Introduction

Welcome to Software Training for Students! We are glad to have you on board and look forward to helping you get up to speed with life as a trainer.

This document will cover what you can expect as a trainer at STS and give you the tools you will need to get started in the job.

Outcomes

After completing through this manual, you should know:

• The responsibilities of a trainer at STS
• Where different STS resources are located and which ones are used for which purposes
• The next steps for you as a trainer

And be able to:

• Update the information in your trainer profile as you gain more experience
• Navigate the different administrative tools used by STS
• Find the information needed to fulfill the tasks of the job

So, What Is My Job, Exactly?

There is a wide variety of different specific tasks you will be expected to fulfill in the course of your life a trainer at STS, but the job really comes down to two main things:

• Teaching other students how to do new things and help them gain new skills
• Learning new skills, tools, and software yourself, to increase your expertise as a trainer

Teaching

The main ways STS trainers teach their fellow students are the following:

• Open Enrollment Workshops (OE)
• Custom Technology Workshops (CTW)
• 1-on-1 consultations (Ask A Trainer Appointments or DesignLab)
• Creating and updating training materials

What do all of these familiar-but-oddly-specific terms actual entail? Let's learn!

Open Enrollment Workshops (OE)

Open Enrollment Workshops (which you may see abbreviated as just OE) are free workshops that any UW-Madison student can sign up for, that cover a variety of different technology topics. These include specific software programs like Microsoft Excel, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe Illustrator, as well as programming languages like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python and more general informational topics like Graphic Design. A full list of upcoming workshops is available via the STS website.

OEs are most often scheduled for two hours (usually from 6-8pm), but the actual length of a given session will depend on a variety of things (including how quickly the particular group of attendees picks up a given topic, what questions they have, technical issues, etc.)

Each workshop has a corresponding training manual that contains information about its respective software/technology topic and offers exercises and activity prompts to help learners get hands-on practice with the concepts and features. All of the current STS manuals are available online. It's worth browsing through some of these manuals in your first few weeks as a trainer.

During an Open Enrollment workshop, the primary trainer leads the students through the topics in the manual, explaining the different ideas, features, and pieces of functionality as they go. During the session, learners will practice hands-on with whatever software they are learning. Most workshops will have guided, step-by-step sections as well as opportunities for students to explore on their own.

These sessions follow the manual pretty closely, and so they are usually fairly predictable in terms of what is covered. Some trainers will add different bits and pieces beyond what's in the manual while teaching, but that is up to the individual and is not required.

The complexity level for trainers is usually lowest for OEs, because it is a fixed set of material to cover, and trainers are able to hone their approach with the confidence that what they practice will not change significantly from one workshop to the next. A trainer can confidently deliver an Open Enrollment workshop for a software that they are only somewhat familiar with, because the manual has been written with a specific, tried-and-true path through it in mind (assuming they take the time to learn the manual, of course).

Custom Technology Workshops (CTW)

Custom workshops (which you may see abbreviated as just CTW) are sessions that have been requested by a professor/TA or student organization. They are tailored to the specific needs of whatever topic or software that particular customer has asked for, and they can vary widely in length and content (even sometimes between workshops on the same topic). These usually last between 30 minutes and 2 hours, and are often tied to when class periods start and stop.

Some CTWs will simply involve going through an existing manual for a topic more or less as is (possibly cutting it down for time), while others may require more extensive preparation from the trainer.

The complexity level for Custom Workshops is often a little higher than for OEs because there is not always a tested, tried-and-true training path to follow, and it is usually better if the trainer has reasonably strong grasp on the program or software (since that makes it easier to troubleshoot issues that may come up during the course of a workshop). Being aware of how well the class is following along and adjusting teaching style accordingly is also an important skill when teaching a custom workshop.

If an instructor is looking for something specific that is not covered in an existing STS manual, the job of the trainer may include coming up with a training plan for the functionality that has been requested, thinking through how to explain or introduce it to the students and how to have them practice it in a hands-on way. This can be challenging but can also be a fun creative exercise as well.

1-on-1 consultations (Ask A Trainer Appointments and DesignLab hours)

Trainers also provide individual 1-on-1 consultations where students can get help with a specific problem or task or to learn a program in a less formal environment than a classroom workshop.

These will usually take the form of Ask A Trainer Appointments (which are sometimes abbreviated AAT), which students can schedule via the STS website. They can also take place during drop-in sessions at the DesignLab on the second floor of College Library, where STS trainers help field walk-up questions from students needing tech help.

These can cover a wide variety of topics, from straightforward questions like "how do I chart this data in Excel?" to more complex issues like using Python for web-scraping or statistics. Students also sometimes book appointments because they are not able to (or would prefer not to) attend our Open Enrollment workshops but are still interested in learning the material.

AATs can be fun because they are a chance to flex your problem-solving skills in real-world situations, and you often get feedback directly from the learner on whether they are understanding what you're teaching (which we don't always get in a classroom environment).

Because the nature of questions can vary so widely, trainers usually prefer to be reasonably proficient in a given topic before they list themselves as being able to respond to AATs for it, but it is up to the individual to decide how qualified they feel to handle AATs for a given subject (and thus whether they list it in their trainer profile or not).

Creating and updating training materials

When many people think of 'training', the image that probably comes to mind is that of someone teaching a workshop or delivering a 1-on-1 consultation: an expert sharing their wisdom with a learner, in real-time, in person or possibly online. This is definitely one part of what training entails - a large part, even! But another crucial part of the training process is creating the training plans and other materials that will help learners become proficient. This curation aspect is important to help the learner know where to start, what is important vs. what can be glossed over, and what the best use of their time will be.

Part of the job for an STS trainer is to make sure that the learning materials are appropriate for our learners' level of experience, that they include enough background to be understandable (but not so much that it overwhelms them), and that they can provide additional resources to make sure that learners know where to go next.

Be sure to check out our guide to writing STS manuals for a primer on how to create effective learning materials.

Learning

The other main job of the STS trainer is to learn new programs/software and deepen their skills on the ones they already know. This can take many forms, and trainers are given a lot of leeway to find what works best for their personal learning style.

There are two main goals/reasons we prioritize this at STS. The first is practical: to maximize the number of trainers on staff who can train any given topic.

One of the big logistical challenges we face at STS is to have qualified trainers available at the time for which a given workshop is requested. If we only have 2 trainers who know SQL and both are busy during the time a student org requests a custom SQL workshop, we may not be able to fulfill their request, which is not ideal. The more trainers we have who know a given topic, the better STS operates. It increases our ability to meet the needs of the students we serve, and it leads to better trainers as well.

The second is more big-picture: to help our trainers become better learners of technology themselves, and in turn, succeed in their post-UW-Madison careers. Most of the students who work at STS are going to be using some form of software/technology in the internships and jobs they take after graduation, and the single most important tech skill a person can have is to know how to learn new technology. The best way to get better is to practice - and so we encourage our trainers to take the steps to add new skills to their repertoire, and in fact we make it a part of the job - meaning you can get paid for time spent learning things that help you as a trainer at STS.

We ask that trainers add at least 1 new workshop to their qualifications each semester.

Daily Life at STS

Primary Trainer vs. Assisting

Most workshops will have two trainers at them: a primary trainer and an assistant. This section will explain the differences between the two and give some tips for what the responsibilities of each role are.

Primary Trainer

The primary trainer leads the session and will generally be doing most of the talking/demonstrating of different tools and techniques.

The main responsibilities of the primary trainer include:

• Know the material you are teaching. This sounds obvious, but it is essential. If the trainer is not prepared, it shows, and it makes the experience unpleasant for both the trainer and the students hoping to learn.
• Be on time and at the right location. This is also obvious, but it is also very important. If you are teaching in a new building, make sure you know which one it is, and maybe do a little scouting ahead of time so you know the right room. If you are taking a bus, leave a little extra time to account for the unexpected.
• Stay aware of what is happening in the classroom and adjust your teaching as needed. As a trainer, a big part of your job is being able to read the room and communicate with people with a wide variety of experience levels. If everyone is already pretty experienced, you may not need to explain things as in-depth. If most people are totally new to the material, you may want to give a little more context and background for the information you are teaching. Your job is to get through the material at the right pace, and that pace varies with each session. Don't try to get through the material as fast as possible, but also don't over-explain every detail if the learners all seem to be following along without issue.

Other things you are expected to do when you are the primary trainer:

• Follow the guidelines set out in the STS Teaching Checklist and Rubric
• Give the learners time to explore and try things out on their own. With software and technology, learning happens more by doing than by listening.
• Be sure to stop periodically and check in to see if there are any questions.
• For Custom Workshops, contact the person who requested the workshop in advance (usually around a week or so is good) to make sure that you understand what they are looking for with the session. CTW requests from customers will have a brief description of what they are looking for, but it's important to make sure that the trainer and the requestor are on the same page. This both helps them think through what they are asking for, and makes sure you are not surprised by them expecting material that you have not prepared for.

Assisting

The assistant trainer's main job is to make sure the primary trainer is able to focus on teaching. Things that this might entail include helping students who get stuck during the workshop, helping students who come in late catch up to the rest of class, troubleshooting technical issues like logins or software errors, and more.

Each workshop is different and may require different levels of assistance. Some sessions, the assistant will be running around helping people the whole time. Other sessions may be quieter, and their job will be to stay alert to anyone who might end up needing help. The main things the assisting trainer should be doing during a workshop:

• Move throughout the room during the session. It's remarkable how often students who say nothing when the instructor asks if anyone has questions, suddenly have lots of things they're curious about once the assistant is close enough to whisper questions to.
• Stay alert for learners who appear to be struggling and move closer to them in the classroom, possibly discreetly asking if there is anything they might need help with.
• Be aware of what the instructor is doing so you can answer questions that may come up.

Things the assistant should avoid doing during workshops:

• Sit motionless at the back of the room and appear uninterested
• Do homework or other things on your computer unrelated to the workshop
• Aimlessly snack, spend time on your phone, or otherwise indicate that you are not interested in being there

Scheduling

When and how much a trainer teaches depends mainly on two things:

• Their availability (based on their Office 365 calendar)
• Their trainer qualifications (as listed in their STS Trainer Profile on the STS Website)

Primary trainers get scheduled by the operations coordinator (one of the managers). This is determined based on which trainers are qualified to teach a given topic, and which of those trainers are available during the time the workshop is scheduled. When a trainer is scheduled, they will receive an invite on their Office 365 calendar with the name/topic, location, and time of the workshop.

Once you are scheduled as the primary trainer for a workshop (meaning it appears on your Office 365 calendar and on your STS website dashboard), it is your responsibility to make sure that class gets taught. That means either teaching the workshop yourself (ideal!) or finding another trainer who can take it from you (also good), or in worst-case scenario, rescheduling the workshop (last resort - to be avoided if at all possible).

Your Office 365 calendar is how the managers know whether you are available to teach a workshop. It's your job to make sure this is blocked off with any time that you can't or would prefer not to work for STS.

What if I can't teach a workshop I'm scheduled for?

We understand that life as a student can be unpredictable, and things sometimes come up that conflict with your duties as a trainer - exams getting rescheduled, study sessions happening during workshops, etc. This is normal, and expected. When things come up that conflict with your STS duties, it is your responsibility to find someone to cover for you. Feel free to reach out to the managers for help finding another trainer!

It's important to let the managers know as far in advance as possible if you know you won't be able to teach a workshop you're scheduled for. If there is an emergency (sickness, urgent family situation, etc.) the day of a workshop, let the managers know yourself or have someone else (roommate, friend, etc.) contact the managers as soon as you can.

Requesting to teach or assist

Trainers who would like to teach additional workshops during the semester beyond those already on the schedule for the semester can ask the managers to add some sessions that work with their schedules.

Trainers can choose what classes they'd like to assist by signing up via the OE Assist Sign-Up Sheet in the STS Google Drive folder. If your Office 365 calendar is open and no one has signed up to assist a workshop, you may still be scheduled as that assist shift if you have the workshop topic listed in your trainer qualifications.

Office Hours

Because a lot of the work of STS happens in places other than the STS office, trainers are expected to spend at least 1 hour each week in the office working on STS-related activities. These could be learning new workshop materials, updating manuals, finding additional training resources (like LinkedIn Learning videos, etc.), preparing for workshops, learning from fellow trainers, and more.

We ask that trainers schedule their hour on the main STS calendar by creating a meeting request in their own Office 365 calendar and inviting "DoIT Software Training for Students" as an attendee. It should auto-complete based on the name, but if not, let one of the managers know and they can help troubleshoot.

Check-Ins

Trainers have check-in meetings with the managers on a regular basis. These meetings are an opportunity for the managers to catch up on what's going on with trainers in their classes, non-work life, STS, internships, etc. They are not formalized, and they are a good way for the managers to get to know the trainers better and for trainers to have an opportunity to speak 1-on-1 with their supervisors.

Trainers are responsible for maintaining a meeting request with their managers via their Office 365 calendar. If either the trainer or manager is not able to attend, either party can reschedule for a time that works better for all.

Logging Your Hours

A lot of the work at STS happens in places that aren't the STS office or training lab. Teaching custom workshops, attending 1-on-1 appointments, and learning new software for STS can happen all over campus, and trainers should definitely record hours for STS work that happens outside the office.

At STS we grant trainers a lot of flexibility in how they do their work, and we place trust in them to record time faithfully and accurately. We expect you to use good judgment in logging yours hours and to be honest in how you log them. You don't need to be precise down to the minute, but you need to represent your work time as accurately as you can.

Acceptable: Rounding 1 hour, 50 minutes up to 2 hours.
Not acceptable: Rounding 4 hours up to 5 hours.

What counts as STS work?

The following can always be counted as billable time for STS:

The following can count as STS work, as long as they are genuinely related to your role as a trainer. Use your judgment, and be honest about what counts as being related to STS.

The following should not be counted as STS hours:

How much should I be working at STS?

One of the best parts about working for STS is the flexible schedule. Trainers can build an STS workload that fits with their class schedule, student organization duties, other campus jobs, and non-academic life.

In a given week, trainers can work anywhere from 0 to 30 hours. Most tend to average between 5 and 10 hours a week, and that varies with how busy a given trainer is (e.g. during midterms, many trainers work less).

If you are regularly putting in more than 20 hours per pay period (10 hours/week), we may ask you to keep a record of what STS tasks you're working on, so we have a sense of how trainers divvy up their work time.

Where and when should I work?

Anywhere, and any time! If you stay up until 3 a.m. working on new projects for the Illustrator manual in your dorm room, that's totally fine (although be sure you are getting enough sleep). If you'd rather only work in the STS space during your office hours, that's fine too.

As long as you are getting meaningful STS-related work done, the place and time don't matter.

Trainer Resources

STS Website

Most of the day-to-day logistical operations of STS are handled via the STS website, which is part of the WordPress-based website for DoIT Academic Technology (STS's parent group, which helps administer Canvas, Piazza, etc. and works with instructors to help them implement technology in their courses).

The things trainers do through this site include:

• View their upcoming workshops
• View their workshop evaluations
• Fill out the post-workshop and post-consultation forms after teaching a workshop or holding a 1-on-1 appointment
• Update their Trainer Qualifications with classes they are able to teach and assist
• Set their schedules for Ask A Trainer appointments and list what topics they are available to help with
• View which fellow trainers can teach/assist which topics
• See a list of their trainer stats

A few things to note about the site:

File Not Found

Many of the pages used for the above activities are published as Private in WordPress, meaning they are only visible to users who are logged into the WordPress site. If you get a 'File Not Found' or 'Page Not Found' error when trying to access STS pages, you are probably not logged in. Logging into the site should grant you access to the page you are trying to reach.

Forbidden

If you are off-campus, logging into the site requires you to be signed in through the campus VPN. If you get a Forbidden error when trying to log into the STS site, you probably need to connect via the VPN.

Canvas

STS training material resides within the STS Canvas course. Students attending STS workshops can self-enroll to access our manuals and class files. If students have enrolled previously, they can access the course via the main STS Canvas Course page.

Microsoft Teams

STS uses Microsoft Teams for most of our communication needs, which includes chats/DMs, check-in meetings, and group meetings. You will still receive some email (mostly related to when you are scheduled for classes), but for the most part we try to keep all of our conversation to Teams chats.

If you haven't any questions about using Teams, reach out to the managers who will be happy to help.

Google Drive

Shared resources (like DesignLab and Assist sign-ups, workshop slides, teaching checklists, meeting agendas) live in the Software Training for Students folder on Google Drive.

If are running into issues accessing the files or need additional permissions to view/edit anything in the folder, just let the managers know.

Trainer Expectations

What is expected of you as a trainer? We're glad you asked!

A more comprehensive explanation of what we value at STS, what is expected of trainers, and general operating procedures is available via the Trainer Expectations document on the STS internal site.

Trainer Setup

STS Wordpress Site

This is the main hub for the day-to-day operations like scheduling, Ask A Trainer appointments, and more. There are a few things to set up after logging in, which you can do via the "Login via NetID" button on the WordPress login page.

User Profile

The first thing is to fill out is your User Profile for the overall WordPress site.

The two items that we care about here are:

• Display Name: This should be your preferred First and Last name, as you wish them to appear on the site. Once you enter the First Name and Last Name fields, you can choose "[First] [Last]" for the "Display name publicly as" item.
• Email address: This should be your main @wisc.edu email address, and needs to be the same address you use for the trainer profile. There is a weird thing where, the first time you enter your email address, you have to go to your email and verify the address is valid before you can save your info. This is not made particularly clear via the interface.

STS Trainer Profile

Once you have updated your main WordPress user profile, one of the managers will go in and set your user role to be an STS Trainer. Once this is done, you will see an option in the menu on the left side of the WordPress interface that reads Ask A Trainer Appointments, and has a submenu, STS Trainer Profile.

From this screen click the Add Provider button on the top to create your STS Trainer Profile.

The important items on this screen are the following:

• Post Title: This is the main text box underneath the "Add New Provider" title and has the words "Enter title here" in grey text. This needs to be identical to your display name for the main WordPress site or many parts of the site will not work correctly.
• Trainer Start Date: This is the date of your orientation.
• Expected Graduation Date: This is when you are expecting to graduate from UW-Madison. It doesn't need to be exact - it is just helpful for the managers to know how long different trainers may be with us.
• Teach and Assist Qualifications: These let the managers and other trainers know which workshops you are comfortable teaching and assisting. As you learn more programs and gain more experience as a trainer, you will add to this list.
• Ask A Trainer Topics: These are the topics that you feel comfortable handling Ask A Trainer questions about. By listing these, and creating a Work Schedule (at the bottom of the page), students can schedule 1-on-1 appointments with you for any of the topics listed here.
• Email Address: This needs to be the same address as listed in your WordPress user profile.
• Ask A Trainer Schedule: This (along with whichever "Ask A Trainer Topics" you list) determines when students are able to schedule appointments with you via the STS website.

Google Drive

The STS folder on Google Drive is available via this link.

One of the managers will invite you, and from there you can browse the different resources available to trainers in this folder.

Keycard Access

Trainers have 24-hour keycard access to the main doors of the Biochemistry building as well as the STS office and computer lab via their Wiscard.

The managers will take down some of the information from your Wiscard and share it with the Access Control team on campus. Once this is added, your Wiscard will be able to open the doors for all STS spaces.

Next Steps for New Trainers

Orientation Part 2: How Do I...?

Your initial orientation gives you a high-level overview of the technology used for day-to-day operations at STS, but it is a lot all at once. Especially given that not all students use their Office 365 calendars, Google Drive, WordPress or MS Teams, we find it is helpful for trainers to have a second orientation that covers the hands-on parts of the tech infrastructure of STS.

One of the new STS trainer's first tasks is to request part 2 of their trainer orientation, where they go into greater detail on all of the tech tools and systems we use.

Attend Workshops

Part of your job as a new trainer is to learn more about how our workshops work. To do this, we encourage new trainers to register for STS workshops as a learner, and attend them as if you were just a student looking to learn the workshop topic.

When you attend, we encourage you to introduce yourself to the primary trainer adn assistant for your session and ask them any questions you may have before or after the workshop.

Because you are attending as part of your job, be sure to log the hours you spend attending STS workshops on your timecard so you can be paid for them.

Trainer Bio

One of the first hands-on projects new trainers complete is their Trainer Bio (not to be confused with their Trainer Profile on the STS Website).

This is both an opportunity for the current staff to learn a little more about the new trainers and a chance for the new trainers to get some hands-on practice with the HTML and CSS that we use to create our workshop manuals and other training materials here at STS.

The template files are available here and use all of the same conventions and HTML/CSS code that we use for our workshop manuals.

All of the information you need to get started with this is available in the STS Manual Editing Guide, but you are encouraged to ask the managers or your fellow trainers for help getting started.

Teach a Card Game

One of the first assignments for new trainers is to teach the managers (and other staff who may be around) something that is non-technical but has clear rules and specific information about it that is good to know: a card game!

The trainer can choose whichever card game they would like, but we encourage something that has at least a few rules to it (e.g. something like War where there is only one main rule and victory condition tends to be a little too simple for this purpose).

Things to think about when preparing your card-game teach:

• What (if anything) can you assume the learner already knows about this topic?
• What information does the learner need to know ahead of time in order to participate in the game?
• Is it better to front-load all information before the game starts, or is it better to explain rules as they come up, to avoid overwhelming the learner?
• Is there specific terminology or jargon associated with the game that learners will need to know?
• What information is essential to know about the game in order to play? What is good to know but perhaps not necessary? What information is optional?

Schedule a Test Teach

Before we schedule new trainers for their first open enrollment workshops, we find it helpful for them to practice going through the process of delivering a workshop in a low-pressure, mistakes-are-okay environment, which we call their Test Teach.

Trainers select a workshop topic of their choosing, learn the manual, and deliver the material as if it were a real-world workshop - the only difference being that the audience is the managers (and sometimes fellow trainers).

Trainers should consult the STS Workshop Checklist and Success Rubric, which gives some details on what goes into a good teach and helps guide new trainers on what's expected of them.

Summary

So what all are you responsible for in your first 3-6 weeks as a trainer?

1. Schedule Part 2 of orientation
2. Create Your Trainer Bio
3. Register for and attend STS Workshops (2-4 workshops)
4. Schedule your Check-In meeting
5. Schedule your Card Game Teach
6. Schedule your Test Teach