Love the instructor, his delivery is on point but a little bit more clarity is needed on finance terminologies

It is an average introduction to certain financial aspects. Where i really feel it was let down was in 1) the discussions with the external expert. You need to find a new expert more engaging with the subject matter. Was very dry and I was willing her on not to fail. Not a sentiment I should be feeling in a paid course. 2) The capstone project was too much too quickly. You should run through a similar project first using similar details and documentation. The instructor should run through this dry run step by step just as the student will do in the final exam. In other words, the jump from introducing NPV etc to a final project with lots of different documents was too much.

I had no background of Finance before I enrolled for this course except that I had good mathematics base. I found this course very beneficial as it explained the fundamentals of Finance in a very understandable language and pace. The course structure is well organized and it is absolutely worth enrolling. This course is coming handy to me for my CFA preparations as it has built a strong understandings of basics.

I am a mechanical engineer looking to change careers and go into financial management. This course gave me the confidence that my choice to go into finance was well placed. The course content is well designed for a newbie like me. This course gave me the motivation and confidence i needed to learn more finance related concepts.

As a operation head of R&D center, I used to make business case for proposing requirement of equipment using help of Finance. Now I understood all details and I can do it myself. The important point is that I can now go back to those spread sheet and understand how payback was considered. I would like to thank Coursera and Professor James and Rice university for this wonderful opportunity to learn.

I specifically like conversation with real world finance person.

Thank you

Prof James is a very good teacher not only because he is very thorough with his own understanding of finance fundamentals but also he genuinely likes teach. His animated gestures keeps one hooked on to the course. The exercises are very helpful to drive the concepts home

Highly recommend to take up the course for anyone who wants to understand the world of finance

Great Course, Very solid start for those who are trying to enter Finance world.

It makes you love this field if you are not familiar with it and have no previous experience.

Great Job Professor.

I am an Electrical Engineer working in the mining industry. I am currently in a managerial position and frequently need to make decisions on whether to implement a certain project or not and what benefit would it bring to my company. I learnt a great deal from this course. I thoroughly enjoyed Prof. Weston's each lecture. There was so much enthusiasm in his voice that kept me hooked to this course and nudged me towards earning my verifiable certificate. Thank you and keep bringing such nice courses.

James is a very passionate and communicative lecturer. I really love the way he presents the materials because it makes all the materials are easily digested and understood. Two thumbs up!!

Very good learning experience.

The course is ideal for people having an interest in Finance! No prior knowledge needed!

The Prof. makes sure you are involved throughout the lecture!

Very good course that tackles the most important parts of finance and accounting in a firm. The only problem I had was that a lot of technical terms were somewhat poorly explained, and week 3 was a bit confusing. Still, I would recommend this course to anyone that is interested in finance.

Efficient and clear introduction to the subject, though not a lot of material. Interviews are not very useful. A written "handout" list of definitions, acronyms and formulae would be useful as a future reference (for those who didn't take notes).

This course is so good I couldn't wait to finish it asap! While the instructor (which I became very found of) is clear he noticeably understands the underlying aspects of Finance, presenting it on a very didatic and interesting way. I took this course because I wanted to start doing company's valuation, and I can tell you that I'm much closer to doing so.

Some food for thought:

I'd like to see the guest talk more, I felt that the professor kind of directioned his speech a lot to what was said in class. I believe that she could have brought some real life examples and had gone deeper on them.

I'd also have appreciated a class that had examined a real balance sheet example as well.

Regardless of this, if you don't know anything about finance, or if you know just a little bit, there is a high chance that you'll find what you're looking for in this course. Congratulations to Mr. James Weston and his team for doing this favour to the community.

I really appreciated the focus on the conceptual elements of financial decision-making and the capital budgeting process. The video lectures were a great length for me (aka not too long) and included plenty of visual examples that helped me understand what was being taught. This was a great overview for someone who, like me, doesn't have a super strong foundation in math and has never taken a finance course before, but is interested in understanding these principles better.

Very good overview of finance. For everyone looking, this is not specific to personal finance, but rather a general view and introduction to the most general topics. And a great one at that!

This course as the title suggests is actually required for non finance professionals to get an understanding of concepts in Finance. A very good and well structured course.

I love the enthusiasm the Professor shows and having taken this course out of my own interest (pun intended), I find it thoroughly enjoyable and practically useful.

I would like to thank you for this amazing course, it is very helpful for non-finance and financial people at the same time. I believe it will help me in my career.

Its a good place to start. I would recommend this to a friend who has no clue whatsoever about finance and is looking at possibly heading in a new direction. Videos are well sized, clear and articulate. Homework assignments are well designed for this level. Although I would have liked it more had the capstone quiz given me the opportunity to work independently with the numbers given in the case rather than giving me a template to work with. Seemed a little spoon fed to me. All in all a good course to pursue for beginners.

An exceptional course that teaches all the basics of financial world to the professionals form every field. Concise modules which are taught very enthusiastically by the professor.

The course is well prepared and the teacher is very good, the exercises however are not 100% explained and in the tests there could be issues

This was the first online course which I have ever taken, and I have to say that I absolutely loved it! The course is informative; the professor is excellent; the tests are relevant and practical, and the course is fairly priced -- especially compared to some of the other courses available on Coursera. The online material -- as in videos, documents, links and transcripts work very well -- and it has certainly led me to believe that I have received value for enrolling. I recommend this course to students and individuals who have a basic knowledge of economics (opportunity cost, etc) and have a basic interest in accounts and finance. Highly recommended! Thanks Professor Weston, Rice University and Coursera for a wonderful course! :)

James Weston's teaching style is great - he's enthusiastic, knowledgable, and simplifies the complex. As someone who was slightly intimidated by the concept of learning finance (which I have to do as a prerequisite for my graduate program), this was very easy to follow and grasp. This is basically a crash course for everything you need to know to get started on capital budgeting, taught in a logical, easy-to-digest format. Highly recommend to anyone that wants to get the basics down and can do the work with confidence by the time the course is over.

The course in general covers the most essential topic in finance that regular non-finance folks may wonder: how finance helps a company run by providing the tools and methods for the management to make sound decisions. The instructor goes through all the topics with clear and easily understood explanations while giving insights about the practical use in the finance field. Overall, I genuinely enjoy the learning process in this course, and I would like to express my gratitude to Professor James and Ms. Christine for sharing their knowledge with us.

Hello everyone,

I am a person from technical background who had an interest towards finance. The course started with the basic idea is to how actually things work in the field of finance and accounting, to financial statements and basics of how stock market works. I am satisfied to say that I got to learn a lot through the course and the instructor James Weston was quite through and simple to understand. I would recommend this course to every Non-Finance professional or student out there. Thank you Coursera!