It seems that more and more jobs these days require some level of proficiency in Microsoft Excel. For people who didn’t learn how to use the program in school, this can lead to long and frustrating hours of using the Help option or learning by trial and error. This is certainly not an efficient way of learning of the program. Despite this, it’s rare for companies to provide training in Excel because they just assume that you know how to use it.
Online learning is a convenient, inexpensive way of growing your Excel skills. To help you out, here is a list of the top online Excel training programs.
8 Excellent Online Excel Training Programs
Lynda
Lynda is well known in the world of online learning, and for good reason. There are thousands of videos teaching a mind-boggling array of skills. These skills also include Excel training, with 113 different courses and over 4,000 video tutorials just for Excel.
You can easily find something that matches your skill level and how you want to use the program with a little clicking around through the options. For example, check out this certificate prep course for becoming an Excel expert. Or maybe you have more specific purposes, like using Excel to make data-driven decisions in your classroom.
The downside is that Lynda subscriptions can be expensive, starting at $20 month. You can always try to finish quickly or see if your company will pay for the training. Many public libraries and universities also offer access to Lynda for patrons. If you’re stuck footing the bill for your own subscription, be sure to start with a free trial to make sure it’s a good fit for you.
Excel Exposure
The Excel Exposure website provides a comprehensive course with enough flexibility that it’s comparable to Lynda. There is not nearly the breadth of courses and applications, but there are tons of free lessons that would be pretty easy to tailor to your needs. They provide an online Excel training course guide recommendation that can help you figure out how to get started. If you already know a few of the basics, you can always pick a spot and jump in. Because it’s free, there’s no certificate to earn. The benefit of no certificate, of course, is that you can skip courses if you already know the material.
Although there is a wide variety of courses, many of the more advanced lessons are still in the process of being added to the site. Obviously, this is a great resource for beginners. However, those who are already advanced and just looking to up their skills may need to look elsewhere until everything is up and running.
Microsoft Excel from Udemy
This six-hour course from Udemy is a great buy for total newbies to Excel. It teaches beginning from the very basics, and it costs only $25 (although you can sometimes find it on sale for $10). It’s taught by Todd McLeod, who has years of experience teaching Excel. The courses are very easy to follow and can teach absolute beginners lots of valuable skills.
The courses are advertised as “beginner to expert,” but expert is probably a bit of a stretch. However, it does provide precious information that even competent users might not be familiar with. At $25 for unlimited access to an online Excel training, it’s definitely on the cheaper end of the paid courses. It’s a great value, even if you may not be an “expert” by the end. You’ll also get a certificate of completion out of it, which will look good on your resume.
Chandoo’s Basic Excel Skills
Chandoo provides a great free resource for the Excel beginner. It doesn’t come with all the bells and whistles of the paid programs, and you won’t get a certificate, but it’s a great place to get started. The explanations are easy to understand and there are several demonstration videos. It will teach you all the navigation basics. Once you’ve mastered the basics, there are dozens of links to tutorials on more advanced features.
Udemy’s Advanced Microsoft Excel Course
Although this course is advertised as “advanced,” the topics are perhaps more appropriately named intermediate. Nevertheless, Udemy’s Advanced Microsoft Excel Course is a great introduction to some powerful tools in Excel, including pivot tables, charts, and macros. It’s not terribly domain-specific, which makes it appropriate for a lot of different users.
You do have to pay for this online excel training ($50 but you can sometimes catch it on sale for as little as $10), but access is unlimited and you get a certificate at the end. Those certificates look great on your resume.
Wharton’s Introduction to Spreadsheets and Models
Wharton Online has put out an advanced online Excel training course on Coursera. It’s structured as MOOC (massive open online course), so you can pay for it and earn a certificate or simply follow the lessons and exercises for free. It’s designed to take about four weeks of study, but you can take up to 180 days to complete the certificate. If you’re doing the free version, you can work at any pace.
Emory’s Forecasting Models for Marketing Decisions
Another great MOOC on our list of online excel training is Emory’s course geared toward using Excel for marketing decisions. This course is designed for people who already have some knowledge of Excel and basic statistical methods, so it’s definitely not recommended for beginners. If you’d like a little more background knowledge before tackling this course, Emory lists prerequisites and makes them available online as well.
As you can see, there are plenty of options for online Excel training, and you can easily find something to fit your needs. What are you hoping to learn from Excel? Have you found any great resources for online Excel training that we missed? Let us know in the comments!
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