Online courses directory (841)

This course is designed to introduce you to the study of Calculus.  You will learn concrete applications of how calculus is used and, more importantly, why it works.  Calculus is not a new discipline; it has been around since the days of Archimedes.  However, Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz, two 17th-century European mathematicians concurrently working on the same intellectual discovery hundreds of miles apart, were responsible for developing the field as we know it today.  This brings us to our first question, what is today's Calculus?  In its simplest terms, calculus is the study of functions, rates of change, and continuity.  While you may have cultivated a basic understanding of functions in previous math courses, in this course you will come to a more advanced understanding of their complexity, learning to take a closer look at their behaviors and nuances. In this course, we will address three major topics: limits, derivatives, and integrals, as well as study their respective foundations and a…

This course provides students with an introduction to the core technologies used to communicate information on the Web: Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).  Whether managing an employer's website, producing an online resume, or starting a web-based business, knowing the fundamentals of how information is structured and presented on the internet is a crucial skill for the contemporary workplace. Today, many technologies exist to facilitate the creation and management of websites, including development environments like Adobe Dreamweaver and Content Management Systems like WordPress and Joomla!  Even though mastery of the basics of HTML and CSS is easily attainable, these labor-saving technologies have discouraged many professionals from learning crucial coding skills.  With a basic understanding of how HTML code is created and transformed, professionals are better able to produce or transform websites according to precise specifications, whether they use a fully-featured dev…

Entrepreneurship is the art of creating value through making the world a better place for both yourself and those who get in touch with your business activities. Whether you are a student, a doctor, an engineer or a homemaker, entrepreneurial skills will help lead a better, more interesting. These skills include communication, innovation, networking, teamwork, managing money and sales, to mention a few. Behind every great product or service that we enjoy today is an army of people, who design, build, distribute, sell and maintain the product or ensure safe delivery of the service and entrepreneurship is at the heart of all these economic activities.

This course teaches the core principles of economics using a collection of experiments and workbooks. In the experiments, students become traders in a market and attempt to make profitable deals with one another. At the conclusion of the experiment, the data are used to form a customized, online workbook. Each workbook guides the student through the analysis of the experiment’s outcome, while simultaneously presenting the key ideas and core principles in economics needed to gain a deeper understanding of both the experiment and economic life. In these experiments the student is both a participant and an observer. As a participant, the student experiences first hand the issues that all economic agents must confront; as an observer, the student sees how modern economic theory can explain the complex interactions that occur in both the experiments, and the economic world at large. Students often report that they learn nearly as much about economic principles from their experience as a participant as they do from their analysis of the experiment as an observer. Students learning on their own or in small classes (generally fewer than 10 students) can still use the workbooks, but will be given synthetic data. Small numbers of students participating in experiments does not yield enough data for the workbooks.

Turn your business ideas into a solid plan for financing and long-term success.

Gain the skills you'll need to succeed in the fast-growing field of project management.

Advertising is an integral part of our modern, media-dominated society. While many of us have a love-hate relationship with the industry, advertising can be wonderfully entertaining. However, is advertising a necessary evil? Does it make meaningful contributions to our society? With the incredible growth of social media, now is a particularly exciting time to explore the fascinating world of advertising. The purpose of this course is to lead students in an exploration of fundamental advertising principles and the role advertising plays in the promotional mix. You will learn where advertising fits in the Marketing Mix, also known as the four Ps: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. Although some consider all promotion synonymous with advertising, you will learn the unique characteristics that separate advertising from other forms of promotional communication. You will revisit some familiar marketing concepts within a new framework, approaching the subject from the advertiser’s perspective. Our text us…

As a student of economics, you must study the history of economic thought to understand why individuals, firms, and governments make certain choices. Economists try to answer three basic questions: what to produce, how to produce it, and for whom. The history of economic thought represents a wide diversity of theories within the discipline, but all economists address these three basic questions. As you learn more about the history of economic thought, you may realize that policies presented as great innovations today are founded upon centuries-old writings. You will learn that without a clear sense of the discussions and debates that took place among economists of the past, the modern economist lacks a complete perspective. By examining the history of economic thought, you will be able to categorize and classify thoughts and ideas and will begin to understand how to think like an economist. Economics is both a social science and a business subject; accordingly, economic thinking affects everything from art t…

This course is designed for the novice who has little or no word processing experience.  The course provides an introduction to word processing.  You will explore word processing skills while also learning to create a basic business letter and a business memo.  Although the resources in this course use Microsoft Word 2010, it should be noted that all of the basic skills and tasks that you will be asked  can be done on any word processing program.  If you stay flexible enough in your own word processing program to search out the commands and icons on whatever software you are using, you will succeed.  The most current version of Microsoft Word was selected, because it would be most beneficial to the job seeker.  In addition most colleges, universities, and some public libraries are using a newer version of Word.  You can complete this course using any word processing software, but if you are using an older version of Word, you may also want to seek out a resource where you can interact with the newer v…

Start Small, Leverage Technology, Minimize Risk and Start a Successful Business. No More Excuses for Wantrepreneurs.

BUS206 [1] introduced you to the subject of Management Information Systems (MIS). The focus of that initial course was on the nuts and bolts of information systems: how they work, how you create them, how to secure them, and so on. This course is developed to help you understand how information technology can be used as part of an organization’s overall strategy. In this course you will focus on the allocation and use of technology resources across an entire firm as part of the larger organizational strategy. Because firms do not have an unlimited supply of capital, they must decide when and where to deploy new information technology. Firms must not only focus on when to deploy IT, but also if they should deploy IT at all! This brings up the bigger question about technology: Can the use of IT bring a sustainable competitive advantage to an organization? There are those who say, “No”; and others who say, “Of course!”  You will explore the differing opinions out there on this topic in unit 1. In un…

This course surveys major topics and theories in the field of Industrial Organization.  As part of the applied microeconomics structure, Industrial Organization uses the basic tools of microeconomic theory and game theory to study the structure and behavior of firms and their strategic interactions with one another in the marketplace.  Industrial Organization also studies the impact that those interactions have on market structure and welfare. Different kinds of market structures (perfect competition, imperfect competition, monopoly, oligopoly, and so forth) present different scenarios in which firms strive to acquire and use market power for their strategic advantage.  While perfect competition and monopoly are two market structures on opposite ends of the spectrum, imperfect competitionwhere a limited number of firms attempt to manipulate their rivals or consumersis a more realistic set-up.  This course will emphasize market structure analysis and the strategic behaviors of competing firms, including…

This Wharton course will teach the fundamentals of marketing by getting to the root of customer decision making. The course will focus on branding strategies, customer centricity and new market entry.

An overview of the ideas, methods, and institutions that permit human society to manage risks and foster enterprise.

This course will introduce you to entrepreneurship and business planning. By way of introduction, the word entrepreneur originates from the French word entreprendre, meaning to undertake. Today, we define an entrepreneur as an owner or manager of a business enterprise who attempts to make profits by starting and growing his or her business. In earnest, entrepreneurs are a diverse group of risk-takers who share the same goal of cultivating ideas and developing them into viable business opportunities. Take a quick look at the statistics below to get a sense for some of the (potentially surprising) qualities that have been attributed to entrepreneurs. According to a recent report by the US Census, every day approximately 2,356 Americans are becoming entrepreneurs by starting new businesses. According to 2006 report from Northeastern University’s School of Technological Entrepreneurship, 62% of entrepreneurs in the US claim innate drive as the number one motivator in starting their business. According t…

What is strategy?  When your friend tells you that his “strategy” in basketball is to win, he is not telling you a strategy at all.  A strategy is a plan of action designed to achieve a goalin the case of your friend, a more appropriately defined strategy for his basketball game would be: “I am going to apply defensive pressure and force the opposing team to make mistakes with the end goal of winning the game.”  In this course, you will learn that you must first clearly define your goals before you develop strategies in order to achieve them.  You will also learn that strategy in business is similar to strategy in sports, war, or politics; the parallels are so close that early business strategists studied military strategies in depth.  The science of strategy development has developed beyond this by now, but the parallels still exist. Strategic Management involves two processes: first, the process of identifying specific goals for a firm and designing strategies to achieve those goals, and seco…

Learn to assess the strength of a business and identify early warning signs of potential future problems.

What are the secrets to managing successful teams in the workplace? Explore communication techniques and problem-solving skills that will help you get your team on track in no time.

In BUS103 [1] (Financial Accounting), we learned that firms need to track various forms of data in order to report to investors, regulators, and potential business associates such as customers and vendors.  Firm managers, however, often need information that is much more detailed than the data provided in these financial reports.  They use what is known as “managerial accounting” to make various decisions about their businesses.  To avoid information overload, much of their data is tailored to the needs of a particular business unit instead of generally applicable to the firm as a whole. As you might expect, different managers have different needs.  However, almost all management decisions deal with the same key issues: cost, price, and profit.  This course will examine this sort of decision-making, identifying the tools and methods managers use to make the best-informed decisions possible.  We will begin with an introduction to the terms that will be referenced in the later units.  We will then…

Welcome to our Small Open Online Course: An Introduction to Box'Tag. We have five topics for you to explore. Start Here (Week 1) Competition (Week 2) Training (Week 3) Planning (Week 4) Technical Training and Physical Preparation (Week 5)