Month 1 of 7 · 20–24 hours
Excel for Data Analysis
This course teaches the spreadsheet skills every data analyst uses daily. You will start by learning how Excel stores information, then write formulas, make decisions with logical functions, pull data together with lookups, clean messy data, and finish by summarizing everything with PivotTables, PivotCharts and a dashboard.
Weeks
- Week 1Excel Basics and Data TypesGet comfortable in the Excel window and understand the kinds of data a cell can hold.4–5 hours · 3 videosDone
- Week 2Basic Formulas and Logical FunctionsMake Excel do the calculating, and teach it to make simple decisions.5–6 hours · 4 videosDone
- Week 3Lookup Functions and Data CleaningBring information together from separate tables, and make messy data trustworthy.5–6 hours · 4 videosDone
- Week 4Pivot Tables, Pivot Charts and the Excel DashboardSummarize thousands of rows in seconds and present the results on one interactive page.6–7 hours · 4 videosDone
- FinalSales Performance DashboardGraded project with a rubric.
What you will be able to do
- Explain how Excel stores text, numbers, dates and true/false values, and fix data stored as the wrong type.
- Write formulas with cell references and the core functions SUM, AVERAGE, COUNT, MIN and MAX.
- Use IF, AND, OR, COUNTIF and SUMIF to answer yes/no and conditional questions.
- Combine data from two tables with XLOOKUP or VLOOKUP.
- Clean a messy dataset by removing duplicates, trimming spaces and fixing inconsistent entries.
- Summarize data with PivotTables and PivotCharts and assemble an interactive dashboard with slicers.
Before you start
Prerequisites: None. You only need to be comfortable using a mouse, keyboard and saving files.
Tools: Microsoft Excel (Microsoft 365, Excel 2021 or newer is best; Excel for the web works for almost everything). If XLOOKUP is missing in your version, use VLOOKUP instead.
Schedule
| Week | Topics | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Excel Basics and Data Types | 4 to 5 hrs |
| Week 2 | Basic Formulas and Logical Functions | 5 to 6 hrs |
| Week 3 | Lookup Functions and Data Cleaning | 5 to 6 hrs |
| Week 4 | Pivot Tables, Pivot Charts and the Excel Dashboard | 6 to 7 hrs |
Each week includes learning objectives, plain-language lessons with examples, beginner videos, a practice activity, a self-check quiz with answers and a graded assignment.