Free Business Classes

Online University & College Business Courses

Free business classes let you learn the methods and techniques managers and executives at the highest level of American corporate management learn in their business schools. You don't have to spend a ton of money or several nights a week attending night courses to learn these subjects, either. With the many free online business courses available from famous universities across the globe, you can study at your own pace and in your own home. All you need is a computer, some free time, and the desire to learn.

MIT Free Business Classes

I'll start with the free business courses from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, because these are courses from the prestigious Sloane School of Management. This not only gives you an idea what excellent business and management classes are like, but gives you a head start on the others in your business field by learning what they teach on the subject at MIT.

Economic Analysis - OpenCourseWare

The OpenCourseWare course called "Economic Analysis for Business Decisions" is considered the core class on microeconomics at MIT's Sloane School. This is a grounding in the analytical tools used to study the industrial market, including cost analysis, pricing strategy, market power, the determinants of market demand, and the implications of government regulatory policies.

Another important core class is "Implied Economics for Managers", which lets you study the concept of resource scarcity and the allocation of limited resources.

The free business classes with Open Sourceware really do run the whole gamut of business subjects: Real Estate Economics, Game Theory for Managers, Optimization Methods in Management Science, Applies Statistics, Communication for Managers, Ethical Practice, Team Projects, Leading Organizations, Managerial Psychology, Entrepreneurial Finance, Information Technology, Fundamentals of Probability, and "Economy and Business in Modern China and India". The list goes on and on, but this should give you an idea about what's available.

Free Online College Courses in Business

MIT isn't the only one offering free college courses. Open University out of the United Kingdom is one of many universities offering free business classes. For instance, OU offers "Introduction to Business Cultures", which studies why one company has a different business culture than its competitors. Business cultures studied include Google and Disney.

Customers and Stakeholders in Marketing and Finance is a 2-hour course that focuses on the stakeholders in an operation and how they affect business decisions. I chose this example to show how quick some of these courses are to study and learn. The recommended time for this class is 2 hours--the time it takes to watch a movie--and you'll come away understanding how the shareholders can influence high level management decisions.

Other business subjects being taught include Innovation, Human Resources, Management, Financial Services, Investment Risk, Finishing the Project, Managing Projects through People, Equity Finance, and the all-important Making Decisions.

Stanford Entrepreneurial Thought

Go to the Stanford iTunes page and you can view and listen to lectures on entrepreneurial thought, such as "Effective Models for Sustainable Growth", "From Stanford to Startup", and "Developing Products that Save Live". Other subjects discussed include capital markets, building connections, partnerships, innovation, and growth of the market place. Stanford University's work on iTunes continues to astound me.

Free Business Courses on the Internet

You may be able to find more business courses online than any other single subject at the university course level. That's because most every school has its own business school, while MIT might not have art courses, for instance. So if you need to hone your business skills and training, there's no reason why you shouldn't be educating yourself with free college classes right now.