The Personal Effectiveness Pathway can be be completed in the Professional Development Pathways Organization in Blackboard.

Purpose

This pathway indicates that a university employee has specialized knowledge required to do the following:

• Effectively use commonly-used software within OHIO University’s work environments.
• Utilize workplace effectiveness skills and techniques to increase proficiency in the employee’s field of work.
• Demonstrate characteristics that contribute to personal effectiveness and self-improvement.

Guidelines

• Pursuit of a pathway is primarily for building knowledge and skills related to success in current position.
• Employee and Supervisor should discuss requirements and participation prior to beginning a pathway program.
• Employee and Supervisor should discuss how learning experiences can be shared and/or applied.
• A pathway does not mean that a person has all skills required for a position. Experience is also important.

Technology

These courses help participants learn some intermediate-to-advanced skills in some commonly-used software at OHIO University– Participants must complete a minimum of five (5) of the following courses:

Microsoft Excel Skills (five available courses)

Choose any from the following:

• Inserting Pivot Tables
• Referencing Data in Excel 365
• Formulas in Excel 365
• Adding and Arranging Data in Excel 365
• Applying Custom Formatting in Excel 365

Microsoft Word Skills (five available courses)

• Formatting documents
• Structuring Documents
• Illustrating Documents
• Adding Data & Calculations
• Using Table Tools

Microsoft Teams Skills (five courses total)

• Creating, Joining, and Managing Meetings
• Creating and Managing Teams and Channels
• Using Private Messaging and Call Tools
• Exploring and Setting Up Microsoft Teams
• Creating, Finding, and Organizing Files          

Microsoft Outlook Skills (five courses total)

• Tagging, Sorting, and Filtering Emails
• Calendar Tools
• Contact Tools
• Designing & Shaping Email
• Optimizing Workflow

Microsoft PowerPoint Skills (five courses total)

• Formatting Presentations
• Organizing Presentation Assets
• Using Multimedia in Presentations
• Creating Graphics & Diagrams
• Preparing & Delivering Slide Shows

Expertise

These courses help participants practice skills and techniques to increase their proficiency in their line of work.

Digital Accessibility

This eLearning module introduces the subject of digital accessibility and lays a foundation of understanding about how you can implement digital accessibility practices into your work here at OHIO. By applying the principles described in this module you will be better equipped with the knowledge to improve the overall usability of digital content for the OHIO community.

Make the Time You Need: Get Organized

Participants will discover how schedule management can help you regain control of your time. Participants will learn how to leverage your personality to boost your productivity and explore techniques for dealing with time stealers, and learn how to create practical to-do lists and keep them relevant and realistic.

Uncovering and Utilizing Your Talents and Skills

Participants will learn what is meant by talent and skill, and why it's important to understand what talents participants possess. This course also covers techniques for identifying unique capabilities, and outlines what should be included in a talent action plan to fully utilize and develop key talents and skills.

Clarity and Conciseness in Business Writing

Participants will explore techniques you can use to enhance their writing. Specifically, participants will learn about the importance of using short and familiar words, appropriate connotations, concrete and specific language, and transitional words and phrases. Participants will also explore tips for being more concise in your writing and best practices for organizing content.

Characteristics

These courses help participants develop characteristics that contribute to their personal effectiveness and self-improvement.

Taking Stock of Your Work/Life Balance

Participants will learn about how to detect imbalance between home and work and how to achieve a healthy compromise between work balance and life balance. Participants will also assess their current work/life balance.

Unleashing Personal and Team Creativity

This course describes personal barriers to creativity and how to overcome them. It provides strategies for enhancing creativity in the workplace. In addition, it outlines key requirements for promoting creativity in a work environment. And it explores techniques for fostering creativity in teams, including brainstorming and role playing.

Developing Your Critical Thinking and Cognitive Flexibility

This course will help participants improve their critical thinking skills. Participants will learn about the intake, investigate, and act stages of critical thinking, as well as how to use analytical techniques to assess information. Finally, participants will learn the advantages of keeping an open mind through cognitive flexibility.

Outwitting Your Cognitive Bias

In this course, participants will learn techniques for identifying cognitive bias, as well as strategies for overcoming specific biases.