Essential MOOC Courses In Business For October

Behavioural Economics in Action

School: University of Toronto

Platform: EdX

Registration Link: Behavioural Economics in Action

Start Date: October 6, 2014 (6 Weeks)

Workload: 4-5 Hours Per Week

Instructor: Dilip Soman

Credentials:  Soman is the Corus Chair of Communications Strategy and Professor of Marketing at the Roman School of Management. Here, his research and teaching center on consumer behavior and well-being. Along with teaching and research, Soman is the Associate Editor of the Journal of Marketing Research, Marketing Science, Management Science. He earned a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago’s Booth Graduate School of Business and is a reviewer for over 15 academic journals and professional organizations. He will be assisted by Joon Kim, a Ph.D. student at Rotman.

Graded: Students will receive a certificate for completing their assignments and abiding by the honor code.

Description: Why do people act in ways that undermine their best interests? Behavioral economics examines how to influence these irrational and counterintuitive behaviors. In this course, students will learn how to apply behavioral concepts to help others (and themselves) make better decisions in areas like product development, policy-making, and personal well-being. After reviewing behavioral fundamentals in the first two weeks, students will learn how to design basic experiments, analyze and interpret results, and “nudge” decision-making by modifying messaging and rewards. In addition, students will engage in weekly debates on how to influence behaviors in various scenarios, which will include several invited guests from the academic, government, and business sectors.

Review: “Taking this course has enabled me understand why I have failed to maintain my resolutions and it has taught me the changes that I need to make in order to align my behaviors with my intentions. From a personal development perspective, I found this to be invaluable. I also have gained an appreciation for how to make unobtrusive policy changes that can have dramatically positive outcomes on social welfare. In my work I will be using the nudging principles that are articulated in this course.

Course Content: I found the content to be both in-depth in terms of detail and excellent in terms of structure. The videos plus the slides plus the debates makes this course the complete package. To hear from a range of experts from around the world on key topics is a real plus..Dilip is articulate, engaging, and insightful. It was a pleasure to listen to his lectures.” For additional reviews, click here.