If you work as an analyst, accountant, or finance professional, you likely use Microsoft Excel as one of your core tools. As a student, having solid skills using Excel makes your other courses easier. Knowing how to work with Excel means that you can focus on class skills during assignments in higher level classes instead of learning to use Excel.
This class is very hands-on. The lecture portion of class is only about 10 minutes each week. The rest of the time is spent working on exercises with the following structure:
- References. These links to online resources explain the Excel functions that we’re using in class. Ideally you read these before class begins (but I know most of you won’t). This content functions similar to a textbook if you like to learn by reading.
- Follow along with videos. You watch video demonstrations at your own pace and follow along with the same dataset. This allows you to try out the functions we’re learning in a very structured way, but you can still experiment and try things out.
- Independent work. These are less structured activities where you get to apply what you learned from the references and the video.
One of the keys to this course is a flexible learning pace. Every student has different knowledge coming into the course. What you find easy might be difficult for someone else. You can each spend time where you need to. However, I don’t leave you all alone, I’m there with you the entire time to clarify and provide further explanation as needed.
In the exercises and assignments we focus on using Excel to solve problems, not just simple memorization of how to plug in numbers. Once you understand the basics of how functions work, the next step is identifying the necessary numbers from a scenario to get the answer you want.
Excel content that we cover:
- Excel basics
- Cell references, formatting, simple functions such as MIN(), MAX(), and AVERAGE()
- Loans and investments (personal finance perspective)
- Calculate interest rates, payments, future value
- Logic and problem solving
- Create complex formulas using IF(), AND(), OR()
- Conditional formatting
- Build a model and use Goal Seek and Solver to find optimal solutions
- Summarizing data
- Identify the count, sum, or average of items that meet one or more criteria
- Identify unique values in a list
- Lookups
- Lookup relavant data in tables or other worksheets
- VLOOKUP(), XLOOKUP(), INDEX(), MATCH()
- Data analytics
- Charts
- Dynamic data in Pivot Tables and Pivot Charts
- Data management
- Sorting and filtering
- Date functions and text manipulation functions
- Automation by using macros
Exercises in class time are dedicated to learning skills and are not graded. There are three graded assignments where you apply the skills you learn in the exercises.
As you go through university, you will also use Microsoft Word for writing assignments and reports. There are many useful features in Word that make it easier for you manage the writing process. We spend one class looking at features such as automatically building a table of contents, auto numbering of figures, and asynchronous collaboration using comments and change tracking.
Finally, artificial intelligence (AI) is a commonly used tool, but as students, you haven’t been given much guidance on how it works. We dedicate one class to talking about how AI works, when it’s likely to be useful for you, and when it’s counterproductive.
Note: This is a 1.5 credit hour course rather than a typical 3.0 credit hour course. In Fall and Winter terms there is one 75 minute class per week. In Summer term, there are two 75 minute classes per week.