Online Master’s in Business Analytics

Bridge the Gap Between Data and Strategy

In the business world, big data is much more than a buzzword. It presents a major concern for businesses and organizations that can’t handle large and complex datasets with traditional processing applications. This presents a unique challenge and opportunity for emerging analysts, who interpret data and apply their understanding toward reducing risk and unnecessary spending, streamlining business operations, and making timely decisions that are critical to an organization’s success.

That’s why the Online Master of Business Analytics program from Ohio University’s College of Business goes beyond conventional tools and methods to help you develop the advanced analytical skills you need to be a part of forward-thinking solutions. Earning a Master of Business Analytics will equip you with the technical expertise to dig deeper into organizational data and play a key role in making critical business decisions — preparing you to be a confident leader in an emerging field. Be an expert in interpreting data and telling its story by earning your master’s in business analytics online.

Complete coursework 100% online

No GRE/GMAT required

Graduate in as few as 20 months

Begin the program in fall, spring, or summer

What Can You Do with a Master of Business Analytics?

The global economy relies on data and technology. Organizations in sectors such as aerospace and defense, business, finance, health care, and hospitality need talented and educated analytical professionals who can contribute to streamlining and growing their operations.

Demand for analytics professionals continues to exceed supply, meaning that the opportunity to land a rewarding, high-paying job in your field of interest is well within reach. In fact, LinkedIn’s Emerging Jobs Report ranks data scientist and data engineer among the top 15 best jobs in America. But to capitalize on these trends and become a qualified job candidate, you need to lay the foundation with a renowned degree that gives you the essential skills to identify, communicate, and apply data-driven insights that improve business efficiencies.

Earning your Online Master of Business Analytics from OHIO empowers you to stand out from the pack for a variety of professional roles through a flexible, immersive, remote learning environment.

Average salaries for careers in business analytics.

Why Choose Ohio University’s Master of Business Analytics Online?

Data is vast. In the information age, the world generates and collects massive quantities of data every second. From Google searches to YouTube content to social media activity, everyone with access to technology is consistently producing data that contributes to a larger analytical story.

This immense data production is extremely valuable to organizations, as it can serve to gauge consumer response, analyze competitors, and improve marketing strategies, to name just a few applications. But just collecting the data is not enough; companies need individuals who can interpret and communicate it for application toward organizational goals. The online master’s degree in business analytics from Ohio University supplies you with the crucial skills to tell the story of data — making you indispensable to company operations.

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The College of Business at Ohio University is consistently recognized for academic excellence. We are also accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) — an esteemed designation held by less than 5% of business schools worldwide. Ohio University is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (hlcommission.org), a regional accreditation agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.

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Ohio University is praised for professor accessibility by The Princeton Review, and we are recognized by Peterson’s Competitive Colleges for academic quality and value. We pride ourselves on making all academic resources available in an immersive remote environment for students pursuing their master’s degree in business analytics online, assuring a comprehensive educational experience.

KDnuggets is a leading site on AI, analytics, big data, data mining, data science, and machine learning. It recently rated OHIO’s Online Master of Business Analytics the No. 16 best master’s degree in data science and analytics — allowing you to graduate with a renowned and reputable degree that employers recognize as top quality.

#49 in Best Online Master’s in Business Programs (Excluding MBA).

Leadership Development Conference.
Online learning with a personal touch.

One of the features all of our online graduate business programs share is our Leadership Development Conference (LDC). This unique event bridges the gap between classroom learning and real-world application. All online students are required to attend the LDC at least once, but we encourage you to participate more often if you can.

During your two days on campus in Athens, Ohio, you’ll hear from world-class speakers who will discuss various aspects of leadership, including how to lead yourself, how to lead and influence others, and how to effectively lead businesses and enterprises in today’s modern environment. You’ll have the opportunity to connect with classmates in your program, network with students enrolled in other online business programs, and meet the faculty you’ve learned from.

Student’s Perspective on the LDC

Master of Business Analytics Curriculum

You don’t need to be a statistician or software expert to advance your career in the growing field of analytics. Instead, you need a deep desire to solve complex problems and an innate drive to discover innovative solutions. The coursework provided in our Online Master of Business Analytics program will challenge you to reinvent the status quo, pushing you beyond the rows of data in Excel and introducing you to more cutting-edge analytics tools. Study with us, and you can:

Gain the skills to examine and interpret large datasets
Learn to use a variety of advanced analysis tools, techniques, and methodologies
Use data to identify business trends and solve complex organizational challenges
Create unique data models and databases to support business solutions
Use data-based discoveries to mitigate organizational risk

Show / Hide Course Descriptions

MBA 6320	Descriptive Analytics	3 Credits
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	3 Credits
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 the 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 6360	Strategic Use of Information Systems	3 Credits
Information systems have always been a critical component of the successful operation and management of organizations. Today, modern information systems are pervasive, and knowledge of how they integrate into businesses to enhance strategies and processes is essential for all positions and functional areas. Advances in digital technologies have resulted in the development of information systems that are radically transforming the nature of managerial work, the structure of organizations, and the way firms operate and compete in the marketplace. Managers must, therefore, have a solid understanding of information technology, its organizational role, and strategic implications. Regardless of your profession or position, you have little choice but to accept and assume responsibility for the innovative and effective use of information technology to enhance your organization's performance. This course is designed to provide the fundamentals necessary to begin this process.

MBA 6395	Business Intelligence	3 Credits
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 6420	Programming for Analytics	3 Credits
In this course, students will be introduced to programming concepts that are used in business analytics. Understanding the fundamentals of programming is an essential skill set to implement solutions that are commonly needed in business practices. Common scenarios include the automation of processing data sets, applying methods, and combining techniques for creating solutions to solve business problems.

MBA 6325	Prescriptive Analytics	3 Credits
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 6495	Business Intelligence II	3 Credits
Data is often either structured or unstructured. Unstructured data presents a challenge because standard techniques commonly used in business analytics cannot be used to discover meaningful patterns, relationships, and other insights that could be useful when solving business problems. In this course, students will learn advanced techniques while using software that is commonly used in practice to overcome the problems associated with unstructured data.

MBA 6490	Predictive Analytics II	3 Credits
This course requires students to apply advanced software tools that are commonly used in businesses for advanced modeling practices and visualization techniques. In particular, students will explore advanced techniques for pre- and post-processing datasets. Students will apply advanced visualization techniques to understand the data that they are investigating and to enhance their ability to communicate the results and implications of predictive models. Students are expected to demonstrate the skills learned in this class with a course project. The course project not only allows a student to improve problem-solving skills, but it can also enhance the students’ ability to communicate their findings and recommendations in a business context.

MBA 6460	Strategic Use of Analytics	3 Credits
This course will provide students with the opportunity to learn more about how business analytics is being used in a variety of workplaces. The course will have a strategic and managerial focus where students will analyze many business cases. These cases will challenge students in their ability to critically evaluate the implications of business analytics.

MBA 6912	Applied Business Experience (CAPSIM)	2 Credits
In this course, students will work in teams and apply course material to complete simulated business experience. In this simulation, the teams each run a fictitious firm. They will define a business problem to address, assess the organization and its context, suggest solutions, and deliver an action plan for implementing the solution. Teams compete with one another in a dynamic industry environment. This provides an opportunity to apply many of the concepts learned throughout the program.

MBA 6924	Analytics Practicum	1 Credit
The analytics practicum provides opportunities to apply techniques, applications, concepts, and models from prior coursework in the MBA program to support decision-making under uncertainty in a simulated competitive business environment. Data that is generated from each student’s work during the concurrent MBA 6912: Applied Business Experience course will be used to complete a set of sequential assignments. Students will have the option of using results of each assignment for decision-making in the MBA 6912 course. Upon completion of the two courses, students will have been exposed to the outcomes of their strategic and tactical approaches to managing a type of manufacturing business.

Meet the Online Master of Business Analytics Faculty

Photo of William Young

Study data analytics online at Ohio University, and you can learn from some of the best and brightest in the field. Case in point: Meet Dr. William Young, the director of our Online Master of Business Analytics program.

Dr. Young is more than an award-winning mechanical and systems engineer. He’s a published scholar who leads research focused on descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive analytics and operations management. He has developed and deployed a variety of statistical applications and machine learning-based methodologies. This is your chance to learn from Dr. Young and other award-winning faculty members at Ohio University.

After earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering, what made you decide to become a professor of business analytics?

While getting my Ph.D. in Mechanical and Systems Engineering, I worked on a sponsored project for GE Aviation to build a preliminary design cost estimator for manufacturing and maintaining jet engine parts. I started looking at the mathematical relationships to build cost-estimating equations. The GE project, for me, was the quintessential moment to define my interest because I just fell in love with data analysis. I found I had a natural knack for looking at and summarizing data, along with the grit to keep working at it. That’s really how my engineering background helped me become a professor of business analytics.

How can a master’s degree in business analytics be applied to operations management?

A lot of analytics started within operations. Operations management is all about looking for more efficient ways to do things and how to drive quality. Operations is really a part of marketing, sales, logistics, manufacturing, service-based industries like finance and insurance, and even sports and hospitality. Cost estimation is an operations management topic as well. We can collect information on anything and use it to build a good model that lets us make strategic predictions.

How does your expertise in business analytics underpin your interest in fields as diverse as operations management, sports, and even educational technologies?

Analytics is applicable to just about anything because you can collect information on anything. If you have information — be it on a process, customers, or a technology — and are running a business, you need to be competitive, which means being efficient and delivering high quality. You can look at ways to leverage data in anything you do — whether it’s education, environmental systems, or even sports — to make predictions. It never ceases to amaze me how many applications there are for analytics in any discipline out there, and sports is one of them.

Speaking of sports, how did you apply your expertise in data analytics to making data-informed predictions for Major League Baseball and the NFL?

In one of my first publications — “Determining Hall of Fame Status for Major League Baseball Using Artificial Neural Networks” — I explored areas that, at the time, hadn’t been explored by researchers with analytical skills. I simply wanted to apply the new technology I was learning to something I was interested in. I forecast the likelihood of current MLB players’ becoming Hall of Fame members by analyzing on-field statistics, such as on-base percentage, home runs, stolen bases, and errors, and quantifying how important they are and which stats are more important than others. Separately, my dissertation involved developing a decision support system for the NFL to help teams make business decisions on players, player trades, and contracts.

As the director of the Online Master of Business Analytics program, what do you tell prospective students to interest them in pursuing a degree at Ohio University?

If you have the interest and determination, you’ll be successful. We assume very little and guide every student along the way so they’ll have an attractive skill set at the end. Business analytics is a new, exciting area because there’s a deluge of data and a shortage of people with the skills to lead companies through the analytics revolution. An MBAn is a unique opportunity to make an incredible impact.

Frequently Asked Questions

What can I do with an online master’s degree in business analytics?

Earning a master’s degree in business analytics can open doors to a variety of in-demand professional roles, including data scientist, data architect, statistician, application architect, market research analyst, business/analytics translator, and managerial roles relating to business intelligence, to name some of the most common career paths.

What is the typical salary for online master’s in business analytics degree graduates?

According to PayScale, graduates with a master’s degree in business analytics earned an average salary of $73,000 per year as of September 2021. Experience level, geographic location, and job title can affect salary, with pay ranges reaching around $128,000 annually for senior-level positions.

Is the online MBAn program accredited?

Yes. We are accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, and we are also accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) — a distinguished designation held by less than 5% of business schools in the world.

How much is the tuition for the Master of Business Analytics program?</h3>

For Ohio residents, program tuition is $35,250, at a cost of $1,175 per semester credit hour. For non-Ohio residents, program tuition is $35,820, at a cost of $1,194 per semester credit hour.

*Tuition and fees are subject to change.

Does Ohio University offer scholarships?

Ohio University’s College of Business is proud to offer scholarships to those seeking to continue their education. If you’re an Ohio University alum, student veteran or active military member, or employee of a corporate partner, you’re automatically eligible to receive a scholarship. Learn more by reviewing our scholarship page or contacting an enrollment advisor.

How long is the Online Master of Business Analytics degree program?

The program is composed of 11 courses, which require 30 total semester credit hours of coursework. It takes 16 to 20 months to complete.

Are there campus visit requirements?

All students are required to attend one Leadership Development Conference (LDC) — an on-campus, weekend-long event where they will hear from world-class speakers and bridge the gap between online classroom learning and real-world application.

When I graduate, what will my diploma read?

Your diploma will read “Master of Business Analytics.” Your diploma will not say the word “online.”

Graduate Business Certificate Options

Ohio University also offers 9-credit Online Graduates Business Certificates in Business Analytics and Business Analytics Leadership. Coursework from these certificates can be applied towards the full Online Master of Business Analytics.

Online Graduate Business Certificates