Spring 2027

Foundational Skills for Business Analysis

Foundational Skills for Business Analysis builds business analysis skills using Excel, covering data construction, manipulation, summarization, analysis, and presentation.

offering recorded1 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Michael Hernke4.2/5

Summary

1 / 4

Past student reviews · Michael Hernke

Students reported spending about an hour per week on the class, which was pass/fail and considered very easy.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Apply fundamental skills in structuring business information.

  • Organize, search and analyze business data.

  • Apply advanced skills in data summarization and analysis.

  • Visualize and present information.

  • Apply introductory programming skills.

  • Explain recent developments in ‘data informed’ business problem solving.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades

No recorded grade history.

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

None

  • None
GENBUS 106 used by

“Used by” includes alternatives; linked courses may have other requirements. This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • None

Professors

Spring 2027

Michael Hernke

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.44/5 from 41 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

For this course: 5.0/5 raw quality · 1.6/5 difficulty · 11 reviews

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Past student reviews · Michael Hernke

This online asynchronous course is graded pass/fail, requiring students to achieve 80% on four sections of retakeable quizzes. Students reported spending about an hour per week and found the Excel videos more useful than the readings for mastering basic functions.

Michael Hernke was described as accommodating and understanding, often allowing resubmissions to fix mistakes even past deadlines. Students noted he was supportive and genuinely wanted them to succeed in the class.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

MICHAEL HERNKE is recorded teaching in Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2025, Fall 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Online Only0 / 6950
LEC 100Online Only0 / 250

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records

No records available.

Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Michael Hernke

This online, asynchronous course covered Excel basics through four sections, requiring students to achieve 80% on quizzes to pass.

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Michael Hernke

Students reported spending about an hour per week on the class, which was pass/fail and considered very easy.

Past student reviews · Michael Hernke

Professor Hernke gave good feedback and allowed resubmissions to fix mistakes even after deadlines, indicating he wanted students to pass.

Topics

  • Business analysis with Excel
  • Data construction, manipulation, summarization, analysis, and presentation
  • Data-informed business problem solving

Skills

  • Business analysis using Excel
  • Structuring business information
  • Organizing, searching, and analyzing business data
  • Data summarization and analysis
  • Visualizing and presenting information
  • Introductory programming
  • Data-informed business problem solving

Grades

Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

No grades available yet.

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

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Selected offering source records
GENBUS 106 · Spring 2027

Foundational Skills for Business Analysis

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:231:026107",
    "course_id": "GENBUS 106",
    "course_uid": "course_599573b4a6d58f11c011317a",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "026107",
    "source_subject_id": "231",
    "title": "Foundational Skills for Business Analysis",
    "credits_min": 1,
    "credits_max": 1,
    "typically_offered": "Not Applicable"
  }
]
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Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

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Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
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Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "35fd1c79f37866545c9108dc41e1ac1677f4ca4dff85b29a81affb911c481266",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}