STEM MBA Curriculum

(BETH 625) – 1.5 credits

This class explores the fundamentals of ethical decision making in the business context. It covers the psychology of ethical decision making, including individual and situational factors influencing the decision process, as well as the ethical theories needed to understand the dimensions of an ethically complex situation. The class introduces a framework for analyzing ethical situations and developing a managerially defensible solution. It also explores various strategies for dealing with ethical challenges in the workplace and ways to effectively communicate one’s decisions.

Co-requisite: MGMT 625.

(MGMT 625) - 1.5 credits

Competitive Strategy is designed to help students learn about the nature of business, and the principled leadership and governance of firms. This course focuses on the formulation of business-level strategy to help students gain a practical understanding of how the functions (finance, marketing, accounting, operations, human resources, etc.) are aligned with business-level strategy to support the mission, goals and objectives of a firm. Major questions explored in this course include: Why are some industries more profitable than others? Why do some firms consistently outperform others? How can a firm build and sustain a competitive advantage? A variety of industry contexts and firms will be used to illustrate the application of the analytical tools and frameworks covered in the course to any type of firm, including for- profits, non-profits and not-for-profits.

Co-requisite: BETH 625

(ENTR 625) - 1.5 credits

This is a brief, introductory course designed to help the general manager understand what it takes to identify and evaluate new opportunities, and to transform innovations into profitable businesses. In this course, students will begin developing key skills and knowledge necessary for applying the entrepreneurial process within the corporate context.

(ACCT 601) - 3 credits

Financial accounting is an integral part of the planning, reporting and control functions of every business. It is a means to achieving insights about the firm's financial condition, operating results, cash flows and ownership and capital structure. This course covers the fundamental terminology and calculations of financial accounting and reporting, as well as the comprehension and interpretation of financial statements. Ethical aspects of accounting are included.

Prerequisite: None

(FINC 600) - 3 credits

This course will focus on the financial management of business. It will cover the following subject matter: risk, return, evaluation, cost of capital, capital budgeting, long-term financing, capital structure theory, financial analysis and planning, and working capital management. The international aspect of financial management will be covered as it applies to the subject matter outlined above.

Prerequisites: OPMT 600, ACCT 601, and GBEC 600 or GBEC 625

(BLAW 625) - 1.5 credits

The course examines how the law impacts daily management decisions and business strategies and provide managers with tools to use principles of law to minimize risk, create value, attain core business objectives and to resolve legal issues before they become problems. The course uses exercises, simulations and business cases designed to provide hands-on skill development and practical application of key legal concepts. Because contracts are an essential element of business, much of the course is organized around negotiating and analyzing critical business agreements covering a range of topics, including sales of goods, intellectual property, employment, and dispute resolution with the goal of developing understanding of how to structure agreements to minimize legal and business risk, enhance economic value and relationships, and aid the organization in achieving its goals.

(GBEC 625) - 1.5 credits

This course focuses on the application of microeconomic tools and concepts to business decision-making. Every organization faces numerous decisions. Every decision-maker faces limits of money, resources, technology, and information. Optimal decisions must balance the marginal benefits of a decision with the decision’s marginal costs. The tool of constrained optimization is applied to cost minimization, output maximization, and profit maximization. Concepts covered include: optimal output volume; demand analysis and estimation; production and cost; market structure and strategic positioning; and optimal pricing strategies.

Prerequisites: OPMT 600

(MGMT 603) - 3 credits

Leadership is about insight, initiative, influence, and impact. You will explore principled leadership in this class, gaining a framework and skillset for developing your ability to make meaningful impact within dynamic and complicated organizations. Leading self and others incorporates insight into individual strengths and diversity, interpersonal and team dynamics, taking initiative and having influence both with and without formal authority, and examining the larger impact on organizational systems and the common good. This core MBA course, taken in the first year of the program, is designed to help students discern that leading is challenging and critical for success in both your career and the St. Thomas MBA program.

(MKTG 625) - 1.5 credits

Marketing Frameworks is designed to build a practical understanding of the frameworks and tools that are frequently used to solve marketing problems. The course will examine strategy formulation and the marketing mix (product, price, place, and promotion) tied to a thorough assessment of the marketplace (company, competitors, customers, etc.). Students will develop essential skills related to using marketing research, performing quantitative and qualitative analysis, and critically thinking about marketing decisions related to strategy and tactics.

(OPMT 625) - 1.5 credits

This course provides an introduction to the management of business operations. It focuses on the strategic role of the operations function in the survival and success of manufacturing and service organizations. The course will explore a variety of strategic issues related to the design of operational systems and their connection with other functional and business strategies. The course will provide a multi-functional perspective on challenges and opportunities in managing operations. The course will emphasize use of state-of-the-art concepts and quantitative methods for making critical choices in a dynamic business environment.

Prerequisite: OPMT 600

(BUAN 640) - 3 credits

This course provides students with a basic understanding of the role of statistics in the gathering of data, the creation of information and its use in decision-making. Students will learn methods for summarizing data, both numerically and graphically, and for drawing conclusions form sample data. Statistical analyses will be carried out using the computer and statistical software. The focus of the course is on how statistical methods can be applied to business problems to improve outcomes; stress is placed on the design of statistical studies, collection of data, and the interpretation of results. The course will also focus on interpreting computer output and less on generating numbers through hand calculations.

(OPMT 600) - 3 credits

This course provides students with a basic understanding of the role of statistics in the gathering of data, the creation of information and its use in decision-making. Students will learn methods for summarizing data, both numerically and graphically, and for drawing conclusions from sample data. Statistical analyses will be carried out using the computer and statistical software. The focus of the course is on how statistical methods can be placed on the design of statistical studies, collection of data, and the interpretation of results (rather than the details of computation).

Prerequisite: None

(SEIS 632) - 3 credits

Even the most insightful data analysis has limited value if analysts cannot convey clear, actionable insights to non-technical audiences. This course develops the critical skills necessary to transform complex quantitative findings into compelling data stories and visualizations. Students will learn how to leverage visual design principles that speak directly to human cognitive abilities, guiding business stakeholders toward data-driven decisions. The curriculum covers creating meaningful graphs, reports, and dashboards that improve comprehension, catalyze communication, and enable fact-based choices. By mastering techniques for visualizing and explaining data, students will become adept at distilling analytical conclusions into incisive narratives readily grasped by diverse audiences. Upon completion, they will have obtained hands-on experience with state-of-the-art data visualization tools to generate impactful data-driven visual insights.

(SEIS 666) - 3 credits

Digital Transformation is everywhere: business to business, business to consumer and even government to citizens. Digital transformation promises a bridge to a digital future, where organizations can thrive more fluid business models and processes. In this course, we start by showing the step by step of what digital transformation is, harnessing various exponential technologies and the five domains of digital transformation: Customers, Competition, Data, Innovation, and Value. A deep dive into data, the economic value of data, and data monetization in a B2B and B2C context. Understanding the layers of data, value proposition and business models play a holistic and practical guide for a digital-first organization and professional to transform legacy businesses or create new value propositions in the digital age. We also take an in-depth look at many technologies, including data science, that are part of many successful digital transformations.

(SEIS 709) - 3 credits

This course provides students with a theoretical and practical understanding of Strategy and Enterprise Architecture (EA). It studies how EA enables organizations to effectively accomplish their business goals. Specifically, the course analyzes the relationships among business strategies, IT strategies, business, applications, information, and technology architectures. It also examines current industry trends such as: design thinking, digital transformation, cloud migration, and introduces students to EA implementation frameworks and tools.

(SEIS 603) - 3 credits

This is an introductory software development course with a focus on fundamental and foundational concepts. These concepts include general problem solving and algorithm creation techniques, data types, constants, variables and expressions, boolean, control flow, and object-oriented concepts. Applying these concepts, we implement programs using the Python language. We will examine its use as an interpreted and a compiled language, working with data types such as numbers, strings, lists, dictionaries, and sets. Students will learn how to apply Python in managing data. PyTest will be discussed for Unit and Integration Testing.

(SEIS 663) - 3 credits

This overview course will provide the foundation of information technology security, including authentication, authorization, access management, physical security, network security (firewalls, intrusion detection), application security (software and database), digital privacy, technology risk management, regulatory compliance, and security operations (e.g., incident response, monitoring, continuity). We will explore social engineering and other human factors and the impact to security.

(SEIS 755) - 3 credits

The course will introduce students to the methods and tools used in User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) design. UxDesign will provide an introduction to the foundation of each of the design stage of a product’s lifecycle/journey, and will provide a key understanding on the components required to ensure the end product will meet end user needs. Some of the topics discussed in the course include User Experience Design, Design Thinking, Human Centered Design, UxDesign techniques, such as: personas, user stories / user story mapping, storyboards, wireframing, UxDesign methods, such as: design methods, design prioritization, and rapid/interactive UI development; and coverage of key prototyping tools and software.

(BUAN 799) - 3 credits

This application-focused course provides the opportunity for students to experience a real-time business analytics project. Under faculty guidance and mentoring, small teams of students will work together to implement the breadth of methods and skills developed throughout the MSBA program to manage all aspects of client and project management; develop the project deliverables including business problem analysis, data transformation and analysis; and presentation of the results at the client site. The course will begin with limited on-campus meetings, then transition to a flexible “directed study” format with regular required check-ins with the faculty leader, providing ample time for the team to complete the project work. Teams will use online collaboration software tools for communication and project coordination.

Prerequisite: 21 Credits Completed

(BUAN 620) - 3 credits

This course covers the life cycle of data for analytics from the structure of relational and non-relational data stores, though the extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL) process, and into the analysis and presentation of data using data dashboards. Students will learn and practice acquiring, extracting, cleaning, and loading data from databases and other data stores. Students will learn to interpret and create data models, write and interpret the results of Structured Query Language (SQL), practice and apply industry ETL tools to solve business problems, and effectively communicate about data through the use of a dashboarding tool.

Prerequisites: NONE.

(BUAN 610) - 3 credits

This course will focus on developing ability to understand the business needs for data insights, crafting those into an analytics problem statement, and developing a coherent and persuasive narrative of any data findings. Students will learn to create well-crafted data narratives and dashboards for business leaders while being able to translate insights into managerial decisions. Students will also be able to prepare raw data sets for their data narratives, executive summaries and technical memos. The Data Narratives course focuses on providing these fundamental data narrative and storytelling abilities while leveraging various tools to assist in the process.

Prerequisites: NONE.

(BUAN600) - 3 credits

This course teaches students how to perform data analysis using spreadsheet-based methods to effectively and efficiently solve management problems. Students will learn how to effectively build, present and communicate advanced Excel spreadsheet models, forecasting models, optimization models and simulation models to drive managerial decision making. Students will also learn how to build interactive, data driven dashboards using Power BI to discover new insights and monitor key performance indicators.

Prerequisites: NONE.