Teaching Artificial Neural Networks Course: A Draft for Management and Organization Master Programs

Abstract

This study aims to develop an academic program which offers both theoretical knowledge and application to teach Artificial Neural Nets (ANN) with a different analysis method for the students studying in the fields of management and organization. The study firstly presents basic information on a lesson formed and named "Use of ANN in Organizational Research", in which the aim of the lesson, output targets, method of measurement and evaluation, references are presented and basic concepts of ANN, bases in literature, characteristics, advantages and disadvantages of ANN types are introduced within a period of 14 weeks. Besides, case studies on determining correlations in organizational research are discussed and the subject-matter lesson plan is completed with an application stage. The lesson introduces practical information on MATLAB, which is proposed as an analysis program in the lesson. Supposing that the ANN method of analysis is new in the field of management and organization and considering its advantages argued in comparative research into various disciplines, it is possible to asset that such a lesson will offer original contributions and advantages to graduate students and potential researchers in the filed.