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

4.2
stars
3,924 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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476 - 500 of 938 Reviews for Mastering Data Analysis in Excel

By Alice W

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Apr 5, 2021

This class was hard. At times, I felt like quitting, but I'm glad I didn't give up. Some assignments could use more clarity, and some videos need to be broken up. The videos were too dense with terminology, but after hours of searching, slowing down videos, reading discussion forums, and so on, I was able to complete the course. :) Would recommend.

By Will S

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Jan 13, 2016

Amazing volume of topics covered and in a manner that is not overly complicated in terms of testing methodology, but still requires you to do the work. There are still several bugs with the course, test answers and instruction documents on the site, but clearly the course is new so hopefully that will be resolved in coming iterations of the class.

By Jason C D A

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Jan 11, 2016

The course is more on analysis techniques as opposed to Excel shortcuts, tips and tricks. It certainly helps if you have a good background in algebra-level math; if you're looking for a course on how to be an Excel Power User, this might not be the best fit. Otherwise, what I learned here is useful for me. Thanks!

By Christopher C

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Jun 29, 2016

The course is quite tough for me, but I enjoyed the topics discussed, primary between a binary model and a linear regression model. The addition of Excel into this course adds an application layer, which helps me to bring the concepts to the working world as well, and not just plain academic knowledge.

By Aghahuseyn S

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Jun 21, 2020

The course is very practical and sheds a light on data analyst job, however it may be very sophisticated and has little guidance when it comes to final assignments. A lot of ambiguity is present in final assessment, but it is a very good insight on the scientific background of the data science.

By Jose D P

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Nov 13, 2015

Excelente curso, pero a veces los vídeos o materiales se no son tan expresos en explicaciones y ejercicios para facilitar el entendimiento de lo estudiado. Por ejemplo la semana 2 de matriz de clasificación por su complejidad merecía mayor detalle en las explicaciones y ejercicios de práctica

By Irina

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Dec 2, 2020

The course is not structured around Excel. Instead Excel is used as a tool for introducing and practicing certain data analysis methods. The assignments were quite interesting and challenging. Overall I found the course beneficial for myself. Though at times a clearer explanation was needed.

By Adam S

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Sep 24, 2019

The course enables me to get the knowledge about binary classification and predictive models I think with these skills I feel well-prepared to excel my skills in Data Science. The tutor explained all mentioned issues clearly however the assignment and quizzes may be written clearly.

By Dali S

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Mar 7, 2018

Excellent course. I am a finance professional with limited statistics knowledge. Was able to follow the lectures. The reason for the 4 stars only is that the quizzes can be confusing with missing or misplaced information. Sometimes you have to search in the forums for hints.

By sudhanshu r

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Jun 27, 2020

The course content was really nice. A few corrections in assignments is required but overall the learning experience was great. The best part is the course does not spoon feeds you everything, you need to put in efforts to complete it which is really important for learning.

By Gelber W S T

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Apr 6, 2021

very good course, it is too long to me (6 weeks). would be better 4 and not to take some materials. It seems to be a lack of order in the course development but still a good course. Please do not take it if you are not familiar with some basic statistics and probability.

By Colin M

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Mar 24, 2017

Good course, bit disjointed at times and some of the maths is rushed through, or not really relevant. Not sure I need proofs on why standardising figures results in easier to use data, maybe just show us how to do the analysis and apply it to more examples in real life.

By Paul B

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Mar 3, 2023

Very math intensive and in my opinion a bit of an overkill consideration these days so many of these calculations are automated with software like R and Python. Maybe less time on how to actually perform the operations and more time on how they relate to each other.

By Ka L C

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Feb 17, 2020

I have learnt a lot about creating models with training data set and testing the strength of the model on test data sets. Every quiz is designed brilliantly. The only problem is that questions in the peer-reviewed assignment are not very clear and need some fix.

By YEVGENIY V K

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Feb 2, 2016

Lots of good information. However, this course could be structured a lit bit better. More examples and small practice exercises within the lectures would significantly improve the retention of material.

You should posses at least basic knowledge of statistics.

By Richard P

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Dec 27, 2015

Great information included. I feel like I know much more about modelling data than when I started. The quizzes can be in that without the hints on the discussion forum I don't know how I would have completed them just based on the information in the videos.

By Saranya C

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Oct 15, 2020

This course is really useful for Data Analysts. I learnt much and the final project was a real task. But one aspect that is lacking where I couldn't rate 5 is, Quizzes - there are so many mistakes and not instructed well. Hope it is improved in future.

By Matt B

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Feb 17, 2016

I would have appreciated a bit more of a hands-on process in building the workbooks (with proper instruction of course) and more formal presentation of the formulas being used, but overall, I got a lot out of this course and enjoyed it along the way.

By K.S. V

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May 26, 2016

Although more about Prob and Stat than learning to use Excel, concepts of binary classification and entropy are very interesting and are taught very deliberately and thoroughly. More practise quizes and worked out examples would be even better.

By Victor W

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Nov 19, 2016

Course is very good! All examples are very clear and detailed. And a spreadsheet is provided to follow along during class. Only bad thing is that it was not so clear this course is heavily related to Math. Data Analysis = Math & Statistics. ;-)

By Jeff S

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Mar 9, 2016

Tough class but filled with useful and applicable ata analysis using the most popular and available program to do this work... Be prepared to get a little frustrated and watch the instructions more than once..... It's not Cousera fun fluff !!!

By Syed M R A

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Jan 31, 2018

Great clarification of concepts regarding "classification algorithm" and its application in various industries. Final project is awesome but very practical and needs more clarity in videos and notes. Overall, very challenging and informative.

By Andrew K

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Nov 18, 2019

Enjoyed the course overall. It's been a few weeks now, but I recall getting the sense that it needed a careful overhaul on quizzes. Some of the frustrations were mentioned in discussion groups that don't seem that well trafficked any more.

By Jose V

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Jan 29, 2017

The course is very challenging, but very interesting. I will probably suggest a bit more of staff support in the last week, specially the final project which is very challenging and demanding. A bit more of orientation will be really good.

By mallikarjun b

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Sep 11, 2016

The explainations are a bit hard to follow if you are in a hurry, some times the course concepts just jump onto you. The techniques and content are really really great and very relavent, but the instructional value can be further ehnanced.