Best Excel Classes On-Demand: Reviews, Ratings, & Comparison

Discover the power of Microsoft Excel and unlock its advanced features to complete tedious tasks quickly and efficiently. Learn how to manipulate data, format documents, and organize huge datasets to easily analyze numbers and perform data calculations.

Microsoft Excel is the industry-standard spreadsheet software around the world. Professionals who know how to use Excel’s functions and features contribute in many ways to their organization. With the help of macros, they can complete repetitive tasks like data report manipulations and document formatting in just minutes rather than spending hours doing so. By organizing huge datasets in different ways with the help of this application’s advanced features and sorting options, Excel users easily analyze numbers and perform data calculations. 

Excel training is a great way to increase your value in the workplace and provide you with the skills needed to advance professionally. If you can demonstrate to your employer that you know how to work with Excel’s functions and features, you are much less likely to be replaced by employees with this knowledge. Not only does Excel proficiency bring increased productivity and improve your job prospects, but it also can make work easier. The more you know about navigating the Excel app and the more shortcuts you commit to memory, the easier it will be to perform a range of professional spreadsheet tasks. In addition, Excel shortcuts often have applications in other Microsoft 365 programs, which helps streamline workflow. Because of how many employers rely on those who have Excel expertise, the more you know about this spreadsheet app, the more opportunities you are likely to have as a professional, and the more you are likely to be paid for your contributions.

If you’re looking to study Excel in the self-paced environment, many top providers offer on-demand Excel coursework.

The 10 Best On-Demand Excel Classes & Schools

If you’re looking to study Excel in the virtual environment, on-demand coursework is a great starting place. The following sections will take a closer look at some on-demand Excel training options so you can find the best match for you.

1. Coursera’s Excel Skills for Business

Coursera’s Excel Skills for Business Specialization comprises four shorter business Excel classes. This class is broken into four parts: Essentials, Intermediate I, Intermediate II, and Advanced. It teaches students how to use Excel to tackle a range of business problems. Those enrolled learn to work with PivotTables, macros, and data forecasting. Participants also study how to create dashboards. This 24-week course requires between three and five hours of time a week to complete. Financial aid is available. This class is also available for free for individuals who aren’t seeking a certification.

2. Chandoo.org’s VBA Classes

If you’re looking for Excel instructions specific to VBA, Chandoo’s programs are available. These classes cover topics like writing VBA code, as well as working with loops, variables, cells, and ranges. Different price points are available depending on how much content you wish to access. For online viewing only, VBA coursework costs $97. This price package includes 13 VBA lesson modules, 21 hours of video, a workbook with 50 examples, an eBook, and six months of access to Chandoo’s classroom area. For $147, students are able to download course materials and videos. The $247 learning package provides 25 lesson modules on Excel and VBA, 45 hours of Excel and VBA videos, 90 examples, and a year of classroom area access. The $347 package offers 31 modules, 53 hours of video content, and more than 100 examples. All packages offer a 30-day money-back guarantee.

3. Excel Exposure’s Online Excel Training Course

For those who thrive on video-based learning, this short course is for you. Excel lessons are taught by video examples that teach participants various spreadsheet skills. In this self-paced class, students learn a variety of Excel topics like conditional formatting, cell referencing, math and statistical functions, PowerPivot, and data sorting. This class is geared toward beginners, but its content can accommodate those with intermediate to advanced Excel training. Those interested in signing up can take a premium course that costs $59/month or a one-time payment of $197 for lifetime access. Free lessons are also offered on this provider’s website.

4. Noble Desktop’s Top Ten Beginner Excel Trick You Need to Know

If you’re looking for a short Excel that teaches some basic Excel tricks, Noble’s hour-long webinar is a great option. Those who watch this free, hour-long video learn time-saving tips and tricks for working with charts, autofill, absolute cell references, data validation, and inserting screenshots. Participants work with data validation, splitting and joining text, and duplicate removal as well.

5. GoSkill’s Getting to Know Excel

GoSkill’s classes are offered inside Microsoft Office apps, which allows users to apply what they are learning directly to Excel. This fully online, self-paced class is available for free. It includes seven lessons that teach students topics like using the Excel ribbon, working with the mouse or keyboard to select cells or ranges, creating files and tables, formatting worksheets and workbooks using colors, and performing basic mathematical calculations in Excel. GoSkills also offers other courses on topics like optimizing data, presenting and reporting, validating and updating, and preparing to deploy. Various price plans are available, in addition to some free video content and a free trial period.

6. Rice University’s Introduction to Data Analysis Using Excel

This beginner-level course is intended for learners who are new to using Excel. Students learn basic uses for spreadsheets. By course completion, those enrolled will be familiar with Excel skills like organizing and filtering data, and using PivotTables and VLOOKUP. This self-paced course can be completed in approximately one month with between one and three hours of work a week. It requires a subscription to Coursera for access. Certificates are issued to those who successfully complete this program. A subscription to Coursera Plus costs $59/month. Those who do not require a certificate of completion can take this class for free.

7. Udemy’s Microsoft Excel: Business Intelligence with Power Query & DAX

This course is intended for learners interested in mastering BI tools as well as data modeling. Seven hours of on-demand video content are available to help students learn tools like Power Pivot, Power Query, and DAX. This class costs $17 and provides a certificate of completion for those who successfully finish all lessons. 

8. Shaw Academy’s MS Excel Training Course Online

For those interested in taking their Excel skills from beginner to expert, Shaw Academy’s MS Excel Training Course Online is a good option. This class provides Excel users with the training needed to work in a business-related field. Participants in this 16-week course learn through text and video in the virtual class setting. Those enrolled learn Excel skills such as working with spreadsheets, applying formulas, and using VBA. This full-time class is free.

9. ExcelJet’s Excel Shortcuts

If you are interested in boosting your productivity with the help of Excel, Excel Shortcuts can help you do so. Participants in this two-hour video-based class receive instruction on how to unlock the most powerful spreadsheet features that can help you perform tasks faster and more efficiently. Over 200 Excel shortcuts are covered in this class. Learners all receive practice worksheets and lifetime access to all ExcelJet courses. Tuition costs $39. A 15% discount is available for those interested in bundling classes. A 30-day money-back guarantee is offered on this class.

10. UBCx’s Excel for Everyone Professional Certificate

Excel for Everyone is available from UBCx. This program comprises three courses that take students from introductory-level Excel concepts into more advanced skills. Those enrolled receive guidance on how to use Excel to perform business data analysis tasks such as entering and manipulating data, using formulas, tables, functions, and charts, and creating engaging data visualizations. In addition, more advanced spreadsheet skills are also covered such as working with macros to automate repetitive tasks, as well as using VBA. Those who complete this class receive a professional certificate, which is provided by edX. This program is self-paced. It takes the average learner approximately five months to complete studies. Tuition is $402.

Industries That Use Excel

Because Excel is the industry-standard spreadsheet application for professionals around the globe, it’s used in a variety of industries and professions. Those whose job entails working with data often use Excel to organize, analyze, and visualize this information. The following sections will take a brief look at how Excel is used in different industries.

Data Analyst

Data Analysts are involved with studying data to spot valuable insights that can help an organization better understand its customers and tackle any problems it encounters. The information found during the data analytics process is presented to stakeholders within the company to fuel the decision-making process. With the help of Excel, Data Analysts are able to view and organize information easily. This helps them retrieve information as needed and gather insights from these data. The analytics process can provide actionable insights such as revenue patterns, operational information, marketing trends, and profit margins. Data Analysts who work with complex data can customize Excel functions and fields to perform calculations.

One of the main benefits of working with Excel is that it allows Data Analysts to easily handle large datasets containing segmented data. This information can be analyzed and transformed into data visualizations like graphs or charts without the need for other software. In addition, a spreadsheet is a valuable analytics tool because it provides a small snapshot of a much larger project. Because Excel can perform calculations quickly and accurately, it saves Data Analysts time and reduces errors that can occur along the way.

Administrative Assistant

Most Administrative Assistants regularly use spreadsheets. They rely on Excel to perform tasks like scheduling appointments, organizing documents, storing employee contact information, and scheduling appointments. Because of how prevalent Excel is in this field, many employers require those applying for positions to pass an Excel exam to be considered for employment.

Data Journalist

Data Journalists collect digital information like numerical data and online analytics to discover avenues into stories. These professionals must handle large amounts of data to ensure their stories are backed up with credible and reliable information. They use software like Excel and Tableau to analyze and visualize their data findings and enhance their narratives using infographics and charts. Many Data Journalists begin their data journey with an Excel spreadsheet since it requires no high-level database knowledge or advanced coding expertise.

When Data Journalists sort data in an Excel worksheet, they can sometimes spot important insights such as extreme values, underlying trends, outliers, or patterns. These numbers can provide proof to be used in reporting and add credibility to a Data Journalist’s storytelling. Another useful Excel feature for data journalism is filtering. The Filter tool can be used to examine one portion of data in a larger collection. Filtering worksheet data is a time-saving tool that helps Data Journalists avoid performing this task manually, which can take many hours. Excel’s many built-in functions can be used to calculate statistical values like the number of murders per 10,000 city residents. The results can then be compared to other cities’ rates. PivotTables are another useful feature for Data Journalists. They can be used to rearrange data on the spot, as well as to filter and summarize data to display immediate conclusions.

Accountant

Excel knowledge is one of the most common requirements to become an Accountant. Accountants must work with a variety of financial statements, like tax returns, income statements, and cash flow documents. They must make sure the data contained in these documents is organized so it can be accessed as needed. Excel spreadsheets provide a convenient and useful tool for organizing and storing this information. Accountants who work with Excel organize information in rows and columns and can use a command to locate important information in these cells. In addition, Excel’s formulas and functions perform mathematical calculations directly in the worksheet, which offers a convenient and accurate way to make any necessary data calculations.

Cost Estimator

Cost Estimators work closely with other professionals like Contractors or Project Managers. They gather and analyze data to make estimates pertaining to the amount of money, time, labor, and material required to perform tasks like constructing a building, creating a product, or offering a service to customers. Most Cost Estimators specialize in a particular industry or product such as cars, bridges, software systems, or aircraft. Excel helps Cost Estimators sort and organize past projects they have completed. This helps them avoid repeating any prior mistakes and provides a convenient way to access any information that can be used for the current project. In addition, Excel helps Cost Estimators clearly display their estimates on workforce, cost, or time, and to share this information with others in the form of data visualizations.

Business Analyst

In the business sector, large volumes of data are collected pertaining to website traffic, insurance claims, product sales, and supply spending. Excel is a valuable tool for uncovering data patterns that can be used to help policymakers with their decision-making process. Those who work in business analytics often collaborate with others and share their data insights with various team members, as well as others who work in different departments and external stakeholders. This app’s collaborative features let Business Analysts share their work with others in real time so that anyone working on a given project has the most up-to-date information. In addition, Excel’s VBA programming language helps Business Analysts automate repetitive tasks and create macros to perform actions in just seconds that would otherwise take hours to complete.

It’s estimated that over halfof all businesses use Excel. Business Analysts work with this spreadsheet app to execute many tasks. These professionals use a range of Excel features, formulas, and functions to help them handle business data. They use IF formulas to perform fast and efficient data filtering based on specified criteria. Business Analysts use VLOOKUP to find values in tables and columns. Excel spreadsheets can be formatted to display data in a manner that places the important information where it’s easy to access, and any extraneous spreadsheet data isn’t distracting. Often, Business Analysts use charts or graphs with various colors to highlight important data insights.

Excel Jobs & Salaries

Excel plays an integral role in many professions and industries. Since it’s the most widely used spreadsheet tool available, those who work with this app do so in different ways depending on their career. Professionals who work with Excel also are paid different salaries based on their field of employment, experience level, and professional role. Pay rates for those with Excel training also depend on geographical location. Typically, areas with a higher cost of living such as major cities, provide more competitive pay rates for those with Excel expertise. However, for the positions listed below, pay rates are fairly consistent across the US. The following sections will briefly examine the salaries for three Excel-related career paths, business analytics, financial analytics, and accounting, and how much these pay rates vary depending on the area of employment.

Financial Analysts Career Path

In the US, the current average pay for a Financial Analyst with Excel skills is $75,000 annually. Pay rates in various cities differ from this average. For example, Financial Analysts who live in Washington, DC make closer to $70,000 a year. Miami-based Financial Analysts earn about the national average of $75,000. Those who work in financial analytics in the Toledo, Ohio area make just under $75,000 in yearly salary.

Business Analyst Career Path

The national average salary for US-based Business Analysts is slightly above $80,000. This pay rate is fairly consistent across cities in the US. Business Analysts working in the DC metropolitan area also earn around $80,000 a year. Those who work in Miami can expect a similar pay rate of around $80,000 annually. Likewise, Business Analysts with Excel training who live and work in Toledo can expect to make about $80,000 a year.

Accountant Career Path

Accountants with a background in Microsoft Excel are in-demand in a range of cities. The national average yearly salary for Accountants in the US is about $60,000. This pay rate is largely consistent across major US cities. Those who are employed in the DC area earn around the national average and make a yearly salary of $60,000. This pay rate also is in keeping with what professionals in Miami make for accounting positions: $60,000 yearly. Toledo-based Accountants, too, earn around $60,000 annually.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is an On-demand Excel Class Worth It?

Learning Excel through on-demand coursework can be a useful and rewarding experience. Self-motivated learners, in particular, may find this learning format effective. It allows the flexibility of deciding what you want to study, when you’d like to learn it, and how much time you intend to spend on coursework. On-demand Excel coursework can be completed from any location with an internet connection, which makes it a good training format for individuals who regularly travel for work, have full professional schedules or have family commitments. 

If, however, you are a learner who does better in a supported learning environment, you may wish instead to consider more structured study options. Coursework such as in-person study or live virtual courses provide you with access to an instructor, which is not an option for on-demand Excel content. For some learners, self-paced content is a good starting point in their Excel learning journey. It can provide an overview of this spreadsheet application’s core tools and features, and help you learn to navigate the interface. If you’d like to master more advanced Excel skills, live coursework may be a more effective study method.

What Will I Need for an On-demand Excel Class?

If you’d like to study Excel in the on-demand format, you will need a computer with a reliable internet connection. This device should have Excel installed on it so that you can complete coursework and revisit the materials you learn after the conclusion of class. You can purchase Excel directly from the Microsoft website and download it onto your personal device. Excel can be acquired as a one-time purchase or bought as a monthly subscription that includes other Office 365 apps such as Outlook, Word, and PowerPoint. In addition, a free Microsoft 365 trial is also available from Microsoft for those who want to become familiar with Excel before committing to purchase. No other software or tools are necessary for on-demand Excel study.

Can I Learn Excel On-demand for Free?

One of the benefits of on-demand Excel study is the sheer amount of content available on this topic. Educators post YouTube videos and channels, online blogs, tutorials, and a range of written and pre-recorded content on Excel. On-demand material is available on introductory-level Excel concepts, as well as intermediate and advanced spreadsheet skills. Learners can select from short videos that span a minute or so to long courses that take hours to complete. Some self-paced Excel study material is available for purchase from educational providers and other content is offered for free.

Free self-paced Excel material is a good first step toward mastering Excel. It offers a low-stakes way to become familiar with this application without having to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars. You can also learn basic skills, like summing and averaging Excel spreadsheet values, using free online tutorials. If you’re looking to learn more complicated Excel skills for professional reasons, you likely will need to continue on to more structured coursework, like that which is available in the in-person or live online learning environment. On-demand material does not include the benefit of an instructor, which can make it difficult for some learners to find answers to their spreadsheet questions. 

Is It Better to Learn Excel in a Live or Self-paced Class?

If you’re committed to learning Excel in the online environment, you can select from live virtual coursework as well as self-paced materials. Live online Excel study provides participants with

Both live online and self-paced Excel study can be completed remotely, which makes either format a good option for those who have busy schedules. One important difference is that self-paced content is pre-recorded and can be completed at any time, whereas live online classes meet at regularly scheduled intervals. Those looking to study Excel in the live virtual format must therefore arrange their schedules to attend classes and complete assignments.

Although live online classwork tends to be a bit more expensive than on-demand materials, the interactive element it provides can help learners remember information and retain it for longer. It also allows them to connect with other learners, which can be a valuable networking opportunity. Live online classes offer the additional incentive of providing all learners with a live instructor who is there to provide hands-on training, offer real-world Excel examples, and answer questions as they arise. No instructor is present in on-demand content, which means students who wish to study in this format have to find answers on their own to pressing Excel questions.

Another benefit of live online study is that it generally offers current spreadsheet information. On-demand content can be uploaded by anyone, even those who do not come from an educational background. This can make it difficult to find self-paced Excel content that is the most up-to-date and reflects current best practices. Regardless of whether you decide to study in the self-paced or live online environment, it’s essential to research the provider and decide if the material is a good match for your learning needs.