Accounting (AC)

AC 635. Advanced Topics in Financial Accounting and Reporting.3 Credits.

This course provides an in-depth study of advanced topics in financial accounting and reporting. The topics covered include the accounting for multinational entities, segment and interim reporting, SEC reporting, and the accounting for partnerships and corporations in financial difficulty. Students learn standard-related research skills and complete several research cases using the FASB codification database.

Prerequisites: Take one undergraduate intermediate accounting course.
Offered: Every year, Fall

AC 640. Financial Statement Analysis.3 Credits.

In this course, students gain additional understanding of how firms communicate through financial statements. They learn how to use financial statement analysis in strategic decision making. Students learn to interpret financial statements, analyze cash flows and make judgments about the quality of earnings, assets and liabilities. Students cannot receive credit for both AC 613 and AC 640.

Prerequisites: Take one undergraduate intermediate accounting course.
Offered: Every year, Fall

AC 645. Information Assurance.3 Credits.

This course is designed to broaden and deepen students' conceptual and technical understanding of the CPA's attest function, provide students with a framework for analyzing contemporary auditing and assurance issues, and help students understand the complete audit of a client. This course utilizes case studies to study current issues and practices associated with information assurance services.

Prerequisites: Take one undergraduate accounting auditing course.
Offered: Every year, Fall

AC 650. Advanced Accounting Information Systems.3 Credits.

This course provides students with in-depth knowledge of the role accounting information systems play in a business environment. Using a combination of course delivery methods, this course emphasizes information, communication and networking technology--in the context of business processes, transaction cycles and internal control structures--that enhances the production of accurate and reliable accounting information.

Prerequisites: Take one undergraduate accounting information systems course.
Offered: Every year, Fall

AC 660. Strategic Management Control Systems.3 Credits.

This course provides students with broad exposure to the ways in which management control systems and management accounting information are used to support various organizations' strategies. The course involves both textbook/problem-based and case-based learning methods to cover issues related to strategy selection, performance evaluation, organizational profitability, customer profitability, organizational structure, and employee compensation. Special emphasis is placed on ethical considerations, not-for-profit organizations and sustainability issues.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: Every year, Spring

AC 665. Forensic Accounting and Fraud Examination.3 Credits.

This course provides a survey of forensic accounting and fraud examination. Students gain an understanding of different types of fraud, sources of evidence and analysis of fraud schemes highlighting the skills needed to identify and investigate fraudulent accounting allegations. This course employs case studies to study current issues, practices and techniques related to fraud examination and forensic accounting services.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: Every year, Spring

AC 670. Advanced Business Law, Regulation, Ethics and Reporting Environments.3 Credits.

In this course, students learn to identify and resolve complex legal and ethical issues typically encountered by businesses. Emphasis is placed on business law topics relevant to the accounting profession. Topics may include agency law and worker classification, formation and performance of contracts, debtors, creditors, guarantors, secured transactions, bankruptcy, federal securities regulation, formation, operation, termination of business entities, and liability of accountants.

Prerequisites: Take one undergraduate business law course.
Offered: Every year, Spring

AC 675. Governmental and Not-For-Profit Accounting.3 Credits.

This course provides an in-depth study of the financial reporting concepts and standards applicable to state and local governments, and not-for-profit entities such as colleges and universities, health care entities, and voluntary health and welfare organizations. It emphasizes the differences between governmental and private sector (for-profit) accounting. Particular attention is placed on the preparation and analysis of governmental financial reports.

Prerequisites: Take one undergraduate intermediate accounting course.
Offered: Every year, Spring

AC 680. Advanced Federal Income Taxation and Tax Research.3 Credits.

In this course, students gain the knowledge and understanding of concepts and laws relating to federal income taxation of individuals and entities. In addition, students learn how to apply the knowledge and skills gained from this course in professional tax preparation and tax advisory positions. Some of the topics covered include federal tax process, procedures, accounting and planning, as well as federal taxation of individuals, entities (C corporations, S corporations, partnerships, trusts and estates and exempt organizations) and taxation of property transactions.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: Every year, Spring

Business Analytics (BAN)

BAN 220. Data Mining for Business Insights.3 Credits.

This course focuses on analyzing data sets to find patterns and anomalies, with the goal of extracting valuable information. The course covers basic concepts, methods, and techniques used in data mining, including data exploration, dimension reduction and data preparation.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: Every year, Fall

BAN 300. Statistical Programming With R.3 Credits.

This course introduces students to R, a widely used statistical programming language. Students learn to read data, write functions, analyze data and create visualizations in R.

Prerequisites: Take EC 271 or EC 272 or MA 170 or MA 176 or MA 206 or MA 275 or MA 275H or MA 285.
Offered: Every year, Fall

BAN 310. Web Analytics.3 Credits.

This course introduces students to the concept and use of web analytics. Topics covered include measurement planning, data collection, audience characteristics, traffic acquisition and user behavior. Students use Google Analytics to apply their learning and take the Google Analytics Individual Qualification exam to demonstrate their proficiency at the completion of this course.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: Every year, Spring

BAN 320. Big Data.3 Credits.

The course focuses on the concept and techniques used for managing big data. The course explores how big data is used within organizations to support analytics. Emphasis is on the Hadoop platform and supplemental tools that are used within a Hadoop environment to design and maintain a big data infrastructure.

Prerequisites: Take CIS 351.
Offered: As needed

BAN 410. Social Media Analytics.3 Credits.

In this course, students will learn how to use various tools and software to process and analyze social media data. The course covers the concepts and methods of social network analysis, including centrality measures, community detection, and visualization techniques. Additionally, the course covers the implications for business and ethical issues surrounding the collection and analysis of social media data.

Prerequisites: Take BAN 300 or CIS 245.
Offered: Every year, Spring

BAN 420. Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence for Business.3 Credits.

The course introduces machine learning techniques for predictive modeling of business problems and opportunities. It covers the process of formulating a business analytics research hypothesis, developing business objectives, data selection, preparation and partitioning to successfully design, build and evaluate predictive models. Predictive modeling techniques such as classification and decision trees, neural networks, regression, random forests and other techniques are covered.

Prerequisites: Take BAN 220.
Offered: Every year, Spring

BAN 484. Business Analytics Internship.3 Credits.

Students gain experience by employing their skills in a professional setting under practicing professionals. This internship involves in-depth work related to analytics and is usually completed in the summer between the student's junior and senior years or during their senior year. Students must obtain approval to register for this course prior to starting the work experience. Permission of the department chair or internship coordinator is required.

Prerequisites: Take BAN 220.
Offered: As needed

BAN 610. Introduction to Business Analytics.3 Credits.

This course develops ideas for helping to make decisions based upon the examination of data. Topics include variability, data display and summary statistics, regression, and correlation, probability, probability distributions, sampling, the central limit theorem, confidence intervals and hypothesis testing. Attention is also given to the design of experiments and analysis of variance, frequency distributions, statistical inference and sampling theory.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: Every year, All

BAN 615. Predictive Business Analytics.3 Credits.

The course introduces the techniques of predictive modeling and analytics in a data-rich business environment. It covers the process of formulating business objectives, data selection, preparation and partition to successfully design, build, evaluate and implement predictive models for a variety of practical business applications (such as marketing, customer retention, delinquency and collection analytics, fraud detection and insurance). Predictive models such as classification and decision trees, neural networks, regressions, pattern discovery analysis and other techniques are studied.

Prerequisites: Take BAN 610.
Offered: Every year, Fall

BAN 621. Data Management.3 Credits.

The concepts, principles, issues and techniques for managing corporate data resources are covered, including techniques for managing the design and development of large database systems. Data warehousing, data mining and database administration are emphasized. Students engage in hands-on-learning and work individually or in teams to complete a real-world project using contemporary data management tools and techniques.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: Every year, Fall and Spring

BAN 622. Data Warehousing.3 Credits.

This course focuses on the design and implementation of data warehouses, identifying key architecture differences between data warehouses and transactional databases. It also focuses on the interface to data warehouses to better understand how large amounts of information are used to enable organizations to make better decisions.

Prerequisites: Take BAN 621.
Offered: Every year, Spring

BAN 628. Data Mining for Competitive Advantage.3 Credits.

This course focuses on the application of common data mining techniques. Students focus on developing business solutions by applying techniques such as market basket analysis, association rules, cluster analysis and time series.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: Every year, Fall

BAN 629. Text Analytics.3 Credits.

This course builds upon previously introduced data mining methods, focusing specifically on techniques for text extraction and mining. Topics include efficient text indexing; document clustering and classification; information retrieval models; enhancement of structured data; scenario detection techniques; and using textual data in predictive models.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: As needed

BAN 650. Data Visualization for Managers.3 Credits.

This course provides an introduction as well as hands-on experience to the field of data visualization. Students learn basic visualization design and evaluation principles to create meaningful displays of quantitative and qualitative data. They learn techniques for visualizing multivariate, temporal, text-based, geospatial, hierarchical and network/graph-based data.

Prerequisites: Can only take 1 from list: BAN 650 or PMBA 626.
Offered: Every year, Fall and Spring

BAN 660. Optimization.3 Credits.

This course focuses on developing computational methods to solve various business optimization problems. Students will formulate and solve a variety of optimization problems including linear, integer, mixed- integer, and non-linear. The course also covers understanding decision making under uncertainty

Prerequisites: None
Offered: As needed

BAN 661. Web Analytics and Web Intelligence.3 Credits.

This course focuses on the analysis of a variety of web metrics including tracking, traffic and visitor behavior, tactics and strategies to successfully market on the Web to make data-driven decisions. Business analytics tools and techniques are utilized to extract and analyze web-scale data to guide strategic decision making. Topics address solutions for measurably higher leads, sales, brand recognition, customer satisfaction or lower service costs.

Prerequisites: Take BAN 610.
Offered: As needed

BAN 663. Business Data Analytics with R.3 Credits.

Students learn to program and use R for effective data analysis. Reading data, accessing R packages, writing functions, debugging, profiling code and organizing and commenting code also are covered. Working examples of topics in statistical data analysis are provided. The course also addresses installation and configuration of software as necessary for a statistical programming environment.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: As needed

BAN 664. Health Care Analytics.3 Credits.

This course provides a foundation on data analytics in health care and an understanding of the main concepts and issues. Contemporary tools and technologies are applied to develop an analytics solution to selected health care problems.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: As needed

BAN 665. Big Data and Hadoop.3 Credits.

The concept, principles, issues and techniques for managing Big Data information management resources are covered. The course explores how Big Data fits into an organization's information management strategy. Focus is on the Hadoop platform, emphasizing how it is used to design and maintain Big Data to support analytics.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: As needed

BAN 667. Design and Analysis of Business Information Systems.3 Credits.

This course considers systems-development methods, analysis and design techniques with a focus on object-oriented analysis and design. The application of systems analysis and design concepts using current tools, techniques and approaches is covered. Students engage in hands-on learning and work in teams to complete a real-world project using contemporary analysis and design methodologies and tools.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: As needed

BAN 668. Python Programming for Data Analysis.3 Credits.

After briefly covering the basics of Python programming, the course will show how students can use Python for simple text analysis. The course will then delve deeper and cover topics such as acquiring and cleaning data, and analyze the data using various statistical analysis modules that are available for Python. Students will work on independent short Python programming projects, as well as data analysis projects using Python.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: Every year, Fall

BAN 669. Project Management.3 Credits.

This course develops a foundation of concepts and solutions required for successful completion of a project. Topics include planning, scheduling, controlling, resource allocation and performance measurement.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: As needed

BAN 671. Fundamentals of Blockchain Technology.3 Credits.

This course equips students with tools to integrate and utilize blockchain solutions in business ecosystems while assessing their business value. Private and public blockchain frameworks as well as interconnected devices are analyzed. Blockchain technologies and their ongoing technical challenges are covered. Students work to analyze what problem(s) blockchain technology address, how it solves them, and how to assess new blockchain protocols.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: Every year, Fall

BAN 672. Applied Business Analytics W Advance Exc.3 Credits.

Advanced features in Excel are utilized to create business solutions. This includes working with financial, logical, and statistical functions, as well as Developer, macros, data management, and charts and graphs. Business Intelligence tools, such as Data Queries and Models, What If analysis and Power Pivot are featured. These techniques are applied to business problems and opportunities.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: As needed, Summer

BAN 675. Special Topics.3 Credits.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: As needed

BAN 688. Business Analytics Independent Study.3 Credits.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: Every year, All

BAN 689. Business Analytics Independent Study.1-6 Credits.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: Every year, All

BAN 690. Business Analytics Capstone.3 Credits.

The capstone course in the MSBA program is designed to enable students to directly utilize what has been learned in the tools and applications courses to analyze and offer solutions for a major business challenge. A definition of the problem, analysis of options and a comprehensive presentation of findings and solutions are required components of the course.

Prerequisites: Take BAN 610, BAN 615, BAN 621, BAN 650, BAN 668.
Offered: Every year, All

Health Management (HM)

HM 201. Introduction to Healthcare Management.3 Credits.

The course introduces the students to the healthcare systems. This course prepares students to better understand the healthcare policies and the finance of healthcare in the United States. It provides an understanding of healthcare delivery mechanism, the role of different providers and facilities, and access to healthcare from the population perspective.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: Every year, Spring

HM 320. Introduction to Health Insurance.3 Credits.

This course provides an overview of the design, function, management, and regulation of public and private health insurance plans, including third-party reimbursement and payment methodologies used by private and public insurance programs and payer mix for healthcare managers. Students assess health insurance from the government, business, and consumer perspective by discussing how healthcare reforms and innovations in health insurance deliveries affect the organization and the consumer use of health insurance. It offers an overview of provider contracting, and utilization and quality control methodologies used by health insurance plans.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: As needed

HM 365. Health Care Analysis.3 Credits.

This course introduces the application and components of healthcare data analytics. The course describes the concepts underlying the healthcare analytic techniques and strategies to identify, measure, and improve healthcare quality, system efficiency, and human resource productivity. Students work with healthcare data and develop and use healthcare indicators. The course provides a foundation for data presentation and visualization of information for decision making.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: As needed

HM 404. Legal Aspects of Health Care Delivery.3 Credits.

This course presents an overview of the legal and ethical issues that are encountered in the health care industry. It provides students with a basic working knowledge of health law. This is an introductory course that covers a wide variety of health care legal issues. By the end of the course, students should attain a basic knowledge of health law and its application to health care management. Students can receive credit for only one of the following courses: HM 404 and HSC 404.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: Every year, Fall and Spring

HM 600. Foundations of Health Care Management.3 Credits.

This course expands the student's understanding of: 1) the organization and functions of various health services organizations/systems and their interrelationships; 2) basic concepts of management planning, organizing, leading, staffing and controlling as they relate to issues critical to the mission and strategic positioning of the organization/system; and 3) the utilization of scarce resources to deliver optimum health care at reasonable cost.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: Every year, Fall

HM 621. Quality Management in Health Care Facilities.3 Credits.

This course provides a broad perspective on improving quality in health care facilities. Students gain a working knowledge of accreditation organizations and health care regulatory requirements including the JCAHCO and patient-safety legislation. The course explores patient safety and quality methods as well as the role of consumers in evaluating the quality of the health care services they receive. At course completion, students are able to competently participate in health care quality/patient safety endeavors at all levels of provider, payer, regulatory and accreditation organizations. Students may participate in an onsite project.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: Every year, Fall

HM 626. Epidemiology and Population Health.3 Credits.

This course familiarizes students with the principles and methods of epidemiology and their application to the study of the health of populations--skills becoming increasingly important for health care managers given the advent of Accountable Care Organizations. Students focus on the determinants and distribution of diseases among groups of people, examining infectious and chronic diseases, including diseases and conditions caused by accidents and violence. Emphasis is placed on using epidemiologic data for planning and managing health care services, including preventive services, developing health policy and measuring the outcomes of health care programs.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: As needed

HM 630. Corporate Compliance in the Health Care Industry.3 Credits.

This course addresses both the managerial and legal aspects of health care corporate compliance. Essential elements of a compliance program are presented with a focus on various pieces of federal legislation and enforcement initiatives conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Office of Inspector General in the Department of Health and Human Services.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: Every year, Spring

HM 635. Advanced Health Care Compliance: The Legal Issues.3 Credits.

This course provides an in-depth review of the laws and legal issues facing the health care compliance officer and the health care organization. This course is designed primarily for the non-lawyer who needs a comprehensive understanding of the compliance legal issues facing the health care industry. Lawyers wishing to practice in the health care compliance field would also benefit from this course's analysis of the laws in this area and the application of the laws to specific issues pursued by the U.S. Department of Justice and by the Office of Inspector General in the area of health care compliance.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: As needed

HM 644. Health Care Industry Regulation.3 Credits.

This course analyzes and discusses the statutory, regulatory and private contract provisions that govern the delivery of health care by licensed providers. The course is graded on a pass/fail basis.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: As needed

HM 646. Law and Medicine.3 Credits.

A basic, introductory course for students interested in law and medicine, this course covers the legal regulation of the medical profession in such areas as medical education, physician licensure and disciplinary proceedings, hospital organization, alternative structures for providing health care, efforts to control health care costs, the control of drugs and medical devices by the Federal Food and Drug Administration, and the Statutory Regulation of Medical Malpractice Actions. This course is graded on a pass/fail basis.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: As needed

HM 647. Health Care Business Transactions.3 Credits.

This elective course is for students wishing to study health care private law. The course is structured around a trio of (fairly standard) health care business transactions, pursuant to which: 1) the physicians currently affiliated with a local hospital form a physicial practice group; 2) the group and the local hospital create a Physician-Hospital Organization (PHO) that provides various services to the MD group; and 3) the PHO enters into a contract with an HMO to provide medical services to a number of patients. This course is graded on a pass/fail basis.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: As needed

HM 657. Health Care Compliance Law.3 Credits.

This course illuminates the legal aspects of health care compliance. At both the federal and state levels, the course addresses the statutory, regulatory and case law that comprises the complex legal backdrop in which the health care industry operates. The course introduces the history, purpose and substance of health care regulatory compliance programs and addresses legal doctrines concerning reimbursement law and related fraud and abuse, legal restrictions on physician referral and related anti-kickback laws, antitrust law, compliance issues in health care business transactions, compliance mandates in the Affordable Care Act, and the law governing health care research.

Prerequisites: Take HM 668.
Offered: As needed

HM 660. Human Resource Management in Health Care Administration.3 Credits.

The policies, organization, procedures and techniques required to develop a positive personnel program and a favorable working climate specific to health care organizations are studied. Labor law for health care facilities is identified as it relates to collective bargaining, unfair labor practices, disputes, union security, reporting and disclosure requirements, contract negotiations and conciliation and mediation procedures. The importance of positive human resource programs in the labor-intensive health care industry is emphasized.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: As needed

HM 663. Integrated Health Systems and Managed Care.3 Credits.

This course focuses on the integration of provider networks to create more efficient and better coordinated health care systems. The impact of activity on traditional health care provider roles is analyzed. Capitation and other managed care reimbursement techniques and the successes and failures of integrated health systems are examined critically.

Prerequisites: Take HM 600, HM 621.
Corequisites: Take HM 664 - Must be taken either prior to or at the same time as this course.
Offered: Every year, Spring

HM 664. Financial Management in Health Care Organizations.3 Credits.

This course equips the student with a basic understanding of financial management techniques as well as the application of financial theory to the practice of health care administration. Unique problems of financing health care organizations are covered, with special attention paid to using allocation decisions to develop structured financial management systems.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: Every year, Spring

HM 668. Legal Aspects of Health Care Delivery.3 Credits.

This course provides a fundamental knowledge of law and the legal system, examining how they affect health care administration. Three areas of law of special importance to the health care setting are emphasized: tort law, contract law and administrative law. The course also examines the legal responsibilities and liabilities of an institution's governing board, its administrators, and its clinical staff. Finally, the course analyzes the legal and ethical rights of the patient and considers the patient's right to informed consent, confidentiality and commitment.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: Every year, Spring

HM 669. Organization and Management of Long-Term Care Facilities.3 Credits.

This course covers the organization and administration of long-term care facilities. The sociology and psychology of aging as they affect long-term health care also are explored. Concepts of safety and security, labor market trends, city and state codes, and major legislation regulating these facilities are reviewed. The course fulfills the educational requirement for licensure in Connecticut.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: As needed

HM 671. Health Policy and Politics.3 Credits.

This course is an overview of the federal legislative process and its impact on the healthcare delivery system. Federal healthcare policy influences the cost, access, and quality of the healthcare system. This course is an interdisciplinary immersion course where students will meet and interact with federal healthcare policy stakeholders and influencers. Government agencies, media, advocacy organizations are covered as to their impact on healthcare policy. Students will identify a significant healthcare issue and develop a legislative proposal that offers a solution. Excellent proposals will be presented to our Senators.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: As needed

HM 780. Internship I (degree students only).3 Credits.

This residency offers field experience under the direction of a qualified preceptor in a health services institution. It is designed primarily for those without significant health services administration experience. It is the responsibility of the candidate to locate a residency opportunity appropriate to his or her interests, although faculty offer suggestions and provide assistance. Minimum of 250 clock hours per semester.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: As needed

HM 790. Residency I (non-degree students only).4 Credits.

This 450 clock-hour residency (one semester of a two-semester licensure requirement) is required for students who want to take the state nursing home administrator licensure examination through the LTC certificate program.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: As needed

HM 791. Residency II.4 Credits.

This 450 clock-hour residency (one semester of a two-semester licensure requirement) is required for students who want to take the state nursing home administrator licensure examination through the LTC certificate program.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: As needed

Master Business Administration (MBA)

MBA 601. Foundations for Decision Making.1 Credit.

This course covers basic elements of statistics, technology (including Excel), financial accounting, managerial accounting, finance and economics as well as other fundamental business concepts. The course must be taken during a student's first semester in the MBA program, but can be completed concurrently with MBA 615. The course is graded on a pass/fail basis.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: Every year, All

MBA 602. Communicating Effectively for Managers.3 Credits.

This course provides instruction and practice in the various formats and styles of writing required of executives and professionals in a business environment. This course focuses on the ability to communicate clearly, which is necessary for success in the business world. Students are encouraged to organize thoughts logically, plan communications in advance, write in appropriate formats and communicate ideas concisely. Students learn communication skills necessary for leaders in today's global marketplace. International degree students only.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: As needed

MBA 605. Graduate Teaching Practicum.3 Credits.

This teaching practicum is designed for business students who wish to explore education as part of their professional development. The practicum is a period of intensive development, which will enable students to understand beginning instructional competencies. Practicum students will have the opportunity to become involved with, and actively participate in, many aspects of classroom instruction. Through these experiences, they will learn to link theory and practice, and acquire the understanding of effective presentation in a range of professional situations.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: As needed

MBA 610. Business Decision Analysis.3 Credits.

This course is an introduction to basic quantitative tools that enable managers to analyze data and make informed decisions. Topics include descriptive analysis of survey data, introductory probability, sampling and sampling distributions, hypothesis testing, simple and multiple regression and decision analysis. Students apply the quantitative decision-making tools to business situations through cases.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: As needed

MBA 615. Skills for Contemporary Business Issues.3 Credits.

This is an experiential and action-based learning course that covers skills needed to address contemporary business issues. Topics include problem solving, business communication, business research and basic data analysis, cross-cultural awareness and innovation. By the end of the course, students are able to recognize and research business problems, formulate implementable solutions and effectively communicate those solutions to stakeholders.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: Every year, Fall

MBA 620. Financial and Managerial Accounting for Decision Making (AC 620).3 Credits.

This course provides an introduction to the use of accounting information for decision making in organizations. Topics include reporting and analysis of financial statement information and the use of managerial decision-making tools to support planning and control. Students can receive credit for either AC 620 or MBA 620 but not both.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: Every year, Spring

MBA 625. Authentic Leadership within Organizations.3 Credits.

In this experiential course students will consider their individual leadership styles and determine their unique preferences for leadership, motivation, emotional intelligence, and achievement. Additionally, students will experience how communication occurs in organizations to utilize organizational networks, negotiate workplace politics, embrace change, and lead team execution. Students will also recognize that inclusive organizations contribute responsibly keeping legal, ethical, social, and human duties at the forefront of decision making.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: Every year, Spring

MBA 630. Business Data Analytics.3 Credits.

This action learning course teaches how to harness the full potential of data and leverage it as a strategic asset. Machine learning and predictive modeling techniques are utilized to provide hands-on experience of working with different models. By the end of the course, students are able to apply decision trees, neural networks, regression and other techniques to recognize patterns in data, compute predictions and recommend a range of actions leading to better decision making.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: Every year, Fall

MBA 635. Supply Chain Management in a New Era.3 Credits.

This is a problem-based and case-based course that covers concepts, strategies and analytical techniques to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of a firm's supply chain. Topics are related to a firm's supply chain, such as sustainable sourcing, product availability, supply chain network design, distribution channels, coordination of supply chain, and information technology in supply chain. By the end of the course students will be able to understand the key supply chain principles, formulate solutions for supply chain problems, and recognize the technology effect in creating values and enhancing a firm's performance.

Prerequisites: Take MBA 615.
Offered: Every year, Fall

MBA 640. Financial Decision Making.3 Credits.

This course introduces students to the theory and techniques of financial analysis with application to real-world problems and situations. Topics include risk and return, asset pricing, capital budgeting and corporate investment decisions, capital structure decisions, dividend policy, corporate merger, divestiture and takeover decisions.

Prerequisites: Take MBA 615.
Offered: Every year, Fall

MBA 645. Marketing Decision Making.3 Credits.

Students learn to formulate, manage and evaluate the marketing strategies that create the firm's products and services and deliver those products and services to the market. Both tactical day-to-day operating decisions and longer range strategic decisions are examined through topics that include buyer behavior, market segmentation, demand estimation, product positioning, product development, branding, pricing, distribution channels, and integrated marketing communications. Students also explore the relationship between the marketing and the overall corporate strategy.

Prerequisites: Take MBA 615.
Offered: Every year, Fall

MBA 650. Strategic Public Relations and Reputation Management.3 Credits.

The focus of this course is reputation management and its importance to business success. Students analyze the function of corporate communications and examine a range of topics including organizational identity, image and reputation; issues and crisis management; institutional ethics and corporate social responsibility; strategic public relations planning; integrated marketing communication; public relations theories and best practices; and global public engagement. The class also explores specialty public relations practice areas such as media relations, investor relations, employee relations and government relations. Class discussions, case studies, in-class exercises, team projects and essay exams help students improve their critical thinking and reasoning skills, develop research and strategic planning skills and increase diversity awareness and sensitivities that are important to professional and business success.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: As needed

MBA 660. Decision Making in a Global Economy.3 Credits.

Students come to understand the global trends and issues that create business opportunities in foreign markets as well as the impact of the global environment on domestic business practices and opportunities. Students examine the economic, social and political issues that affect a firm's strategy for entering international markets and how cross-cultural issues affect internal business processes. Some sections of the course can include an international travel experience while others include a virtual study abroad experience.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: As needed

MBA 675. Special Topics - MBA.3 Credits.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: As needed

MBA 688. Graduate Internship I.3 Credits.

Internships provide students with opportunities to obtain important experience in fields related to their programs of study under the supervision of a sponsoring faculty member and a practicing manager. Prior academic approval is required before registering for any internship course. Details may be obtained from the graduate business programs office. These courses are normally only open to full-time MBA students. Students must complete a minimum of 150 hours in their internship

Prerequisites: None
Offered: As needed

MBA 689. Graduate Internship II Administration.3 Credits.

Internships provide students with opportunities to obtain important experience in fields related to their programs of study under the supervision of a sponsoring faculty member and a practicing manager. Prior academic approval is required before registering for any internship course. Details may be obtained from the graduate business programs office. These courses are normally only open to full-time MBA students. Students must complete a minimum of 150 hours in their internship.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: As needed

MBA 690. Strategic Management.3 Credits.

This is a capstone course in strategic decision making for MBA students. Students learn concepts and theory relevant to the field of strategic management, as well as review and integrate the accumulated functional business knowledge from the other MBA core courses. The course covers such topics as internal and external firm analysis, industry analysis, value chain, competitive strategy, corporate and functional strategy, top management leadership and firm performance evaluation. Emphasis is placed on developing decision-making skills through company and case analyses.

Prerequisites: Take MBA 615, MBA 620.
Offered: Every year, Fall

MBA 695. Action-Based Learning Lab.3 Credits.

This course is a hands-on, action learning capstone for the MBA that asks students to integrate the knowledge and skills they have gained throughout the program. The course engages students in solving a real-world business problem or developing a new business. By the end of the course, students have further developed their skills in the problem-solving process, business knowledge integration, and written and oral presentation.

Prerequisites: Take MBA 620, MBA 625, MBA 630, MBA 635, MBA 645, MBA 690. Take MBA 640 or FIN 610;
Offered: Every year, Spring

MBA 699. Independent Study.1-6 Credits.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: As needed

Organizational Leadership (OL)

OL 601. Foundations of Organizational Behavior and Leadership.3 Credits.

This course explores foundational concepts of leadership through the exploration of traditional leadership theory cultural, emotional and social intelligence, and power and politics. Contemporary issues in leadership provide opportunity for practical application and personal reflection.

Prerequisites: Can only take 1 from list: OL 601, PMBA 622 or MBA 625.
Offered: Every year, All

OL 607. Insights into Emotions and Emotional Intelligence.3 Credits.

Emotions are pervasive in negotiations and organizations and profoundly influence our decisions, relationships, and outcomes. In this course, we integrate theory and research in psychology, behavioral economics, and decision-making to understand the importance of emotions in negotiations, organizations, and interpersonal interactions. In the process, the course will develop your emotional intelligence and teach you how to harness the power of your emotions and those of others.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: Every year

OL 610. Crucial Conversations as Leaders.3 Credits.

This course allows for experiential practices of effective communication and conflict management techniques at the corporate and individual levels. Strategic approaches to communication internal and external to the organization and global communication practices are explored.

Prerequisites: Take OL 601.
Offered: Every year

OL 615. Leadership Across Boundaries.3 Credits.

This course covers the challenges of interacting, managing and leading across cultural differences and national boundaries. The focus is on coordinating and sustaining cooperative activities across various types of boundaries, including cultural, generational, gender, ethnic and regional. Students explore domestic and international differences as well as evaluate the implications of emerging global actors on business practices.

Prerequisites: Take OL 601.
Offered: As needed

OL 620. Leadership in the Digital Organization.3 Credits.

This course examines organizations in a period characterized by emerging technology breakthroughs such as artificial intelligence, robotics, the internet of things, blockchain technologies, biotechnology, nanotechnology, materials science, data science and big data, gig economy, and quantum computing. The course will provide students with pioneering research, theory, and methodology, in addition to issues students will encounter in a time of profound uncertainty surrounding the development and adoption of emerging technologies. At the end of the semester, students are expected to complete a final project on developing a digital strategy for an organization of their choosing.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: As needed

OL 630. Performance Management and HR Analytics.3 Credits.

This course focuses on the theoretical and practical application of performance management and HRIS. The importance of an effective performance management system is examined. An effective performance management system includes a continuous process of identifying factors and integrated approaches that align individual and team competencies with organizational goals. Students gain a conceptual understanding of key factors involved in assessing performance management systems in small and large organizations.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: Every year

OL 640. Project Management.3 Credits.

This course goes beyond basic project management (PM). Students learn key PM techniques for leading complex projects and programs and assessing performance. Experiential application of these skills allows students to produce business/organizational results that require collaborative relationships and critical thinking. Students can receive credit for only one of the following courses: MG 603, OL 640, BAN 669. Students with PMP certification should discuss with their adviser.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: As needed

OL 650. Leading Organizational Change.3 Credits.

This course examines theoretical concepts and practical techniques of organizational design and change. Students gain a conceptual understanding of leadership skills required for organizational change. The study of leading organizational change includes factors relating to the need for organizational change and the strategy-structure relationship to organizational design with a focus on organizational effectiveness.

Prerequisites: Take OL 601.
Offered: As needed

OL 662. Ethics and Governance.3 Credits.

This course uses contemporary examples and theoretical perspectives to assess the critical dimensions of ethics in leadership, and explores responsible corporate governance linked to organizational leadership. Students can receive credit for only one of these courses: OL 662 or PMBA 612.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: As needed

OL 681. Strategic Leadership in Human Resources.3 Credits.

In this course, students are introduced to the principles of human resource management. This course focuses on an introduction to the complex and complicated realm of human resource management through discussions of the strategic and tactical means of institutionalizing mission and vision through the organization. Course will also address challenges associated with multinational HRM, and offer an exposure to HRIS systems.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: As needed

OL 682. Policies, Procedures and Employment Law.3 Credits.

This course provides an introduction to Human Resource policy and procedures, including inclusivity, bias and employment law.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: As needed

OL 683. Talent Management.3 Credits.

This course focuses on strategic approaches to the recruiting, selection and retention of talent. Students gain knowledge in the area of training, performance development and talent management principles. Performance appraisal and employee development concepts as well as HRIS systems are explored.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: As needed

OL 684. Benefits and Compensation.3 Credits.

This course is designed to provide students with knowledge of wage and salary administration in private and public organizations. Students will gain an understanding of total compensation systems; the interrelationship between motivation, employee performance, intrinsic and extrinsic rewards, perceived equitable payments, and employee satisfaction; employee benefits; employee incentive programs.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: As needed

OL 686. Leading Public Service Organizations.3 Credits.

This course examines the challenges and opportunities of public sector leadership. Course participants examine the chief executive's role as a policy maker; dealing with other community leaders and the media; discipline and ethical conduct, and leading in unionized environments. Critical leadership competencies including authenticity, trust building, exercise of power, organizational behavior, and learning to influence the work environment are also examined.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: As needed

OL 687. Strategic Planning for Public Service Organizations.3 Credits.

This course develops skills in systematic planning within a variety of public sector organizational settings. Strategic goal setting, mission-driven plans, managing constrained resources and monitoring and modifying strategic plans in a dynamic environment are emphasized. Participants explore the processes of advanced planning through the analysis of an organization's strategic plan.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: As needed

OL 688. Organizational Leadership Special Topics.3 Credits.

Prerequisites: None
Offered: As needed

OL 689. Project Management for Leadership Consulting.3 Credits.

This is part 1 of a two-part capstone sequence. In this course, students will learn key techniques for identifying business issues and designing a project to address these issues. Students will attain expertise in project management techniques, decision-making models, risk analysis and assessment. This capstone course should be taken near the end of the program and immediately prior to OL690. Students can receive credit for only one of the following courses: OL 689, MG 603, BAN 669.

Prerequisites: Must have taken 21 credits towards the MSOL program prior to this course.
Offered: Every year

OL 690. Leadership Consulting Capstone.3 Credits.

This second course in a 2-course capstone pathway integrates the knowledge and skills gained throughout the program. Students move from the project design and scope stage in OL689 to the implementation of a consulting case/project, including a comprehensive analysis of organizational issues, data collection/ discovery phase, and a presentation of appropriate recommendations and implementation plans. The result is a professionally written consulting paper and presentation. As a capstone course, students should take this course as the final course in the program, and immediately following OL 689.

Prerequisites: Take OL 689.
Offered: Every year