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Action Learning
Take an Action Learning lab
Why MIT Sloan Action Learning?
Whether you are considering furthering your education at MIT Sloan or are one of our current students, welcome! The Action Learning experience is something that sets MIT Sloan apart from its peers, and will remain with you far past your graduation date. The opportunity to learn by doing, invoke and inspire real change, and meaningfully contribute to societal and business problems and issues is repeatedly cited by our students as one of the highlights of their graduate school career.
Priscilla Liu | MBA '21 (MPA '22, Harvard Kennedy School)
Fin-Lab was an amazing opportunity to dive deep into a highly impactful and relevant topic, while honing our finance toolkit beyond an academic setting.
Who can take Action Learning labs?
Most MIT Sloan students are eligible to take Action Learning labs, however, this depends greatly on your degree program and areas of professional experience. Our labs are only open to students enrolled in a degree program, including other MIT students and cross-registering students, typically from Harvard and Wellesley.
MIT Sloan students can bid for most Action Learning labs with their other classes. Bidding for the fall semester opens in early May, and spring semester bidding opens in early December. A few labs use an application instead. Please see the table below for more details.
—Action Learning labs at a glance
Course Title
15.226
ASEAN Lab: Modern Business in Southeast Asia
Spring
| 12 Cr.
ASEAN Lab: Modern Business in Southeast Asia
Spring
12 Cr.
ASEAN Lab explores current issues in Southeast Asia’s political economy and business with a focus on key challenges that global managers need to consider as they define strategies and navigate their relationships with the local environment and the broader issue of China’s influence in the region. The course will use case studies, lectures, class discussion, guest panelists, and student projects to characterize the landscape and explore lessons for multinational and domestic businesses engaged in the region. Student teams will work with companies primarily focused on strategy and business development issues. The project component of the course includes a two-week onsite with the host company in Southeast Asia. SIP credit included.
Eligible students: All MIT Sloan graduate students. Other graduate students considered on a case-by-case basis. A limited number of undergraduates can take the course
Prerequisites: None
Bid or application: Bid
15.248
MENA Lab: Promoting Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the Middle East and North Africa
Fall
| 12 Cr.
MENA Lab: Promoting Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the Middle East and North Africa
Fall
12 Cr.
MENA Lab focuses on the entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem in the Middle East and North Africa, leveraging the historic Abraham Accords. The course provides context about regional players—Israel, UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, Egypt and Jordan—and social and geopolitical issues, as they pertain to doing business. Students will explore the roles of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, multinational corporations, universities, and governments by hearing directly from key stakeholders. Students will learn the McKinsey process for successful consulting engagements and what makes for high performing teams. During IAP, student teams travel to the Middle East to work with their host companies.
Eligible students: All MIT Sloan and MIT graduate students. Undergraduate students with permission of instructor
Prerequisites: None
Bid or application: Bid
15.335
Organizations Lab: Leading with Impact
Spring
| 9 Cr.
Organizations Lab: Leading with Impact
Spring
9 Cr.
Orgs-Lab equips students to be leaders of transformative impact on organizations and the communities in which they operate. Students work throughout the term on a project with nonprofit leaders in Boston, meeting regularly with their teams, partners, and members of their boards to address challenges that require an understanding of their funding, operations, and desired outcomes. This experience provides emerging leaders with the skills, practice, social context, and self-awareness required to have a meaningful impact in response to societal challenges.
Eligible students: MIT Sloan MBA and SFMBA students, undergraduate students, and cross-registering students
Prerequisites: None
Bid or application: Bid
15.369
Entrepreneurship in Organizations
Spring
| 9 Cr.
Entrepreneurship in Organizations
Spring
9 Cr.
Entrepreneurship in Organizations is for students who want to learn how existing organizations can be more entrepreneurial and innovative. Along with classes on frameworks and tools, and sessions with guest speakers and industry practitioners, student teams will work directly with large organizations on their innovation challenges in semester-long projects. Students should be excited to work with existing organizations by applying leadership and organizational skills, startup best practices, and an entrepreneurial and growth mindset.
Eligible students: All MIT Sloan graduate students
Prerequisites: Students should be familiar with Disciplined Entrepreneurship: 24 Steps to a Successful Startup by Bill Aulet
Bid or application: Application open until January 17, 2024
15.389
Global Entrepreneurship Lab
Fall
| 12 Cr.
Global Entrepreneurship Lab
Fall
12 Cr.
G-Lab is a practical, hands-on study of the climate for innovation and determinants of entrepreneurial success in emerging and frontier market economies. Students work on teams in close collaboration with companies’ top leadership, gaining experience in running and building a new enterprise by tackling critical, real-world business management problems. After their preliminary investigation of the business challenge, teams travel for three weeks during IAP to work onsite with their hosts, testing and beginning the process of implementing their recommendations.
Eligible students: MIT Sloan MBA and LGO second-year students. Other graduate students by permission only
Prerequisites: None
Bid or application: Bid
15.399
Entrepreneurship Lab
Fall
| 12 Cr.
Entrepreneurship Lab
Fall
12 Cr.
In E-Lab, students get a real taste for entrepreneurship by working with curated startups on problems of strategic importance. The goal is for students to gain experience with fast-paced startup companies, applying their academic knowledge in a context of uncertainty and extreme time pressures. Popular sectors include AI, biotech, clean technology, consumer products, hardware, healthcare technologies, robotics, and software. This course is offered in both fall and spring semesters.
Eligible students: All MIT Sloan and MIT graduate students, and cross-registering students
Prerequisites: None
Bid or Application: Bid
15.399
Entrepreneurship Lab
Spring
| 12 Cr.
Entrepreneurship Lab
Spring
12 Cr.
In E-Lab, students get a real taste for entrepreneurship by working with curated startups on problems of strategic importance. The goal is for students to gain experience with fast-paced startup companies, applying their academic knowledge in a context of uncertainty and extreme time pressures. Popular sectors include AI, biotech, clean technology, consumer products, hardware, healthcare technologies, robotics, and software. This course is offered in both fall and spring semesters.
Eligible students: All MIT Sloan and MIT graduate students, and cross-registering students
Prerequisites: None
Bid or Application: Bid
15.451
Proseminar in Capital Markets/Investment Management
Fall
| 6 Cr.
Proseminar in Capital Markets/Investment Management
Fall
6 Cr.
The Proseminar in Capital Markets/Investment Management provides a unique opportunity to tackle original research problems in capital market analysis and investment management that have been posed by leading experts from the financial community. Teams present their solutions at a seminar which is attended by representatives of the host organization and open to the entire MIT community.
Eligible students: All MIT Sloan and MIT graduate students
Prerequisites: 15.401 or equivalent
Bid or application: Bid
15.452
Proseminar in Corporate Finance, Investment Banking, and Private Equity
Fall
| 9 Cr.
Proseminar in Corporate Finance, Investment Banking, and Private Equity
Fall
9 Cr.
The Proseminar in Corporate Finance, Investment Banking, and Private Equity allows students to work on projects sponsored by leaders in corporate finance, investment banking, and private equity. Students work in teams across degree programs (combining MFin, MBA, and Sloan Fellows) to analyze and problem-solve, culminating in reports which the teams present to their host organizations for evaluation and feedback.
Eligible students: MIT Sloan and and MIT graduate students
Prerequisites: None
Bid or application: Application due September 4, 2024
15.453
Finance Lab
IAP
Independent activities period is four weeks in January for independent study.
| 9 Cr.
Finance Lab
IAP
Independent activities period is four weeks in January for independent study.
9 Cr.
Fin-Lab students work with leading industry practitioners on important business problems, bridging the gap between theory and practice, and introducing them to the broader financial community. Practitioners represent a range of financial institutions, including investment management, hedge funds, private equity, venture capital, impact investing, risk, and consulting. Project work takes place during IAP, and class work takes place in H3.
Eligible students: MIT Sloan and MIT graduate students with preference given to MFin and MBA students. Other graduate students who have extensive financial work experience can apply with permission of instructor
Prerequisite: 15.401 or equivalent
Bid or application: Application opens in early November
15.572
Analytics Lab: Action Learning Seminar on Analytics, Machine Learning, and the Digital Economy
Fall
| 9 Cr.
Analytics Lab: Action Learning Seminar on Analytics, Machine Learning, and the Digital Economy
Fall
9 Cr.
A-Lab allows students to work on projects with host companies that focus on the use of analytics, machine learning, large data sets, or other digital innovations to create or transform their organization. The course culminates with a presentation of results to an audience that includes IT experts, entrepreneurs, and executives.
Eligible students: All MIT Sloan and MIT graduate students with permission of instructor
Faculty: Sinan Aral, Abdullah Almaatouq
Prerequisites: No
Bid or application: Application
Travel: No
Required for MBAn Program
Host organization profile: Organizations of any industry or size interested in using analytics to solve a business problem or advance an innovation
Sample sectors: Big data as a service, e-commerce, finance, fraud detection, global health, medical supply chains, sports analytics, workplace safety
Sample host organizations: Amazon, Boston Public Schools, Dell Services, eBay, Gates Foundation, GE Transportation, IBM Watson, LinkedIn, MasterCard, Nasdaq
15.679
11.651
USA Lab: Bridging the American Divides
Spring
| 9 Cr.
USA Lab: Bridging the American Divides
Spring
9 Cr.
11.651
USA Lab is a hands-on exploration of community revitalization in America's rural regions, small towns, and small to mid-sized cities. With a focus on work, community, and culture, this lab is a mix of rigorous classroom discussions, research, and team projects with community development organizations, government organizations, and nonprofits. Projects contribute to strengthening the social and economic fabric of the host communities. Teams comprise MIT Sloan and DUSP students. SIP credit included.
Eligible students: All MIT Sloan and MIT graduate students, DUSP, and undergraduate students
Prerequisites: None
Bid or application: Bid
15.704
IDEA Lab
Spring
| 15 Cr.
IDEA Lab
Spring
15 Cr.
IDEA Lab explores themes of global innovation ecosystems, stakeholders and experimentation/evaluation. Students follow the Innovation Track or the Entrepreneurship Track.
Eligible students: Second-year EMBA students only
Prerequisites: None
Bid or application: Bid
15.708
Global Organizations Lab
Spring
| 15 Cr.
Global Organizations Lab
Spring
15 Cr.
GO-Lab focuses on strategic and organizational challenges of international scaling, localization, and cross-border initiatives and integration.
Eligible students: Second-year EMBA students only
Prerequisites: None
Bid or application: Bid
15.777
Healthcare Lab: Introduction to Healthcare Delivery in the United States
Fall
| 15 Cr.
Healthcare Lab: Introduction to Healthcare Delivery in the United States
Fall
15 Cr.
H-Lab focuses on the business challenges and opportunities to deliver high quality and reasonably priced health services in the U.S. Topics include aspects of healthcare delivery operations and how they are affected by healthcare policies, alternative payment models, population health perspectives, and social determinants of health. Discussions include examples from the ongoing healthcare-related work of MIT Sloan faculty, as well as the potential for analytics and digitization to impact healthcare delivery. Student teams work with a provider, supplier or healthcare-related startup organization on an applied project. H-Lab starts in the fall semester and continues through IAP.
Eligible students: All MIT Sloan and MIT students, and cross-registering students
Prerequisites: 15.060, 15.761, or permission of instructor
Bid or application: Bid
15.784
Operations Lab
Spring
| 9 Cr.
Operations Lab
Spring
9 Cr.
Ops-Lab provides interactive learning in solving operations challenges in small, medium, and large companies across the U.S. and the world. Focus is typically on, but not limited to, problems in operations strategy, inventory and supply chain management, process improvement, operations analytics, and planning. Lectures focus on project management, methods, team report-outs and discussion. Students involved in sourcing specific projects may receive preferential assignment to them. SIP credit is only given to students who work with their host onsite.
Eligible students: All MIT Sloan and MIT graduate students, including LGO and CTL students
Pre/co-requisite: 15.761 or equivalent course or work experience, if approved by faculty
Bid or application: Application opens in mid/late November
15.786
Product Management Lab
IAP
Independent activities period is four weeks in January for independent study.
| 12 Cr.
Product Management Lab
IAP
Independent activities period is four weeks in January for independent study.
12 Cr.
PM-Lab is an introduction to product management with an emphasis on its role within technology-driven enterprises. Topics include opportunity discovery, product-technology roadmapping, product development processes, go-to-market strategies, product launch, lifecycle management, and the central role of the product manager in each activity. Exercises and assignments utilize common digital tools such as storyboarding, wireframe mock-ups, and A/B testing. Intended for students seeking a role in a product management team or to contribute to product management in a new enterprise. Project work takes place during IAP, and class work takes place in H3.
Eligible students: All MIT Sloan graduate students and SCM students
Prerequisites: None
Bid or application: Application opens in early November
15.830
Enterprise Management Lab
Fall
| 9 Cr.
Enterprise Management Lab
Fall
9 Cr.
EM-Lab develops students’ ability to apply integrated management perspectives and practices in their roles with large organizations and emergent innovators. The goal is to help students adopt a holistic, cross-functional approach to addressing business challenges. Student teams work on projects focused on marketing, operations, and/or strategy in multinationals and innovative entrepreneurial ventures in industries such as technology, healthcare, and consumer goods.This course starts in the fall and continues through IAP.
Eligible Students: All MIT Sloan and MIT graduate students in Enterprise Management
Co-requisites: 15.814, 15.761, or 15.900
Bid or application: Bid
15.878
Sustainable Business Lab
Spring
| 9 Cr.
Sustainable Business Lab
Spring
9 Cr.
S-Lab empowers students to take the sustainability strategies, frameworks, and skills they've learned at MIT and apply them to real-world sustainability challenges with leading companies / organizations. Class sessions teach the fundamentals of structured problem solving for organizational impact, interactive simulations that highlight stakeholder engagement strategies, and guest lectures that share real-world insights and leadership capabilities.
Eligible students: All MIT Sloan and MIT graduate students
Co-requisite: 15.915
Bid or application: Bid
15.S66
MENA Lab: Promoting Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the Middle East and North Africa
Spring
| 15 Cr.
MENA Lab: Promoting Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the Middle East and North Africa
Spring
15 Cr.
MENA Lab focuses on the entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem in the Middle East and North Africa, leveraging the historic Abraham Accords. The course provides context about regional players—Israel, UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, Egypt and Jordan—and social and geopolitical issues, as they pertain to doing business. Students will explore the roles of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, multinational corporations, universities, and governments by hearing directly from key stakeholders. Students will learn the McKinsey process for successful consulting engagements and what makes for high performing teams. For one week in mid-March, student teams travel to the Middle East to work with their host companies.
Eligible students: Second-year EMBA students only
Prerequisites: None
Bid or application: Bid
15.S73
SSIM: Alternative Investments Lab
Spring
| 9 Cr.
SSIM: Alternative Investments Lab
Spring
9 Cr.
Alt-I-Lab focuses on diligence expertise in the deals of alternative investment firms. Students are matched with alternative investment (private equity, venture capital, and hedge fund) hosts and work throughout the term on a deal or project, defined and managed by the host. Through close relationships with hosting firms and MIT Sloan resources, students learn how to analyze the viability of a potential investment that an alternative investment fund is considering.
Eligible students: All MIT Sloan graduate students
Prerequisite: 15.S72 or permission of instructor
Bid or application: Application due January 10, 2024
Lydia Kaprelian | MBA '22
Seeing how product managers interact with all different parts of a company, from engineering to sales to marketing, got me excited for all the ways that I can drive impact.
Frequently asked questions
It is possible, but not encouraged to take more than one lab per semester. Action Learning labs are intensive courses that require you to spend dedicated time with your student team and your host, so we generally advise students to focus their energy on one per semester. However, we encourage students to try different Action Learning courses throughout their tenure as a student.
Once students are enrolled in a lab, they may bid for projects as teams or individuals, depending on the course. If they bid as individuals, they will then be grouped with others to form a team. Faculty then match the teams to projects based on student interest, diversity of team skills, experiences and backgrounds, host preferences, and other factors.
No, these are learning opportunities and neither the host nor the student should consider this an internship. Students are enrolled in a credit-bearing course and supervised/evaluated by the faculty. Students cannot be paid for any work done through an Action Learning course.
If the course has a travel component, expenses including airfare, accommodations, and visas are not the student’s responsibility. Any leisure travel, meals, phone bills, etc. are the student’s responsibility.
Labs that work with startups do so with the ones that have typically gained a certain momentum in their growth stage/funding. Ideally, a startup with series A, B, or equivalent stage provides the ideal learning opportunity for students. If you are an EMBA student and have a very early-stage startup, you could potentially work on your own startup as an IDEA Lab project.
Each term, we offer 8-12 Action Learning courses that address a wide range of topics. Therefore, students have plenty of choices available.
Grading is course dependent; faculty consider students’ contribution as individuals and as a team to the course and project.
Although some students do receive offers from their host organizations, the primary goal of Action Learning at MIT Sloan is student learning; for students to apply their classroom experience to real-world problem solving. That said, students find it helpful to quote their Action Learning experiences through the job search process.
The CDO advises students to add a bullet point in their education section under MIT Sloan. While it may vary with each student/project, the advice would be for students to highlight:
Company name
Functional work addressed in the project
Problem/goal students tried to solve or achieve during the project.
The CDO would be happy to review student resumes or answer any student questions.