Schools are slowly but surely transitioning into the modern world; because of this transition, schools and teachers are starting to use several excellent digital tools for the classroom.
Excel is a database platform that has multiple uses in schools. Of course, the obvious use is teaching it to students so they can master it for use in their professional lives. However, there are multiple other ways to use it in a classroom.
Continue or Excel for the classroom guide to learn why you should want Excel in your classroom, how to use it, how Zenva Schools can help and more!
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What Are The Main Reasons To Use Excel In A Classroom?
Before we detail how you can use Excel in your classroom, you need to know why you should use it.
The databasing functions within Excel can benefit students and teachers in multiple ways; here are some of the main reasons you should use it in a classroom.
- It is a brilliant idea to use it for teaching students how to use it; it is a helpful tool that is worth teaching them because they can use it in their educational and professional future (Zenva Schools can help with this by providing high-quality Excel teaching resources).
- You can use it to help students complete specific tasks; for example, copying a task into an Excel worksheet can make it more accessible for students who prefer the format.
- You should use it to compile assessment data, so you have a cohesive presentation for data that will help you see the students who are progressing and those who need further help.
- It’s a quick and easy way to plot data and share it with students. Additionally, it is straightforward to create a graph or chart with it (if you need to show students data in those formats).
What Are The Basics Of Excel That You Should Use In A Classroom?
Before we detail how to use Excel in the classroom, we need to describe the essential functions of Excel that have brilliant use for students and teachers.
Excel is a platform full of different features, so you should know the ones that will benefit a classroom the most. Here are some essential Excel functions that are brilliant for a classroom.
- Data plotting is the primary Excel function you can use in a classroom. It is excellent for presenting information to students and keeping data records for student progression and assessments.
- Graphs and charts effectively present complex information in a more visual format; some students find data and information easier to understand in a chart or graph.
- It has automated data functions that calculate data or statistics and place them in an Excel plot. These are helpful for teachers who need to input information on student assessment scores to evaluate their progress.
How Do You Use Excel In The Classroom?
When you understand the basic features of Excel you should use, and why using it in a classroom is a brilliant idea, you can start using it for various purposes.
There are multiple ways to use Excel in the classroom that will benefit teachers and students. We will detail the most effective and popular uses and how to implement them in a classroom.
Here are the best ways to use Excel in the classroom.
Try Copying Classroom Tasks Into Excel Worksheets
Some student tasks that involve statistics or complex information may be more effective in an Excel worksheet because you can see each piece of information within its data cell.
To copy a classroom activity into Excel, you should copy it all in one go; this is the quickest way to do it and will ensure the information enters Excel in a comprehensive format.
Additionally, copying finished student tasks into Excel is beneficial because you can view all the information; you would usually do this to mark a student task or piece of homework.
The best types of tasks to copy into an Excel worksheet involve a lot of data; any topic involving algorithm creation or data representation is brilliant to present in Excel.
Teach Your Class The Basic Functions Of Excel Before Using It In The Classroom
If you use Excel in the classroom, it makes sense to teach your students how to use it. Teaching them the basics of Excel will help them use it for tasks and activities and prepare them to use it in a professional environment when they are older.
The easiest way to teach students how to use Excel is to give them some straightforward tasks on the platform. For example, you can show them how to input basic data into Excel and arrange it in an accessible format.
Additionally, you can use a teaching resource platform to show students how to use the basics of Excel. For example, Zenva Schools has many Excel teaching resources to show students how to use the platforms’ functions, including data plotting, data visualisation, graph plotting, formulas and more.
The teaching resources on Zenva Schools include basic introductory courses that show students how to complete simple tasks on the platform and Excel projects that focus on showing students the ins and outs of a specific function (data plotting, logic control functions, etc.).
You Can Use It To Compile Data To Assess Students
As well as using Excel for students, teachers can use it to compile data to make processes easier.
For example, teachers can input scores and results from students’ tests and assessments.
Doing this is vital for two reasons; these reasons are:
- Presenting students’ assessment data in a readable manner and keeping a record of it for future reference.
- Compiling multiple sets of student assessment data to keep track of their progress and determine their current performance level. Keeping student assessment data is excellent for determining if a student needs to move on to intermediate or advanced activities or if they need extra help to progress.
You Can Use It To Create Charts And Graphs To Visualise Concepts
One of the easiest features to use on Excel (once you get to grips with it) is the graph and graph creation feature.
To use these in a classroom, you can create one that can solve a specific problem. You can choose an easy-to-use template and fill it with information.
Some examples of tasks you can visualise with graphs include:
- Visualising pretend customer data to help students understand a company’s target market.
- Charts on how popular specific programming languages are; sorted by how many programs use them.
How Can Zenva Schools Help When Using Excel In A Classroom?
It’s important to remember that Excel is more complex than it looks. Therefore, if you want to use it in a classroom and introduce students to it, it’s a brilliant idea to use a teaching resource platform like Zenva Schools.
However, you may wonder how Zenva Schools can benefit students and teachers who use Excel in a classroom.
Here are three of the best ways Zenva Schools can help when using Excel in a classroom.
It Can Provide Excel Teaching Resources To Help Students Learn The Basics Of Excel
The primary way that Zenva Schools can help students with using Excel in the classroom is with its high-quality Excel teaching resources.
These teaching resources will provide compelling overviews on how to use Zenva Schools’ basic features and tools and will give some more specific demonstrations on how to perfect functions on the platform.
The first course on Zenva Schools you should introduce to students is the Intro to Excel Course. It can teach students all the basics of Excel, including creating basic spreadsheets, using data shortcuts, learning the critical auto-filling functions, how to paste data automatically, and more. It is perfect for students with no experience with Excel.
After you get your students to complete the Intro To Excel course, you can start them on some intermediate courses focusing on some of the main features. These courses will focus on data, formulas or functions. Here are some examples of some of the intermediate-level Excel courses on Zenva Schools.
- Excel Data – Large Spreadsheets focuses on expanding on the fundamentals of spreadsheet creation on the platform. It can teach students how to split and freeze planes, create list filters, hide columns (and unhide them when needed), format a spreadsheet so it is ready to print and more.
- Excel Formulas – Statistics focuses on teaching students how using complex formulas can create spreadsheets, graphs and charts more effortlessly. Students can learn how to develop basic mathematical operations on the platform, use critical functions to autofill spreadsheets, use averaging in spreadsheets, use formula logic to manipulate data and more.
- Excel Functions – Logic Control focuses on showing students how using Excel can help them automatically display critical data using the logic function. In the logic control course, students can learn how to test spreadsheet conditions using the ‘if’ function, switch functions to test spreadsheet criteria, and other functions like ‘and’ and ‘or’.
Along with these top courses, there are other Zenva Schools courses focusing on Excel that can help students to master formulas and functions on the platform.
It Can Provide Analytics That You Can Input Into Excel
One of the best uses of Excel in a classroom is creating spreadsheets with student assessment data so you can analyse and determine a student’s progress level.
Zenva Schools can help teachers who want to input assessment data into Exel by providing excellent analytics that inform them of student progress on their Excel teaching resources.
In the Zenva Schools analytics section, teachers can see how each student is progressing on the courses and give them their scores on the mid-course quizzes. Additionally, it has classroom monitoring to review the entire class’ progress to determine if they can move to the next difficulty level.
When you receive the analytics data on Zenva Schools, you can copy and paste it into Excel to accompany other assessment data. Doing this will give you a well-rounded indication of a student’s ability level.
It Can Help Teachers Who Have Limited Knowledge Of Excel
Finally, Excel can help teachers use Excel, especially those with limited or no experience with it.
It can do this with a selection of high-quality professional development options, including full access to every teaching resource for Excel. Teachers can access these resources and use them to thoroughly learn their teachings to confidently help students when they learn to use the platform.
A Final Summary On How You Should Use Excel In A Classroom
In conclusion, Excel has numerous uses in a classroom, and Zenva Schools can help with those uses by adding features for students and teachers.
One of the main ways you can use Excel in the classroom is to teach it to students by demonstrating the essential features. If students are struggling with this, Zenva Schools can be beneficial by providing superb Excel courses and resources to improve students’ understanding of the databasing platform.
Additionally, Excel is excellent for copying over a student task; some students find it easier to view the information in a database format.
Teachers can also use Excel in the classroom in numerous ways.
For example, they can use it to display student assessment data to determine their students’ ability level. Zenva Schools can help with this by providing expert analytics on how students are progressing through their Excel courses, giving teachers the best idea of whether their students should progress or not.
Additionally, teachers can use Zenva Schools if they want to be more confident to use Excel in the classroom; they can access every Zenva Schools’ Excel teaching resource to thoroughly learn it before they teach it.
Overall, Excel has many practical and effective uses in a classroom, and Zenva Schools is perfect to pair with it because it provides added benefits to students and teachers.