A four-unit course on learning Excel starts today, from Macquarie U, via Coursera. It’s led by Yvonne Breyer, director of teaching and learning in BusEco and Coursera claims, “at a time when digital skills jobs are growing much faster than non-digital jobs, completing this specialisation will position you way ahead of others.”

Good-o, but isn’t this what was once VET territory, teaching how to plug numbers into a spreadsheet, as distinct from educating students in where the numbers should come from and what they demonstrate? At Macquarie they appear to keen to demonstrate they can do both.