Iowa State University - Online Master of Business Analytics Program
The Ivy College of Business at Iowa State University (ISU) offers a Master of Business Analytics degree that targets the analytical skills and technology used in the business world to collect, interpret, and draw actionable conclusions from big datasets. This is an interdisciplinary graduate program that draws on ISU’s academic resources in Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Statistics, and Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering. Students in the master’s program must complete 30 credits of coursework, or 10 classes, in order to graduate. Three of these classes require students to be on campus for weeklong immersion sessions that take place at the beginning, middle, and end of the program. The rest of the coursework is online. The program is designed to be completed in 21 months of part-time enrollment.
ISU’s MS in Business Analytics is what’s known as a blended program. It is primarily conducted online, but makes use of traditional, face-to-face learning through the on-campus sessions. Students begin the 21-month program as a group, with a one-week business analytics overview course in the summer. They then progress through the program together, taking synchronous online courses in a defined sequence. This means that students must be available to log onto a virtual classroom platform at specific times to participate in online classes and discussions. Lectures can then be downloaded for review, and other course materials are available on-demand through the school’s learning management system.
The MS in Business Analytics program begins with an on-campus course in Teams, Projects, and BA Leadership. Midway through the program, students return to the ISU campus for a course in Marketing Analytics with Big Data. The degree concludes with a Business Analytics Capstone Project that entails one final campus visit. The program’s online coursework includes three additional core requirements: Business Analytics Foundation, Applied Statistical Modeling, and Advanced Business Analytics. Together, these courses account for 18 of the 30 total credits required for the degree. Students can then choose four electives for the remaining 12 credits. These includes classes in subject areas like Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining; Data Analytics and Visualization; Algorithms for Large Data Sets: Theory and Practice; and Applied Modern Multivariate Statistical Learning.
Iowa State University’s Ivy College of Business is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB International).
Note: OnlineEducation.com classifies Master’s in Analytics programs as online if they require two or fewer visits to campus per year.