Free online business courses can discover topics that might be covered during a MBA program or provide students with the skills needed to start earning one of these graduate degrees. However, most of these resources don’t award college credit.
Carnegie Mellon University
Principles of Economics
The Open Learning Initiative at Carnegie Mellon University is an online resource that offers users feedback as they progress through courses. These lessons provide a foundation for the mathematical and business skills learned during an MBA program. Although students don’t need to sign in to complete this courses, registering is required to save their work. The Principles of Economics course covers supply and demand, network externalities, monopolies and minimum wage.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Economic Analysis for Business Decisions
Managerial Psychology
Marketing Management
MIT’s Sloan School of Management give multiple free business courses online through its OpenCourseWare project. Economic Analysis for Business Decisions is a graduate-level class that teaches students about the economic choices that companies must make. Through lecture notes, handouts and assignments, students learn about market structure and behavior. Several exams with answer keys are also posted.
Students interested in learning about behavioral science theories might want to take Managerial Psychology. The course helps students develop leadership qualities, organize groups and motivate employees. Users have access to most of the lectures, as well as case assignments, paper topics and quizzes.