Blog Post Four

IS101-3003/5, Spring 2026 was definitely a new experience for me. Before this course, the only Microsoft Office application I had a bit of experience in was Outlook. I've passed MO-110, 210, and 310. I'm a Microsoft Office Associate! I liked how this class was structured, we had a professor who wanted to see us succeed, he didn't allow us to go on auto-pilot or "zombie-brain" mode, we had to pay attention to certain details. We had a bunch of hard-working students who love going above and beyond and above and beyond they did.

I learned a lot from this course, not only in Microsoft Office, and not only in life skills, but people's lives. So many different perspectives of living, hobbies, jobs, loved ones, and more, all shown to use through slide show presentations.

From chapter 6 of LabSim, I wanted to talk about 6.3.1 Text and Content Placeholders. Text and Content Placeholders are what I found most useful in PowerPoint because of the convenience in selecting what you want to add into space the placeholder is occupying. This is where text is typed and where videos, audio, charts and pictures can be added as well. 

This was my presentation using PowerPoint:

 

My 3rd Blog Post

The MO 210 Exam was easier than I thought it would be, especially with all the practice I had before hand. I'll probably preserve the skills I learned with the test and practice through using Excel for data storing and sometimes even for fun. I am an Accountant Major (when I transfer to a 4-year university), so I definitely will be using Excel. The A6 Spreadsheet Analysis with Trailer was definitely more of an attention to detail assignment more than actual Excel work for me. I got most of the hard part right but kept stumbling on the small stuff.

My favorite thing I learned from Chapter 5 of LabSim is the 5.7.1 Relative and Absolute References. It's such a small but useful thing to know. How to lock a cell reference so Excel knows which cell to continue to go back to instead of moving to the cells around it for information. The F4 key on my keyboard has other functions so I just decided it would be easier to put dollar signs ($) in front of the cell letter and number when needed instead of using the F4 key.

I can apply Phase 2 to my career and anything excel related. I will pay more attention to document designs and other cosmetics that make documents more professional, and use functions I've learned in Excel to make my Excel experience easier.

I will try my best to finish strong with Phase 3, my classes are finishing up so I hope to be able to focus on IS101 more.

IS101 Class Update

With weeks of classes behind us by this point, phase 1 of class wasn't too hard. I definitely slacked a little in getting things done in advance, I completely overlooked some of these assignments (hence the late second post, sorry Prof. Wu). I definitely need to keep my eyes peeled for future assignments and do them in a timely manner.

I chose to talk about 4.2.5 Text Importing from LabSim. I never knew importing text from sources I use for essays could be done so with a few clicks. I never thought copying and pasting text was hard but knowing Microsoft Office offers a way to do so without copy and pasting is really eye-opening. Since I'm typing this late, a similar feature to this in Excel is the data importing feature which was also very cool to see that you don't need to manually type or copy and paste data into each individual cell.

I prepared for the MO-110 Word certification exam with the "study guide" provided by LabSim and it worked out great. The format of the test was more updated than the practice which caught me by surprise but other than that, not too bad overall.

First Blog by Thomas Anderson

My name is Thomas Anderson, I currently reside in the city of  Las Vegas. I am a student at the College of Southern Nevada (CSN). This will be my second semester at CSN.

My first impression of CSN was that high school students were able to go to CSN to complete an Associate's degree and graduate from high school at the same time. Coming from California, I believe it was never an option to do so, at least from where I lived. My first semester of CSN was completed online. I thought my professors were great, but I was disappointed with the lack of teaching coming from the professors. Most of the courses were self-study courses with the professor available for help through emails. Other than that, you had online textbooks to help you through school work. Without much guidance from the professors, I spent hours upon hours taking notes and reading textbooks. I don't believe this amount put into taking notes was worth it, not only because I hadn't learn much from them, it was also consuming my limited time in Taiwan for spending more time with family there. It wasn't all bad, I learned how to take notes efficiently, which has come in handy in a few courses I am taking now. I also kept the notes I had taken last semester on my computer, where I can look back on for classes that are the continuation of those courses (I can use notes I took from Accounting 201 and use them in Accounting 202).

My first impression of IS 101 is learning that it was a required course to complete my Associate of Business degree. My first impression of Professor Wu's IS 101 course was that he took the initiative to reach out to his students to personally get to know them. I have never met another teacher that took this initiative, especially before school starting. I was worried that this course had a lot of assignments, and it does. Although it has a lot of assignments, I believe they're do-able if we're constantly on our toes with these assignments and get ahead with any free time we have. I also believe Professor Wu will help us as much as he can without making it easy for us. Overall, I believe this course will help me grow not only in my knowledge of Microsoft Office, but also with getting assignments done in a timely manner.

The skill I chose was 1.3.4 Digital Privacy from LabSim. I've experienced the skill of digital privacy with the usage of social media in my personal life and connecting to public Wi-Fi networks. I learned throughout my time on social media to not argue with strangers and share any private information to a public online setting because you never know what this information will be used for. It is important to read the "Term of Use" of either using a public device or connecting to a private internet connection from an organization. My experience with this is actually connecting my devices to any business or school internet connection. These organizations want to make sure you're using their networks responsibly and warn you the consequences of not following the "Terms of Use" for their internet connection through your agreement with them before connecting to their Wi-Fi. I found out today that Blogger.com is blocked by the CSN Guest Wi-Fi connection.

College is definitely a step up from high school in terms of the choices you have, the level of education, and cost. I believe community colleges are underrated in terms of the level of education you're getting and how much it costs compared to a 4-year university. Finding the right professor for you is the most important part of getting the right education, along with your career choice. I'm grateful to have chosen to save money and go to a 2-year community college before transferring to a 4-year university.