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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Introduction to Spreadsheets and Models by University of Pennsylvania

4.2
stars
3,752 ratings

About the Course

The simple spreadsheet is one of the most powerful data analysis tools that exists, and it’s available to almost anyone. Major corporations and small businesses alike use spreadsheet models to determine where key measures of their success are now, and where they are likely to be in the future. But in order to get the most out of a spreadsheet, you have the know-how to use it. This course is designed to give you an introduction to basic spreadsheet tools and formulas so that you can begin harness the power of spreadsheets to map the data you have now and to predict the data you may have in the future. Through short, easy-to-follow demonstrations, you’ll learn how to use Excel or Sheets so that you can begin to build models and decision trees in future courses in this Specialization. Basic familiarity with, and access to, Excel or Sheets is required....

Top reviews

MM

Jun 21, 2017

This course has made me understand cost accounting, has provided a fresh perspective on how to solve some of the challenges i had with management accounting and as a bonus, made me love maths again :)

RJ

Jun 11, 2020

The course is worth the time , the faculty teaches you about some complicated advance formulae with so much clarity and ease that even beginners can be pro in excel related to business and finance.

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426 - 450 of 703 Reviews for Introduction to Spreadsheets and Models

By Subhadeep S

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May 28, 2020

course content needs up gradation in terms of examples . Linear programming is a huge topic, needs more materials/explanation. Similarly cash flow modelling lecture provides high level overview , please add more examples and more assignment questions. Also please provide detailed workaround post completion of the assignments for the questions one could not answer.

By Ekaterina V

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May 24, 2020

Videos presented were structured in a poor way. Announced topics were not at all fully presented. Quiz was not at all covered by video lectures, though quizzes themselves were rather interesting, weak point is that you cannot check yourself by going through the lectures, sometimes you should guess if you got the logic of the question in a right way.

By Alexander C

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Mar 20, 2016

The professor of this course expects you to read his mind too much, preferring to skip through explaining his reasoning for solving some problems, such as calculating risk with the Empirical rule. He also mentions subject in the course outlines which he is supposed to lecture about in the course but doesn't, or just expects you to learn it yourself.

By Filip N

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May 14, 2016

Exercises should be better designed and I think that first week of this course and the whole previous one are too basic. They could be assumed for 99% of people and I think it would be a good idea to create an optional preparation module containing them. That would save time and perhaps open opportunities for more advanced material to be included.

By Adrian L

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Mar 16, 2016

The exam answers were not clear.... The were questions not related to the videos. This was an excel course and no excels were available to download, just PDF. In the other two courses (Quantitative Modeling and Accounting Analytics) the excels were explained and available for download. This was an excel course and no excels available.....

By Ruslan K

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Apr 19, 2016

Many errors in the quizzes made this course a disaster, although the course staff was eager to correct them as more complains in the discussions arrived. Being the second course in the specialisation, it doesn't actually live up to the expectations as it mostly covers the very basics of the excel functionality in terms of modelling.

By Stefan G

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Nov 22, 2016

Most suitable for people who have had very limited exposure to spreadsheets. Anyone that has spent considerable time working in Excel will find this pretty limited. The final portion of this course (Monte Carlo simulations) was the most interesting part, as it got into the more statistical functions and the Solver applications.

By Charlie R

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Aug 11, 2021

In the end of week tests, some of the questions were ambiguous or not thought out. No formatting suggestions were given for answers you had to type yourself which makes it difficult for students to understand what sort of answer is expected. Aside from the technical issues the content of the course was good and well delivered.

By Titima P

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May 11, 2020

I had some problem with typing the formula in the quiz as the formula typed was also correct but the program told it was wrong one. And I could not contact any people so I had to try my best to find what formula you used. And I think that if you can add more description about the answer it would make a clearer understanding.

By Paola M

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Apr 25, 2020

Overall this course is good, especially the last two weeks of the module. However, the examples are not very strong (Week 1 and Week 2), videos are too short for the most part and I find the tests are more robust than the lectures (I think both should be robust). I do appreciate that this module has extra materials to study.

By José C d H

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Feb 22, 2017

This course could work better as either a longer course with more examples, exercises, and step by step instructions in excel, or as a smaller part of the first and third courses in the specialization. The content is good and the examples are properly explained, but it probably doesn't warrant an entire course of its own

By Liu Y

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Jun 17, 2020

The quiz questions are poorly organized, it would be better if some guidelines for the form of answers were provided and I do not believe it reasonable to have questions that the professor did not specify, overall it has been an unpleasant experience for me, sincerely wishing the quality could be improved.

By D G

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Oct 12, 2016

Decent introduction course however examples are very simple as well as the models that are constructed. I understand being an intro course the content needs to ease people into the subjects however, more realistic and real-life examples are necessary to take the material from this course and apply it.

By Nicole W

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Apr 10, 2021

Lots of errors in tests when writing out excel formulas, many times I knew I was writing the correct answer and would always get the problem wrong. Also, professor seems to spend a lot of time on basic excel inputs and formulas and then rushes through the more complex concepts at the end

By John C

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May 4, 2018

The quizzes were giving me a hard time. Some questions included write-in questions where you'd need to type the Excel formula and even though I knew the formula I wrote works, it would be marked incorrect. This is very frustrating because at the end of the course you get a grade.

By Claire H

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Mar 24, 2020

Level of complexity of lectures was very low for Modules 1 and 2, and yet the quizzes were pretty in-depth. Similar issue with Module 4. Seemed like lectures had been simplified too much to convey the necessary knowledge to competently (and confidently) complete the quizzes.

By douglas m

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Aug 13, 2021

I had higher expectations from a school like wharton. My biggest issue is the fact that the feedback does not provide any explanations and the staff's only help is go back and rewatch the module. Especially when the modules don't hit on everything asked in the quizzes

By Florian H

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Apr 2, 2017

While I really enjoyed the first module, I was less impressed by this one. Have the course is very basic, while the rest is just too brief and not practical enough. I will however continue with the courses and expect the next module to build on the one reviewed here.

By Angel H

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Feb 25, 2017

Overall it is a good course, however, despite assuming minimal knowledge of Excel Statistical Modules, it offers little insight and practice. I would prefer a more in depth approach (for the advanced), or more exercises for those getting familiar with spreadsheets.

By Tejas G

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Jul 30, 2020

Since spreadsheets is a practical thing so just from watching videos and MCQs can't make you understand the subject , therefore I would like to suggest coursera to add a practical question in the test which includes making a spreadsheet like a capstone module.

By Dennis L D

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Oct 23, 2020

The content was explained step by step, but not in-depth, making it hard to follow. The information didn't flow smoothly from one concept to the next. This course was more about listening to the explanation of topics rather than learning them step-by-step.

By Cong W

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Feb 12, 2020

The model is kind of simple and lack of commercial sense. It may be better to provide some basic functions of excel at the beginning for self-learning. Actually, I cannot find anything that the teacher is really needed from this course. Sad for the money.

By Emma S

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Sep 22, 2021

While I learned a fair amount about the extent to which Excel can model and solve business problems, I wish the material in the videos and readings aligned more closely with the exams. I would have appreciated more practice problems outside of the exam.

By Kyle B

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Aug 20, 2020

Quizzes often did not reflect materials from the lectures. Not providing feedback in the quizzes made it very difficult to determine where you went off track. There is a great deal of room for improvement in the presentation as well as the evaluation.

By Azalia R

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Dec 17, 2020

The knowledge conveyed in this course is useful, however, for a spreadsheet-based course the delivery and quizzes feel rather counter-intuitive and hands-off. I would think there would be alot more practical follow through examples and exercises.