Administrative Assistant Fundamentals

About This Course

Rapid growth in the health, legal services, data processing, management, public relations, and other industries have created many new job opportunities for administrative assistants. This course will help you discover and master the essentials of managerial and staff support, information and records management, communications technology, travel and meeting coordination, space planning, and office ergonomics. You'll become an indispensable member of your team by identifying opportunities and implementing solutions to turn your office into a high productivity machine.

This course and its follow up (Administrative Assistant Applications) may help you prepare for the internationally-recognized Certified Administrative Professional® (CAP®) exam offered by the International Association of Administrative Professionals® (IAAP®).

Note: This course is not affiliated with, nor has it been endorsed by, the International Association of Administrative Professionals® (IAAP®).

About The Instructor

This course includes a knowledgeable and caring instructor who will guide you through your lessons, facilitate discussions, and answer your questions. The instructor for this course will be Becky and Tony Swaim.

Becky and Tony Swaim have helped thousands of clients, colleagues, and students reach organizational and personal goals. Working in the medical, manufacturing and education fields, the Swaims manage a successful consulting firm in southern California. Starting her career as a medical administrative assistant, Becky provides assistance as a program manager to various medical practices and has managed a large staff in the medical reimbursement field. Becky earned a Bachelor's of Arts degree in Speech Communication from California State University, Long Beach. Tony Swaim has been an accomplished online instructor since 1998. His industry experience includes twenty years of medical device manufacturing management. Tony's consulting areas are project management, customer service, total quality and supply chain management. He earned an MBA from California State University, Long Beach and holds professional certifications in five disciplines.

Syllabus

A new section of each course starts monthly. If enrolling in a series of two or more courses, please be sure to space the start date for each course at least two months apart.

Week 1

Wednesday - Lesson 01

Today, in our first lesson, you'll see why organizations need administrative assistants, and also explore the type of work that various administrative assistants perform. We'll talk about the different administrative specialties, and look at an overview of their varied duties and requirements. You'll learn about the International Association of Administrative Professionals (IAAP), and the professional certification—Certified Administrative Professional (CAP)—that IAAP offers.

Friday - Lesson 02

As an administrative assistant, you frequently participate in office planning. So today, we'll help you understand that an office is an interdependent system where everything works together. You'll see that creating an office environment requires bringing many components together, including office layout, workflow analysis, space planning, furniture and equipment selection, use of lighting, and physical document (file) storage. By the end, you'll be ready to play a vital role in office planning.

Week 2

Wednesday - Lesson 03

In our fast paced world, organizations move very quickly and make split-second decisions that have far reaching implications. Administrative assistants play a pivotal position in supporting timely and accurate flow of information. In this lesson, you'll learn how to effectively use information management to create a successful office operation and help increase your value to your organization.

Friday - Lesson 04

The pieces of telecommunications, communications, and technology, fit together like a hand in a glove. To be successful as an administrative assistant, you need a command of telecommunications. So, today, we'll share how telecommunications technology enables you to access information, share knowledge, and communicate without boundaries. When you finish this lesson, you'll better understand how to use multi-tasking and communicate using e-mail, fax, and telephone.

Week 3

Wednesday - Lesson 05

In today's lesson, you'll learn how to productively use reprographics and manage records. Many organizations rely on administrative assistants to coordinate activities in these two areas. You'll learn that reprographics is the process that creates, develops, produces, and distributes printed material that conveys information and ideas. You'll also discover that records management is the management of paper documents, micromedia, and documents that are electronically and magnetically stored.

Friday - Lesson 06

As an administrative assistant, you spend a lot of your day inputting and storing data, retrieving and analyzing information, and producing presentations, newsletters, numerical reports, graphs, and charts. Powerful, user-friendly computer hardware and software can help you greatly with these tasks. So we'll focus on computer hardware and software in this lesson to help you better understand the properties of your office computer system.

Week 4

Wednesday - Lesson 07

As an administrative assistant, you play an important role in helping co-workers arrive at the right place at the right time. You also provide them with information and materials that enhance their effectiveness while they travel and participate in meetings. So today, we'll talk about scheduling and coordinating meetings, conferences, and business travel. We'll share a case study to illustrate your role in supporting these activities.

Friday - Lesson 08

A critical responsibility of administrative assistants is coordinating a wide variety of office activities. To help you meet this challenge, today we'll examine how to create practical policies and procedures, and design and manage useful forms. We'll focus on the use of policies, procedures, and forms that meet organizational objectives and create harmony and order in your day-to-day activities.

Week 5

Wednesday - Lesson 09

As an administrative assistant, you spend much of your time reading and composing business documents (reports, letters, memoranda, and press releases). Your efficiency and effectiveness is dependent upon your ability to write purposefully and clearly. So our objective today is to enhance your business writing skills. After you finish this lesson, you'll wow your boss and co-workers with your increased ability to write high-quality business documents.

Friday - Lesson 10

In this lesson, we'll bridge the subjects of written and verbal communication by discussing the principles of grammar and punctuation. It's likely that you need to help others with their written communication, so we'll also review the mechanics of proofreading. And you'll learn the basic rules of communication and a few of the more common exceptions.

Week 6

Wednesday - Lesson 11

As an administrative assistant, you practice interpersonal communication in a variety of ways, ranging from one-on-one to communicating in a group. The basic purpose of interpersonal communication is to transfer understandable information back and forth. In today's lesson, we'll discuss how your desire to share thoughts and ideas create the first part of communication and how you create the second part when you listen, interpret, and react to feedback.

Friday - Lesson 12

Today, we'll show you how to perform basic research—something administrative assistants are often asked to do. We'll also discuss the steps you take to create a meaningful and memorable presentation. We’ll talk about what you need to help create a winning presentation, including a strategy for starting your preparation and the software that can help you create a polished piece. Then we'll focus on the elements that you'll include in your winning presentation.

Requirements

Internet access, e-mail, and and the Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox Web browser.