A scaffolded learning approach to increasing student comfort with Microsoft Excel

Abstract

As the availability and importance of data to support marketing decision-making continue to grow, universities need to prepare students for working in data-rich environments. Part of this preparation involves equipping students with skills necessary to access, manipulate, organize, explore, summarize, and visualize data. Microsoft Excel is a widely used tool for these tasks. We present results obtained across four years and seven sections of an undergraduate Marketing Metrics and Analytics courses that demonstrate the effectiveness of a scaffolded learning approach for enhancing student comfort with Excel. To support instructors who teach Marketing Metrics and Analytics courses, we provide the framework of assignments that we have found to effectively grow student confidence in using Excel.