Best Free MOOCs in Business In March

Introduction to Corporate Finance

School: Wharton School

Platform: Coursera

Registration Link: REGISTER HERE

Start Date: February 27, 2017 (4 Weeks Long)

Workload: 6-8 Hours Per Week

Instructor: Michael R. Roberts

Credentials: A decorated teacher and researcher, Michael Roberts is the William H. Lawrence Professor of Finance at the Wharton School. Holding a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California-Berkeley, Roberts taught at Berkeley and Duke University before joining the Wharton faculty in 2004. His research interests include: economics, corporate investment, capital structure, empirical asset pricing, security design and the relationship between government policy and corporate behavior. Roberts earned two Brattle Prizes for his research in the Journal of Finance, as well as several outstanding teaching awards at Wharton and Duke.

Graded: Students can earn a verified certificate in this course for $95.

Description: Designed for students with a high school math background, Introduction to Corporate Finance helps students understand the fundamentals and applications of financial decision-making in both their personal and professional lives. According to Roberts, the course will cover concepts that include: ā€œtime value of money, risk-return tradeoff, cost of capital, interest rates, retirement savings, mortgage financing, auto leasing, capital budgeting, asset valuation, discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis, net present value, internal rate of return, hurdle rate, [and] payback period.ā€ The course will also touch on taxation, inflation, compounding, and forecasting, as well as provide models for deciding whether to grow organically or through acquisition and when to divest or spin off assets. The course will be taught through video lectures and accompanying problem sets, as well as optional readings. Students will also complete a final exam at the end of the course.

Review: There are no reviews for the version taught by Michael Roberts. However, here is a review for the course when it was taught by a different professor (Franklin Allen): ā€œThis is a tough class for learning finance. I suggest looking at one of the other introductory courses first, and then coming back here. Prof. Franklin’s derivations for many of the formulas and conclusions presented in class are daunting for someone who does not have the appropriate mathematics background. There are definitely some production issues with the first few videos and that the microphones in the room turned on so that I can hear every cough, sneeze, or shuffle of paper. However the issue to improve is the videos go on. It is an altogether good course on solidifying an understanding of where the principles of finance come from, but definitely not for someone who has zero background of the field.ā€ For additional reviews, click here.

Additional Background: This course is part of Whartonā€™s Business Foundation Specialization. To learn more about this specialization, click here.

Questions about this article? Email us or leave a comment below.