Online and Remote Learning

Find out what it takes to be funny and learn the techniques used by successful literary and popular comic writers. Combining lectures with in-class exercises and workshops, this course will examine the types of comedy suited to the printed page: slapstick, satire, absurdity, verbal humour, surprise, transgression and non-sequiturs. Understand the techniques used in writing humour. Emerge with one or two pieces of comic writing. Join a community of like-minded writers.

If you've completed Life Stories I, here's your opportunity to begin developing a manuscript, building on the strengths you've gained and the discoveries you've made. Delve into the art and craft of revision and focus on longer pieces. Go deeper into the emotional truth of your stories with the possible goal of creating a book or collection of stories. Appreciate the discipline and importance of self-editing and revision. Generate polished foundation material for a book or collection of stories.

When you recommend an idea to an organization you need to back it up with logic. If you're a manager or emerging leader with inspiring ideas, you need persuasive, fact-based arguments to address any questions, rational or emotional, that might arise when you present your ideas. This course will help you sell your strategic and operational recommendations to management, using persuasive and compelling communications including business cases, risk assessments and cost-benefit analyses. Determine and convey the real underlying purpose of a recommendation. Demonstrate the cost-benefit advantages of your recommendation over other options. Use risk assessment to confirm your recommendation. Link your business case to the strategic direction of your organization. Communicate and sell your recommendations effectively.

This course will teach you how to analyze the inner workings of any enterprise and present an unbiased and independent evaluation of its financial statements. You'll learn about the concept, theory and practice of auditing, its scope and planning, decision-making, legal and ethical requirements, the evaluation of internal controls, risk and materiality. The course also covers audit-test documentation, business-cycle audits, statistical and non-statistical sampling of evidence, the application of audit judgment against available evidence and auditing in an electronic environment. Learn audit procedures for revenue, receivables and collection, payment and investment cycles.Discover how to define, discuss and resolve ethical dilemmas in accounting.Understand professional practice and quality-control standards. Become familiar with the audit-risk model and its importance in developing an audit strategy. Learn about internal controls and how to evaluate them.Enhance your professional judgment when completing audits and issuing final audit reports.

Internal audit plays a key role in corporate governance and enterprise-wide risk assessment. This course shows you how to detect and report fraud and illegal acts, respond to the impact of government legislation and regulation on business, recommend compliance initiatives and perform other internal audit roles. It also covers ethics, risk management, privacy and how to review and evaluate different kinds of security environments, whether physical or virtual. Understand corporate governance principles and risk management and control techniques. Know how to support management in developing a risk management framework and compliance. Investigate and recommend resolutions for ethics and compliance-related complaints. Determine privacy and security exposure of organizations. Learn different types of fraud and detection methods and understand the current regulatory environment regarding fraud. Participate in and contribute to developing and applying an organization-wide risk and control framework that coordinates enterprise-wide risk assessments, reports corporate risk assessments to the board and reviews the business continuity planning process.

Conflict is inevitable in business. Rather than seeing it as a negative, organizations and individuals can gain a competitive advantage by managing conflict well and using it as a catalyst for positive change. If you want to manage conflict more effectively in your organization, this course is for you. You'll analyze conflict through five different perspectives, explore best practices in communication, use interest-based negotiation and mediation and learn classic resolution theory. The sessions are highly interactive, using group exercises and role-playing that draws on the experience of the participants and the instructor's work in this area. Improve your understanding of and approach to conflict management. Gain more experience with tools for conflict analysis and conflict management. Optimize your interaction and presence in a conflict. Understand best practices in conflict communication. Respond effectively to conflict in different settings.

If you're a business professional who would like to polish your leadership and presentation skills, this course is for you. You'll learn how to convey credibility and authenticity and how to structure and deliver a clear message using eye contact and body language. Learn how to run a productive meeting, lead a discussion and create persuasive presentations - and get constructive feedback on your recorded performance. This is a timely course if you've recently earned a professional designation, graduated from a program or been promoted. Present yourself professionally, credibly and authentically. Communicate for maximum impact. Use persuasive strategies to convince decision-makers. Convey leadership presence and deliver content with confidence. Speak with authority as you monitor, mentor and motivate.

Want to become a business analyst? This practical, and career-focused course will address the essential knowledge and skills employers need from business analysis professionals. Topics such as Requirements Management, Agile, Process Modeling, Decision Modeling, and Business Cases will be covered along with other core competencies. Practical assignments and a group project, instead of exams, let you apply and hone your skills with real-life problems and situations. NEW AS of FALL 2024 -  Become a Student Member of the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA®) with proof of course registration.  We recommend you purchase the IIBA® Student Membership (fee $65 USD) directly from IIBA® once you’ve registered in this course. Membership includes digital copies of the required course textbooks for this course (and other BA courses). The required texts are: The Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOKTM) Version 3, and the Agile Extension to the BABOKTM Guide Version 2. Additionally, there are many other benefits of student membership. To purchase the student membership through the IIBA® website, you will require either your Transaction Receipt or your Confirmation of Registration. Review the IIBA FAQ New Student Membership but please disregard the student membership eligibility requirements as U of T School of Continuing Studies (SCS) learners will be granted student membership by using one of the two SCS course registration confirmations identified above.  Use business analysis best practices to effectively contribute in a BA role. Select the most appropriate techniques for the situation at hand to deliver requirements and solutions that meet business needs. Apply BA knowledge and skills as a member of a multi-disciplinary solution design and delivery team, regardless of whether the initiative uses a Waterfall, Agile or Hybrid approach.  Develop analytical and problem-solving skills that will enhance your value your organization. Prepare for success in the business analysis field and lay the foundation for further certifications.

Organizations are constantly evolving to perform better and compete. Currently, many organizations are transforming through digital initiatives, lean thinking, and agile practices.   This creates even greater opportunities for those who can be an integrating influence, making teams work better, and leading collaboration between stakeholders.  This role is tailor-made for someone who understands how and when people can work productively together, and what the individual Business Analyst (BA) can do to bring about these conditions. Much of the influence of a BA comes from their own behaviour, as their leadership is of the facilitative kind, a style of leadership honed throughout this course. Whether working in agile teams, in traditional Waterfall projects or assisting with product development, the leadership skills gained on this course will translate to increased professional value. This course will teach you tools and techniques identified in the BABOK® Guide v3 and PMI Professional in Business Analysis (PMI-PBA®) content, allowing you to deliver more value to your organization.   Develop important leadership and people skills to facilitate project and product success. Facilitate a process that elicits project requirements and influences expectations. Assess your organization’s current business analysis capability. Approach stakeholder conversations from a strategic viewpoint. Develop effective and practical communication plans.

Learn the tools, techniques and skills you need to succeed  in business analysis.  In this course, you'll discover how to define scope, define requirements in user stories, prioritize stakeholder requirements in a backlog and provide the traceability essential to a successful solution delivery. You will learn to play your part in designing solutions using process models and use cases, and specify the applicable data requirements, business rules, and non-functional requirements.  In addition you will deploy the performance demands of the business to your solutions using acceptance and evaluation criteria, and metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs.)  This course will teach you tools and techniques identified in the BABOK® Guide v3 and PMI Professional in Business Analysis (PMI-PBA®) content, allowing you to deliver more value to your organization. Know the practical details involved in using the most important tools and techniques in BABOK® v3 and PMI-PBA content. Share information and expand knowledge through the process of creating diagrams and models collaboratively with other team members and classmates Apply key Business Analysis techniques “from scratch” to  real-life case scenarios to create a business analysis deliverable Showcase your Business Analysis expertise by completing a project that calls for the application of techniques to a real business problem to create a recommendation