Learner Reviews & Feedback for Finance for Non-Finance Professionals by Rice University

Course content is presented in a well-organised and logical manner. It is an excellent course if you want to review concepts of capital budgeting (like NPV, IRR, WACC, cost of equity, cost of debt, and DCF analysis). The professor uses Excel to solve problems, and the capstone case is also Excel-based, which adds another layer to the course. Overall, this short course if very good for reviewing basic concepts of capital budgeting, but might seem slightly difficult for those who have absolutely no background in finance.

An exceptional course that teaches all the basics of financial world to the professionals form every field. Concise modules which are taught very enthusiastically by the professor.

This was the first online course which I have ever taken, and I have to say that I absolutely loved it! The course is informative; the professor is excellent; the tests are relevant and practical, and the course is fairly priced -- especially compared to some of the other courses available on Coursera. The online material -- as in videos, documents, links and transcripts work very well -- and it has certainly led me to believe that I have received value for enrolling. I recommend this course to students and individuals who have a basic knowledge of economics (opportunity cost, etc) and have a basic interest in accounts and finance. Highly recommended! Thanks Professor Weston, Rice University and Coursera for a wonderful course! :)

James Weston's teaching style is great - he's enthusiastic, knowledgable, and simplifies the complex. As someone who was slightly intimidated by the concept of learning finance (which I have to do as a prerequisite for my graduate program), this was very easy to follow and grasp. This is basically a crash course for everything you need to know to get started on capital budgeting, taught in a logical, easy-to-digest format. Highly recommend to anyone that wants to get the basics down and can do the work with confidence by the time the course is over.

The course in general covers the most essential topic in finance that regular non-finance folks may wonder: how finance helps a company run by providing the tools and methods for the management to make sound decisions. The instructor goes through all the topics with clear and easily understood explanations while giving insights about the practical use in the finance field. Overall, I genuinely enjoy the learning process in this course, and I would like to express my gratitude to Professor James and Ms. Christine for sharing their knowledge with us.

Hello everyone,

I am a person from technical background who had an interest towards finance. The course started with the basic idea is to how actually things work in the field of finance and accounting, to financial statements and basics of how stock market works. I am satisfied to say that I got to learn a lot through the course and the instructor James Weston was quite through and simple to understand. I would recommend this course to every Non-Finance professional or student out there. Thank you Coursera!

Professor Weston was great at keeping me interested since he's able to explain all the financial terms in a way that someone who has never taken finance course beforehand could understand. The course was also structured in way that facilitated this understanding with more advanced topics introduced until later weeks while also helping reinforce previous subjects by touching upon them again. I'm now even more interested in going deeper into many of the topics. Thank you!

This is my first finance course where I have learnt the basic concepts, principles and tools to analyze finance problems. Overall this course is well-designed and the professor is very engaging. The final capstone case is a nice one to put everything together, although more clarification would be helpful. It would also be useful if some concepts and terminology could be explained more clearly via more practical examples. Thanks for the efforts for creating this course.

Very happy with the overall content, organization and curriculum of the course. It has allowed me to pear inside the world of finance from a theoretical and practical point of view. The exercises and problems presented proved challenging enough to seek external resources to further my understanding and of the appropriate level to not fall into frustration. Thank you Cousera, Rice university and Professor Weston for putting together this course.

Great course overall. Professor James Weston was articulate and interesting, often giving real-life examples or different ways to explain the points he was trying to bring across. I believe I now have a basic understanding of the underlying principles of finance. Would recommend Prof Weston to conduct intermediate and advanced level finance courses so students (like myself) could continue to build on the principles taught in this course.

definately one of the best online courses I took. its available to audit and provides some solid information and is nicely presented. explanations were clear and the reading material was actually quite good. my financial literacy was already quite good but this actually made it even better. I've always understood financial statements and the stock market however I now under stand the maths behind valuation models. very beneficial.

Good Day

Dear Sir , Ma'am ,

I sincerely thank Rice University and Coursera Platform for this opportunity .

Thanks and Warm Regards.

ABHIJIT SENGUPTA

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This is the best introduction to Finance I've ever received, and I worked alongside a Finance department for two years! The Finance concepts are made easy to understand and the quizzes are challenging enough to keep you going without being put off. I'd recommend this course to anyone who wants to understand how finance in business works, as the depth it goes to is pretty impressive for how short the course is.

Finance may not be easy, as always, but it is still worth learning when it comes to math-related terms. It helps grow the knowledge of bonds, stocks, cash flows, initial investments, etc. as well as math formulas related to finance. Plus, I can use Excel to help make complicated things easy (ie. NPV, IRR). I highly recommend this course to anyone interested in finance, but with no experience (just like me).

Excellent course to give an overview of the Financial World. If you want to know the finances of your project or what the Finance Department in your organization does, this is the course to take. The course strikes the right balance between theory and practical examples and perfect for learners with little or not Financial experience. A big thanks to Professor Weston. Loved and enjoyed the course.

This is a great course for non-finance professionals. The course expectations can be met even with a working schedule and other outside commitments. The time level required to complete is reasonable. The instructor does an excellent job presenting the material and the capstone project brings it all together in a "real world" environment at the end. Overall I enjoyed the class very much. Thanks!

Would one hundred percent recommend this course, professor Weston is really good at explaining details of vague concepts and provide you with many questions to practice.

One thing I would say is that the final capstone case is harder than expected, so you might need to consult your previous notes and read the context very carefully. Overall, great class I have ever taken online!

The way the professor has explained things is really noteworthy. Understanding the concepts to initiate more reading is the most important aspect i found in this course. Please suggest more reading resources if possible. Forums need to be more active as well.

Thank you for introducing finance. I will definitely make use of this knowledge for further transactions with finance.

Mr. James Weston is such a great instructor! I was able to understand most of these materials because of how clear the deliverance to us (viewer). Slight problem with The Capstone Case which has several 'unclear' instructions/questions. But overall it was challenging. As long as you follow the course carefully, you will pass all the assignments with great understanding.

Very helpful course. I have a liberal arts background, but the instructor makes the content and concepts easy to digest for anyone. It's a well-organized course so you feel like you're building on what you're learning each week. It definitely made me feel more confident in my career change from the non-profit space to business. I highly recommend this course.

Delighted to learn the basics of Finance in a very effective manner which I could not have learnt thru the books. Really the teaching methodology leaves the long lasting positive punch on my mind and examples relates to the basic understanding. Quizzes are really nice and test and revises our understanding of the subject. Thanks and Regards____ Bimal Mehta

Though I am a technical professional, I have taken this course to improve my financial knowledge to make the decisions easily for my personal as well as professional financial management. This course is really a great learning for me and the style of learning was excellent. I will definitely recommend to all professionals to take this course.

Si nunca has estudiado finanzas y quieres empezar a conocer las herramientas financieras para tomar decisiones de proyectos este es el curso ideal. Si nunca has visto nada de finanzas, al inicio vas a batallar porque todo es nuevo pero todo está muy bien explicado y a lo largo de las 5 semanas vas a tener las bases para tomar decisiones.

One of the interesting courses I've attended. It incorporates all the basic concepts involved in a finance environment, and helps you get a clear idea about applying them in all sorts of firms. It also consists of an assignment i.e a capstone example where we need to apply all the concepts in a real life scenario, which is interesting.

1) It's not boring

2) It's very helpful

3) It's very easy to follow

Prof. Weston did a terrific job in making this course very easy to follow and understand, particularly for someone with non-finance background like myself. The videos and materials are also well-made and are much better than those in other courses I've applied before.