As a professor at San Diego City College, I teach a variety of on-campus and online classes in the Microsoft Office 2007 suite (Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, and Outlook) as well as Office Administration and Computers in Business courses. In a typical semester I usually teach approximately 250 students.

Because we had several courses that were either self-paced or online, we knew that we needed textbooks and assessment solutions that students would find easy to use, while also providing an enriching learning experience. Because of this, we chose the Shelly Cashman Series for our textbooks and combined those with SAM (Skills Assessment Manager) software to cover additional student training and assessment. We chose Course Technology and the Shelly Cashman Series because we have worked with them in the past. We believe the writing style and screen shots in the textbooks provide the best learning style for our students.

After using Shelly Cashman and SAM, we find that those students who are working on their own or online face much less confusion than had we chosen another book series. The book material is easy for them to follow, and their scores have improved by using these solutions. Students have, in turn, reacted very positively to these learning materials and their ease of use.

Because our students work independently—both in the classroom and online—with little or no computer experience, they need a reliable direction to follow when completing computer steps and projects. The ease of movement from task to task that the Shelly Cashman Series provides is an ideal option for our students and has contributed to their success.

Theresa M. Savarese
Professor
San Diego City College
San Diego, CA