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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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101 - 125 of 934 Reviews for Mastering Data Analysis in Excel

By Sergio O A A

Jun 23, 2021

Altough it's an excelent course, from my point of view I need to do an excersise about binary clasification at the same time with the instructor because many time I get lost about what to do and how, but without that it's an challeging course.

By Muhammad I

Jan 25, 2020

Great course. Explains the excel concepts in detail. This course is really practical and employs an approach to solve business problems that is comparable to real life job work. The resources offered are really useful in and out of this course.

By Joe L

Feb 22, 2016

I find it very practical. Not only do the lectures give you general overview of the concepts with examples, but also they teach you how to do the maths which is very important in my opinions. Thank you very much Prof. Egger and the team.

By Barbora B

Feb 6, 2018

Amazing course, I recommend it very much!! It is a just-right challenge - not too easy but not impossible to do either. It's also quite up to everyone how deeply he/she decides to immerse in the subject. Thank you professor Egger!!

By Yichen L

Mar 10, 2016

Fantastic course, a lot of work. You definitely need decent maths and a bit of basic statistics to fully understand the course. The course covers many topics and provide great practice on core application in statistics field.

By Sagar

Sep 16, 2020

Very excellent course structure and modules. It provided enough examples and lessons to learn for data analysis and the use of Microsoft Excel. Great final project as well which used everything I learned so far in the course

By Muhammad Z R

Mar 11, 2022

Excellent course which specially caters topic of data analysis and statistical area using advance excel and analytical skills. It adds new vision to people with Finance and Audit background too in addition to data analyst.

By Leigh E

Jan 14, 2022

I enjoyed this course. I have been a long term Excel user and learned some new things with this course. Although statistics and calculus are not required for this course, a review prior to starting would be helpful.

By 王思遠

Apr 4, 2017

Hello, I am Gabriel Wang from TAIWAN. I am currently working as HSEQ Manager in a LNG shipping management company. Thank you for been so patient & Nice for having course online. I DO learnt a lot from it. Appreciated.

By Jiang M

Oct 24, 2018

Not very clear about the explanation of the mathematics. So that if you want to understand the problem clearly, you may need more reading on other materials. But there is no much materials offered but spreadsheets.

By Madelyn H

Jun 6, 2020

This is really an excellent course and you will learn more about excel functionality that I never thought exist. I've been using excel for 30 years. I'm so glad that I took this class. Thank you Prof. Daniel !!!

By Nataliya

Jun 4, 2020

It is not about Excel but about Mastering Data. It definitely worth its time! I was captured by the course and very useful material. Also, it is a complicated course about data analyses neither working in excel.

By Tolulope A

Aug 25, 2019

This course is superb! although the contents are tough but they are essential skills that vital to survive real world data analysis. Also, it gives me more confidence that I will hit my dream job very soon.

By Maksim C

Aug 22, 2018

Excellent course! The most valueable lessons for are those which explain financial models, because I'm going to build my own investing portfolio. Moreover, I remembered many concepts which I've forgotten.

By Javier G

Aug 7, 2017

Great Class but it could use some more detail and info for all the concepts and terminology. For example, entropy would be better understood with more detailed information about entropy and its concept.

By Tekalign B

Nov 17, 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

By Reginald N C

Jan 15, 2017

I love this course and the way the material is explained. I plan on taking this course again to improve my understanding of the information because I think it relays very important ideas.

By Tripper R

Nov 27, 2017

A challenging course that rewards conscientious effort. Heavy on math, both practical and theoretical. Highly recommend comfort with college level statistics before taking this course.

By Kevin M M

Sep 28, 2019

J'ai énormément apprécié la qualité des vidéos, des exemples pratiques, des exercices ainsi que les documents PDF, WORD et EXCEL fournis pour comprendre et suivre facilement ce cours.

By Aditya S

Feb 15, 2019

This course has enabled me to think the way a data analyst need to think. This course helps in independent growth and getting know the topics by own research. Loved it ! Thank you !

By Mainak M

Jun 18, 2021

I am very happy to learn this course and very thankful to coursera and Duke University for giving me certificate in such a course like Excel and teach me clearly in every section.

By Paul D

Mar 16, 2016

Dr Eggers is a tremendous professor. The course has wit and application along with assignments that are well scaffolded to the learning content. Highly recommend this class.

By anny r

Dec 13, 2015

Thank you very much, the lesson is very useful to me. in order to understand what the necessity of a function. and the professor clearly explains everything in the right pace.

By Brett R

Jan 17, 2017

I very much enjoyed this course. I've been able to apply some of the strategies I learned in the specialization and I look forward to using it as a resource moving forward.

By Ross C

Oct 15, 2018

Challenging course, however very useful skills on leveraging Excel for data analysis. I enjoyed the examples as well as the class projects. Good mix of hands on an theory.