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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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76 - 100 of 934 Reviews for Mastering Data Analysis in Excel

By Pavel K

Aug 23, 2018

This course really improved my modelling and analysis skills. Apart from basic excel tools it gives an overview on very powerful statistic/predictive instruments. Statistics, probability theory, binary classification are taught in very exciting and easy to perceive way. Course project was not easy, but it took me to the next level of understanding. I cannot recommend this course more!

By Nicolas E

Jun 10, 2016

Very important course if you want to know more about data analysis. Fascinating materials (Markowitz optimisation, linear regression, information gain, binary classification...) with both theoretical and practical aspects! In spite the fact you won't learn much about VBA skills, this course will definitely give you a very good basis for addressing any data analysis problem with Excel.

By Karen H

Jan 22, 2016

Very informative, and very challenging! The final project really challenges you to pull all of the concepts together in a real-world situation. That process helped solidify my understanding of the concepts.

Would have liked to have had more explanation on linear regression, but overall everything was great. I have a much more concrete understanding of the basics of data modeling.

By Jason M

Feb 22, 2016

Frankly speaking, this course is a little bit hard for me although I have studied them during my master programs. There are many formulas in the course and hardly to remember in short time. I had to review the videos several times. I'd like to recommend the professor may summarize such fomulas in one page so it's more easy to students to catch up the course.

By Hichem D

Mar 9, 2021

I loved this course, a lot of new informations, very good explanations of the materials and you can always practice what you have learned with plenty of examples. I've empowered my skills in data analytics especially with Excel, i recommend that a learner should have a little knowledge about data analysis becaus this course will make him more confident.

By Baha U K S

Apr 30, 2020

I will recommend this course only to those who are really into statistics and is willing to understand in-depth statistical methods. The course title can be somewhat misleading because the course does not focus on Excel features on analyzing data, rather it focuses on statistical procedures. However, the assignments were fun to work with.

By Gabriel B

May 1, 2020

A challenging yet very rewarding class. It is important to truly understand concepts prior to moving on in the course as this will make the final project much easier to complete. I recommend doing a quick review of the math concepts used in this course as it will give you a foundation to understand the concepts introduced in the course.

By Nick

Jan 15, 2016

Excellent and reasonably challenging course. One of the courses that would be extremely hard without a solid foundation in maths.

The final project is massive and time-consuming - I didn't see it coming and was surprised, not in a good way ;) You better start working on the final assignment since the beginning of the course.

By Manuel A

Oct 18, 2017

Excelent Course, great to introduce yourself in the world of data modeling with excel and statistics. Its not a course of excel, is a course that teaches data analytics and how to use excel as a great tool for it(I you want dynamic tables and accounting this might not be your course).

Highly recommendable, Thanks for all!

By Huynh L D

Jun 22, 2016

Well, it'll be good if you set the expectation that you're learning information theory and binary classification in this course, with Excel being the tool by which you use to learn those concepts.

However, do not expect this course to be entirely about Excel, it is not.

With the right expectation, this is a great course!

By Dao T H

Dec 6, 2018

The course is very useful. I can learn how to build an effective binary classification model to support for my decision-making process. All learning materials, especially Excel files used in the course is very detailed, greatly assisting me in understanding what the lecturer talk about and how to calculate in Excel.

By Obi N

Jul 3, 2017

I had no idea this would draw me back into the realm of mathematics I had long abandoned and made no use of. But for good reason it did. I can now apply all that maths to analyse information and generate valuable insight that can make a difference. Definitely worth taking if want to understand applied data analysis.

By Lampros V

Aug 18, 2018

Amazing course. I actually have an interview for the position of forecast modeller in a bank and I'm am to present the same subject as the project. I maybe land my new job because of this. It's challenging though. I still remember the days that I put on to complete it ( and mainly the project).

By Nan S

May 12, 2020

This course opened my view on using Excel to do advanced data analysis. But I have two recommendations, the first is that it would be better to add more supplementary on the Math-related part, esp the liner regression part. The second is that it would be better to expand the content of week1.

By Сакова А А

Jun 27, 2020

Курс оказался очень обширным и достаточно сложным. Над финальным проектом пришлось хорошо потрудиться. Очень понравилось, что все теоретические данные были подкреплены практическими кейсами. Это позволило действительно понять как применять знания на практике. Большое спасибо за курс!

By hp g

Mar 12, 2020

course is great . instructor is beyond words. you need a good knowledge of mathematics and statistics for later weaks to understand course content . follow discussions also to understand concepts at broad and to know the mistakes commonly made. you will get double benefit.

By carrie

Sep 21, 2017

useful and not too difficult. but i strongly recommend potential learners to finish part of the last week project once you've finished the former week assignment! as i didn't do this, it's really painfull to finish the final assginment consisting of several parts in a week

By Yogi H C

Sep 28, 2020

The materials is extremely hard and challenging, I have to explore some aspect of the materials by my own to get a better understanding. Despite that, the forum discussion is really helpful. Thank you for the mentor and instructor for the help throughout the course

By Jonathan W

Feb 1, 2016

This course was somewhat challenging and having no experience in this at all it really paid off to learn about models. It would do me good to take a statistics course and i plan on doing so this upcoming semester, to maximize my benefits from a course like this.

By Junaid K

Dec 24, 2015

Excellent course. Focusses mainly on data analysis in Excel rather that teaching you all excel function. A good way to learn both. I recommend anyone interested in data analysis to take this course. The exercises are challenging to answer. It's fun solving them

By danesh j

Nov 16, 2015

No need to learn Excel so I'm to focus on the content. The professor examples are clear and like that he provides different perspectives to looking at a problem and makes it visual as well in order to conceptualized the idea first so I can commit it to my mind.

By Gabriel G

Jun 26, 2020

Great Course! It helped me increase a lot my knowledge and confidence with excel as a tool for statistical analysis! I recommend it!

kind regards.

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.John 14:6

By Jitesh g

Dec 1, 2018

One of the best course that i have ever done. Just make a patience and repeat the lecture if u find any difficulty , every time you realise that you are increasing your capablities or knowledge in Data Analytics sector.I will surely recommmcend this course .

By Oleksii K

Mar 11, 2020

Great and well-structured course, during wich I learned how to use statistics in data analysis and how to build useful models (binary classification, linear regression) using Excel. Especially liked the final project with interesting practical tasks.

By Molly M

Jan 25, 2018

This course is very informative, and I am already thinking about applying the things I've learned in my work. I found that the first part of the final project was the most difficult and time-consuming part of the course. Budget extra time for it!