Keyboard Short Course will teach beginners how to type, and teach experienced typists to type faster and more accurately. This course has been field tested and adopted by the U.S. Government, Dept. of Labor, National Office of the Job Corps. It is a suggested text in its list of courses in the Clerical and Accounting Clerk curriculums. It is appropriate for Middle School, Jr. High, High School, and Adult-College-University.

For beginners, the course is designed to teach keyboarding by touch (without looking at the keys or your fingers) in a short length of time to speeds of 30-35+ wpm and accuracy of no more than 1 error per minute. The alphabetic and punctuation keys are covered; no numbers or symbols. Every lesson contains timed exercises and students are encouraged to meet the speed and accuracy goals (whatever speed is required for an "A" grade in the Setup) in each exercise before continuing on to the next one. Be sure to enter a grading scale whether or not you are taking the course for credit. The grading scale determines your goals. Goal-directed practice on each exercise will help you progress much further, and faster. You will master each exercise before continuing on to the next ones. (If you have trouble with one exercise, you can go on but be sure to come back the next day and try the challenging exercise again to raise the timing score.)

There are 126 timed exercises, with the option to create six additional timed exercises of any duration. Lessons 1-11 are 15-second timings, and some 30-second timings. The purpose of short timings in the beginning is to get the fingers and mind working together at a rapid rate. Lessons 12-18 contain 1-minute and 2-minute timings. There are 18 lessons, and 6 that you can easily create if you want timings of longer duration. It is recommended that you complete all 18. In a classroom, the Setup can be changed to accommodate a shorter period of time by omitting some lessons—such as the 2-minute timing lessons.

For experienced typists, take the 2-minute Course Entry timing. If you are already typing 50 wpm, increase the grading scale in the Setup to 60 wpm and have 60 wpm as your goal for each exercise in each lesson. When you finish the course, take the Course Exit timing. Your Course Entry score, Course Exit score, and your improvement will show on the Grade Report. Some students have gone through the course two or three times, raising their goal each time, until they typed 80-90 wpm. There is much to be gained by going over the basics at a higher rate (goal) each time.

There are NO PAPERS TO GRADE or handle. Reports are calculated automatically. Progress Reports are viewed on the screen and can be printed. The Brief Progress Report shows the best score for each exercise that meets the accuracy standards, and the lesson average for each completed lesson. If printed Grade Reports are desired for a classroom situation, the Current Grade Report option averages completed lessons and compares it to the grading scale entered in the Setup. It is available at any time throughout the course to help students evaluate their progress toward their goal. This may also be used as a mid-term grade, or as an objective evaluation for a student-parent-teacher conference. The Final Grade Report contains the final grade to be recorded for the course. If a student wishes to improve the final grade, he/she consults the Progress Report to see which exercises need improvement and more practice. After the additional practice, a new Final Grade Report may be instantly produced that includes the improved scores.

How much time does the course take? This will always vary depending upon the person doing the practice. As the author, I can give you one personal experience that may help you judge the time needed. I had a small class of Indian high school students from the Navajo/Hopi reservation that took some college prep classes at Mesa Community College. They were responsible students and enjoyed the typing class. The class was 28 hours duration (7 weeks, 4 days a week, 1 hour per day). Six of the students had never had any typing training. At the end of the class, the lowest score on the 2-minute Course Exit timing was 35 wpm and the highest score was 52 wpm. Generally speaking, the more time you have to practice, the higher the goal can be. Students need time to practice to achieve higher goals. If the time is shortened, the wpm goal should be lowered too. As a general rule, goals should be at least 32 wpm.

Keyboard Short Course is a course that has many special features designed for teaching and learning. Very briefly, these course features are:

• Internet Based Software
• NO PAPERS TO GRADE
• Self-Paced
• Individualized
• Competency Based
• Instant Feedback
• Progress Reports
• Grade Reports
• Motivating
• Practice and Raise Previous Scores

Is there any Formatting (letters, memos, tables, reports, etc)? Formatting is not included in any of our keyboarding texts. For many years formatting was only taught in typing classes. With computers came sophisticated word processing programs. Any word processing text will have more complete formatting information and exercises than any typing book. The trend for years has been to teach keyboarding only and then place skilled students in any word processing class for formatting. They can then learn formatting on a word processing program that can be purchased commercially, used at home, and used on the job. The keyboarding courses from Ellsworth Publishing Company will give your students the skill to do well in any word processing class. In addition, some students may need to develop or improve typing skills for computer or writing classes and do not need or want to pay for extensive formatting instruction.