This course teaches a foundation level introduction to the spreadsheet work environment, specifically the Microsoft Excel suite. Candidates will learn how to use the program from a basic operational basis until they are able to effectively gather, clean, manage, and organize data within the Excel framework. Candidates will learn how to import and export data from Excel from or into other platforms, specifically how to prepare data into a comma-separated values file (.csv) format for use in open-source analytical tools such as Python or R based systems. Additionally, Candidates will be introduced to online cloud-based spreadsheet tools like Google Sheets which encourages a multi-user collaborative workplace environment.

This course is relevant to the program because it teaches the first and most accessible data analysis tools: spreadsheets. Candidates will learn the basics of two spreadsheet suites, which will cover data collection, cleaning, sorting, management, and use. The course is designed to teach the software suits from zero prior knowledge.