Online courses directory (841)

This class introduces scientific, economic, and ecological issues underlying the threat of global climate change, and the institutions engaged in negotiating an international response. It also develops an integrated approach to analysis of climate change processes, and assessment of proposed policy measures, drawing on research and model development within the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change.

15.768 Management of Services: Concepts, Design, and Delivery explores the use of operations tools and perspectives in the service sector, including both for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. The course builds on conceptual frameworks and cases from a wide range of service operations, selected from health care, hospitality, internet services, supply chain, transportation, retailing, food service, entertainment, financial services, humanitarian services, government services, and others.

Game Theory, also known as Multiperson Decision Theory, is the analysis of situations in which the payoff of a decision maker depends not only on his own actions but also on those of others. Game Theory has applications in several fields, such as economics, politics, law, biology, and computer science. In this course, I will introduce the basic tools of game theoretic analysis. In the process, I will outline some of the many applications of Game Theory, primarily in economics.

This half-term course examines the choices that we make which affect others and the choices others make that affect us. Such situations are known as "games" and game-playing, while sounding whimsical, is serious business. Managers frequently play "games" both within the firm and outside it – with competitors, customers, regulators, and even capital markets! The goal of this course is to enhance a student's ability to think strategically in complex, interactive environments. Knowledge of game theory will give students an advantage in such strategic settings. The course is structured around three "themes for acquiring advantage in games": commitment / strategic moves, exploiting hidden information, and limited rationality.

This course introduces you to behavioral science theories, methods, and tools and provides opportunities to use and apply them to problems you will encounter in your work and career. The course material will begin with an overview of work and organizations in modern industrial society, and then examine individual behavior, move to behavior in groups or teams, and finally discuss organizations as a whole. It is expected that at the end of the course you will: (a) know something about managerial psychology, (b) know how to learn more, (c) understand the behavioral research process, and (d) develop skills in presenting your ideas in oral and written reports.

Welcome to PRDV103: Interviewing Skills.  This course is the third in a series of four courses included in the Job Search Skills Program that also includes Job Search Skills, Resume Writing, and Professional Etiquette.  The Interviewing Skills course is intended to help you showcase your personality, strengths, interests, and abilities to potential employers.  At this stage of your career exploration, you will have researched and targeted appropriate jobs and have marketed yourself to these employers with an attention-getting resume.  If you have not already done so and feel you would benefit from more information about how to conduct a successful job search, or how to formulate a resume that gets you that interview, please explore the other exciting courses in this track.

Though accounting may seem like a dense and complex subject, this course is designed to present the accounting cycle in an accessible and logical manner.  This course will provide you with a solid understanding of basic accounting principles and will introduce you to financial statement analysis.  Please note that this course is the first of two courses on the principles of accounting and that each of these two courses is divided into 10 units.  Each unit should take approximately three hours to complete and should be completed sequentially for the most logical progression of information.  As you work through these units, you will encounter a range of examples and problem sets geared towards providing you with practical applications of the lessons you learn.  By the end of this course, you will able to create accurate and appropriate financial statements to convey a company’s financial health. This course begins with an introduction to financial accounting and the various ways in which financial stat…

Networks are ubiquitous in our modern society. The World Wide Web that links us to and enables information flows with the rest of the world is the most visible example. It is, however, only one of many networks within which we are situated. Our social life is organized around networks of friends and colleagues. These networks determine our information, influence our opinions, and shape our political attitudes. They also link us, often through important but weak ties, to everybody else in the United States and in the world. Economic and financial markets also look much more like networks than anonymous marketplaces. Firms interact with the same suppliers and customers and use Web-like supply chains. Financial linkages, both among banks and between consumers, companies and banks, also form a network over which funds flow and risks are shared. Systemic risk in financial markets often results from the counterparty risks created within this financial network. Food chains, interacting biological systems and the spread and containment of epidemics are some of the other natural and social phenomena that exhibit a marked networked structure.

This course will introduce the tools for the study of networks. It will show how certain common principles permeate the functioning of these diverse networks and how the same issues related to robustness, fragility, and interlinkages arise in several different types of networks.

This course is designed to provide you with a competitive advantage in negotiation. You will learn and practice the technical skills and analytic frameworks that are necessary to negotiate successfully with peers from other top business schools, and you will learn methods for developing the powerful social capital you will need to rise in the executive ranks of any organization.

In this course, you will learn to successfully face the challenge of negotiating materially rewarding deals while also building your social capital. You will work with training materials on leadership and relationship building that have been used with over 200 principals and partners in international professional service firms (40% were non-US nationals), and a social capital assessment tool used by these executives to receive feedback from senior partners and over 2000 clients. In addition, you will have the opportunity to participate in a lunchtime workshop on "Leadership and Emotional Intelligence" led by an executive coach, Charles Wolfe of Charles J Wolfe Associates.

Overall, this course is designed to enhance your ability to negotiate within the context of an ongoing relationship. As a manager, consultant, or professional service provider you will negotiate with your counterparts, team members, clients, and subordinates on an ongoing basis. Further, in today's less hierarchical organizations, you will be forced to negotiate with others to get your work done. Every time a project falls behind, critical new information is uncovered, or the competitive landscape of your industry changes, you will need to renegotiate tasks, plans, goals, or fees with your key stakeholders.

In sum, we will focus both on the analytic tools necessary to become a highly successful negotiator and on the relationship building skills necessary to negotiate deals that will enhance your social capital, your ability to lead others, and your book of loyal clients.

The doctoral seminar 15.764 focuses on theoretical work for studying operations planning and control problems. This term's special topic, "Customer-Driven Operations," considers how a number of companies have succeeded in focusing their operation systems on the customer. The class reviews the quantitative models and theoretical tools underlying some of the customer-driven operational practices of these cutting-edge companies. Students will read and present research papers on topics such as distribution systems, short life-cycle product management, and forecast evolution models.

This MIT OpenCourseWare site is dedicated to the memory of Bhuwan Singh, a member of the class.

1.040 Project Management focuses on the management and implementation of construction projects, primarily infrastructure projects. A project refers to a temporary piece of work undertaken to create a unique product or service. Whereas operations are continuous and repeating, projects are finite and have an end date. Projects bring form or function to ideas or need. Some notable projects include the Manhattan Project (developing the first nuclear weapon); the Human Genome Project (mapping the human genome); and the Central Artery Project (Boston's "Big Dig"). The field of project management deals with the planning, execution, and controlling of projects.

The course is divided into three parts:

Part 1: project finance
Part 2: project evaluation
Part 3: project organization

This course will cover the basic tools, skills, and knowledge necessary to successfully manage a project through its inception, design, planning, construction, and transition phases. There will be several guest lectures discussing current projects, and a construction site visit to MIT's Media Lab extension.

Carrier systems involve the design, operation and management of transportation networks, assets, personnel, freight and passengers. In this course, we will present models and tools for analyzing, optimizing, planning, managing and controlling carrier systems.

This course in organizational economics prepares doctoral students for further study in the field. The course introduces the classic papers and some recent research. The material is organized into the following modules: boundaries of the firm, employment in organizations, decision-making in organizations, and structures and processes in organizations. Each class session covers a few leading papers.

This course was joint-taught between faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. The Harvard course is Economics 2670 Organizational Economics.

This class develops basic concepts for understanding individual, group, and organizational behavior through the critical analysis of important works in the field. Among the areas covered are: individual affect and cognition; group process and performance; and organizational culture and adaptation. The class also emphasizes the use of behavioral science concepts for stimulating new and useful organizational behavior research.

This course covers theory and evidence on government expenditure policy-- topics include: The theory of public goods; Education; State and local public goods; Political economy; Redistribution and welfare policy; Social insurance programs such as social security and unemployment insurance; and Health care policy.

In the trilogy of D-Lab courses, D-Lab: Dissemination focuses on disseminating innovations among underserved communities, especially in developing countries. Students acquire skills related to building partnerships and piloting, financing, implementing, and scaling-up a selected innovation for the common good. The course is structured around MIT and outside competitions. Teams develop an idea, project or (social) business plan that is "ready to roll" by term's end. Course includes an on-line forum discussion board, student-led case studies and a final proposal or business plan for realizing your dream innovation.

Product Design and Development is a project-based course that covers modern tools and methods for product design and development. The cornerstone is a project in which teams of management, engineering, and industrial design students conceive, design and prototype a physical product. Class sessions are conducted in workshop mode and employ cases and hands-on exercises to reinforce the key ideas. Topics include identifying customer needs, concept generation, product architecture, industrial design, and design-for-manufacturing.

This course explores the proper role of government in the regulation of the environment. It will help students develop the tools to estimate the costs and benefits of environmental regulations. These tools will be used to evaluate a series of current policy questions, including: Should air and water pollution regulations be tightened or loosened? What are the costs of climate change in the U.S. and abroad? Is there a "Race to the Bottom" in environmental regulation? What is "sustainable development"? How do environmental problems differ in developing countries? Are we running out of oil and other natural resources? Should we be more energy efficient? To gain real world experience, the course is scheduled to include a visit to the MIT cogeneration plant. We will also do an in-class simulation of an air pollution emissions market.

This course focuses on the specification and estimation of the linear regression model. The course departs from the standard Gauss-Markov assumptions to include heteroskedasticity, serial correlation, and errors in variables. Advanced topics include generalized least squares, instrumental variables, nonlinear regression, and limited dependent variable models. Economic applications are discussed throughout the course.

The course is a comprehensive introduction to the theory, algorithms and applications of integer optimization and is organized in four parts: formulations and relaxations, algebra and geometry of integer optimization, algorithms for integer optimization, and extensions of integer optimization.