.edu with your N# and indicate which section you would like to join. Registration is on a first-come, first-service basis and participants may register for both sections if open seats are available.

	February 8th noon to 1 p.m. Library Conference Room 12/2400 “Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes” by Mark Penn Mark Penn, the man who identified "Soccer Moms" as a crucial constituency in President Clinton's 1996 reelection campaign, is known for his ability to detect relatively small patterns of behavior in our culture - microtrends that are wielding great influence on business, politics, and our personal lives. Only one percent of the public, or three million people, is enough to launch a business or social movement. Relying on some of the best data available, Penn identifies more than 70 microtrends in religion, leisure, politics, and family life that are changing the way we live.

	April 25th noon to 1 p.m. Library Conference Room 12/2400 “Practical Intelligence: The Art and Science of Common Sense” by Karl Albrecht Karl Albrecht's bestselling book Social Intelligence showed us how dealing with people and social situations can determine success both at work and in life. Now, in this groundbreaking book Practical Intelligence, Albrecht takes the next step and explains how practical intelligence (PI) qualifies as one of the key life skills and offers a conceptual structure for defining and describing common sense.

Is EQ for U?

Did you know?

Emotional Intelligence is the #1 best indicator of job performance. More reliable than either IQ or Personality.
Emotional Intelligence is a "skill" and as such can be learned. 90% of top performers are high in EQ.
Practicing Emotional Intelligence skills actually "changes" your brain. The effect called "neuro-plasticity" is an actual, biological result that occurs as one learns new skills.

According to Drs. Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves, authors of the Emotional Intelligence Quick Book, the broad concept of Emotional Intelligence can be broken down into 4 easily understandable, teachable and memorable skills.

Self Awareness - the ability to accurately recognize your emotions as they happen and understanding your general tendencies for responding to different people and situations.
Self Management - using the awareness of your emotions to choose what you say and do, in order to positively direct your behavior.
Social Awareness - recognizing and understanding the emotions and perspectives of others.
Relationship Management - using the awareness of your own emotions and the emotions of others to manage interactions successfully.

One only has to take a look at rush hour traffic, the local little league game or the evening news to see evidence that our society is experiencing an emotional intelligence starvation epidemic.

Out of control or overly controlled emotions and behavior, self-centered or end result only mentalities, and the breakdown of families and societal relationships are common place, if not viral, in our culture.

Soliciting and acquiring stronger EQ skills may very well be one antidote to this growing virus.

To learn more about EQ or how to become more emotionally intelligent, visit the following resources:

www.talentsmart.com
www.eqtoolbox.org
http://businessballs.com/eq.htm
http://www.eiconsortium.org/

If you are interested in a training session on Emotional Intelligence for your team or department, contact CPDT at 620-1707 or training@unf.edu.

Get to Know Lisa Jamba - UNF Trainer

Lisa Jamba

What department are you with? The School of Computing in the College of Computing, Engineering, and Construction.

What is your job title?
Instructor/Advisor.

How long have you been at UNF? Eight years.

What classes do you train? The Adobe Acrobat series and Microsoft PowerPoint series of courses.

What are your hobbies?
Swimming, reading books and watching films (hopefully good ones!)

What do you like most about training at the University of North Florida?
It's always interesting to learn about the various roles people have at UNF and how they want to use technology to help them.

What is your most memorable accomplishment at UNF?
Ask me that again in another 8 years.

Ask the Trainer - Focus your audience’s attention on you with a single keystroke. (2000/2002/2003/2004)

by Ronda Mitchell

You work hard to design PowerPoint slides that grab and retain your Trainer

audience's attention, but if you have to redirect your audience, you might find they're too captivated by your fantastic slides to refocus.

If you take the time to turn off an overhead projector or to minimize your slideshow, you might lose your audience with the disruption. Instead use a single keystroke to blank out your screen without interrupting your slideshow and disrupting the flow.

While in Slide Show mode, simply press [B] to switch to a plain black screen or [W] for a white screen. Press the key again to return to your slideshow right where you left off.

Ask Information Technology Services:
What are the major changes in Windows Vista and Office 2007 and when will they be available on campus?

by Alison Cruess

UNF is beginning the move to Windows Vista and Office 2007. Information Technology Services has developed a Vista client for faculty and staff that includes Microsoft Office 2007. This client will be installed on new computers as they are purchased and will be available by request for other computers that meet the minimum hardware requirements. Faculty and staff members who wish to have the new client installed on their office computer can contact their C-Tech or make an online request at https://help.unf.edu.

It is expected the Vista classroom client, featuring Office 2007, will be installed in the General Purpose Computer Lab, technology-equipped classrooms, and lab Classrooms (15/1104 & 15/1105) for the summer 2008 semester.

Vista

Both Vista and Office 2007 are significantly different than their predecessors. The major changes with Windows Vista is the information on the Start menu is organized more efficiently with a new search feature to make it easier to find items just by typing their first few letters. The Start menu is still the place to turn your computer off or log off, but there are also new buttons for locking your computer or putting it into a low-power state called sleep mode.

Microsoft has redesigned the Office applications user interfaces. The biggest changes are the addition of the Ribbon and the Office Button. With the Ribbon, Microsoft has replaced the menus and toolbars with one easy place to find the features and functionality you need to produce the results you want. The ribbon organizes the features and functionality into tabs. The Home tab displays the most commonly used features such as font type, font size, bulleting, and numbering.

The MS Office button gives you one stop access to the most common file and system commands. After you get to use to the new features, Office 2007 is easy to work with and can make documents, presentations, etc. look a lot better.

The default file format for Office 2007 is incompatible with older versions of Office, including Office 2003. As faculty and staff gradually begin using Office 2007 on the campus or from home, compatibility issues may arise when they share documents with others. There are two actions faculty and staff may take to prevent compatibility issues. First, faculty and staff using Office 2003, which is almost all of the campus employees, can submit a request to have Microsoft's Compatibility Pack installed on their office computer and UNF laptop. Second, faculty and staff who have Office 2007 can save their documents as a lower version so they are compatible with Office 2003 applications. Visit http://www.unf.edu/dept/its/client_sw/office2007_compatibility/ to read the easy instructions for saving as an older version.

The Center for Professional Development and Training will provide Instructor-led demos of "What's new in Vista/Office 2007" beginning the spring 2008 term. Check the CPDT Course Schedule for dates, times and locations. Faculty and staff may also take advantage of the Office 2007 and Vista online courses offered by SkillPort. To access SkillPort, login to myWings, go to the "Faculty/Advisors" tab and select "SkillPort Online Learning" from the Quick Links Channels.

The Center for Instruction & Research Technology (CIRT) has the Vista/Office 2007 client installed in their lab for faculty to use. They will also hold Brown Bag lunches during the spring term to familiarize faculty with Vista and Office 2007.