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Old 8th December 2019, 10:42   #1
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How to learn VBA / Python programming?

Hi Team,

Several employees in our firm have expressed interest in learning programming in order to automate some of their daily tasks. The automation will enable them to spend less time on mundane tasks and allow more time to be dedicated to data analysis. Majority of our work is done in Excel and hence we want to focus on learning VBA and Python initially.

I know that there are several programming experts on this forum and I wanted to seek their guidance for helping beginners like us who have no prior programming experience.

In the past, we have had training sessions where an external vendor would come and explain the basics of a particular programming language. However, the feedback has not been very positive in terms of knowledge retention.

In your opinion, what would be the best way to start learning programming? Do you think it is better to learn from an instructor or join an online course (free/paid)? Are there any online websites which impart programming lessons at an affordable cost? I have to confess that I find programming to be a complex learning activity. I had a programming course in my first year of engineering and I struggled to pass that course. Many of my colleagues consider programming to be difficult and are finding it hard to overcome this mental block.

I would really appreciate if anyone can share resources which might help us kick start our programming journey.
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Old 8th December 2019, 11:14   #2
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re: How to learn VBA / Python programming?

Check out for Udemy, it’s well know website for online learning courses. Currently they have sale for courses going as low as ₹400/-

https://www.udemy.com/courses/search/?q=python
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Old 8th December 2019, 15:49   #3
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re: How to learn VBA / Python programming?

Quote:
Originally Posted by firstdrive View Post
Check out for Udemy,
Most Udemy courses are available on torrent websites. If official certification is not one's main objective, then ne can use those too.
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Old 9th December 2019, 10:09   #4
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Re: How to learn VBA / Python programming?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Saanil View Post
I would really appreciate if anyone can share resources which might help us kick start our programming journey.
I understood the basic from the python website itself - https://wiki.python.org/moin/BeginnersGuide

Check out the guides here. They are pretty useful.

Another useful place is the python sub reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/Python

Lots of real people there so getting tips, helps and suggestion is easy.
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Old 9th December 2019, 10:21   #5
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Re: How to learn VBA / Python programming?

When I started, I took the free version of 'Programming for Everybody - Getting started with Python' course from Coursera. There are a huge bunch of materials, both video and PDFs are available online.

Our company subscribes to Udemy's business account, so we all get free access to most of the courses. If it is for your firm, I recommend going the Udemy Business account way. What is not 'very clear' from one instructor may be 'very clear' in another instructors class. And having a business account will help your employees choose from any courses available.

Unless the employees are already using the technology in their day-to-day operations, I don't see any benefits from 4-5 days class-room crash courses. Most forget all the stuff they learned in 4-5 days in huge chunks.

P.S:- I am not associated with Udemy, other than having subscribed to some of their courses.

Last edited by DudeWithaFiat : 9th December 2019 at 10:23.
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Old 9th December 2019, 10:40   #6
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Re: How to learn VBA / Python programming?

Learning through courses is not going to be very effective.
Ask them to take up a project which they would have done in Excel/ VBA and replicate the same in Python - this way, they stay motivated (because they are working on a problem which has to be solved) and in doing so, learn how to use the tool (Python) to solve the problem.

For references - the best place would be the official Python docs.
Also realpython.com and pythonprogramming.net are good.
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Old 9th December 2019, 11:31   #7
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Re: How to learn VBA / Python programming?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Saanil View Post
In the past, we have had training sessions where an external vendor would come and explain the basics of a particular programming language. However, the feedback has not been very positive in terms of knowledge retention.
Changing the medium will not resolve the issue at hand (highlighted part).

This will:
Quote:
Originally Posted by ZedMae View Post
Ask them to take up a project which they would have done in Excel/ VBA and replicate the same in Python - this way, they stay motivated (because they are working on a problem which has to be solved) and in doing so, learn how to use the tool (Python) to solve the problem.
Agreed with this approach, there is no better way to retain knowledge than by applying it while one learns.
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Old 9th December 2019, 11:32   #8
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Re: How to learn VBA / Python programming?

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Originally Posted by firstdrive View Post
Check out for Udemy, it’s well know website for online learning courses. Currently they have sale for courses going as low as ₹400/-
I will check out Udemy. Thanks for the suggestion!

Quote:
Originally Posted by sharktale View Post
Most Udemy courses are available on torrent websites. If official certification is not one's main objective, then ne can use those too.
I am not keen to use torrents for official office work. There can lots of compliance issues in my firm for using torrents.

Quote:
Originally Posted by blackwasp View Post
I understood the basic from the python website itself - https://wiki.python.org/moin/BeginnersGuide
Thanks for posting the links. It seems that you were quite motivated to learn as it requires a lot of effort to go through tons of online material and learn without any instructor.

Quote:
Originally Posted by DudeWithaFiat View Post

Our company subscribes to Udemy's business account, so we all get free access to most of the courses. If it is for your firm, I recommend going the Udemy Business account way. What is not 'very clear' from one instructor may be 'very clear' in another instructors class. And having a business account will help your employees choose from any courses available.

Unless the employees are already using the technology in their day-to-day operations, I don't see any benefits from 4-5 days class-room crash courses. Most forget all the stuff they learned in 4-5 days in huge chunks.
I agree with your point. Employees who attend classroom sessions tend to forget quickly what they were taught in these classes. Unless they implement their learnings, they are unlikely to retain much. Do you have any idea about the costing for Udemy’s business account? I will definitely check out their website for more details. What has been your experience in using Udemy? Are people in your organization satisfied with the material available on Udemy?

Quote:
Originally Posted by ZedMae View Post
Learning through courses is not going to be very effective.
Ask them to take up a project which they would have done in Excel/ VBA and replicate the same in Python -
Good point! Learning to program is going to be a slow process and people need to implement theoretical lessons in their day to day work in order to gain a deeper understanding of the benefits of programming.
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Old 9th December 2019, 11:55   #9
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Re: How to learn VBA / Python programming?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Saanil View Post
I agree with your point. Employees who attend classroom sessions tend to forget quickly what they were taught in these classes. Unless they implement their learnings, they are unlikely to retain much. Do you have any idea about the costing for Udemy’s business account? I will definitely check out their website for more details. What has been your experience in using Udemy? Are people in your organization satisfied with the material available on Udemy?
Very satisfied I would say. If one is not satisfied by the contents of a course or the style of instruction, then definitely there would be another course on the same subject by a different instructor that can be better.

No idea about how much it costs, but I see this: https://business.udemy.com/plans/

Guess you get a custom plan if you go for 'Enterprise'.
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Old 9th December 2019, 20:52   #10
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Most tasks that you want to be automated in Excel can be done just using VBA. And all of it is out there for free on several forums. If the tasks can be done via the excel GUI then try to record a macro and view the code. Try to add up codes from two or more macro's. Learn about loops and ranges. I got my entire team up to speed using this DIY method.
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