E-Learning Modules
The Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN) fosters an entrepreneurial mindset in engineering students.
An entrepreneurial mindset applies to all aspects of life, beginning with curiosity about our changing world, integrating information from various resources to gain insight, and identifying unexpected opportunities to create value. An engineer equipped with an entrepreneurial mindset is able to create extraordinary value within any type of organization. KEEN schools identify, nurture, and develop entrepreneurially minded engineers who will contribute to our national economic prosperity and secure individual fulfillment through a lifetime of meaningful work. To learn more about KEEN, visit engineeringunleashed.com.
Development of e-learning modules supporting entrepreneurially minded learning is part of this effort. The University of New Haven, a KEEN partner institution, aims to instill an entrepreneurial mindset in its engineering students by integrating e-learning modules into existing engineering and computer science courses. These modules will be shared educational resources, available to KEEN and others.
Modules Currently Available for Use
The modules that have been developed so far, together with the learning outcomes for each module are listed below.
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Thinking creatively to drive innovation
Learning Outcomes
- Describe the meaning of creativity, a rare but achievable form of thinking
- Explain the observation that creativity is influenced much more by nurture than nature
- Describe the universality and power of the divergent-convergent thinking process
- Apply the Medici Effect when forming teams
- Apply the Ask-Ask-Ask method
- Apply the Fishbone Diagramming method
- Apply the Mind Mapping method
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Learning from failure
Learning Outcomes
- List common mistakes in the product development cycle for real world projects
- Develop a list of practical options to correct or avoid potential mistakes that may occur in specific projects
- Explain the potential risks of failure and proposed solutions in terms familiar to various stakeholders
- Provide recommendations for deciding when to stop a project or when to continue it
- Extract practical lessons learned by reviewing case histories of failures
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Cost of production and market conditions
Learning Outcomes
- Identify the market scenarios for a product
- Analyze the effects of different business models
- Describe the nature of the firm that will be best for the product and its environment
- Describe the behavior of costs in the short run and long run production
- Identify economies of scale and disc-economies of scale through long run cost curves
- Apply various methods to suggest a selling price based in the costs of production
- Describe different market structures
- State the characteristics of the long tail and internet markets
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The elevator pitch: advocating for your good ideas
Learning Outcomes
- Identify the value proposition of a product or service from the point of view of a variety of stakeholders
- Articulate the criteria that yield an effective pitch
- Outline a process for developing elevator pitches
- Implement strategies for recovering from an unsuccessful pitch experience
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Building, sustaining and leading effective teams and establishing performance goals
Learning Outcomes
- Identify success factors at each life-cycle stage of the team development process that influence productivity
- Differentiate between consensus and compromise
- Examine individual preferences’ dichotomies found in a personality comparison instrument
- Identify factors that influence actions and decision-making
- Recognize four different viewpoints used to reach consensus
- Relate the importance of team and individual performance to reaching overall objectives
- Design a performance plan
- Identify ways to address conflicts in teams most productively
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Applying systems thinking to complex problems
Learning Outcomes
- Define system, systems architecture, and system engineering
- Decompose system hierarchy to at least four levels
- Define any system from various perspectives, including technical feasibility, value, risk, and societal impact
- Describe four methods of developing a system architecture
- Apply the heuristic architecting method to develop a system architecture
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Developing a business plan that addresses stakeholder interests, market potential and economics
Learning Outcomes
- Identify an innovative and differentiated business concept
- Develop a strategy for returning value to economic stakeholders
- Construct a business’s value chain, showing the company’s operational flow
- Assess a business market opportunity, including competitive positioning
- Develop market entry, growth and exploitation strategy
- Develop key business plan assumptions and simulate business performance
- Utilize resources to prepare valuable business plans
- Identify an innovative and differentiated business concept
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Role of product in value creation
Learning Outcomes
- Describe each element of the total product concept
- Apply the Product concept to past product successes and failures
- Define the concept of value
- Explain the value proposition canvas
- Relate the Product concept to the value proposition canvas
- Evaluate value creation using the value proposition canvas
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Adapting a business to a changing climate
Learning Outcomes
- Explain the ways in which new and existing firms are impacted by changing business conditions
- Describe the various factors that make up market/business conditions
- Perform environmental scanning on the business environment
- Describe ways in which firms deal with changes in its business environment
- Explain the mindset and characteristics of those people (and organizations) that survive and thrive given challenges and setbacks
- Explain the ways in which new and existing firms are impacted by changing business conditions
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Defining and Protecting Intellectual Property
Learning Outcomes
- Classify valuable physical and intellectual assets
- Explain why intellectual property (IP) assets are important to a
company’s valuation and its stakeholders - Employ methods to protect valuable trade secret and confidential
information IP assets - Use trademarks, industrial designs, and copyrights to protect brand
value - Describe how to file patents
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Resolving Ethical Issues
Learning Outcomes
- Assess, and later reassess, your position on an ethics scale
- Define ethics in the context of professional settings
- Explain why ethical behavior and the trust it engenders are
essential for all engineers especially entrepreneurial engineers - Analyze ethical dilemma case studies and explain who resolved them
and how - Apply three methods for resolving ethical dilemmas
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Generating new ideas based on societal needs and business opportunities
Learning Outcomes
- Differentiate between an idea and an opportunity
- Describe how to identify new business opportunities by observing social and environmental trends
- Recognize how to find business opportunities through identifying needs and offering viable potential solutions
- Explain how identifying gaps in the marketplace can lead to finding viable business opportunities
- Describe a variety of techniques that can generate ideas of value
Modules to be Developed
The full list of e-learning modules to be developed as part of this project and the courses into which they will be integrated at the University of New Haven are shown below.
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Developing customer awareness and quickly testing concepts through customer engagement
Target Courses for Integration of Modules
- Introduction to Engineering (First-Year)
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Determining market risks
Target Courses for Integration of Modules
- Applied Engineering Statistics (Junior)
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Innovating to solve problems under organizational constraints
Target Courses for Integration of Modules
(Junior Courses)
- Transport Operations II
- Mechanics and Structures Lab
- Software Project Analysis and Design
- Junior Design Laboratory
- Fundamentals of Mechanical Design
- System Engineering Concepts and Design
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Financing a business
Target Courses for Integration of Modules
- Business Principles and Entrepreneurship for Engineers and Scientists
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Building relationships with corporations and communities
Target Courses for Integration of Modules
- Mandatory internships
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Innovative client centered solutions through design thinking
Target Courses for Integration of Modules
- Mandatory internship
These e-learning modules target the KEEN student outcomes.
The e-learning modules should be interactive, structured in a way that will allow integration into regular courses or utilization as supplementary resources, and must be accompanied with a teaching guide.
At the University of New Haven, the KEEN e-learning modules are integrated into a variety of courses that span First-Year through senior years of seven engineering and computer science programs. The modules are generic enough to allow their deployment in various courses and majors.
The length of each module is 3-9 hours of online student work. Online student work includes the amount of time a student is expected to spend reviewing material in a module as well as the average time needed to complete module assignments, activities or exercises.
List of Universities and Colleges that have Deployed Modules
- Arizona State University
- Baylor University
- Boise State University
- California State Polytechnic University - Pomona
- California State University, Chico
- Drexel University
- Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
- Fairfield University
- Florida International University
- George Fox University
- Georgia Institute of Technology
- Grand Valley State University
- Hofstra University
- James Madison University
- Kettering University
- Lafayette College
- Lawrence Technological University
- Lehigh University
- Manhattan College
- Marquette University
- Michigan State University
- Michigan Technological University
- Milwaukee School of Engineering
- Ohio Northern University
- Pennsylvania State University
- Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
- San Francisco State University
- Santa Clara University
- The Citadel
- Trine University
- Tulane University
- University of Alabama at Birmingham
- University of Arkansas Little Rock
- University of California - Davis
- University of Colorado Boulder
- University of Cincinnati
- University of Connecticut
- University of Dayton
- University of Denver
- University of the District of Columbia
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- University of the Pacific
- University of San Diego
- University of Southern California
- University of South Florida
- University of Tennessee
- University of Texas - Dallas
- Valparaiso University
- Villanova University
- University of Virginia
- University of Wyoming
- Walla Walla University
- Weber State University
- Western Carolina University
- Western New England University
- West Virginia University Institute of Technology
- Wichita State University
Related Publications
- "Developing Entrepreneurial Thinking in Engineering Students by Utilizing Integrated Online Modules"
- "Integrating e-Learning Modules into Engineering Courses to Develop an Entrepreneurial Mindset in Students"
- "Impact of Integrated E-Learning Modules in Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset based on Deployment at 25 Institutions"