Minerva University Certificate in Decision Analysis

Certificate in Decision Analysis

Graduate-Level Online Certificate in Decision Analysis

Level up your career with advanced skills to tackle complex challenges.

The Certificate in Decision Analysis is a one-year, online, part-time program designed to equip working professionals with critical skills for success in any field. During the program students will learn and apply the habits of mind and foundational concepts (HCs) that enable them to tackle complex problems and make informed decisions across contexts.

The awarding of this certificate represents an advanced, multidimensional expertise in decision analysis, and will qualify working professionals for new career advancement opportunities in a wide range of employment sectors.

Curriculum Overview

Students will engage with a curriculum that focuses on interpreting data and using available evidence to evaluate situations, develop viable options, and structure rational conclusions guided by an understanding of complex social systems to support making decisions throughout the Certificate in Decision Analysis. Class activities go into depth on a wide variety of cases and problem domains, helping students develop their creative thinking, critical thinking, and effective interaction skills, and the ability to transfer these skills across domains. (24 units).

Every class is highly interactive utilizing Minerva’s online fully active learning methodology. With no residential requirement in an entirely virtual format, students can attend class from anywhere in the world alongside a passionate international community of working professionals who share goals of developing new frameworks, methods, and ways of thinking to tackle complex global issues across industries and domains.

Formal Methods for Analysis and Decision Making

Learn how to represent situations systematically and logically, using concepts in mathematics, probability and statistics, computer science, and logic. The subject matter used to illustrate this material will typically be drawn from a wide range of pivotal real-world problems. (2 semesters)

Decision Making in Complex Social Systems

Use tools and concepts from complexity theory to understand people and groups as complex systems. With this approach, we target the core competency of “effective interaction” with others, including analysis of case studies from a variety of global contexts that consider topics from leadership and negotiation to understanding yourself and your own goals. (2 semesters)

Frameworks for Evidence-Based Decision Making

Learn to apply advanced problem solving skills and decision making frameworks to complex problems. Use data and evidence to define and characterize complex problems and generate viable solutions while analyzing and mitigating the effect of cognitive biases on the process of decision making. (1 semester)

Applications of Scientific Inquiry

Use the scientific method in interdisciplinary contexts to design research that tests innovative hypotheses and informs decision making. This class focuses on topics in the social and natural sciences that transcend disciplinary boundaries. (1 semester)

Learning Effectively

Active Learning

Minerva’s online active learning approach, based on the science of learning, enables students to deeply engage with course material and apply it effectively to professional contexts, equipping them with critical decision-making and problem-solving skills. By introducing, reinforcing, and evaluating the use of specific capabilities through personalized feedback and advanced performance tracking, participants learn, practice, then master these skills over time.

Forum

All Minerva classes are conducted synchronously and virtually in a small seminar format using Minerva's online fully active learning methodology, helping participants hone critical thinking, debate, and presentation skills, with results proving long-term information retention. Classes are held on Forum™, Minerva's advanced virtual learning environment, in small discussion-based seminars encouraging active participation and deep collaboration, and enabling flexibility for working professionals from around the world.

Earning the Certificate in Decision Analysis

The Certificate in Decision Analysis includes the completion of a total of 24 credits. Completion of two additional analytical focused courses and of a thesis will enable awarding the Master of Science in Decision Analyses (12 more credits for a total of 36).

Admissions Process

The application for the Certificate in Decision Analysis includes three parts. In the first step, we would like to get to know you through basic background information in a short two-page application, current resume, and past academic transcripts. In the second step, we are looking to understand how you think. You will be asked to complete two challenges that can be taken at any time on a computer with internet and a webcam. We will invite qualified candidates to the third step—a live video interview with our Head Instructor to evaluate your fit for the program.