Online Master's in Project Management Courses

Keep Your Future on Track with a Project Management Degree

30 total credits required

When you choose the online Master of Science in Project Management (MSPM) degree at Ohio University, you explore topics that will prepare you to lead your team to success while staying on time, on budget, and considerate of all necessary project requirements.

The online MSPM is a 30-credit hour program, delivered in ten 7-week courses. You will complete four core project management courses, then select five elective courses to specialize in subject areas like Business Analytics, Finance, Human Resource Management, Business Venturing, Management and Leadership or Strategic Sales. You can earn a certificate in your specialty focus while completing your online MSPM degree.

Complete your degree with the Project Management Capstone, applying the tools, techniques and knowledge gained during the program on your project.

Core Courses

PM 6100 Project Management I

Students learn the skills, tools, and strategies required to meet the needs of managing complex projects. The topics in the course include initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing projects as well as project integration management, scope management, time management, cost management, human resource management, communications management, and risk management.

PM 6200 Project Management II

Focuses on the human aspects of project management. In this class, you’ll learn how to motivate team members as they work towards executing the project. This class also focuses on building the emotional intelligence skills of our students. Additionally, half of this class is dedicated to agile project management, with discussions on how you can implement agile project methods even in traditional project management environments.

PM 6500 Change and Risk Management

Many projects fail due to the project manager not appropriately understanding the roles of change management and risk management. From a change management perspective, students will investigate the role of organizational culture as it applies to their company. The risk management component of this class will teach students about how to proactively manage risks in their projects to help increase the odds of delivering excellent project driven results, on time and under budget.

PM 6600 Lean Six Sigma

Methods Lean and Six Sigma were developed as two separate methodologies to remove waste and improve quality in an enterprise. The overlap in the principles, tools, and skill sets utilized by both methods has led to a synergy in how they are applied in conjunction with each other in an organization. This course introduces students to fundamental principles of leans and six sigma methodologies and provides them with key problem-solving tools utilized in both methods.

PM 6800 Project Management Capstone/Thesis

This course is the capstone experience for students completing the Masters of Project Management graduate degree program. Students develop a case study portfolio with a client company to implement the project management tools and techniques learned within the degree program. The culminating deliverable will be the individual student project portfolio.

Accounting Elective Courses

ACCT 5010 Intermediate Accounting Concepts

This course studies the conceptual framework of accounting, disclosure standards for general-purpose financial statements, and measurement standards for cash, receivables, inventories, tangible and intangible operating assets, investments, liabilities, and associated revenues and expenses, including the application of compound interest techniques. Measurement and reporting standards for contingencies, stockholders' equity, and special problems associated with revenue recognition are also studied.

ACCT 5020 Advanced Accounting Concepts

This course studies advanced accounting topics in the following areas: Managerial Accounting, Cost Accounting, Taxation, and Accounting Information Systems.

ACCT 5030 Advanced Accounting Concepts II

This course studies advanced accounting topics in the following areas: auditing, forensic accounting and fraud examination, advanced financial accounting, and governmental/not-for-profit accounting.

Analytics Elective Courses

MBA 6325 Prescriptive Analytics

Some refer to analytics as the new science of winning. It refers to a commitment by top management to the extensive use of data, statistical and quantitative analysis, explanatory and predictive models and fact-based management to drive decisions and actions. This course provides an introduction to analytics and covers spreadsheet modeling for decision-making. It employs techniques from the classical disciplines of statistics and operations research, as well as more recently developed methodologies: data mining, executive information systems, digital dashboards, and online analytical processing. You will be expected to master, at an introductory level, techniques that are at the heart of the competitive posture of many successful organizations.

MBA 6320 Descriptive Analytics

Data analysis is rapidly becoming a required skill set for today’s managers in competitive environments. As a decision-maker in business, you are likely to be asked to conduct your own analysis of data or to interpret a report that has been derived by others. In this course, you will have the opportunity to learn how to summarize, visualize, and manage data within software environments that are commonly used in business today. Additionally, techniques that help decision-makers reduce risk and identify opportunities that would provide an individual or a company with a competitive advantage will be reviewed.

MBA 6390 Predictive Analytics

Predictive analytics encompasses a variety of statistical and machine-learning techniques and applications within a business environment. The primary goal of predictive analytics is to discover and apply relationships found within historic datasets to make predictions about future or otherwise unknown events. In this hands-on course, students will be introduced to concepts related to constructing, testing, and applying quantitative models in various business settings. From this perspective, students will utilize major software tools to conduct an analysis of continuous, classification, and clustering models. Upon completion of this course, students will gain insight into how models are constructed and how predictive models can improve business.

MBA 6395 Business Intelligence

This course provides a broad overview of business intelligence and data management including database fundamentals, business intelligence approaches, data management/data governance strategies, data mining, and other business/data analytics techniques. Our primary emphasis will be on the managerial perspective, focusing on how you can design, implement, and leverage business intelligence systems and strategies in a management role.

MBA 6525 Ethics in the Global Environment

Provides students with an introduction to key concepts related to business ethics, placing a special emphasis on issues that arise in the global environment. Important decision-making frameworks are introduced, and the strengths and weaknesses of these frameworks are being discussed. Cases based on real-world situations are employed so that students can practice applying ethical frameworks in their own decision-making processes.

Finance Elective Courses

MBA 6335 Managerial Finance

Managerial Finance is an integrated application of accounting and economic principles to the financial functions of business. The course covers financial analysis, basic investing concepts, risk and return, time value of money, capital structure, and capital budgeting.

MBA 6345 Financial Markets and Institutions

Introduces macroeconomic issues and concepts that a manager has to understand and adapt to. An overview is provided of the structure and functioning of financial markets. Also addressed: how to frame economic issues within the rest of the external environment.

MBA 6355 Investments

Covers the principles used by investors to identify and evaluate various investment alternatives in forming investment portfolios. The topics include sources of investment information, the relationship between investment risks and returns, portfolio theory, portfolio performance evaluation, analysis and valuation of securities (the main focus is on common stocks), and investor and market behavior.

MBA 6365 Advanced Corporate Finance

The course provides students with a deeper understanding of corporate finance. Specifically, we explore and discuss the following topics: capital structure, dividend policy, both long-term and short-term financing, risk management at the firm level, and some special topics. The course provides students with the skills necessary for a career in financial management. This course combines real-world examples from the Wall Street Journal and recent academic articles with the financial management strategies outlined in the text. In short, students will be able to address key company-specific questions about the firm’s strategy and ability to fund its operations, while at the same time managing and incorporating risk management to maximize shareholder wealth.

Healthcare Elective Courses

HLTH 6010 Introduction to the U.S. Health Care Delivery System

Overview and analysis of the U.S. health services system, including a detailed examination of how the system is organized, internal and external forces on the system, how services are delivered, and the mechanisms by which healthcare services are financed.

HLTH 6210 Healthcare Finance

Financial administration concepts and tools (such as financial statement analysis, time value of money, cost analysis and rate-setting, budgeting, portfolio theory, asset pricing models, valuation methods, and cost of capital) essential in sustaining viability of various health care organizations.

HLTH 6040 Research and Quantitative Methods for Health Services

Interface between the legal system and healthcare delivery system, considering the roles and rights of key U.S. healthcare stakeholders, including patients, administrators, governing boards, state and federal government, third-party payors, and healthcare providers.

HLTH 6300 Epidemiology in Health Administration

This course is an overview and analysis of epidemiological principles that provide the basis for setting priorities, allocating scarce healthcare resources, and preventing disease. It recognizes that the health administrator needs to understand information from clinical professionals in making leadership decisions to manage health services to protect health.

HLTH 6280 Health Law

This course delves into the relationship between the legal and healthcare systems, including the roles and rights of key stakeholders of the U.S. health care system.

HLTH 6480 Ethical Issues in Healthcare

This course examines the impact of ethical issues on leadership decision-making. It explores dominant ethical theories and principles relevant to every aspect of healthcare leadership. Both clinical and organizational ethical issues are considered along with communication and stakeholder strategies.

HLTH 6030 Leadership of Health Organizations

This course examines leadership concepts as they apply specifically to healthcare organizations. Topics such as managing change, intra-organizational communication, and high-level decision-making are included. The course focuses on building skills to sort through and make sense of the plethora of information available in making judgment calls. Focusing on leadership, the course goes well beyond management, helping students recognize, build on and enhance their own skills and increase their adaptability. Like other Ohio University MHA courses, this one also stresses the importance of identification, empathy, and communication with relevant stakeholders.

HLTH 6350 Human Resource Leadership in Healthcare

This course deals with the practical aspects of human resource leadership in various healthcare settings. The leadership of the human capital in healthcare is challenging because the industry is labor-intensive, has a diverse workforce, and is involved with life-and-death work. This course focuses on the role of the health administrator in working with and through the human resources department to align HR strategy with organizational strategy, assure the well-being of employees, and assure a competitive position.

HLTH 6020 Information Systems for Health Services

This survey and analysis of healthcare information systems planning and leadership prepare health administrators to communicate productively with information technology and clinical professionals. The course explores the challenges of selecting and implementing information systems to achieve the organizational mission. The course focuses on how and from whom health administrators should gather information and judge its veracity. It also considers other organizational data and issues that go into selection decisions and implementation plans. Attention to various stakeholders and how to manage their impact on IT projects.

HLTH 6100 Evaluation and Quality Improvement in Healthcare

The purpose of this course is to acquaint the student with the fundamentals of health promotion program evaluation and research methods related to behavioral science and health education. Although the course emphasizes general evaluation and research methodology, specific health programs and health policy applications are used as illustrations.

HLTH 6080 Health Policy

Exploring health policy from a systematic approach; linking public health and health care issues to policy processes. Examination of policy formation, individuals, organizations, and systems involved in these processes; in relation to various issues in population health, health promotion, and health care delivery.

HLTH 6380 Strategic Planning and Marketing for Health Services

This course taps learning from every other course in a real-life strategic analysis of a healthcare organization in transition. The course focuses on key processes in planning and delivering health care to the community, such as needs assessment, feasibility studies, strategic marketing design, and implementation and evaluation strategies and methods. This course is an application exercise simulating activities healthcare administrators engage in daily, pulling information from various sources and recombining it for decision-making. It is a practical, interesting, exciting, and informative.

Management Elective Courses

MGT 5030 Employee Relations, Ethics & Legal Aspect of HRM

This course examines the ramifications of ethical and legal issues between employers and their employees, unions, independent contractors, and customers. The focus is on the role of the manager in ensuring both ethical practice and legal compliance in all areas of managing the human resources in an organization.

MGT 5031 Talent Acquisition and Strategic Management

This course is a deep dive into the strategic management aspects of talent acquisition, development, and succession planning for organizational performance, sustainability, and longevity. The course will examine talent management from the enterprise or macro firm perspective and then share specific processes and tools for delivering results. Through agile teaming, complex business cases, and in-class conversations with talent management scholars and executives, students will investigate the essential contribution of talent for executing business strategy while ensuring individual, team, and cultural alignment aspects. The course will utilize historical and modern perspectives of talent management, as well as numerous theories of human resource management and organizational behavior. For learning discovery, the course instructional design features a strong focus on team-based projects, consultative case analysis, simulations, and in-class discussions to provide practical examples of effective and ineffective strategic talent management. Course content will be explored from both a personal perspective and a professional business manager, or human resource professional perspective.

MGT 5032 Performance Management & Total Rewards

In today's globally competitive environment, organizations are more focused than ever on delivering measurable results – at an enterprise, business unit, team, and individual level. Performance, compensation and benefit systems are critical to attracting, motivating, and rewarding highly talented employees. Developing a comprehensive, effective performance management and reward system is a critical human resource imperative.

MGT 5070 Managing Innovation and Corporate Entrepreneurship

This course focuses on how large organizations manage innovation, technology commercialization, and entrepreneurship. Key activities and processes are explored in the class, including innovation management, research and development, technology commercialization, corporate entrepreneurship, incubation, corporate venturing, and corporate venture capital. The class also engages students in practical projects associated with innovation and entrepreneurship within companies.

MGT 5071 Ideation, Concept Development and Business Models

In this class, students learn how to use common tools and techniques to generate, validate and assess new venture ideas. The class is principally practical focusing on ideation efforts and engages students in a process of screening, validating, and building new business concepts. Students in this class learn how to use the business model canvas and other lean launch techniques to validate their business models. Critical skills, such as pitching and selling concepts are acquired.

MGT 5072 New Venture Creation

Students focus on detailed planning and validation of new ventures. This class uses a business planning format to engage student teams in industrial analysis, market research, sales and marketing planning, operations, and financial planning for a new venture concept. Students learn key aspects of venture planning and acquire skills in business planning, market research, and investment due diligence presentations and processes.

MGT 5001 Managing Self and Others

This course presents a strategic and analytical approach to complex behavioral problems involving interactions among individuals, teams, and organizational factors. The course explores topics such as leadership, team dynamics, motivation, decision-making, power/persuasion, and conflict as they apply to the management of individuals and teams in organizations. The class utilizes case studies, experiential exercises, personal reflection, and an organizational consulting project to practice and refine students’ management skills as well as to gain insight into their own strengths and weaknesses as a manager.

MGT 5002 Researching the Business Environment

Managers need to be able to scan and understand the external environment in order to engage in the important planning and decision-making tasks they face. In this course, students will learn tools and techniques used by managers for understanding and analyzing the business environment, resources for environmental scanning and competitive analysis, how to identify and evaluate trends for the purposes of problem diagnosis and opportunity recognition, approaches to strategic prioritization and sources of competitive advantage.

MGT 5003 Managerial Decisions and Challenges

This course examines the principles of judgment and choice in the face of uncertainty. Students will be introduced to normative (i.e., how best to decide) and behavioral (i.e., how do we decide) decision-making. The latter approach recognizes that people use various tricks (i.e., heuristics) that simplify cognitive processing. While these serve well in some instances, they may also become traps that lead to poor results in others. An extensive study of bias will help students recognize these tendencies and become better decision-makers following a third approach known as prescriptive decision making (i.e., how should we decide).

Sales Elective Courses

MBA 6300 Building & Developing Customer Relationships

The course addresses topics related to building and developing effective relationships at the customer interface. The goal is to help students develop and practice skills in the areas of interpersonal communications, negotiations, creating value and product solutions, presentation, asking questions, active listening, determining customer needs, and identifying & qualifying prospects. Role-plays and interactive exercises are employed in order to help students apply the knowledge to real-world situations. Cases are also employed on certain topics such as ethics and negotiation.

MBA 6400 Sales Leadership

The course gives students a complete picture of the scientific principles and issues revolving around the management of a field sales force regionally and internationally. Accordingly, the course deals with discussing the sales function and its relationship with a firm’s marketing program, crafting a sales strategy, and setting sales objectives. It also focuses on performing important decisions such as recruiting, hiring, training, compensating salespeople, and implementing a sales program. Cases based on real-world situations and a sales management simulation are employed so that students practice applying tools and frameworks in their own decision-making processes.

MBA 6500 Sales Analytics

The course focuses on building hard/quantitative skills sales professionals need in order to make decisions both inside their firm and at the customer interface. Specifically, the course builds skills in the areas of strategic account identification/selection, calculating customer-centric metrics such as customer lifetime value (CLV), customer risk analysis, customer acquisition and retention metrics, sales forecasting and opportunity management, performance analysis, sales resource allocation, and analyzing and evaluating sales territories. Students use datasets and software to make decisions about important problems sales professionals face in their work. Cases based on real-world situations are also employed so that students practice the application of theoretical knowledge.

MGT 5023 Supply Chain Risk Management & Global Supply Chain Design

Properly addressing risks and facing possible disruptions are of primary importance to supply chain management. In the wake of high-consequence disruptive events, risk identification, and disruption response activities have become ever more critical. The objective of the course is to provide an overview of key supply chain risk areas, particularly with the proliferation of outsourcing, the use of information technology, and global logistics. Equally important is how companies are managing the preparation, mitigation, and response strategies to major disruptive events. Topics covered include the science of catastrophes, vulnerability and threat assessments, resources and capabilities identification/integration, basic crisis management, contingency planning, disaster recovery, and business continuity in supply chain settings.