Teaching entrepreneurial leadership: a project-based approach

Abstract

This paper first discusses the evolution of the entrepreneurial leadership course (ENGR 310), which is one of the four core courses at The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), and provides a description of the current project-based teaching practice. The current practice has been developed after a comprehensive review of similar courses and entrepreneurship education literature. This paper discusses the new curriculum of the course, and relevant innovative changes. The results of an assessment plan conducted to measure student satisfaction and perceptions of the course are included along with a summary of the experience gained while teaching the improved version of the course. In addition to the assessment results, there are two other results that attest to the success of the course: (1) all teams completing the build and sell project made profits. One team in fact made about $700 in profit. Considering the time they were allotted to work on the project, $700 is a great accomplishment. (2) Most students taking the class, who are not graduating, decided to enroll in the minor. This paper aims to share implementation of these changes as an avenue for entrepreneurship educators to learn from others experiences.