Go Deep Entrepreneurship Teaching and Learning Scholars and Fellows Program More at: http://theinnographer.com/for-‐education/go-‐deep Opening snapshot: June 2015 Your full name: – and name you want to go by if different from your full name Rebecca J White Your degrees and/or designations: PhD and MBA Your job title and affiliation: Walter Chair of Entrepreneurship, Professor and Director of Entrepreneurship Center at University of Tampa Link(s) at which you want people to find you: www.ut.edu Anything else at all you want people to know about you? I have started several companies included RiskAware, LLC (www.riskaware.com) and currently have a consulting company – Whiteboard Consulting; Hobbies – sailing, running, yoga and playing piano. Title of your project? – as in: How should/can we refer to your work succinctly? Application of Competency Based Learning to Entrepreneurship Education: Integrating Curricular and Co-Curricular Elements to Enhance Discipline Mastery, Engage Stakeholders and Build Assessment Programs 100-‐150 word summary of your change project? – as in: What is the curricular, co-‐curricular, or community-‐based project will you be undertaking? I am working with my colleague, Kevin Moore. Our overarching goal is to use competency modeling for the purpose of creating a more powerful learning environment. At the core of this model is the assumption that both courses (curricular) and Entrepreneurship Center based programs and events (co-curricular) are necessary to provide a robust educational experience. Embedded in this project is a way to integrate curricular and co-curricular programs, assess outcomes, engage stakeholders both inside and outside of the university and manage and grow an entrepreneurship center. Brief background about your change project? – as in: In 100-‐200 words, what have you already done? Or what is it that’s brought you to this point in your work? And if it’s new, then what’s motivating you to start it?
© 2015 and all rights reserved, Rebecca White and Kevin Moore
We have created a comprehensive model and validated that model not just on competency, ability, and behavior but linked the priority of those elements based on; stage of the business, education level, and experience level of the entrepreneur. The model is self-evolving and thus becomes more valuable and precise as we continue to collect significant amounts of data across multiple demographics as well as multiple host institutions. As other faculties and institutions leverage the model, we can begin to collectively add legitimacy to many of the amazing things programs and people are doing to advance entrepreneurship using a singular scale. The four level structure of the model: (Competency – Necessary Ability – Behavior – Performance Level) adds significant power to the utility in curriculum design and evaluation. Assessment of learning with a competency model allows us to not only measure the overall program, but also the learner and learning activity. Using written tests, experiential activities, project work, and so on, provided the designer of the content some guidance on the level of mastery for each behavior or ability. The mapping of the curricular and co-curricular activities was our intended goal but in reality we were able to design more powerful and engaged learning programs for our students. Through this process we were able to add legitimacy to each learning objectives that was written and placed in our syllabi. This is true for both the Terminal Learning Objectives and the Enabling Learning Objectives for the classes and the co-curricular activities. Your central question as it stands today? – as in: What do you want to know/learn as a result of doing the accompanying inquiry work? This program aims to help you have an impact. What question, if answered, would help you determine whether it has? How can we ensure we are robustly preparing learners for a career in entrepreneurship? An answer to the question "So what?" -‐ as in: Why does this work matter? Why does it inspire you? And why should people care, either now or later if things go well? Because I have devoted my life to entrepreneurship education and I believe strongly in the impact we can make. However, I do believe the discipline is still not able to demonstrate value in any way except anecdotally. I believe this project may have significant impact on our discipline and I hope that my work can add value to the efforts of my colleagues to improve what we do. Anything else you want us to know? Rough draft of a book chapter Kevin and I are working on may be of interest.
© 2015 and all rights reserved, Rebecca White and Kevin Moore