Skills inventory for Windows XP: Basic

Use the following form to gauge students’ skill level entering the class (students have copies in the introductions of their student manuals). For each skill listed, have students rate their familiarity from 1 to 5, with five being the most familiar. Emphasize that this is not a test. Rather, it’s intended to provide students with an idea of where they’re starting from at the beginning of class. If a student is wholly unfamiliar with all the skills, he or she might not be ready for the class. A student who seems to understand every skill, on the other hand, might need to move on to the next course in the series.

 

Skill

1

2

3

4

5

Log on to a Windows XP computer

 

 

 

 

 

Identify the Windows XP desktop components

 

 

 

 

 

Use the taskbar and the Start menu

 

 

 

 

 

Manipulate the size of windows

 

 

 

 

 

Use the Help and Support Center

 

 

 

 

 

Navigate the folder hierarchy in My Computer

 

 

 

 

 

Create, copy, move, rename, and delete files and folders

 

 

 

 

 

Format floppy disks and copy files to a floppy disk

 

 

 

 

 

Create, save, format, and print files in WordPad

 

 

 

 

 

Create a drawing in Paint and copy it into WordPad

 

 

 

 

 

Cascade and tile windows

 

 

 

 

 

Create and delete desktop shortcuts

 

 

 

 

 

Pin and unpin items to the Start menu

 

 

 

 

 

Use the Control Panel to change the system date and time

 

 

 

 

 

Customize the background, and the mouse and keyboard settings

 

 

 

 

 

Browse the Internet with Internet Explorer 6.0

 

 

 

 

 

Add Web content on the desktop

 

 

 

 

 

Log off the computer

 

 

 

 

 

Turn off the computer