Tuesday, April 16, 2013

University of Georgia students, faculty and staff will have more free, online training options at their fingertips when Skillsoft and Books 24x7 become available starting on Monday, May 20.

“Skillsoft and Books 24x7 are comprehensive resources that allow students, faculty and staff to enhance their career-related skills at their own pace while preparing for a variety of certifications in business, technical and desktop skills,” said Lynn Latimer Wilson, associate CIO for planning and engagement with Enterprise Information Technology Services (EITS).

Skillsoft is a leading provider of e-learning and performance support solutions whose online resources include courses, books, simulations, exams and videos. Skillsoft will replace ElementK as an online training tool for the University.

After the launch of Skillsoft, users will no longer have access to ElementK; therefore, users are encouraged to print their ElementK professional development transcripts before May 16. University-created training courses in ElementK will not be transitioned to Skillsoft. Faculty who are using ElementK in their courses should contact the EITS Help Desk for information about similar courses in Skillsoft.

UGA users will have access to Skillsoft’s vast collections for business skills, technical skills and desktop skills.

“Skillsoft prepares users to take industry-specific tests,” said Judy James, a senior human resources manager at the University’s Training and Development Center. “That’s a very valuable asset because University departments may not have the resources to train their students, faculty and staff for certifications. The University will have access to the most up-to-date training materials available from numerous published works.”

Along with Skillsoft, UGA is also offering free access for students, faculty and staff to Books 24x7 — which has about 40,000 online titles currently available. New titles are added weekly to Books 24x7.

Books 24x7 users can view full content of thousands of online business, desktop and technical books. Users may also view online books with their mobile devices, bookmark and annotate key sections within books for tracking, and create personal folders to organize titles by interest or project.

Recent additions to Books 24x7 include those about enhancing personal career skills, management, marketing, project management, web development, networking, Windows 8 and iOS 6, among others.

In Skillsoft, available courses include those in human resources, management, communications, finance and accounting, Adobe, Microsoft Office, Apple Mac OS X, web design, software development and server technologies.

“Students can use Skillsoft and Books 24x7 to develop their career skills, including searching by specific topics or reading particular chapters,” James said. “Students can also integrate the materials into their coursework, using the Skillsoft resources as references.”

She added that faculty and staff can also improve their professional development skills by using Skillsoft and Books 24x7.

“You get the training you need to do your specific job,” James said. “Let’s say you’re an administrative professional, but you haven’t had the recent opportunity to learn more about financial accounting. With Skillsoft, you can learn at your pace to understand that concept.”

The University’s Enterprise Information Technology Services (EITS) is offering Skillsoft and Books 24x7, which may be accessed via the My UGA Portal. Once logged into the portal, users can click on the Skillsoft/Books 24x7 icon to access those services.

After users have accessed Skillsoft and Books 24x7 with their computers once, they can access them with their mobile devices.

UGA’s offering of Skillsoft and Books 24x7 are made possible by the Student Technology Fee.

Along with Skillsoft and Books 24x7, UGA students, faculty and staff also have free access to lynda.com and Microsoft IT Academy. EITS has more information about these online training tools available on its website.

For more information, including an instructional guide, visit www.skillsoft.uga.edu. For support questions, contact the EITS Help Desk at 706-542-3106 or email helpdesk@uga.edu.