Beyond Harvard
Scan short courses hosted by professional societies, workshops sponsored by centers and institutes, courses at other area institutions, and online learning opportunities.
Short Courses and Digital Materials
Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) Video library of sessions from past conferences. Learn more here.
International Federation of Operations Research Societies (IFORS) Members have access to educational material such as case studies, and interactive web-based tutorial modules on generic OR topics. Learn more here.
International Health Economics Assoication (iHEA) Member only content includes webinars, online access to previous webinars, and additional educational and economic resources. Learn more here.
International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) Videos, webinars, online training, short courses on pharmacoeconomics, economic evaluation, technology assessment, and health-related quality of life and their use in health care decisions. Learn more here.
International Society for Quality of Life Research (ISOQOL) Online webinars in quality of life and outcomes methods and measurement. Learn more here.
Society for Benefit Cost Analysis (SBCA) Pre-conference professional development workshops, with previous topics having included retrospective Benefit-Cost Analysis, estimating parameter values in BCA, and policy impact on causal analytics for BCA. Learn more here.
Society for Medical Decision Making (SMDM) Short courses on health decision analysis, medical decision making, decision modeling, health-related quality of life, various other methods, tools and applications, as well as educational modules available on-line. Learn more here.
Society for Risk Analysis (SRA) Offers members materials including a webinar series and collated teaching resources including syllabi, notes and reading lists on risk-related topics. Learn more here.
Workshops and Online Learning
Cochrane Online, interactive training modules on conducting systematic reviews. Learn more here.
edX edX is a non-profit online initiative created by founding partners Harvard and MIT, and is the platform that hosts HarvardX courses. edX offers interactive online classes and MOOCs from top universities, colleges, and organizations on topics including biology, business, chemistry, computer science, economics, finance, engineering, food and nutrition, history, humanities, law, literature, math, medicine, music, philosophy. Learn more here.
University for Health Science, Medical Informatics and Technology (UMIT) The Health Technology Assessment & Decision Science Program (HTAD) of UMIT offers 3-5 day workshops in health technology assessment, clinical epidemiology, causal inference, and decision-analytic modelling. Learn more here.
University of Glasgow, Health Economics and Health Technology Assessment 2-3 day workshops “Decision analytic modelling methods for economic evaluation”, Foundation and Advanced courses, in Glasgow, Scotland and York, England. Learn more here.
Courses at Area Institutions
Behavioral Decision Theories and Applications (MIT, Fall) Instructor: Yanchong Zheng. Introduces fundamental behavioral theories of human decision making and demonstrates how they impact the design of management strategies and policies. Topics include prospect theory, reference-dependence preferences, loss aversion, ambiguity aversion, regret, inter-temporal preferences, social preferences, cognitive hierarchy, bounded rationality, and adaptive learning. Studies these concepts in a wide range of applications, including pricing, supply chain management, social welfare, marketing, contract design, sustainability, and e-commerce. Discusses experimental methodologies to identify and measure various preferences and phenomena, as well as mathematical models to capture them in decision making. Content updated from year to year to include state-of-the-art research. Prerequisite/Level: Permission of Instructor. Primarily for graduate students. Course ID: 15.795
Cognitive Science (MIT, Spring) Instructor: Edward A. Gibson. Intensive survey of cognitive science. Topics include visual perception, language, memory, cognitive architecture, learning, reasoning, decision-making, and cognitive development. Topics covered from behavioral, computational, and neural perspectives. Prerequisite/Level: Permission of Instructor. Primarily for graduate students. Course ID: 9.012
Decisions, Games and Rational Choice (MIT, Spring) Instructor: Vann McGee. Foundations and philosophical applications of Bayesian decision theory, game theory and theory of collective choice. Why should degrees of belief be probabilities? Is it always rational to maximize expected utility? If so, why and what is its utility? What is a solution to a game? What does a game-theoretic solution concept such as Nash equilibrium say about how rational players will, or should, act in a game? How are the values and the actions of groups, institutions and societies related to the values and actions of the individuals that constitute them? Prerequisite/Level: Primarily for undergraduate students. Course ID: 24.222
Engineering Systems Analysis for Design (MIT, Fall) Instructor: Richard De Neufville. This course covers theory and methods to identify, value, and implement flexibility in design, also known as “real options.” Topics include definition of uncertainties, simulation of performance for scenarios, screening models to identify desirable flexibility, decision and lattice analysis, and multidimensional economic evaluation. Students demonstrate proficiency through an extended application to a systems design of their choice. Prerequisite/Level: For graduate students. Course ID: 1.146
Individuals, Groups, and Organizations (MIT, Fall) Instructor: Jared R. Curhan. Covers classic and contemporary theories and research related to individuals, groups, and organizations. Designed primarily for doctoral students in the Sloan School of Management who wish to familiarize themselves with research by psychologists, sociologists, and management scholars in the area commonly known as micro organizational behavior. Topics may include motivation, decision making, negotiation, power, influence, group dynamics, and leadership. Prerequisite/Level: Primarily for graduate students. Course ID: 15.341
Introduction to Mathematical Programming (MIT, Fall) Instructors: J. N. Tsitsiklis and D. Bertsimas. This course introduces linear optimization and its extensions emphasizing both methodology and the underlying mathematical structures and geometrical ideas. It covers classical theory of linear programming as well as some recent advances in the field. Topics include: simplex method; duality theory; sensitivity analysis; network flow problems; decomposition; integer programming; interior point algorithms for linear programming; and introduction to combinatorial. Prerequisite/Level: For graduate students. Course ID: 6.25
Managerial Psychology Laboratory (MIT, Fall) Instructor: Paul Osterman. Surveys individual and social psychology and organization theory interpreted in the context of the managerial environment. Laboratory involves projects of an applied nature in behavioral science. Emphasizes use of behavioral science research methods to test hypotheses concerning decision-making, group behavior, and organizational behavior. Instruction and practice in communication includes report writing, team projects, and oral and visual presentation. 12 units may be applied to the General Institute Laboratory. Prerequisite/Level: Primarily for undergraduate students. Course ID: 15.301
Modeling and Assessment for Policy (MIT, Spring) Instructor: Noelle Selin. This course explores how scientific information and quantitative models can be used to inform policy decision-making. Develops an understanding of quantitative modeling techniques and their role in the policy process through case studies and interactive activities. Addresses issues such as analysis of scientific assessment processes, uses of integrated assessment models, public perception of quantitative information, methods for dealing with uncertainties, and design choices in building policy-relevant models. Examples focus on models and information used in Earth system governance. Prerequisite/Level: For graduate students. Course ID: 12.844
Optimization Methods (MIT, Fall) Instructors: D. Bertsimas and P. Parrilo. This course introduces the principal algorithms for linear, network, discrete, robust, nonlinear, and dynamic optimization. It emphasizes methodology and the underlying mathematical structures. Topics include the simplex method, network flow methods, branch and bound and cutting plane methods for discrete optimization, optimality conditions for nonlinear optimization, interior point methods for convex optimization, Newton’s method, heuristic methods, and dynamic programming and optimal control methods. Prerequisite/Level: Primarily for undergraduate students Expectations and evaluation criteria differ for students taking graduate version. Course ID: 6.255
Optimization Methods in Business Analytics (MIT, Spring) Instructor: James Orlin. This course Introduces optimization methods with a focus on modeling, solution techniques, and analysis. Covers linear programming, network optimization, integer programming, and decision trees. Applications to logistics, manufacturing, data analysis, transportation, marketing, project management, and finance. Includes a project in which student teams select and solve an optimization problem (possibly a large-scale problem) of practical interest. Prerequisite/Level: Primarily for undergraduate students. Course ID: 15.053
Principles of Autonomy and Decision Making (MIT, Fall) Instructor: Brian C. Williams. Survey of reasoning, optimization and decision making methodologies for creating highly autonomous systems and decision support aids. Focus on principles, algorithms, and their application, taken from the disciplines of artificial intelligence and operations research. Reasoning paradigms include logic and deduction, heuristic and constraint-based search, model-based reasoning, planning and execution, and machine learning. Optimization paradigms include linear programming, integer programming, and dynamic programming. Decision-making paradigms include decision theoretic planning, and Markov decision processes. Prerequisite/Level: For both graduate and undergraduate students. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Course ID: 16.413
Research Seminar in System Dynamics (MIT, Fall) Instructors: D. Keith, J. Sterman. This course is a doctoral level seminar in system dynamics modeling, with a focus on social, economic and technical systems. It covers classic works in dynamic modeling from various disciplines and current research problems. Participants critique the theories and models, often including replication, testing, and improvement of various models, and lead class discussion. Topics vary from year to year. Prerequisite/Level: For graduate students. Course ID: 15.879
Risk and Decision Analysis (MIT, Fall) Instructor: Richard de Neufville. Focuses on design choices and decisions under uncertainty. Topics include identification and description of uncertainties using probability distributions; the calculation of commensurate measures of value, such as expected net present values; Monte Carlo simulation and risk analysis; and the use of decision analysis to explore alternative strategies and identify optimal initial choices. Applied analysis of practical examples from a variety of engineering systems using spreadsheet and decision analysis software. Prerequisite/Level: Primarily for graduate students. Course ID: IDS.333