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Back to Excel/VBA for Creative Problem Solving, Part 1

Learner Reviews & Feedback for Excel/VBA for Creative Problem Solving, Part 1 by University of Colorado Boulder

4.8
stars
4,129 ratings

About the Course

"Excel/VBA for Creative Problem Solving, Part 1" is aimed at learners who are seeking to augment, expand, optimize, and increase the efficiency of their Excel spreadsheet skills by tapping into the powerful programming, automation, and customization capabilities available with Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). This course is the first part of a three-part series and Specialization that focuses on the application of computing techniques in Excel/VBA to solve problems. In this course (Part 1), you will: 1) create macros to automate procedures in Excel; 2) define your own user-defined functions; 3) create basic subroutines to interface with the user; 4) learn the basic programming structures in VBA; and 5) automate Excel’s Goal Seek and Solver tools and use numerical techniques to create “live solutions” to solve targeting and optimization problems. New to computer programming? The extremely intuitive and visual nature of VBA lends itself nicely to teaching and learning - what a fun way to learn to code! No prior knowledge in programming nor advanced math skills are necessary yet seasoned programmers will pick up new and creative spreadsheet problem solving strategies. After you have learned the basics of VBA, each module will introduce foundational and broad problems inspired by situations that you might encounter in the real world. To pass each module, you'll need to pass a mastery quiz and complete a problem solving assignment. This course is unique in that the weekly assignments are completed in-application (i.e., on your own computer in Excel), providing you with valuable hands-on training....

Top reviews

MS

Jan 26, 2018

Great course! I like it goes straight to implementation and is practice-oriented. What could be improved maybe is sound quality of lectures. And maybe it would be great to have some VBA notes in pdf.

JH

Apr 2, 2020

Very good course with clear examples throughout to help you develop. The online format of the course is great as it allows you to pause and work through the activities presented at your own speed.

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51 - 75 of 1,182 Reviews for Excel/VBA for Creative Problem Solving, Part 1

By Matthew A

May 3, 2018

Fantastic course, 5-stars!

Possible improvements:

1) In section 5 when building the algorithms you could also add a check for convergence using a tolerance. The 20x for loop seems somewhat arbitrary. This is pretty easy to do, but might be a nice addition for people who haven't coded these algorithms before.

2) Not sure if this is possible, but there's a way to pass a function as a variable in VBA, then in section 5 you could build more generalized solver/optimization algorithms (as opposed to having to re-code the algorithm for each new function you encounter).

Again, great class learning a ton!

By Galeev R

Aug 1, 2022

Amazing course, all the parts of it! If you have some knowledge of vba and want to enhance and systematize it - it is the best one! Though part 3 evaluation part is not good at all -but the mateiral imsdie is top! The currency converter (of part ) macro is the best I have ever created! But you nned to pass parts 1 and 2 to able to do it. Though not one from USA will be able to open your file if you are from Europe due do dates forant issues... %(%(%(

Highly recommended to anyone having some experience with vba already! The prof is AMAZING! 5 out of 5 IMHO! Thanks a lot, sir!

By Pikachu R

Dec 17, 2019

Really enjoyed the journey. Material is presented in a very lucid way. Also the grading style is innovative. It feels like you are finding the code to the lock which will lead you to the final treasure. One thing I would like to tell you all is, please complete the week 5 as well (it is optional). The real fun starts at week 5. The new and the fun things about excel is in week 5 material and tests. Also week 5 has all the real life applications of what you have learnt previously. I wish you all good luck. Also I would like to thank the creator for his time and great service.

By Archana M

Jun 17, 2020

The course was very insightful. Prof. Nuttleman kept up with his words of providing a challenging learning environment. The quizzes and assignments were superb! They really get your mind into thinking about solving a problem. Another good part is working with excellent examples - also to note that Prof. Nuttleman subtly demonstrates a live example by making the grading part itself in VBA! The course can be relatively easier for someone who already knows some programming, but it can also be a good path to begin with programming. I would totally recommend this course!

By Mertcan K

Mar 13, 2022

This course is quite beneficial. Dr. Nuttelman explained everything in an easy-to-understand way, so I had no trouble understanding. The videos, quizzes, tests, and projects are all quite useful. Those questions appear in the assignments and are similar to what you learn in class. The questions are neither too easy nor too difficult to answer, which is crucial for good learning, in my opinion. Thank you for developing such an excellent educational platform, Coursera. Dr. Nuttelman, thank you so much for explaining these things in such a clear and concise manner.

By Vinayak N

Jul 30, 2018

It taught me a lot of things in a short period of time and I look forward to using the knowledge in my day to day life for doing tedious things in an effective manner with short amount of time.

The instructor was concise and cogent and the assignments are designed to test your understanding of the concepts pretty nicely.

I feel the number of questions per assignment could be increased to give more practise or at least optional questions should be provided for interested people for the same purpose. Apart from that, great work, loved the course, Thanks Charlie!

By Lucia A

Apr 21, 2023

I've been promising myself to learn programming for a long time, but I didn't know where to start.

Maybe VBA isn't the most standard programming language to start with, but excel always pops up at work somehow, so why not starting from a programming language that can come in handy at work?

Progressive so you learn gradually, never boring, but most of all challenging enough to keep you going with satisfaction, but without insurmountable obstacles that make you lose patience and hope to get to the bottom of it.

Systematic and methodical, basically perfect!

By Natalia M

Mar 19, 2019

This is a very good course! The best online course I've ever had. The structure, the order in which material is given, the difficulty of the course are very thought over. And the most important, I feel that the course is very effective. You just need continue practicing VBA (doesn't matter here or somewhere else) to improve the skills acquired here. Because those are very well developed here. I would highly recommend this course to anybody who is looking for the opportunity to learn VBA and enhance Excel skills. But I am heading to the second part! Yeah!

By Katie H

Mar 26, 2019

This is a fantastic course. As someone who has fumbled my way and self taught myself this was a great back to base camp that has already taught me some good tricks that are invaluable in my day job (as an engineer in the utility sector I'm always moving data between spreadsheets). Looking forward to seeing this specialization through. Professor Charlie is a great teacher - I would have been lucky to have him at undergrad. The format is great and the visual aids during the screencasts are amongst the best I've seen (I've done a lot of online learning.).

By Mohammed A H

Aug 11, 2022

This course is presented in a very clear and easy-to-digest format. Tracy explains quite complex concepts in plain English and with excellent examples. It is directed more at the business community, but the principles can be directed toward any specialty. I did this course as I wish to improve the problems given to supervisors and superintendents. It has given me a whole new perspective on problem-solving, and I will be passing on what I have learned to my career. This will be of significant benefit to the development of the superiors coming through.

By Diego A Q

Nov 9, 2018

It's a good introduction to Excel VBA if you are completely new to it. Week 4 and 5 are certainly more intense. Basic mathematics (not so basic at week 5) are required for this in order to have a lighter experience, although I suppose people with mathematics affinity are the ones who do this kind of courses.

Anyways, I definitely learned a lot doing this course. As I work everyday with excel but never tried anything with macros, I have been kind of limited to use excel's full potential. I would actually like to continue with part II.

By Christian M

Jul 22, 2022

Amazing course and tutor. I am very familiar with Excel but not so much with VBA. THis was a great refresh and starting point to continue learning. My only observation is that most of the examples are oriented towards engineering. Because I am going to apply the concepts for finance (because of my background) it would have been nice to see some assignments related to finance as well. But still the course goal is to get familiar with VBA and problem solving so you will definitely have a great intro course on the capabilities of VBA.

By Sean W

Mar 13, 2018

This is a great course if you really want to use VBA beyond just recording a bunch of mouse clicks. I was already pretty familiar with Excel and some surface level VBA stuff. Thanks to this course, I have a much better handle on the available features of VBA to the point where I have already been able to implement some valuable things at work. I would imagine that this would be the case even for an Excel beginner. I would highly recommend this course for a fairly wide range of experience levels. I'm looking forward to Part 2.

By Jon F

Nov 30, 2018

Excellent! The best part was Week 5, the honors section of the course. I strongly recommend doing the honors section – I learned almost as much in the honors section as I did in the prior four weeks. Prof. Nuttelman is a very good lecturer and he has a very practical and understandable approach to teaching. I always knew this thing called “VBA” was there in Excel . . . if I had known how powerful it was I would have taken this class a long time ago. I am looking forward to Prof. Nuttelman’s second Excel/VBA course.

By Joshua G

Nov 16, 2022

This is a well designed, well supported course. It goes from introducing students to VBA to requiring some complex challenges quickly, but with great support. I would highly recommend this course to anyone who needs to skill up professionally in Visual Basic and automate processes using Excel on a Microsoft machine. Note that these skills are only useful in Microsoft Excel and not Google Sheets or even Excel on a Mac computer. Dr. Nuttelman was responsive and helpful with questions. Great course, highly recommend!

By Wilfried K

Mar 18, 2020

I encourage everyone who wants to learn something valuable to take this course. The teacher takes the time to explain the fundamentals of VBA programming thoroughly. You have the opportunity to test your knowledge at the end of most teaching videos, and this encourages you to stay focused. The quizzes and assignments are adapted to the level of the learner and in conformity with the topics covered.

Thank you Mr Nuttelman for your engagement.

Note : This is the first time that I complete the course on Coursera.

By Britt E

Jan 7, 2021

I have never used VBA or any programing before. I found this course easy to follow and I have already been able to see multiple applications for my work. I am an experienced excel user, but have only used the formulas in Excel and this has resulted in some very clunky and somewhat confusing spreadsheets, some of which take up to 5 minutes to perform calculations. I see several areas where writing in some VBA macros will simplify these spreadsheets and also reduce calculation time. I plan to take part 2.

By Rizwan L

Feb 3, 2021

At the start of this course, I knew nothing about VBA utilities and possibilities in daily life. It was a call from inside me that I should take this course as I knew basic stuff about MS Excel and taking this course was an opportunity to enhance my skills in this particular application i.e., MS Excel. Found it very difficult at the start but the instructor designed it so well that with little extra effort I learned the whole course and completed it with good grades.

Recommend it strongly.

By Barbara C

Apr 5, 2021

Very well written and thorough with lots of activities to practice skills/coding. After completion I feel very confident in what I have learned. I really enjoyed taking this course!

*Note that if working in Microsoft's new "Cloud" based (OS) system, ensure that your assignments are located on the computer drive itself, otherwise the grading code does not work properly. I had this issue, which had me scratching my head wondering what I did wrong until I moved my files to the local drive.

By János K

Jan 8, 2021

At the begining of the course I have a faintest idea about the VBA. At the end of this course I have a basic knowledge about it. I did not become a programmer specialist , but that was not a goal either. My idea to start programming at basic level came true.Thank you for everyone who contributed to this course and special thank you for the instructor!

((( at the very very end ... a workbook with lots of task and solutions would be welcome for better understanding and practice.)))

By Jéssica M

Jan 27, 2018

Great course! I'm already familiar with some coding but I wanted simple solutions for some reports I run daily in excel. I was looking for something exactly like this: simple, useful and well structured. I think the course is perfect for small projects and daily solutions in the office as well. The magic of VBA/Excel is it can be applied for most of the knowledge areas. I would recommend for people who want automate repetitive tasks and optimize their work! Great job Charlie!

By Suresh R

Jul 31, 2020

It was a great learning experience. I knew the basics of computer programming for a long time. But I was tired of running my codes in some compilers with those unlikely black screen. And I didn't get any chance or time to learn app development or any other advanced programming to cool and fancy stuff for real-world problem-solving, since my stream of study is not related to computer science. Thanks to this course came to the rescue to help me continue with my coding skills.

By Javier R

Jun 28, 2023

Very good course, it can be difficult at first, my suggestion: take note of everything! I started the course without taking notes because I thought I was understanding it well, but when I got to the final exercise of week 3 I didn't know how to do it or how to move forward , I was blocked for 3 days! So I watched all the videos again but this time taking notes and everything was much easier. If you do this you will pass the course without problems. 100% recommendable.

By Jhon F C M

Jul 31, 2020

Hello there! That was an amazing course! I learned a lot, the screencasts were very helpful and very well explained. However, maybe share a STARTER document for every screencast would be very helpful too. I mean, a document to start to programming and follow the steps. Or maybe the code as a .txt file just to compare if we are going good, we know that there are a lot of ways to do the things.

These are just thoughts, the course was amazing. Congratulations and thanks!

By Michelle

Mar 17, 2023

I've taken a VBA course before in another platform. In my opinion, before you enrolled in this course, make sure you already had basic knowledge of VBA. That way, you will understand so much faster. This course has a really great assignments that will hone your VBA skill, the instructor's explanation is really easy to understand, not to fast and not to slow. I really recommend this course for you guys. Now, I'm going to enrolled in part 2 of this course.