The course started very well, the professor and the teaching was quite clear ( even if the video was really out of focus ). Later on in the course there were several points where the teacher is working on a spreadsheet but we cannot see the spreadsheet at all. I could not see what he was doing or writing since the teacher was writing on a piece of paper that we could not see, so it's hard to follow, and often his screen it is too small / not focused. The course started extremely well, then it seemed the teacher just rushed to finish the course. Luckily I took another course with coursera that was excellent or just based on this course, I would abandon the system.

I also found some errors in the excercizes but I had no idea on how to report them.

It has really very informative and is definitely going to help in taking financial decision efficiently, Thanks once again for creating this course.

This course has potential but needs improvement. I'm a Project Manager with a Mechanical Engineering background and took this course to expand a bit. There are a lot of good topics covered but you are essentially on your own. I was working on questions for Week 4 and couldn't figure a few out so I took them to someone in my Finance dept who also couldn't figure out how certain values were being arrived at. We worked backwards from other answers and still couldn't determine how values were being calculated. I submitted my issues to the Forum and received zero response; I had no choice but to proceed. Same thing occurred during Week 5. I eventually got in touch with Coursera support who advised that the teachers are not required to respond to any questions (and I saw that the teacher had been in the Forum), but rather the "community" would respond. I pointed out that there are a few flaws in that thought process, and now that I'm well past those weeks there are zero responses in the Forum. They created a help ticket but I never got a response.

There are several points where the teacher is working on a spreadsheet but you can't see what he's seeing so it's hard to follow, and many times when you can see his screen it is too small / not focused.

I'm not saying I didn't learn because I did; I took copious notes and ended up creating my own spreadsheet for many items which will be useful. The teacher is pleasant to listen to and the pace is good. But for an intro-level class it needs to be reviewed for accuracy and details.

Again, you'll get zero support but you get what you pay for.

Great course! I would recommend this to many of my team members and colleagues. Absolute value for money. Thanks Professor Smith and Coursera!

Course material started good, then went into numbers and accounting data

Week end content went very fast. Could not benefit from instructor examples since he was all the time looking at his screen and mentioning numbers and calculations without showing them on our screen to follow. So I could not track what he was doing

In lots of Quizes, I could not figure which values to use. Mostly went through logic and trial and error to figure out the answer. Some given equations didn't apply to quizes (like CAPM)

Course content definitely below my expectations. You can get all the subject presented here in a $10 pocket book, which will describe with more details and have a better presentation of the examples.

There were also a few theory misalignments. I tried to contact the professor and the monitors, but 3 weeks later, no feedback yet. I've lost my hopes already.

My suggestion: Do it only if you need a certificate from a renowed school really bad.

some videos were poor quality meaning i couldn't read some figures

good course but there is a needing to improve course material

The last week was a mess

Amazing course in Finance for managers ,loved it.Specially the professor Tom's teaching style and amazing communication skills and detailing of the concepts.Will recommend every manager to take this course and save hell lot of money in going other colleges and spending huge money.

An experience to cherish!!

Thanks professor Thomas smith !!

Very good course that helps you analyse balance sheets and income statements, and to evaluate company performance using various ratios. The course covers topics on investment decision techniques and cost of capital calculations that provides you methods/models to help you take the right decisions while perfoming your duties.

I learned a lot from this course and am glad I took it. There are a few technical issues, which, if resolved, would make some topics easier to understand and follow. For example, during Week #8, parts 2 and 3 on WACC, the camera never goes to the documents the instructor is referencing. He is explaining a somewhat complicated formula, and the students never see the spreadsheet or financial information he is referring to from Yahoo Finance. I had to listen to these segments several times to follow his instruction. It's like he forgot to switch over to the documents. I looked up other instruction on YouTube to try and follow the process. Otherwise, I appreciate learning how the concepts are applied to real-life situations. Thanks for offering the course.

I certainly learned a lot of basics....

I got a bit desperate in modules 6, 7 and 8 .... I felt like, exercises should be done more --- sometimes the lecturer confused with "looking for " numbers , or not showing screen of what he was doing.

a pity.

i am aware, that a lot of parallel research has to be done, and that from now on , practice will be needed...

but for each topic it would have helped, if he explained the quizzes - formulas ---- based on the exercises ... even if shown after quizz passed ,...

i am GLAD - that this is over ;)

The subject matter was solid, exactly what I was hoping for at the level I was hoping for: a high level review of concepts and formulas for introductory corporate finance.

I give the course a few dings however because the material was not put together well: Some of the videos didn't track with his explanations right (i.e. he would spend several minutes working through a formula but the video only showed his face), I question a decent amount of the math in the quizzes, Only the end section quizzes showed the right answers, and none of the answers came with an explanation of how the math was supposed to work. There was even a video in the middle which just showed him having technical difficulties and talking to someone off screen. It's like no one cared enough to watch the videos before they were posted. Pretty lame.

A useful course for anyone wanting to understand the fundamentals of financial statement interpretation and evaluation. The learning design needs more attention, however. In many instances, the videos focus on the instructor talking to the camera, whereas showing his spreadsheet/actions would be far more instructive. At least once, a quiz tested knowledge of something which wasn't properly explained until a subsequent video. The supporting spreadsheets with examples were good to work with, but I was amazed that there was no single summary of all the formulas used throughout the course.

This course would significantly benefit from more case studies (examples) and exercises for students to do. The presentation/lecture portions would also benefit from more slides, and views of the documents the Professor Smith is working with. In multiple Week 7 and week 8 videos, the professor is manipulating worksheets and other documents, but for the most part, his manipulations are not shown. I found this frustrating. I would have appreciated more context such as who within an organization would use these calculations/information and when.

I found it difficult to understand the end videos mostly, due to not showing on screen when doing WACC. It was good information, but I think a workbook and course notes should be provided as a work along to match exactly what the instructor is teaching. On 3 occasions it took me over 20 minutes to find a company in yahoo finance that had the detail I needed to answer the questions.

The content is very useful and good (4 to 5 stars)

The lessons are a bit old (course is from 2014 or so) and sometimes the content could have been presented better (often the speaker is shown while it's better to see the slide / numbers / formula he's talking about)

The last three weeks went through concepts too quick and the quality of video makes it hard to see the excel numbers. I liked the course at the beginning, but the latter part makes me feel the lack of quality.

Quite complicated for people with no finance backgroup. teacher approach is not taking this into consideration

Difficult to follow in the videos. Low resolution and not always showing the "correct" screen makes it hard to follow.

Many times it is not clear what to look for in the income statement/balance sheet and in the Week 8 also the stock info as many times the words used in the statements are not the same that are used in the videos. Since there is no other lecture material it is difficult to understand. Especially if English is your second or third language it might cause some extra frustration since finance is a whole new language in itself.

Many times the calculations just don't seem to add up. A solution instead of just a result after a completed assessment would have been nice to make sure that I actually used the correct numbers and not just ended up with the correct answer by chance.

Lot's of potential, but as it is right now I would not recommend this cource.

Basics were there, syllabus included everything I wanted to see and expected. However, a lot of the videos were really poorly produced, i.e. instructor spouting off numbers he was using to calculate values but never showing the actual balance sheet / income statement he was using. Literally just a video of him talking about the numbers and math he was doing (not good for visual learners).

Also, the tests / exams were poorly done as some had questions that I am convinced did not even have a correct answer for them. Very poorly produced overall in my opinion.

I liked the beginning of the course when start by the three important sheets, but for the remain lectures I found the presentation is very poor, I am getting bored due to the teacher become reading from papers especially when it comes to the numbers, it was better also to take a real project and going step by step explaining how to work with those formulas in order to take the right decision, not only to explain the formulas and how to calculate it.

In the last two units the camera show the professor when it should be showing the spreadsheet, eventually I figured it out by re-doing the sessions. Poorly executed. My other comment is that in the first sessions the spreadsheet looks like a blur in the screen, again, p[poorly executed.

I liked the first few videos, great explanation of the financial docs. Content got boring quickly after that?