Overcoming Computer Anxiety

Monica returns to her roots with IT training by helping technological novices overcome their fear of computers

Many years ago, when I was eight, I had my first dealings with a real computer.  It was a Commodore 64 and it was such a rare and awesome piece of equipment that it got its own room in the house. As a curious child, I was determined to get some time alone with this new contraption, with its numerous wires, to see if I could figure out what all the fuss was about. Because I was too young to be allowed anywhere near it, I used to sneak the hefty manuals that accompanied it off to bed with me at night and try to make sense of it that way. Needless to say, I never had any problems nodding off with an MSDOS manual propped up in front of me. And while I never did make much headway beyond the gaming capacity of the thing, the unsatisfied curiosity led me to pursue a college degree in computer science. From there, I entered the world of computer training.

These days, after securing a proper training qualification, I spend most of my training days delivering management development soft skill courses but, whenever the need arises, I revert to technical training in various computer applications.

Technically-focused, process-driven courses are much more straightforward than soft skill courses. At least with technical courses, there is generally (let’s not forget the temperament of technology) only one right or wrong answer to a query from a participant. On the other hand, if you’re not careful with a soft skill course, your participants could easily end up pondering the meaning of life for an entire afternoon. Another area where technical training is preferable to soft skills is a person’s reason for attending – there are no grey areas. If you need to know about email, you sign up for the next course and you learn about email. In contrast, if you feel you are lacking in the presentation skills front, you sign up to the next course- but there is no guarantee that your presentation problems will be solved.

The in-house/outsource debate

Beginners in IT need to be treated very carefully indeed, lest they get scared away from technology for life. There are so many questions:  will the trainer understand the needs of the participants? Will they encourage group work and participation? Will the trainer be amenable to meandering off their own agenda and be emotionally intelligent enough to read between the deafening silences and long sighs?

The cost of failed training is so high that it’s of pivotal importance to get it right first time. I have planted myself in some such courses under the pretence of being a beginner only to find that the trainer will go too fast and run out of patience too quickly when asked for the umpteenth time how to perform a right-click. Other problems in my experience include not asking for questions often enough and not visiting each participant individually to see exactly how they are doing. Too many trainers seemed happy with a wistful nod from people who, to me, clearly did not understand the so called ‘simple’ operation of copying and pasting. And the most popular concern was that the trainer would continue on with two or three people who were getting it a bit quicker than the majority of others.

Whenever possible, therefore, I take the Beginners Classes in IT and a handful of tried and tested third party suppliers look after the intermediate and advanced courses. This is because those who have a bit of experience are better able to dictate their needs to a third party supplier and have the added advantage of knowing what it is they need to learn.

The Legacy of IT

I seldom run an IT session with an agenda beyond conveying that it will be a basic course for beginners. Consistent experience has taught me that you can have a very nice agenda mapping out the day only to find, two hours into the course, that people are still struggling with opening and closing the application.

A rarely admitted, but not uncommon, truth emerged during a recent IT course. On probing the participants on their expectations for the day ahead, one admitted that he had managed with some success to evade IT, in all its forms, for five years, and here he was, sitting tentatively at the training laptop in front of him wanting to learn about it and, in particular, learn about email. I asked him why he had decided to give in to the great revolution that is IT - to which his answer was that he felt “out of touch” with what was going on around him, even though he is a main player on his team. He added that people would, while in a meeting, assure him that they would email him some new relevant information only for him to pale slightly and admit that he didn’t have an email address. This type of honesty about a person’s reason for attending a training course is uncommon and is exactly the comment that a full-time training professional needs to hear now and again to be assured of their raison d’etre - to know that they can make a real difference in an individual’s every day life.

I suspect that there are many other people in the workplace with precisely the same reason for evading IT courses at all costs. There is a misconception that, because you are in a position of authority, you should know everything about everything and that to attend any kind of training programme might serve to expose you as an employee with less than the optimum level of knowledge and skills.

Beginning with Beginners

I proceeded with this course, beginning with little else other than repetitious basics and a fountain of empathy. I started the course by assuring participants that they could not (save opening the window and throwing it out) “break” the computer. In fact, breaking a computer is something that people have to go to college for a considerable length of time to learn how to do. I also reminded them that their own brains are much more sophisticated and complicated than any computer. Delivering beginner IT training to adults seems to be the exception to the rule when it comes to the old adage about age bringing confidence. It is very easy to knock people’s confidence in this situation so I prefer to blame the computer for many of the initial setbacks just so the participants get used to the truth that computers can get it wrong. Then slowly but surely we can make progress in the whole area.

The Job of Patience

Of course, there are challenges with delivering technical courses. Infinite patience is a must as people new to IT conquer the difference between the various drives and discs.

Since we learn best through association, story telling and imagery, I have to spend a considerable amount of time preparing suitable analogies for technical topics. Most of us will have heard the filing cabinet and folder one to depict root folders and files but I think it’s worth spending some time coming up with one which actually relates to the participants day-to-day job or relating to a current affairs topic. It can be frustrating trying to link the election or the GAA championships to the various parts of a computer or application, but it’s always worth it in the course itself. Analogies can bring an otherwise boring technological topic to life.

By the afternoon, the participants were exhibiting more confidence with the computers and relative comfort with its various parts. They had also had some success in sending and receiving email to and from each other.

E-learning anyone?

I normally call a halt to beginners IT classes at lunchtime and return to them the following week. This serves to prevent an overload of new information which can overwhelm beginners.

However, we are currently trialing some e-learning software, so I took a chance on introducing it for a manageable half hour in the afternoon. I explained that I just wanted to get an idea of how it compared as a learning method compared to the more traditional delivery of the morning session. Thankfully, their new-found confidence with IT allowed them to embrace the idea.

Once they were settled and comfortable with their new headpieces, my role was reduced to sauntering around the room ready to help with any technical hitches. There weren’t any and the room fell silent apart from the mouse clicks. Some participants took notes, some chose to complete an interactive learning operation a couple of times until they were more comfortable with it. Others tried the pre-course test to see how much they might learn from this ‘experiment’. I was surprised at the lack of sighs and ‘tsk’ sounds, and wondered if they were just going through the motions of learning. 

When the thirty minutes were up, two participants asked for a further minute to finish a topic. The feedback was bittersweet. The benefits for e-learning that they listed included learning at their own pace, place and time. It was around then that I realised the ironic concept that the paradigm which I was promoting may well see me redundant! They liked the level of interactivity of the software and its user friendly navigation system. They did say, however, that it was reassuring to have a ‘real’ person in the room to call upon. I suggest that when they get as far as intermediate level, they take advantage of the many benefits of e-learning by accessing content themselves. Alas, I am somewhat relieved at their response that they would wait until they get through the basics first with me as they didn’t feel nearly confident enough with a computer to contemplate a one-to-one session with it. Well, I suppose it is nice to be needed.

Monica Murphy