Course:The Entrepreneurial Experience
From SharedExperienceProject
This course has been submitted as ENTR 3301.
© 2008, Bissett School of Business, Mount Royal College.
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Course Description
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
Context and Motivation
Understanding what entrepreneurs experience is critical both to students considering an entrepreneurial career and to people who interact with entrepreneurs in any field of work. A lack of understanding about the entrepreneurial experience is commonly cited as a key reason why new entrepreneurs fail. Despite this, the entrepreneurial experience itself is rarely the subject of courses on entrepreneurship. This highly experiential course strives to provide students with this understanding by having them participate in entrepreneurial activities and by bringing industry entrepreneurs into the classroom to share their experiences.
An example of the regional economic rationale for this course is found in the 2007 report by the Alberta Government's Value-added and Commercialization Task Force. Recommendations in that 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."
This course is intended for students in all disciplines. Guest entrepreneurs will share their experiences in a variety of industries from high technology to the creative industries.
Required Course Materials
The readings for this course are available electronically. As such you will need a reliable internet connection.
Learning Objectives
The learning objectives and methods of assessment for this course are given in in the table below.
Four areas of focus have been identified for the objectives that you should achieve during your time in Mount Royal’s entrepreneurship program. The course objectives below are categorized according to these areas of focus that are common to all courses: 1) entrepreneurial toolset, 2) personal mindset and brand, 3) experiential and knowledge construction, and 4) team, networking and communication.
Mount Royal has identified six institution-wide learning outcomes that describe the core abilities you should develop during your studies, regardless of your academic program. These outcomes and abilities help prepare you for a life of continuous learning, and have been identified as critical to success in the workplace. The relationship between the course objectives and the college outcomes is also shown below.
| Outcome thread | Student learning objectives | Methods of assessment | Link to institution wide outcomes |
| Entrepreneurial toolset objectives |
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| Personal mindset and brand objectives |
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| Experiential and knowledge construction objectives |
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| Networking, team and communication objectives |
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Mark Allocation and Assessment Schedule
Your final mark for the course will be computed as a weighted average of the marks you receive in each of the above assessment tasks. The weights used to compute that final mark and the schedule of the assessment tasks are given below:
| Methods of assessment | Weight | Scheduled due date |
| Topic quizzes and exercises | 20% | Weeks 1-12 |
| Interview with an entrepreneur | 15% | Week 4 |
| Midterm exam | 15% | Week 6 |
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Entrepreneurial Experience Challenge
| 35% |
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| Final paper | 15% | Week 14 |
Learning Activities and Methods of Assessment
For the purposes of formal feedback and grading, you will be assessed based on your performance in each of the following tasks:
Topic Quizzes
Quizzes and/or in-class exercises will be used to provide regular feedback on how well you are meeting the learning objectives of each topic. Directions and timing will be announced in class but you can expect to be assessed in this way every second week. Topics are designed to help you understand fundamental concepts of entrepreneurship and examine a framework of success-enabling attitudes, behaviors and skills that is based on current entrepreneurial research and practices observed in industry.
Interview with an Entrepreneur
Together with a team of your classmates, you will be required to interview an early-stage entrepreneur who is responsible for a business that is within its first five years of operations. Your primary goals are: 1) to share that entrepreneur’s story with your class, and 2) to express how his or her characteristics align with the framework discussed above. Further directions and assessment criteria will be made available in class but you can expect to deliver the following at the time of submission: 1) A summary of your findings, 2) An edited video responding to the questions in the handout.
Midterm Exam
Details TBA in class.
Entrepreneurial Experience Challenge
Modeled in part after well-known challenges such as Stanford’s Global Innovation Tournament and Google’s Change the World Idea Challenge (Project 10100), this project will require completion of two major tasks and a video pitch for presentation to your peers and a panel of judges.
Your challenge is to create as much value as possible in the time you have using the limited resources available to you. You are encouraged to work with your peers in teams of any size. Details and directions for this challenge are given to all teams at the time the competition kicks off, but you can expect it to be an immersive entrepreneurial experience in its own right throughout which you will need to put your own knowledge, skills, attitudes and networks to the test.
Final Paper
A major outcome of this course is your own personal growth throughout the learning experiences. Whether or not you find yourself to be well suited to entrepreneurial pursuits, you are required to reflect on your findings in a final paper. Emphasis will be on vetting the entrepreneurial framework explored in class against your own experiences and those shared by guest entrepreneurs and in the interviews conducted by your classmates. Guidance and a clear assessment methodology will be provided in class.
Content and Topic Schedule
The following tables provide the topic schedules and links to the content for each topic in this course. When curriculum development has been completed for the course, there will be one link for each topic to its own topic-level description of learning objectives, teaching and learning activities and assessment activities. As described in our Entrepreneurship Curriculum Design Principles and Process Document 
, this is intended to speak to future teachers of the program. A sample topic can be found here: Topic 1: Vision and Mission.
| Week | Topics | Assessment tasks |
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Resources
The following sources are not intended to be read by the student. They are included here for completeness to provide a representative cross-section of the resources that are informing the development of this course:
- Knowles, R. (2007). Small Business: An Entrepreneur’s Plan. 5th Edition. Thompson/Nelson. 424 p.
- Leach, J.C. and R.W. Melicher (2007). Entrepreneurial Finance. South Western Cengage Learning. pp. 717.
- Shane, S. A. (2005). Finding fertile ground: identifying extraordinary opportunities for new ventures. Upper Saddle River, N.J. : Wharton School Pub.
- Timmons, J.A. and S. Spinelli (2007). New Venture Creation: Entrepreneurship for the 21st Century. McGraw-Hill Irwin. pp. 658.
Course authors and contributors
| Role | Name(s) |
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Copyright
© 2008, Bissett School of Business, Mount Royal College.
