Designing and Assessing Learning in Venture Creation Programs

Photo by Jason Goodman on Unsplash

By Lisa Aboen (NTNU) & Karen Williams Middleton (Chalmers University of Science and Technology)

Entrepreneurship education is most effective when students engage in real-world venture creation. However, ensuring that students undertake activities that lead to meaningful learning remains a challenge. This workshop is designed to bridge that gap by developing teaching tools that align learning activities with educational objectives in Venture Creation Programs (VCPs). Participants will collaborate to capture and refine learning activities, transforming them into structured tools for assessment and evaluation. 
  • Duration:
    A half-day or full-day workshop
  • Focus:
    To develop and implement teaching tools that align venture creation activities with measurable learning outcomes
  • Activity:
    Group
  • Keywords:
    To develop and implement teaching tools that align venture creation activities with measurable learning outcomes

About the workshop

In Venture Creation Programs (VCPs), ventures serve as learning tools, helping students learn through guided entrepreneurial activities. The challenge is ensuring students engage in necessary activities to achieve learning objectives. The workshop aims to develop teaching tools that align activities with learning goals. It involves capturing learning activities from participants, then refining them into teaching tools in smaller groups. These tools will help assess learning outcomes and ensure activities are integrated with educational objectives. The process emphasizes the importance of action, reflection, and understanding the entrepreneurial journey.

Learning objectives

  • Collect ‘Shared Practice’ Empirics:

    • Gather empirical data on shared practices within venture creation processes.
 

  • Generate New Teaching Tools:

    • Develop tools that connect intended learning outcomes with students’ actions in venture creation.
 

  • Evaluate Assignments:

    • Enable participants to assess assignments where students use their own start-ups, accommodating the diversity of ventures.
 

  • Design Measurable Activities:

    • Create activities that make learning achievements from ventures more explicit and measurable.
 

  • Enhance Learning Assessment:

    • Improve the ability to evaluate and measure learning outcomes in venture creation programs.

Workshop Structure

  • Capturing Learning Activities:

    • Begin with a brainstorming session to capture a wide range of learning activities from participants.
    • Use techniques like mind mapping or sticky notes to visualize and organize ideas.

  • Developing Teaching Tools:

    • Divide participants into smaller groups to develop detailed teaching tools.
    • Each group should focus on creating a tool that includes a learning objective, a combination of learning activities, and an assessment suggestion.
    • Encourage groups to think creatively and consider different types of activities (e.g., hands-on projects, simulations, role-playing).

  • Sharing and Refining:

    • Have each group present their teaching tool to the larger group.
    • Facilitate a feedback session where participants can provide constructive feedback and suggestions for improvement.
    • Refine the teaching tools based on the feedback received.

Theoretical foundations

Venture creation programs (VCPs) are “entrepreneurship education programs which utilize the on-going creation of a real-life venture as the primary learning vessel (thus involving venture creation as part of the formal curriculum), including the intention to incorporate” (Lackéus and Williams Middleton, 2015, pg. 50). These programs focus on experiential learning to prepare individuals for entrepreneurial practice (Cope, 2005). A key challenge is assessing and evaluating venture activities to ensure they are a measurable part of education, as teaching has outpaced research on effective assessment design (Neck and Corbett, 2018). Recent shifts emphasize developing entrepreneurial competence, including knowledge, skills, and mindset, and recognizing the importance of emotional development to support learning through failure (Cope, 2011; Fang He et al., 2017; Gartner and Ingram, 2013).

Details of Existing Evidence: Two VCPs, Chalmers School of Entrepreneurship and NTNU School of Entrepreneurship, have been presented, evaluated, and analyzed in entrepreneurship education literature (Johannisson, 2016; Nabi et al., 2017; Warhuus and Basaiawmoit, 2013) and evaluated by students in course evaluations as well as national program evaluations (Bakken et al., 2018). Alumni interviews validate that ventures are critical for learning, as they make explicit what students need to learn and require them to apply and reflect on their knowledge and actions. Co-location of ventures enhances learning through peer interactions (Sæter et al., 2018). The goal is to preserve student-to-student learning while improving learning and assessment through facilitated activities.

Time plan

  • Mins 0-10: The participants gather around a two-by-two matrix with mindset and skillset on the x-axis and classroom and venture on the y-axis. We introduce VCPs and the workshop.
  • Mins 10-15: The participants note a learning activity (see participant preparation) each in the matrix.
  • Mins 15-30: The participants work in groups focusing on developing a learning activity into a tool by combining it with activities from the other side of the y-axis and suggest how the assessment should be made in order to capture the learning objective.
  • Mins 30-40: The groups present their tools.

Key takeaways

Future workshops can be used for assessing features and finding alternatives for current activities, seeking possible new directions against the outlined future possibilities (scenarios) or for collecting images of the futures without an immediate use for this information in mind (food for thought). Futures workshop can also be used as a tool of proactive futures creation by collecting a group of stakeholders related to a specific problem and using futures workshop as a tool in forming a common opinion on the desired future and the most important actions needed to achieve that future.

References

Bakken, P., Pedersen, L. F., and Øygarden, K. F. (2018). Studiebarometeret 2017: Hovedtendenser. Retrieved from Oslo, Norway: Cope, J. (2005).

Toward a dynamic learning perspective of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 29(4), 373-397. doi:10.1111/j.1540-6520.2005.00090.x

Cope, J. (2011). Entrepreneurial learning from failure: An interpretative phenomenological analysis. Journal of Business Venturing, 26(6), 604-623. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2010.06.002

Fang He, V., Sirén, C., Singh, S., Solomon, G., and Von Krogh, G. (2017). Keep calm and carry on: Emotion regulation in entrepreneurs’ learning from failure. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice.

Gartner, W. B., and Ingram, A. E. (2013). What do entrepreneurs talk about when they talk about failure? Paper presented at the Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research, Wellesley, MA USA.

Johannisson, B. (2016). Limits to and prospects of entrepreneurship education in the academic context. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 28(5/6), 403-423.

Kyrö, P. (2008). A theoretical framework for teaching and learning entrepreneurship. International Journal of Business and Globalisation, 2(1), 39-55.

Lackéus, M. (2014). An emotion based approach to assessing entrepreneurial education. International Journal of Management Education, 12(3), 374-396.

Lackéus, M., and Williams Middleton, K. (2015). Venture creation programs: Bridging entrepreneurship education and technology transfer. Education and Training, 57(1), 48- 73.

Lundqvist, M., and Williams Middleton, K. (2008). Sustainable wealth creation beyond shareholder value. In C. Wankel & J. Stoner (Eds.), Innovative approaches to global sustainability (pp. 39-62). New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan.

Nabi, G., Liñán, F., Krueger, N., Fayolle, A., and Walmsley, A. (2017). The impact of entrepreneurship education in higher education: A systematic review and research agenda. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 16(2), 277-299.

Neck, H. M., and Corbett, A. C. (2018). The scholarship of teaching and learning entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship Education and Pedagogy, 1(1), 8-41.

Sæter, G.-B., Aaboen, L., Konstad, M., and Widding, Ø. (2018). Students becoming entrepreneurs for life: Managing entrepreneurial passion and resilience. Paper presented at the ECSB Entrepreneurship Education Conference, Enschede, Netherlands.

Warhuus, J., and Basaiawmoit, R. V. (2013). Nordic science and technology entrepreneurship education: Comparing, contrasting, and measuring. Retrieved from Aarhus, Denmark:

Williams Middleton, K. (2010). Developing entrepreneurial behavior: Facilitating nascent entrepreneurship at the university. (D

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