This is the course that will help you walk right into a workplace as a data analyst with some knowledge of programming and working with business intelligence platforms specifically power BI from Microsoft Office. This course has a very practical angle with the theoretical knowledge necessary to become a data analyst hitting the ground running. This course covers some aspects of EXCEL and the programming language VBA which is software packages supplied by Microsoft. Power Business Intelligence (BI) which is free software from Microsoft and helps with data mining, process analysis, performance benchmarking, and descriptive analytics resulting in an increased competitive advantage is taught in this course. also provided for free by Microsoft. You will learn how to populate excel with data from the web and then write a program in VBA to pre-process the data for importing it into a power BI application. The two languages namely M-language and DAX in Power BI are discussed and the differences are pointed out. The case study which includes GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of most countries in the world with data from 1960 to 2020 is used throughout to practically apply all the concepts that are taught. Visuals including the slicer are taught in order to compare different countries with each other. To demonstrate individual as well as comparative analyses the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) are used. The course is divided and presented in 9 chapters. Below a brief description of each chapter.

CHAPTER 1: EXCEL AND VBA BASICS

This chapter will cover the concepts, principles, and terminology of programming languages. What is a syntax and an expression as well as how to develop program solving skills are discussed. A quick overview of the programming language of Microsoft Excel called Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) including declaring variables, message and input boxes, iterative loops, popular statements and benefits are also covered. Data analytics and the different types are also taught. How to make the developer tab visible is explained in this chapter.

CHAPTER 2: IMPORTING DATA AND USING VBA FOR PRE-PROCESSING

The importing of data into EXCEL from a webpage, that will then be used throughout the course to analyse and present the data, is demonstrated. The programming language VBA, with an ActiveX command box, is used to prepare the data in the correct format for importing into the Power BI application of Microsoft. The VBA program makes use of variable declaration, a message box, arrays and iterative loops. The case study using GDP (Gross Domestic Product which is a country’s total economic output) and population for more than 266 countries from 1960 to 2020 obtained from the world bank is introduced.

CHAPTER 3: POWER BI WHERE, WHY AND WHEN

Chapter 3 discusses what is business intelligence (BI), where and why it is used. BI strategies, tools, techniques, trends, software and systems are covered. The software Microsoft power BI parts, concepts and dashboard with its features are discussed. The power BI report, data and model views are covered.

CHAPTER 4: VISUALS, IMPORT, LINKING OF TABLES AND CREATING FIELDS

Standard Power BI visuals and best practices are covered. How to import the case study into power BI is shown in a video. The power BI query is introduced in a video where new fields for the case study are created using the power query editor and M-language. How to link tables are demonstrated.

CHAPTER 5: DAX AND THE M-LANGUAGE

The two languages of Power BI namely the M-language and DAX are discussed. The power query used for the M-language is shown along with its interface. The differences between the M language and DAX are pointed out as well as when to use M, and when do I use DAX.

CHAPTER 6: M-LANGUAGE CALCULATIONS

The key points about power query and the M-Language as well as the M-language syntax is discussed in this chapter. Some of the M-language functions are covered. Calculations using the M-language for the case study is demonstrated in a video.

CHAPTER 7: DAX CALCULATIONS

What DAX is, its key points and importance is discussed. DAX calculations for measures, columns, tables and row-level security is covered. DAX functions and statements are demonstrated. DAX calculations using Case study is done through a video.

CHAPTER 8: BASIC STATISTICS AND VISUALIZATIONS

Exploratory data analysis (EDA) statistical functions including measures of central tendencies and dispersion along with shape properties kurtosis and skewness are discussed. Practical examples of the standard visualizations in power BI are given along with the formatting of the visuals.

CHAPTER 9: COMPARATIVE ANALYSES USING THE SLICER

GDP growth comparative analyses of BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) is demonstrated through videos. Comparisons for BRICS countries using box plots on GDP per capita is illustrated for any chosen year from 1960 to 2020 . The line graphs, boxplots and scatter visualizations are all done using a slicer for choosing different countries or years.