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Data analysis: visualisations in Excel
Evidence comes in the form of qualitative or quantitative data about the world around you. It is not always obvious, however, how to structure, aggregate, analyse or interpret the data to help you make decisions. In this free course, you will look at how to use data to make decisions in a systematic way using Microsoft Excel.
Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet software that you will most likely encounter numerous times either in a professional context or outside the workplace. In this course you will explore its functions, which will enable you to analyse data and explore relationships between variables. You will learn to summarise, describe and visualise both univariate and bivariate data in tabular and graphical form. Please note: this course will require the use Microsoft Excel or a similar program.
This OpenLearn course is an adapted extract from the Open University course B126 Business data analytics and decision making.
Course learning outcomes
After studying this course, you should be able to:
- explore the functionalities of Excel that are used for problem solving in a business context
- demonstrate the numeracy skills required for gathering and organising data for decision making related to a specific problem
- use graphical techniques (histograms and scatter diagrams) to provide a visual summary of available data
- recognise data presentation and communication techniques used in a range of traditional and electronic media
- describe the relationship between two variables (independent and dependent variables).
First Published: 15/10/2025
Updated: 15/10/2025
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