Title: Course Outline and Objectives
Course: Introduction to Spreadsheets

Welcome to Introduction to Spreadsheets!

This course is designed to impart the basics of computer based spreadsheets. These days, you'll be hard pressed to find a computer that doesn't come with a spreadsheet that supports multiple pages, formulas and advanced formatting. There are several very popular spreadsheet programs on the market, the foremost being Microsoft Excel, part of the Microsoft Office Suite. Growing in popularity is a free version of this program, Calc, part of Open Office's suite of productivity software (Open Office is an open source alternative to Microsoft's suite).

Additionally, the world of web 2.0 (which, for all intents and purposes is the proliferation of web-based applications for businesses, schools and individuals) has introduced several easy to use, highly accessible (and free) spreadsheet programs. At the leading edge of this development are GoogleDocs' Spreadsheet and Zoho's Sheet. Both programs are available free to users once they register and can be accessed from any computer with an internet connection. In addition to these great programs both Google and Zoho support rich text documents and presentations (Zoho also includes a customer relationship solution, document manager, polls, and much, much more).

In this course we will focus on three of the most widely used, and easily interchangeable applications: Microsoft's Excel, OpenOffice Calc and Google's Spreadsheet. Each assignment will be possible in any of the three listed (and it's quite possible that they could be accomplished with ease in other spreadsheet programs available for your computer), you are encouraged to experiment and find the application that best fits your needs. Note: any screen shots of tool bars, menus, etc. may look different than your applicatio. If it does, be patient and check out the help menu to get your bearings. The assignments will largely be concept based and will not specifically outline the step by step process for creating a spreadsheet.

Outline of Course Resources and Activities
Topic 1: Introduction to Spreadsheets

Topic 2: Projects and Assignments

Topic 3: Additional Information and Practice