Top-10 MOOCs for Prospective MBAs

By Seb Murray Updated May 26, 2022

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Introduction
Financial Accounting Fundamentals
Foundations of Business Strategy
Introduction to Corporate Finance
Fundamentals of Quantitative Modeling
Master Statistics with R
Make Strategic Financial Decisions
Design Thinking for Innovation
Project Management Principles and Practices
Introduction to Data Analytics for Managers
Marketing Fundamentals: Who Is Your Customer?

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A MOOC could help you gain admission to an MBA program. A growing roster of business schools are accepting the short online courses as credit for postgraduate programs, and some say that MOOCs may be used to evaluate people in the admissions process.

“There is great content out there for people to test out some of the core MBA modules before they decide whether or not to pay for a full-time program,” says Michael Koenig, who is in charge of MOOCs at the Darden School at the University of Virginia.

So which MOOCs are best for those who wish to obtain an MBA?

We’ve canvassed the opinion of business school academics and digital visionaries to compile a list of 10 of the best MOOCs for MBA applicants. Here’s the list, in no particular order:

Financial Accounting Fundamentals

https://www.coursera.org/learn/uva-darden-financial-accounting

Course: This course will teach you the tools you'll need to understand the basics of financial accounting

School: Virginia Darden

Length: Five weeks

Platform: Coursera

Michael Koenig, assistant dean, Darden School

Foundations of Business Strategy

https://www.udemy.com/foundations-of-business-strategy/

Course: In this course, you’ll explore the underlying theory and frameworks that provide the foundations of a successful business strategy

School: Virginia Darden

Length: Four weeks

Platform: Udemy

Michael Koenig, assistant dean, Darden School

Introduction to Corporate Finance

https://www.coursera.org/learn/wharton-finance

Course: This course provides a brief introduction to the fundamentals of finance, emphasizing their application to a wide variety of real-world situations spanning personal finance, corporate decision-making, and financial intermediation

School: UPenn Wharton

Length: Four weeks

Platform: Coursera

Anne Trumbore, senior director, Wharton Online

Fundamentals of Quantitative Modeling

https://www.coursera.org/learn/wharton-quantitative-modeling

Course: Through a series of short lectures, demonstrations, and assignments, you’ll learn the key ideas and process of quantitative modeling so that you can begin to create your own models for your own business

School: UPenn Wharton

Length: Four weeks

Platform: Coursera

Anne Trumbore, senior director, Wharton Online

Master Statistics with R

https://www.coursera.org/specializations/statistics

Course: You will learn to analyze and visualize data with R software and create reproducible data analysis reports

School: Duke Fuqua

Length: Five weeks

Platform: Coursera

Gautam Kaul, finance professor, Michigan Ross

Make Strategic Financial Decisions

https://www.coursera.org/specializations/valuation-investment

Course: This program provides a rigorous introduction to core topics in financial valuation, including time value of money, cash flow analysis, asset pricing, risk and return and alternative valuation methods

School: Michigan Ross

Length: Three weeks

Platform: Coursera

Gautam Kaul, finance professor, Michigan Ross

Design Thinking for Innovation

https://www.coursera.org/learn/uva-darden-design-thinking-innovation

Course: In this course, you’ll gain an overview of design thinking and work with a model containing four key questions and several tools to help you understand design thinking as a problem-solving approach

School: Virginia Darden

Length: Five weeks

Platform: Coursera

Michael Koenig, assistant dean, Darden School

Project Management Principles and Practices

https://www.coursera.org/specializations/project-management

Course: This intensive and hands-on series of courses gives you the skills to ensure your projects are completed on time and on budget while giving the user the product they expect

School: UC Irvine Merage

Length: Four weeks

Platform: Coursera

Michael Koenig, assistant dean, Darden School

Introduction to Data Analytics for Managers

https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-data-analytics-managers-michiganx-ds120x

Course: Through a combination of lectures, business case studies, and hands-on learning this course provides an introduction to data analytics techniques and their application in business

School: Michigan Ross

Length: Six weeks

Platform: EdX

Gautam Kaul, finance professor, Michigan Ross

Marketing Fundamentals: Who Is Your Customer?

https://www.edx.org/course/marketing-fundamentals-who-customer-babsonx-bpet-mktx-0

Course: In this marketing course, you will learn how to assess the value you provide to the consumer as well as the value the customer offers your business.

School: Babson Olin

Length: Four weeks

Platform: Coursera

Anne Trumbore, senior director, Wharton Online

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Seb Murray

Seb is a journalist and consulting editor who has developed a successful track record writing about business, education and technology for the international press.