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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Mastering Data Analysis in Excel by Duke University

4.2
stars
3,906 ratings

About the Course

Important: The focus of this course is on math - specifically, data-analysis concepts and methods - not on Excel for its own sake. We use Excel to do our calculations, and all math formulas are given as Excel Spreadsheets, but we do not attempt to cover Excel Macros, Visual Basic, Pivot Tables, or other intermediate-to-advanced Excel functionality. This course will prepare you to design and implement realistic predictive models based on data. In the Final Project (module 6) you will assume the role of a business data analyst for a bank, and develop two different predictive models to determine which applicants for credit cards should be accepted and which rejected. Your first model will focus on minimizing default risk, and your second on maximizing bank profits. The two models should demonstrate to you in a practical, hands-on way the idea that your choice of business metric drives your choice of an optimal model. The second big idea this course seeks to demonstrate is that your data-analysis results cannot and should not aim to eliminate all uncertainty. Your role as a data-analyst is to reduce uncertainty for decision-makers by a financially valuable increment, while quantifying how much uncertainty remains. You will learn to calculate and apply to real-world examples the most important uncertainty measures used in business, including classification error rates, entropy of information, and confidence intervals for linear regression. All the data you need is provided within the course, all assignments are designed to be done in MS Excel, and you will learn enough Excel to complete all assignments. The course will give you enough practice with Excel to become fluent in its most commonly used business functions, and you’ll be ready to learn any other Excel functionality you might need in the future (module 1). The course does not cover Visual Basic or Pivot Tables and you will not need them to complete the assignments. All advanced concepts are demonstrated in individual Excel spreadsheet templates that you can use to answer relevant questions. You will emerge with substantial vocabulary and practical knowledge of how to apply business data analysis methods based on binary classification (module 2), information theory and entropy measures (module 3), and linear regression (module 4 and 5), all using no software tools more complex than Excel....

Top reviews

TB

Nov 16, 2021

I like and appreciate courses provided through Coursera.This course is very interesting and valuable for those whose jobs do have relevance with data management .God bless Coursera and Duke University

JE

Oct 30, 2015

The course deserves a 5-star rating because: (1) content is relevant, (2) the professor is concise and possesses great teaching skills, and (3) the learning modules are applicable to daily problems.

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676 - 700 of 934 Reviews for Mastering Data Analysis in Excel

By Pylo N

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Oct 24, 2020

The course is not bad, however, the final assignment is not explained sufficiently. Instructors should provide a more clear approach and information given that this course is for beginners as well!

By Dove

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Dec 7, 2018

Too much math makes it difficult to comprehend. I like week 1, basic excel also practical and easy to understand. But after week 1 everything becomes super confusing... The frustration is real.

By Juan C C J

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Aug 2, 2022

A good course to understant the business analytics, however, a complex maths basis. Also, the final project it was so confuse and don't relationate at all the topics studied in the course.

By Qinwei W

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Jul 9, 2017

This requries you other mathmatic or stastical background. So when you choose this course, you need check if you have master these knowledge. Otherwise this course will be so hard to you.

By Andrés A S N

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Jul 14, 2020

The concepts that this course offers are extremely interesting and useful, however I think some of them are not fully explained, so you might have to do more research on your own.

By Deleted A

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Oct 21, 2019

the data in this course is more as methodology than descriptive, he should have explained more about the real use of methods in data analysis because you will stuck a lot

By Ketaki N

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Jul 26, 2020

Lectures were good, but directions and guidance for quizzes and project had some knowledge gaps, had to utilize outside resources to understand complete certain concepts

By Zuoren P

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Jun 28, 2016

Quiz does not require hands-on experience of creating templates but rather simply plugging in numbers. Students may forget most of the content after finishing the quiz.

By Вера З

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Jun 24, 2020

The course is good, but in some aspects over-complicated. I requires deep understanding in statistics and give not many insight regarding the Excel functionality

By Mustafa F A

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Jul 28, 2019

not easy and enough documents. It does not teach excel. Excel is a bait for the ones who want to learn excel. The name should have been mastering data analysis

By Eduardo L G

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Dec 31, 2015

The course gives you interesting analysis tools, but the title suggests you are going to learn new Excel tools, and you actually use it at a very low level.

By kuldeep s

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Aug 20, 2016

Getting more theoretical and less practical application on Excel application. Advanced Data interpretation and solving methods information can be included.

By Dat L

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Mar 25, 2016

It was hard to follow along with the lessons, because it was mainly present in formulas. More examples might help students relate the information better.

By Apostolos Z

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Jun 29, 2020

Nice working material, however lectures don't go into deep, so you have to do a lot of research on your own and figure out what's going on in many cases

By Runchen L

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Aug 22, 2016

Not so good. The course explains mathematical models and Excel applications but both are not detailed. There are many mistakes in PPTs and assignments.

By Isabel F

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Jul 23, 2020

I think that this course was a great overview, but it wasn't that clear on how it all tied together and i don't think there was enough practice given.

By Luis F

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Feb 26, 2018

It is great for learning statistics, but not so much Excel. Also, it doesn't prepare you very well for the final project, so pay attention to class!

By Alejandro A

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May 28, 2018

Week 4 is chaotic, it leaves much to be desired. It's quality is far a way from what it could be expected for a course endorsed by Duke University.

By Oyeyinka I

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Sep 27, 2016

Course only drilled down on specific aspects of excel that were inclined to regression analysis which is just one aspect used in business analysis

By Bharath R

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Jun 20, 2020

I found it difficult to understand some concepts and felt like some of the concepts required for some assignments were not covered deeply enough.

By CHEO Y K

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Jan 17, 2016

This course is good, but I feel it's too difficult. It would be good to suggest 'optional' prerequisite course if there is any. Thanks Dr. Egger.

By Steve A

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Mar 26, 2021

The course is good. However, the name might be slightly misleading since the major emphasis is on statistics and probability, rather than Excel.

By Yiran Y

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Aug 22, 2019

The scribble of the calculation is not helpful for learning. Would like to know more about how to build the models in excel through the videos.

By abderrahim a

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Dec 24, 2016

Good material but short explanation and no detail exercises and solution practices before the final test makes the test a bite hard to resolve.

By Maryam A

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Jul 12, 2020

I am a student with a computer background. The course was good but for me, I needed more explanations on statistics and business metrics.