ENTREPRENEURIAL DESIGN PROJECTS: WHAT TYPE OF PROJECTS ARE EFFECTIVE IN IMPROVING STUDENT LEARNING ENTHUSIASM?

摘要

At Penn State's Entrepreneurship Minor, we have been experimenting with various types of design projects for the last three years in two courses: Engineering Design Principles (QMM 492), and Entrepreneurial Leadership (ENGR 310). In this paper, we review our experience regarding the implementation of these projects in the Entrepreneurship curriculum, and provide an assessment encompassing student learning, motivation, and entrepreneurial achievement. We have implemented and studied the effectiveness of the following types of projects: 1) need based conceptual design projects, 2) design and build projects, and 3) build and sell projects. Overall, preliminary results indicate that while all the included project types were perceived to be effective, the most effective one is identified to be the build and sell type, which more comprehensively simulates entrepreneurship.