The University of Toronto is offering free online course on Behavioral Economics in Action. This course builds on much of the fascinating work in the area of behavioral economics and allows learners to develop a hands-on approach by understanding its methods and more importantly, how it can be harnessed by suitably designing contexts to “nudge” choice.

In this six week course, applicants will learn how to use behavioral economics to design experiments and develop tools to help people make better decisions.

Course At A Glance 

Length: 6 weeks
Effort: 4-5 hours pw
Subject: Business & Management
Institution: University of Toronto and edx
Languages: English
Price: Free
Certificate Available: Yes, Add a Verified Certificate for $49
Session: Self-Paced

Providers’ Details

The University of Toronto is a vibrant and diverse academic community. It includes 80,000 students, 12,000 colleagues holding faculty appointments, 200 librarians, and 6,000 staff members across three distinctive campuses and at many partner sites, including world-renowned hospitals.

About This Course

How can we get people to save more money, eat healthy foods, engage in healthy behaviors, and make better choices in general? There has been a lot written about the fact that human beings do not process information and make decisions in an optimal fashion.

Why Take This Course?

You will also witness and participate in weekly topical debates on various topics like “does irrationality impact welfare?” or “what strategy is better for improving welfare – nudging or education?” If you’ve been fascinated with the buzz surrounding behavioral economics but are not sure how to actually use it, this course is for you.

Learning Outcomes

• Develop an understanding of the philosophy and the principles underlying the field of behavioral economics
• Understand the differences between choice architecture / nudging and other approaches to behavior change.
• Understand the key elements of an experiment, differentiate between three basic types of experimental designs, and gain insight into ANOVA and regression techniques for analyzing data.
• Use a prescribed process for designing your own nudges, and identify specific resources and tools you will need to execute a nudging strategy.
• Apply some of the learning’s and ideas to policy and business.

Instructors

Dilip Soman

Dilip Soman, Professor at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. Dilip does research on interesting human behaviours and their applications to consumer welfare, policy and financial literacy.

Requirements

None

How To Join This Course

• Go to the course website link
• Create an edX account to SignUp
• Choose “Register Now” to get started.
• EdX offers honor code certificates of achievement, verified certificates of achievement, and XSeries certificates of achievement. Currently, verified certificates are only available in some courses.
• Once applicant sign up for a course and activate their account, click on the Log In button on the edx.org homepage and type in their email address and edX password. This will take them to the dashboard, with access to each of their active courses. (Before a course begins, it will be listed on their dashboard but will not yet have a “view course” option.)

Apply Now