Online and Remote Learning

Managing or improving processes to meet business needs and objectives requires an understanding of process metrics, including what drives them and how to analyze them, to uncover the often underappreciated opportunities for improvement available in all processes. But managing processes involves much more than crunching the numbers: it’s also about recognizing the capacity of your people to do the work and what motivates them to do it well. This course provides a thorough and unified introduction to both the power of metrics and the influence of people on process performance. Streamline and optimize subpar processes to achieve improved customer service at lower cost. Measure an organization’s capacity to serve customers and develop strategies to increase it at low or no cost. Use process simulation as an aid to diagnose and overcome process problems. Examine the human factors that drive and limit process performance, and use this understanding to increase receptiveness to process change. Manage the “people dimension” of processes.

Most process improvement initiatives fail not because of technical issues but because of the so-called soft issues: organization, structure, culture and human and political aspects. This course gives you a framework to analyze why an initiative fails, learn from the experience and recommend change to key decision-makers. You'll learn about factors that often undermine initiatives, including complexity, lack of consensus for action, social challenges and resistance. Diagnose organizational culture and assess readiness for change. Educate and influence key decision-makers and stakeholders to lead change more effectively. Manage intangible factors that often undermine process improvement projects. Organize and execute a large-scale process improvement project within the service industry and the business process sector. Adapt and sustain business processes for changing environments and client needs.

What is the difference between a historian’s grasp of the events of the past and the imaginative leap the writer must take to recreate it? While the historian must be scrupulously faithful to what is the case, the artist must cultivate a sympathetic imagination for the past. This is all about the sensory details as opposed to the overview—the sights, sounds, smells that make up a lived reality. How do you write convincing dialogue that is neither jarringly contemporary nor self-consciously archaic? How does a writer depart from the historically correct to find a story worth telling? How does a writer create characters that feel like flesh-and-blood, while observing the specificities and constraints of the time in which the story is set? Often what feels most “real” is what has been freely invented, and this course will enable the participants to begin the work of thinking like novelists as they approach history, and to create their own fictional worlds. Understand the unique process of creating historical fiction. Apply these techniques to your own work.

The legend of King Arthur has inspired poets and artists in every major European language since the early Middle Ages. The Round Table, the Sword in the Stone, Lancelot, Guinevere, Merlin: many of its images and characters are part of the Western cultural vocabulary. Learn this tradition through reading and discussing a selection of original texts. We’ll consider related themes that still influence modern storytelling, including codes of chivalry, courtly love, knighthood and the quest for the Holy Grail. Trace the evolution of Arthur and his knights from Celtic mythic heroes to Christian saints and exemplars. Learn about medieval monasticism and the monks who penned the legends. Explore the tradition of courtly love and the medieval texts in which its laws of conduct were encoded. Evaluate the symbolism of the Holy Grail:  cup of the Eucharist or pagan fertility symbol?

Ce cours présentera des activités orales variées ciblées sur des thèmes contemporains. Vous ferez une présentation sur un thème de votre choix dans le but d'engager une discussion générale. Vous introduirez de nouveaux mots ou expressions, ferez la lecture commentée d'un poème ou d'une chanson, écouterez une interview et participerez à des jeux de langue ou autres. Les activités et les thèmes varieront de cours en cours, permettant ainsi aux étudiants intéressés de reprendre ce cours autant de fois qu'ils le désirent. maintenez et améliorez votre niveau de français le cas échéant, pratiquez des points de grammaire, de syntaxe ou de prononciation profitez des supports multiples tels CD, DVD et articles lus ou écoutés.

Selecting strong stocks based on fundamental data is the first step in building a successful portfolio. This course uses case studies, discussions and presentations to teach you how to find undervalued companies based on their estimated intrinsic values. You'll learn how to estimate a stock's target price and draft an equity research report, and study strategies used by legends such as Warren Buffett and Benjamin Graham. The course will draw on research to build a database of potential investment picks. Identify undervalued (fundamentally strong) and overvalued (fundamentally weak) companies based on their estimated intrinsic values. Apply value-investing strategies and successful investment habits to your stock portfolio. Calculate the intrinsic value of a stock using absolute valuation and relative valuation models. Develop and present a professional equity-research report for your favourite stock.

Explore writing and meditation practices and overcome blocks to the creative process. In this course, you'll work to create new pathways in your consciousness, open your creativity and eliminate feelings of limitation and inhibition. The course combines meditation, lectures, writing exercises and discussions with a community of like-minded writers. You'll try journaling, sitting, and walking meditation, and writing exercises to help you tell your story, memoir, or poem. As insight develops, creativity, clarity, and happiness arrive. Unblock creative energy and learn lessons of craft. Create connections between your interior and exterior lives. Connect the wisdom within your heart to the written word.  

This course gives you an overview of Enterprise Architecture (EA) and its role in implementing an organization’s strategy.  You'll learn about aligning business and IT and how to use principles, standards, patterns and best practices. Explore the most used EA methodologies, the fundamentals in business, technology and security and the interrelationships between domains. You'll also learn how to measure EA benefits, convey them to key stakeholders and develop architectural and governance skills that follow key frameworks used in the industry (e.g. TOGAF) and use an architectural language (e.g. Archimate). Understand how Enterprise Architecture (EA) helps deliver the organization's vision. Show how EA can influence the overall performance of the organization and affect its competitive advantage. Explain the relationships between business, application, data, technology and security aspects. Advocate good EA practices and appropriate governance. Evaluate the current state of an organization versus its stated vision and goals. Understand the fundamentals about using a disciplined, comprehensive methodology as well as take an agile approach. Explain how an architectural language like Archimate in conjunction with TOGAF. Evaluate the results of an Enterprise Architecture practice.

This course provides a view on current architectural approaches as well as emerging technology trends in the industry.  Not only this is a much needed input into the architectural process, in order to foresee the best strategy for your organization, but you will acquire some of the skills that are in high demand in the market. Selected topics like service-oriented architecture, cloud computing, big data, predictive analytics, etc. will be discussed along with other emerging industry trends. More advanced topics will be introduced as well. You will learn to use Archimate to describe architecture patterns and TOGAF to explain how to apply these trends in a business environment. Some of the components that make up modern environments such as data lakes will be introduced. You will also be able to explain how machine learning and AI can be applied to data in these environments. Apply the tools and techniques commonly used in EA practice. Understand service-oriented architecture and other common enterprise architectural models like Cloud computing, Big Data, Predictive analytics, etc. Understand the importance of data and information and how to best leverage it in your organization Survey current industry trends  and Show how to keep an eye on other emerging technologies, as things change.

Organizations use quality management and process excellence to deliver value for customers, generate returns for shareholders and improve workplaces. This course gives you a solid grounding in the ideas and practices of quality management. You'll learn the core ideas that underpin the leading quality and process excellence methodologies and frameworks used today (ISO, TQM, Lean Six Sigma) and how to apply Lean Six Sigma Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control (DMAIC) methodology to business and work situations. Understand how quality relates to business strategy. Measure and define quality in your processes from your customer's perspective. Map and analyze your processes. Understand and identify waste in your processes. Understand and be able to apply fundamental project management and Lean Six Sigma tools to improve processes.