I recently completed the Technical Support Fundamentals course in the Google Professional IT Support Certificate on Coursera and it’s not surprisingly one of the easier courses in this five course program. It generally gives you a bite sized preview of content from the other courses: basic computer terminology (PC components), networking, operating systems, security, and some basic soft skills around customer interaction. One of the most enjoyable activities was the walkthrough of how to physically build a PC and learning basic binary.
The course modules are enjoyable since they include a mixture of videos, reading, small quizzes, and a final longer quiz for each module. Passing score for each graded assessment is 80%, though you can re-attempt it three times in a day (which might take away some of the program’s credibility). However, even on re-attempt the questions are scrambled so if you want to retain information it’s best to treat each quiz as if you’ll only get 1 attempt.
I had to lol a bit at the soft skills course since as an educator and clinician, empathy is a basic skill taught to us from the start. However, it was an important addition.
It’s also been relaxing to take my time to absorb the material since I don’t necessarily want to switch to tech, but my interest in tech (specifically alternate OSes like Linux and ChromeOS) leads me to wanting to become more proficient.
Next up this month: The Bits and Bytes of Networking.
Chromebook Reviews 