Course:Entrepreneurship at Bissett
From SharedExperienceProject
This page is an introduction to the developments taking place to renew the Entrepreneurship Program at the Bissett School of Business. Readers are expected to treat what is written here as work in progress; it is a shared work space intended for collaboration and communication.
© 2008, Bissett School of Business, Mount Royal College.
Excellence in Entrepreneurship Education
Whether as part of a new entrepreneurial venture, mature organization or non-profit setting, graduates of Mount Royal's entrepreneurship program are able to envision, create and grow innovative solutions to tomorrow's real-world problems. They have the attitudes, skills, tools, and personal social networks required to bring those solutions to fruition and have a real impact in our local, regional and global communities.
Our program began offering students a Bachelor of Applied Business and Entrepreneurship in 1995, along with the opportunity to focus in the areas of Small Business, International Business and Sport and Recreation. You can learn more by exploring some of our success stories.
The program continues to evolve today as we prepare to offer a concentration in entrepreneurship as part of Mount Royal's new Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA). It is an intense and challenging four-year experience during which students discover and pursue their passions, gain relevant experience and make an impact by running real businesses as active participants of the local entrepreneurial ecosystem. Delivered using immersive and experiential pedagogies and taught by experienced faculty and practicing entrepreneurs, the curriculum provides a supportive environment in which students hone their practice as creative entrepreneurs.
Mount Royal is currently pursuing the establishment of a Centre of Excellence in Entrepreneurship in support of the new BBA, an increased focus on scholarly activity and alignment with strategic municipal and provincial objectives.
This wiki page is a working document intended for circulation among faculty members. It captures our work in progress and is intended primarily for our own reference, but it has been written knowing that it might come in handy to share with others interested in how we are proceeding.
Context and Motivation
Educational context
Calls are being made around the world for new approaches to education[1][2], on the premise that we have entered an information society which is characterized by:
- technology-savvy students who learn more by absorption and experience than by reading a training manual or attending a course[3];
- a shift in the focus of creativity from generating original content to the timely rip-mix-burn reshaping of existing content[4];
- increasing requirements for interdisciplinary work carried out by teams across functional and institutional boundaries[1];
- new ways of perceiving and organizing knowledge in society[5] and in the educational sector[6]; and
- new forms of teacher and learner interaction enabled by innovative technologies and approaches to copyright[7]
In response to these changes, teachers are being encouraged to shift their practices from the traditional teacher-centered transfer of subject-area-focused knowledge to the development of resources and practices that teach students the skills required to learn, collaborate and build knowledge on their own[1][2]. For those among our readers who are keen on the scholarship of teaching and learning, we're talking about immersive pedagogy, experiential learning and social constructivism.
In no other discipline is this shift more relevant than entrepreneurship.
Regional economic context
At a summit held in late 2006, 35 leading figures in Western Canada got together to provide direction on what Alberta needs to do over the coming decade in order to assume a leading and sustainable role in the global knowledge economy[8]. Then in mid 2007, the Alberta Government's Value-added and Commercialization Task Force recommended actions for building a more broad-based economy and overcoming a reliance on commodity resources. Their report emphasized the important roles that schools of business and entrepreneurship will play. Recommendations in the latter report include the need for business schools to engage experienced entrepreneurs to share their knowledge and work with new entrepreneurs … to create the "ideal training ground and launch pad for [the] new entrepreneurs who will help shape Alberta's economic future and sustainable growth."
We are responding to this call.
Institutional and School-level context
Mount Royal College (Mount Royal) is making great strides in implementing a deliberate and strategic plan to become a baccalaureate-level undergraduate institution. In the fall of 2008 delivery of seven baccalaureate degrees began at Mount Royal, including a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) offered through the Bissett School of Business with four areas of concentration (Human Resources, Marketing, Accounting and General Management).
Since 1995 the Bissett School of Business has been delivering a four-year Bachelor of Applied Business & Entrepreneurship that has enjoyed great success with students and in industry. In early 2008, the School decided that this award-winning flagship program should be offered as a concentration within Mount Royal’s BBA in order to respond to feedback from students, faculty and industry, and in order to best support Mount Royal’s strategic direction.
This document describes steps we are taking in pursuit of this goal.
We believe these efforts will enable us to serve our students as well as possible and provide them with a transformational educational experience like none other in Canada.
Our Renewed Curriculum
While exploring how to best meet the opportunities implied by the above-mentioned shifts and transition, our faculty members reviewed the focus of our entrepreneurship program. Input was obtained from students, the broader faculty community, industry, and from government, and a review was carried out of entrepreneurship programs offered across North America. This resulted in a decision to broaden the scope of the program and renew the curriculum. These changes are underway a broader definition of entrepreneurship has been adopted to guide ongoing renewal of the entrepreneurship program:
“The ability to envision, create and grow innovative products, services or processes within a new business venture, established organization or nonprofit setting”.
The following sections describe the curriculum that is now under development.
The design concept
The design of the renewed curriculum is the result of a throrough analysis carried out by faculty of the state-of-the-art in entrepreneurship education. It takes the best of our award-winning curriculum and delivers it by phase of the venture.
You can learn more in the following summary document and in the sections below:
Key messages about the curriculum
- Strong, time-tested curriculum
- Delivered by phased of the innovation life cycle
- Real ventures (beyond just small business)
- Experiential and immersive
- Multidisciplinary student body
- Community outreach
Key outcomes of the program
Four areas of focus have been identified for the outcomes students should achieve during their time in Mount Royal’s entrepreneurship program. These areas of focus are common to all courses:
Describe each...
How We are Designing and Developing this Renewed Curriculum
Our design principles and process
In some ways, the process of designing curriculum is not unlike the process an architect goes through to design a new building and, because of the sheer scope of the endeavour, he or she needs a way to share the vision in such a way that others can build it.
In order to develop our vision for the entrepreneurship curriculum and communicate it to future teachers of the program, the faculty members developing the curriculum found it useful to take off their teacher’s hats and put on designer’s hats.
In this process, we have adopted a set of principles and processes to guide our curriculum development effort. Guided by the work of leading authors, including John Biggs' concept of constructive alignment[9], these principles and process are document here:
This working document is intended primarily for our own reference but written knowing that it might come in handy to share with others interested in how we are proceeding.
Resources
We use a great many resources to guide our curriculum renewal processes. Some of these are listed here.
State-of-the-literature reviews
Several reviews have been carried out of the state-of-the-art in entrepreneurship and education. One of those is captured here:
Entrepreneurship-related professional organizations
We are members of and participate in the activities of several relevant organizations including the following:
Conferences
In 2008-2009, we have attended or plan to attend several of the conferences shown below:
| Date | Details |
| Jun 22-25, 2008 |
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| Oct 3-4, 2008 |
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| Nov 4-6, 2008 |
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| Jan 4-7, 2008 |
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| Jan 8-11, 2009 |
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| Feb 12-14, 2009 |
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| Jun 21-24, 2009 |
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The backbone of the program: Six integrated courses
Six highly integrated courses make up the backbone of this program. They are shown below and described in the text that follows.
ENTR 3301 - The Entrepreneurial Experience
This highly experiential course develops an understanding of entrepreneurship and builds awareness of the experiences an entrepreneur will have in the real world. Students will be exposed to industry entrepreneurs and participate in entrepreneurial competitions. A framework of entrepreneurial attitudes, behaviors and skills will be examined based on current entrepreneurial research and practices observed in industry. Entrepreneurial experiences are explored in developing and industrial nations, in new and existing companies and in non-profit settings.
- Prerequisites: None
- Access the course now
ENTR 3302 - Innovation and Creativity for Entrepreneurial Practice
This course introduces the concepts of innovation and entrepreneurial creativity. Students draw upon the inspired thinking and entrepreneurial pursuits of leaders in a variety of disciplines in order to understand the process of innovation and appreciate the role of creativity in making innovation possible. Emphasizing the development of the student’s own entrepreneurial creativity and ability to innovate, the experiential and reflective activities in this course encourage students to explore their potential as passionate agents of change – in their own lives and in society.
- Prerequisites: None
- Access the course now
ENTR 4331 - Opportunity Development in the Entrepreneurial Venture
In this course, students will work to develop an understanding of how opportunities are identified, selected and developed for the creation of an entrepreneurial endeavor within a new business, mature organization or non-profit setting. Students will build an awareness of the local and global factors that lead to favorable conditions for opportunity development, as they work towards a single relevant, innovative and scalable opportunity that has the potential to attract the required resources. Opportunities will be analyzed using a range of practical tools and methodologies. Assessment will, where possible, mirror the processes and criteria relevant to entrepreneurs in the real world.
- Prerequisites: ENTR 3301 and ENTR 3302
- Access the course now
ENTR 4332 - Modeling and Start-up of the Entrepreneurial Venture
In this course, students will be immersed in the issues encountered by entrepreneurs while modeling and assessing the feasibility of opportunities. They will be challenged to evaluate the opportunities they developed in ENTR 4331 and consider industry, market and product research through the lens of the pre-start-up and start-up phases of the venture life cycle. Contingency strategies will be developed as necessary after students receive feedback on progress and viability.
- Prerequisites: ENTR 4331
- Access the course now
ENTR 4343 - Start-up to Survival of the Entrepreneurial Venture
In this course, the ventures that students developed in ENTR 4332 will continue to be evolved through to the early growth phase of the venture life cycle. In this course the focus will be on topics such as marketing, sales, financials, business modeling, opportunity valuation, next levels of fundraising, management team and founder as leader, and other topics related to bringing ventures to fruition. In addition, the reasons businesses typically fail will be analyzed.
- Prerequisites: ENTR 4332
- Access the course - link will be up shortly
ENTR 4344 - Growth of the Entrepreneurial Venture
In this course, students will analyze ventures in the later growth phases of the venture life cycle in order to gain an understanding of the requirements and alternatives for the successful evolution of an organization. The class will focus on issues that impact the ability of a venture to expand operations or pursue harvesting scenarios. Topics to be explored include evolution of operations, professional management, integrated systems, later stage venture financing, IPOs, harvest calculations and negotiations, and the franchising alternative.
- Prerequisites: ENTR 4343
- Access the course - link will be up shortly
Selected pilot projects
Over the last year we have also carried out several pilot projects to test teaching concepts being proposed for the renewed program.
Three of these can be found here:
- The Bissett eBay Challenge (ENTR 2201) - Fall 2007
- The Idea and Business Model Challenge (ENTR 4435) - Fall 2008
- The Strategy Challenge (ENTR 4435) - Fall 2008
- The Innovation Tournament (ENTR 2201) - Fall 2008
Work Breakdown Structure
Deliverables Related to our Program and Course Outcomes
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| Not done yet |
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| Done |
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Deliverables Related to our Curriculum Submissions
The following table is an attempt to capture and plan the curriculum submission deliverables required to start offering the upgraded entrepreneurship curriculum by Sep 2009. It is a work in progress intended only as an aid to internal communications as we move ahead. Supporting activities are not shown here, e.g. mapping and transfer options between the two programs, messaging during the transition, etc...
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| Done |
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| Postponed until at least 2010 |
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| Postponed until at least 2010 |
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| Postponed until at least 2010 |
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| Postponed until at least 2010 |
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Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Guntram, G. et al. (2007) Open Educational Practices and Resources: OLCOS Roadmap 2012. Accessed at: http://www.olcos.org/cms/upload/docs/olcos_roadmap.pdf
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Owen, M. et al. (2006) Social Software and Learning. Futurelab Opening Education Series. www.futurelab .org.uk/resources/publications_reports_articles/opening_education_reports/Opening_Education_Report199/
- ↑ Brown, S. (1999) Learning, Working and Playing in the Digital Age. AAHE 1999 Conference on Higher Education. March 23, 1999. Accessed at: www.serendip.brynmawr.edu/sci_edu/seelybrown/seelybrown.html
- ↑ Ito, Mizuko (2005) Technologies of the Childhood Imagination: Yugioh, Media Mixes, and Everyday Cultural Production. Accessed at: http://www.itofisher.com/mito/archives/technoimagination.pdf
- ↑ Weinberger, D. (2005) The Shape of New Knowledge: From Trees to Piles of Leaves. Oxford Internet Institute Webcast. University of Oxford. Nov 30, 2005. http://webcast.oii.ox.ac.uk/?view=Webcast&ID=20051130_109
- ↑ Cunningham, D. and T. M. Duffy (2000) The Textbook of the Future. CRLT Technical Report No. 14-00. Accessed at: http://crlt.indiana.edu/publications/tr14_00.pdf.
- ↑ Dillon, T. and S. Bacon (2006) The Potential of Open Source for Education. Futurelab. Accessed at: www.futurelab org.uk/resources/publications_reports_articles/opening_education_reports/Opening_Education_Report200
- ↑ Hawkins, R. and Langford, C. (2006) Banff Summit Consensus Report. Fall 2006. 17 p. Accessed on August 22 2007 at: www.thecis.ca/banff_summit/Banff_Summit_Consensus_Report.pdf
- ↑ Biggs, J. (2003) Teaching for Quality Learning at University. Second Edition. The Society for Research into Higher Education and Open University Press. 309 pp.
Copyright
© 2008, Bissett School of Business, Mount Royal College.
