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

4.2
stars
3,919 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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901 - 925 of 935 Reviews for Mastering Data Analysis in Excel

By Roberto K

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Apr 13, 2016

Interesting statistical concepts, and great theory. However, the lectures and the quizzes do not prepare the student well for the final project.

By Siamak R

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Aug 31, 2020

Not a well structured course at all. There is not much clear explanation on the subjects. You pretty much need to figure it out by yourself.

By Ashish G

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Jul 18, 2021

Although course is good but not satisfied with frequent updates for which you have to again pay as we had already paid for the course.

By Josh H

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Dec 15, 2017

Terrible course, almost no focus on Excel and the lectures were incomprehensible. Please redo this class with Dr. Borg teaching it.

By Inna G

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Nov 17, 2020

not about data analysis in excel, but mostly how to create models, not related to real life and very hard to grasp

By Richard C

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Nov 11, 2015

Where is the course study material and are you providing a book on this subject and Excel? You have me lost.

By Rahul K

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Aug 17, 2020

Really bad course, teaches stuff which are very basic and then the tests are really nothing based on that

By Aizaz S

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Dec 6, 2015

absolutely one of the worst courses... I am deleting it from my list.

no slides make it harder to follow.

By Alexey E

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Dec 27, 2015

the course neither explains statistics properly, nor teaches how to use excel effectively, disappointed

By Elias R F

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Sep 15, 2016

This is more of an introduction to statistics lesson than one in excel... not what I had signed up for

By Alex B

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Feb 6, 2017

Not enough detail and information provided in the lectures to undertake the final assessment.

By He Y

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Apr 10, 2016

Really confusing and struggled a lot. The course doesn't prepare you for the final project.

By Rochelle R

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Jan 6, 2016

I would not recommend this course. It was very poorly planned and seemed thrown together.

By Pavani V

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Aug 5, 2017

completely not relevant to my educational background. Highly very tough to understand.

By Michael K

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Dec 3, 2016

if you do not have a background in statistics do not expect to pass this course

By Nyrola E

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Nov 18, 2019

The second part of week 4 is really confusing . Poor design of the contents.

By Nitin P

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Dec 12, 2015

Very poor material and instruction videos, with no logical flow or process.

By Deleted A

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Dec 14, 2022

I want to unenroll from this course but Coursera doesn't allow me too.

By Sankalp d

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Aug 23, 2020

Quizzes were different than the lectures. Quizzes were too difficult.

By Vipul B

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Jan 27, 2016

The course requires good knowledge of statistics as a pre-requisite.

By Carolina a P

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Jun 16, 2020

Way to much mathematics and not enough Analysis infos

By Thomas K

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Apr 2, 2016

The course doesn't prepare you for the final project.

By Doron P

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Aug 29, 2020

the course material is not explained in a good way

By Maher M

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Dec 19, 2015

im in week 4 , cant master data analysis in Excel

By Yuriy G

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Jul 13, 2016

Title misleading. Never ever a beginners course.