Teaching Excel in the Workplace

[MrKowz]

Hey everyone!

I'm going to be teaching my fellow coworkers Excel (in one-hour weekly sessions), starting with the new year, and I would like some input/suggestions from anyone who has taught Excel before.

Currently, the following topics are in my agenda (note this is not the order that I will be holding the classes):

Cell Formatting
Conditional Formatting
Handy Built-In Tools
IF Statements
Intro to Excel
Lookup Formulas (Beginner)
Lookup Formulas (Intermediate)
Macros (Beginner)
Macros (Internediate)
Pivot Tables (Beginner)
Pivot Tables (Intermediate)
Sorts and Filters
String Operations (Beginner)
String Operations (Intermediate)
Sum and Count formulas
Timesaving Shortcuts

Any other topics that come to mind as being invaluable to an office that relies heavily on massive amounts of data? Any particular topics that you've found to be invaluable given the productivity increase vs ease of learning?

Thanks, and cheers!

 

[Oaktree]

You might find this thread helpful:

http://www.mrexcel.com/forum/showthread.php?t=214431

 

[MrKowz]

AWESOME thread, Oaktree. Thanks!

 

[mikerickson]

Named ranges, values and formulas aren't on the list.

 

[MrKowz]

Named ranges, values and formulas aren't on the list.

Ahh - named ranges. Thanks for pointing that out!

How would you recommend I go about attacking "Values" and "Formulas"? Just explain the difference between the two, or cover a synopsis of the most commonly used ones (sum, count, if, etc)?

 

[Joe4]

I have taught some classes for my co-workers in the past too. I think the most important thing is to understand what their needs are, what they do on a daily basis, and tailor your training to that. Otherwise, most of them will just forget about all the stuff they will never use.

 

[mikerickson]

Ahh - named ranges. Thanks for pointing that out!

How would you recommend I go about attacking "Values" and "Formulas"? Just explain the difference between the two, or cover a synopsis of the most commonly used ones (sum, count, if, etc)?

Named ranges (e.g. =Sheet1!$A$1:$C$10) are really Named Formulas.

The name of the lesson would be "Named Formulas (called Named Ranges if they refer to a constant range)"

Hit the formula angle very lightly at first. Then conscentrate on fixed Named Ranges and absolute/relative addressing in RefersTo. Then remind the students of the formula angle when it comes time for Dynamic Named Ranges.

Another thing missing from your list is Array Formulas.

 

[MrKowz]

I have taught some classes for my co-workers in the past too. I think the most important thing is to understand what their needs are, what they do on a daily basis, and tailor your training to that. Otherwise, most of them will just forget about all the stuff they will never use.

Yeah, I have an e-mail already out to the supervisor of each of the three teams in my office, asking that I sit with them for a bit to show me what data they use on a daily basis, and how they currently use that data.

 

[Joe4]

Funny thing is, even though I tailored my training to what they do, half of them forgot it anyway (and never really bothered to try to use it).

Suppose it is just easier to ask IT to do it than to learn anything!!!

 

[MrKowz]

Named ranges (e.g. =Sheet1!$A$1:$C$10) are really Named Formulas.

The name of the lesson would be "Named Formulas (called Named Ranges if they refer to a constant range)"

Hit the formula angle very lightly at first. Then conscentrate on fixed Named Ranges and absolute/relative addressing in RefersTo. Then remind the students of the formula angle when it comes time for Dynamic Named Ranges.

Another thing missing from your list is Array Formulas.

Aye, I'll be touching on Array-Lookups in the Intermediate level, but delving deeper into what an array formula is, and how they work, will be a good topic.