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Back to Excel/VBA for Creative Problem Solving, Part 2

Learner Reviews & Feedback for Excel/VBA for Creative Problem Solving, Part 2 by University of Colorado Boulder

4.9
stars
1,284 ratings

About the Course

"Excel/VBA for Creative Problem Solving, Part 2" builds off of knowledge and skills obtained in "Excel/VBA for Creative Problem Solving, Part 1" and 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). In Part 2 of the course, learners will: 1) learn how to work with arrays and import/export arrays from/to Excel using VBA code; 2) learn how to work with text strings and write data to .txt files and import information from .txt files; 3) automate the import, modification, and consolidation of information from multiple worksheets into a central worksheet as well as the import of information from multiple workbooks to a central workbook; and 4) gain experience with creating professional user forms to interface with the user, perform advanced calculations, and manipulate data on the spreadsheet. Learners who have a foundational understanding of VBA code and programming structures can jump right into Part 2 of the course without taking Part 1 and use the screencasts in Part 1 as reference. 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

PN

Dec 26, 2020

very interesting course, very nicely and deeply explained all topics in course. All assignments were quite challenging and very useful for real world applications. looking forward to part 3 of course!

MC

Feb 25, 2019

Part 1 was great, but in part 2 i feel like i can now actually provide innovative solutions using VBA. It's a very well taught course that keeps you engaged through great quizzes and assignments.

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1 - 25 of 334 Reviews for Excel/VBA for Creative Problem Solving, Part 2

By Andy M

Sep 2, 2019

I am a VBA expert taking this course for fun. In my opinion this is not a VBA programming course meant to take advantage of the language. It is more like a brain exercise because of the innecesary complexity of the codes in the quizzes, and some misunderstood programming concepts. If you are looking to learn VBA as a programming language, this course is not for you. If you are interested in mental agility, then it could help. I struggled reading the macros because of the bounch of bad practices.

By Martin S

Dec 30, 2018

I have just finished the second part of the VBA courses series. The course was as great and interesting as the previous one. The teacher's approach and enthusiasm for students to learn them something new is excellent. I appreciate Charlie's effort for development of these courses. During my studies at my university I had some classes focused on programming (e.g. Labview, Matlab etc.). All the time it was boring for me and I hated these classes. Here is a good example that all the new information you learn depends mostly on your teacher and teacher's approach. These VBA courses are very well-prepared, the stuff is easy explained and gained knowledge is verified in perfect examples. At the end of videos there is a small quiz which can be sometimes very tricky :D. I recommend these courses to everyone. They are worth it! Good work. :)

By Richard C

Feb 27, 2019

The material was helpful, but there were two flaws: first, I never got a sense of what I don't know about VBA that I still would need to learn to be effective on the job. Second, I posted six questions to the discussion forums over the course of two weeks and none of them were ever answered. After two weeks I had finished the course material for Parts 1 and 2. Overall, useful material, thank you very much!

By David E

Apr 12, 2020

Quizzes are unnecessarily difficult. Pretty fine with everything else.

I mean the teacher is OK, even quite good, but quizzes... are another story.

By Doru I

Jan 10, 2021

There is only one “thing” that drives me cuckoo in Charlie's courses: the lack of style.

I know I'm pedantic and orderly, but I've learnt the style comes a long way later one, especially when others are left with your code, having to debunk it.

By style, I mean indenting the code, using fully qualified variables and ranges and spending that extra ten seconds to add stuff such as Prompt:=, Buttons:=, Title:=, etc. No, don't use the integers returned by the user's answer to a vba.MsgBox; use the Buttons instead.

What is easier to understand:

if Ans = 6 then...

or

if Ans = vbYes then...

The others coming after you will thank you for making it easier for them.

Similarly, adding a prefix before a variable (such as "sAns", where "s" indicates that it's dimensioned as a variable) will also make lives easier. More importantly, adding a prefix to Form components is a must, I'd say.

What is easier to understand? "Names" or "cboNames" for a combo box?

Ok, enough being critical! This second course was the better of the first two. I learnt a great deal (especially during the fourth week) for which I'm grateful.

By Darren R

May 8, 2019

Again, another stellar course. VBA, Part 2 really leaves you with a solid foundation upon which you can continue to develop your Office development skills. And that's the beauty of this course. By learning Excel/VBA from Dr. N, you're really developing the ability to program any Office application. I've already written macros in Outlook, for example, using the knowledge Dr. N has imparted in both parts 1 and 2. Besides for the fulfillment Dr. N might get from reaching so many students with his excellent courses, I hope he's getting ample remuneration for his efforts because he deserves every penny of it, and I hope it encourages him to continue producing content on Coursera. I'd have no hesitation in completing more problem solving courses from him!

By Aditya A S

Jun 23, 2020

This course lived right up to my expectations! Really glad that I did this course.

The content was really insightful, the instructor was amazing. I loved the assignment submission procedure. The course was very well made and is definitely one of the bests on Coursera.

Thank you, and if you read this, I request you all to visit this, here you'll definitely find something impressive to learn.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdNOTa62J6j1109NQfxHqdg/playlists

By Paulo S

Mar 21, 2021

The screencasts are very helpful and understandable. Mr. Nuttelman does an excellent job in engaging with the learner and explaining different topics in a simple manner. The quizzes and assignments allow the learner to apply and practice the lessons to ensure understanding and mastery of the lessons. Highly recommended for people who want to get an overview of VBA and its basic applications.

By Moira C

Feb 26, 2019

Part 1 was great, but in part 2 i feel like i can now actually provide innovative solutions using VBA. It's a very well taught course that keeps you engaged through great quizzes and assignments.

By Ben T

Nov 30, 2021

Generally, really good. Could be improved. The one thing I felt that was really lacking was meta-learning, this applies to both Part 1 & 2. I wish he would have discussed how to learn things from scratch and how to do more complex debugging, with an emphasis on knowing how to navigate to the Microsoft Library and learn based on the documentation.

You might otherwise have difficulty at course end working on items not covered. Specifically, it would have been helpful to actually navigate to the VBA Library to explore error codes (which I had constantly but he never did), to learn how to understand the possible arguments for given statements.

Finally, AND I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH, I needed waaay more time navigating to the library and learning to figure out which objects / properties / methods do and do not work together. Often times, I would be trying to write a code, and I have an idea of what I need to do, but I try to pair the wrong object and property.

This course (and the preceding course) did a middling job explaining the object model and reference in such a way that the student could go out and explore a new function / statement / object with confidence.

By Jess H

Nov 19, 2021

Note: This review covers the entire Specialisation, not just Part 1. Thank you to the course creator/lecturer, Charlie Nuttelman. This Specialisation was incredibly useful to me as a novice programmer. Unlike some of the other free/low cost online content out there on VBA this course is well-structured and rigorous enough to actually gain a solid foundation in programming concepts, and more importantly to be able to apply the material to real world situations. I've only just completed the course but have already created a couple of macro-based report collation tools at work that have been very well received since they save time and improve accuracy. I have a couple of other bigger projects I'm now planning at work, which have long been an ambition of mine but out of my league until now.

The course really is quite challenging (if you have experience in another program it will probably come much easier for you!) and one really does have to think and try things out in the assignments and later projects to get an outcome - which is important since that's what it'll be like writing VBA in the wild!

The video content is very well presented and well-thought out and Charlie's passion for maths, programming and creative solutions really shone through. The content is structured logically, with a good progression in difficulty moving along the weeks and parts.

Another great thing about this course is that rather than get bogged down in the minutiae of every VBA term/syntax it focuses on broad programming concepts such as loops, iteration, arrays and debugging/problem solving. So I'm now feeling much more confident to get into learning other languages I have in my future learning goals

By NAVEEN R

Jul 24, 2020

After completing part 1 of course, I was so intrigued by everything that was taught that I directly started with part 2 and completed the material within a week. For me personally, what I liked about the course is that Charlie is a great instructor and someone like me who has no previous experience with VBA was able to complete in one week. Second thing is that Charlie was able to find the sweet spot in terms of the difficulty of the assignments. Those challenges are great. That grind is worth it. Today only I shall be starting with the part 3 of the course.

Before parting, I would like to give some advice to the learners. If it is possible, try to make notes because it is easy to revise later and also if you need some information for the assignment, you don't have to go back to assignment to find that. Just refer to notes and move on. If you cannot make physical notes, you can download an app called Greenshot. It directly saves to the output file, wherever you want.

Second, just explore more and try to use what you have learnt to do some projects and get more hands-on experience. Cheers!

By Kate Y

Apr 22, 2021

I've done this course because I wanted to learn how to automate some of the processes during my work. The course, especially Part 2, surpassed all my expectations. I was prepared to do some boring stuff with numbers (that was my initial impression of what Excel is), but it turned out to be so much fun!

I'd like to thank Charlie Nuttleman for making this course. Being a teacher myself, I can fully appreciate the hard work that is behind the concise and clear videos and challenging quizzes and assignments. I think that assigments are the best thing about the course: it is while doing them that you realize that you didn't actually understand something in the screencasts, so you have to actually return and rewatch and finally understand it completely.

I've improved my skills significantly and loved every minute of the course. I strongly recommend doing this course if you are interested in Excel VBA.

By Nicolas M

May 26, 2020

First of all, I want to thank one of the best instructors, I ever had Charlie Nuttelman, a great instructor, the classes are very good and precise, and also it makes it very funny. I have learned a lot of management of arrays, which an as very important topic in my current career civil engineer, I also enjoyed so much working with strings, it was a very interesting topic, I enjoyed the application strings with an example like morse code. The management of workbooks and worksheets and workbooks, it is very useful for me because most of the civil engineer programs, export their result to excel sheet and now I can easily manage all that information in one sheet. And, finally, the user forms will give a plus and my programs and look more professionals. It is a very good course 100% recommended.

By Xinyu Z

Aug 19, 2022

Challenging course indeed, but I guarantee you it will be immensely rewarding. After learning this course, I can build small programs in excel spreadsheets that automate many processes, saving at least 50% time in my daily work.

There are a lot of materials to cover, but the instructor makes them very easy to understand.

I strongly recommend people with some programming background to take it. After the course, you will achieve a professional level to handle most VBA-required jobs. Moreover, this course encourages you to learn more about VBA on your own and thus you will be ready to find any answer you need when coding.

Fun fact: I wrote a love letter to my girlfriend using VBA userform function. She was so touched and very proud of me.

By Robert C R

Feb 23, 2024

Prof. Nuttelman took us beyond just automating data processing tasks with this course, and taught us how to build some reasonably complex graphical applications that can be used directly from Excel. The learning curve got significantly steeper in this course, but anyone with some elementary programming knowledge or experience should be able to handle it with the professor's detailed screencasts. I look forward to a chance to use what I learned in a business or research position in the near future -- I'm sure most managers and clients have no idea they can even ask for the skills taught at this level of the course. I'm glad I enrolled, and feel quite confident about the project assignments the next course of this specialization path.

By Corey F

Dec 1, 2019

I highly recommend this course to anyone interested in learning Excel VBA. This course deservedly contains the words "Creative Problem Solving", as I feel it to be an accurate description.

Charlie comes across as a very knowledgeable and nice professor. His videos are short and to the point; and they will set you up for success. I personally found this learning approach to be satisfying because there is no one right answer to the assignments, which allows students to find their own way to solve problems.

To do well in this course I recommend taking notes by hand to avoid using the computer as a crutch. While it seems counter-intuitive, I found writing out the code forced me to "think like the computer".

By Zhen G

Jul 14, 2019

Awesome courses, I love the content (super useful and fun to learn), as well as the way how the courses are organized - I took half to one hour a day after work or during lunch break to watch the videos and I can always know which page I'm on.

The only things that I wish could change a little bit would be: 1. increase the volume (too low if not wear headphones); 2. answers and explanations for quiz (wk3-4); 3. if possible i really want to have a assignments answers so I can compare with mine even though I can pass.

Nothing would change the great experience of this course, I'm happy that I passed and super happy that i can apply what i learnt from here to my job! :)

By Nadine M

Jun 27, 2020

Very informative course which builds on the related Part 1. Background in coding is absolutely not required, but a basic knowledge of VBA and/or completion of Part 1.

Mathematics-averse learners will be happy, as this part has much lower focus on calculations and formulas than Part 1. Instead, the focus is increasingly on managing Excel datasets, user input, exporting/importing.

Through plenty of example applications, this course is easy to follow. Admittedly, it's not as easy to breeze through as Part 1. Quizzes and Assignments take some more effort, but feel rewarding and interesting.

By Christian M

Aug 14, 2022

I have completed Course 1 and 2 and am extremely happy with the courses in general. The instructor has great knowledge. I really doubt I could have learned in a face to face classroom as much as I did here at my own pace. The quizzes, questions inside of the videos and the assigment really let you practice all what you learn. I think i am developing great skills for my work. I would love if he could do the same course oriented to finance (which is my background) but you can apply all the things you learn here to different sectors. Will start on Part III.

By Wilfried K

Apr 11, 2020

I want to thank professor Nuttelman again for this excellent course. The teachings are great and I have learnt a lot. He actually dug some important features of VBA. The continuous use of the important features of the course 1 such as arrays, loops and If...Then conditions gives students the opportunity to master them. For this reason, I think the arrays should stay in my mind for a while. I have a suggestion to make however : the text functions could be explained in depth. While working on them, I had the impression of just copying code.

By Diego A Q

Dec 12, 2018

Amazing course. Very useful tools are given here as a continuation of Part I. Professor Charlie Nuttelman explains everything very concretely, so that if you struggle with the assignments (which are very challenging on week 3 and 4) you can find the answer or the tool needed by just going back to the screen-casts, so there is no need to look for help on the internet. By the end of this Part II, you certainly are capable of creating real-live useful processes.

The assignments are very challenging

By Zhiqing L

May 5, 2018

I hope I can rate 100 stars to Dr. Charlie's VBA courses, but unfortunately there are only 5 stars here.

I used to be afraid of coding, but after taking Part 1 & 2, I became interested in VBA. I started to writing VBA codes to make my work easier. Two weeks ago I wrote a VBA code to calculate inventory after warehouse did inventory count. This shocked my supervisor, who is experienced in VBA, because I only learned VBA for 2 months.

Thank you Dr. Charlie for the great course and see you in part 3:)

By Rob B

Feb 20, 2019

This course teaches you the "magic" part of VBA that allows you to create custom userforms that clearly differentiate your excel project from other typical spreadsheets. The course also helps you work across multiple worksheets and workbooks. All of this is useful for consolidating and standardizing data entry. And the custom userforms will help you stand out among your peers. (I can't wait to see the looks on my co-workers faces when I debut some of these elements in our standard reports!)

By Markus K

Sep 3, 2019

Same statement as for Part 1; A really good course, taught by a very nice and competent instructor. I have learned many things that I can actually apply at work. VBA is very helpful in many situations - Excel is almost everywhere, The instructor introduces new concepts by demonstrating their application in small real world projects, in the weekly assignment you then have to apply those conepts in a different context. I found this a very motivating and effective approach