Excel Basics for Data Analysis (Coursera)

Excel is an essential tool for working with data - whether for business, marketing, data analytics, or research. This course is suitable for those aspiring to take up Data Analysis or Data Science as a profession, as well as those who just want to use Excel for data analysis in their own domains. You will gain valuable experience in cleansing and wrangling data using functions and then analyze your data using techniques like filtering, sorting and creating pivot tables.

This course starts with an introduction to spreadsheets like Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets and loading data from multiple formats. With this introduction you will then learn to perform some basic level data wrangling and cleansing tasks and continue to expand your knowledge of analyzing data through the use of filtering, sorting, and using pivot tables within the spreadsheet. By performing these tasks throughout the course, it will give you an understanding of how spreadsheets can be used as a data analysis tool and understand its limitations.

There is a strong focus on practice and applied learning in this course. With each lab, you will gain hands-on experience in manipulating data and begin to understand the important role of spreadsheets. Clean and analyze your data faster by understanding functions in the formatting of data. You will then convert your data to a pivot table and learn its features to make your data organized and readable. The final project enables you to show off your newly acquired data analysis skills. By the end of this course you will have worked with several data sets and spreadsheets and demonstrated the basics of cleaning and analyzing data all without having to learn any code.

Getting started with Excel is made easy in this course. It does not require any prior experience with spreadsheets or coding. Nor does it require downloads or installation of any software. All you need is a device with a modern web browser, and ability to create a Microsoft account to access Excel online at no-cost. However if you already have a desktop version of Excel, you can follow along quite easily as well.

Completing this course will count towards your learning in any of the following programs:

- IBM Data Analyst Professional Certificate

- IBM Data Analytics with Excel and R Professional Certificate

- Data Analysis and Visualization Foundations Specialization

Syllabus

WEEK 1

Introduction to Data Analysis Using Spreadsheets

In this module, you will learn about the fundamentals of spreadsheet applications, and you will be introduced to the Excel interface and learn how to navigate your way around a worksheet and workbook.

WEEK 2

Getting Started with Using Excel Speadsheets

In this module you will learn how to perform basic spreadsheet tasks, such as viewing, entering and editing data, and moving, copying and filling data. In addition, you will learn about the fundamentals of formulas, and learn about the most common functions used by a data analyst. Finally, you will learn how to reference data in formulas.

WEEK 3

Cleaning & Wrangling Data Using Spreadsheets

In this module, you will learn about the importance of data quality, and you will learn how to import file data in to Excel. You will also learn about the fundamentals of data privacy. In addition, you will learn how to remove duplicate and inaccurate data, and how to remove empty rows in your data. Finally, you will learn how to deal with inconsistencies in your data and how to use the Flash Fill and Text to Columns features to help you manipulate and standardize your data.

WEEK 4

Analyzing Data Using Spreadsheets

In this module, you will learn about the fundamentals of analyzing data using a spreadsheet, and learn how to filter and sort data. You will also learn how to use some of the most useful functions for a data analyst, and how to use the VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP reference functions. In addition, you will learn how to create pivot tables in Excel, and use several pivot table features.

WEEK 5

Final Project

Great! You have now completed all three modules of this course. In this final module you will be introduced to a hands-on lab where you will complete a graded assignment for cleaning and preparing data, and then analyzing data using an Excel spreadsheet. This final assignment will be graded by your peers.