• Training Room

    Basic Business Statistics using Excel
    Provider   Organisational and Staff Development Unit

    The course is tailored for staff who need to interpret and produce basic summary statistics and graphs in business documents. A particular emphasis of the course is on deciding which graphs and statistics to use for presenting your particular data.

Duration 1 week

Course Type Workshop

Booking Status Archived

Is this course right for me?

Target Audience: University Administrative and Professional Staff.

The course is tailored for staff who need to interpret and produce basic summary statistics and graphs in business documents. A particular emphasis of the course is on deciding which graphs and statistics to use for presenting your particular data.

All examples and exercises are in MS Excel.

By the end of the course, participants should:

  • Understand essential concepts in summary statistics and common options for graphically displaying data and relationships between variables.
  • Gain confidence in interpreting and presenting summary statistics and graphical displays typically found in business reports and publications.
  • Practice using Excel to produce summary statistics, tables and graphs, including using pivot tables where needed.

More advanced statistical methods are briefly mentioned at the end of the course to raise participants’ awareness of further analytical tools.

Essential Information

This course is online and runs over a period of five days. Students are expected to engage with the class for about eight hours during that time.

The course is delivered through video presentations, video demonstrations and class exercises using a practice data set, all available on MyPlace. Additionally, tutorial sessions are also available during the week for participants to discuss course materials and exercises and to seek help.

Participants will need access to Excel software - a version with the functionality to produce a histogram. (To check, using the device you will use during the course: access or create an Excel file, save it as type ‘Excel Workbook’, highlight a column of numbers (create some numbers if necessary), go to menus Insert > Recommended Charts > All Charts, and check that the ‘Histogram’ option is available).

 



Delivered By: Ian Dwyer - KE Director, Department of Mathematics & Statistics

Prerequisites

The ability to use Microsoft Excel: basic operations such as in-cell editing, moving columns and sorting with filters (though filtering is explained in the course); although some experience of using in-cell formulas and creating and customising simple charts would be an advantage, these are fully explained and demonstrated during the course as needed; similarly, although experience of pivot tables would be beneficial, the course explains and demonstrates how to do this as required. Exposure to business reports and publications presenting summary statistics and graphical displays of data is assumed. No prior statistical knowledge is required. Participants will need access to MS Excel that can produce Histograms (see above).