Enhance your curriculum by addressing the QAA Guidance on skills for your subject, and incorporating the QAA (2018) Guidance on Enterprise and Entrepreneurship.

QAA Benchmark Statement

  • Demonstrate the capability to act autonomously and with others, liaising and negotiating across organisational and professional boundaries
  • Demonstrate the principles of effective team working
  • Maintain relationships through the use of appropriate communication and interpersonal skills
  • Recognise own learning needs and independently advance learning and understanding
  • Reflect on and evaluate own behaviour in light of personal experiences, and take action where appropriate
  • Evaluate and apply knowledge gained from a range of sources to practice
  • Reflect on current knowledge and communicate with the multidisciplinary team in order to synthesise new care solutions to unique care problems
  • Understand and assess critically new ideas in order to inform new ways of working
  • Use communication as an effective tool in the dissemination of knowledge

Embedding Enterprise

The following ETC tools can help you to deliver these skills in the curriculum

How To Guides

These guides have been selected to build QAA (2018) enterprise skills in your teaching.


Engaging Alumni for Real World Learning (QAA 2, 3, 4, 5)

Group Size ? 1.) Small group (teams of 4-6)
2.) Individual Task
3.) Large Group
4.) Any

Large Group

Learning Environment ? 1.) Lecture Theatre
2.) Presentation Space
3.) Carousel Tables (small working group)
4.) Any
5.) Outside
6.) Special

Any

QAA Enterprise Theme(s) ? 1.) Creativity and Innovation
2.) Opportunity recognition, creation and evaluation
3.) Decision making supported by critical analysis and judgement
4.) Implementation of ideas through leadership and management
5.) Reflection and Action
6.) Interpersonal Skills
7.) Communication and Strategy
8.) Digital and Data Skills

2Opportunity recognition‚ creation and evaluation 3Decision making supported by critical analysis and judgement 4Implementation of ideas through leadership and management 5Reflection and Action

Objective:

Effective engagement of Alumni seeks to support the students to become:

  • be flexible and adaptable, seeing alternative perspectives and offering a choice of solutions
  • review and evaluate multiple solutions in contexts that anticipate and accommodate change and contain elements of ambiguity, uncertainty and risk.

Overview:

With the pre-arranged (and prolonged) support of alumni (now professionals) this approach of continued access to external professionals (ideally programme/course Alumni) is designed to prepare students to be able to engage with real clients and better enable them to respond proactively to change.

Externals are invited to engage with the current student group as they undertake a task, using social media (facebook; twitter etc) an/or Skype. This creates either incremental weekly instruction that builds into an overall assignment or regular support or feedback on course work from externals.

Activity

This approach needs pre-agreement and commitment of externals (ideally Programme/course Alumni) who commit to short, but regular interaction through social media or Skype.

This activity can either be driven by a live brief or challenge identified by the external (higher level of engagement) or as comment and support to those undertaking the programme, through sharing expertise and current work experiences. If the students are working on a live brief or task given by the external, this high level of interactivity can mean that summative deadlines can changedand information updated, and the newsworthy or other high profile influences can be included throughout the module. (The assignment usually mirrors an actual assignment undertaken professionally by an Alumni professional).

This engagement can be “managed” by the tutor – to pre-plan some ambiguity or pre-agreed change of brief/scope with the Alumni contact, or left open to allow access to externals as an organic relationship, where advice may be sought by the students or experience/daily practice shared by the Professional as they see fit.

In addition, any presentation /show case or final assignment submission can be shared with the external and their input made part of the summative or formative feedback (assessment strategy).

Note that the choice of social media will impact on the type of engagement between alumni and students, but ideally something that the Alumni member uses regularly will ensure more regular engagement. Even small inputs (as typically seen in social media such as Twitter) can guide student approach and ensure that they are able to ask private questions, and that other students can also learn from the mentor/alumni generic comments or insights.

Skill Development:

Depending upon the level and type of engagement, students can benefit from insights from a ‘typical day/week’ of a professional working in their area, or be pushed to develop their tolerance to ambiguity (through changing deadlines, or unexpected changes to the brief or additional information). This can build resilience in the students but there needs to be clear expectations of this relationship, as well as additional tutor support.

Students typically respond well to changes and additional insights from professional Alumni and can develop their understanding and judgement, in their chosen field, whilst gaining further insight regarding professional practice.

Students should be bought together to share their experience of virtually engaging with their Alumni contact and explore their emotional responses to the changing briefs or additional information. They need to explore, and develop strategies, for coping with ‘real world’ brief/challenges and exploringthis together, and sharing how they dealt with it, and could deal with it in the future, builds their confidence and resilience to change. Using reflective practice to consider the learning across the group can draw out a range of key lessons for preparing for future challenges.

Resources:

Access to, and ongoing (committed) virtual engagement by appropriate alumni – determine brief/project or to commit to regular updating/comment for a pre-agreed period of time.

References:

Penaluna, A., Penaluna, K and Diego, I. (2014) The role of education in enterprising creativity. In Sternberg R and Krauss, G. (2014) Handbook of Research on Entrepreneurship and Creativity. Cheltenham / Massachusetts: Edward Elgar).

Scott, J., Penaluna, A., Thompson, J & Brooksbank, D. Experiential entrepreneurship education: Effectiveness and learning outcomes. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research (Forthcoming)

Jones, C., Penaluna, A., Matlay, H., Penaluna, K. Discovering the Soul of Enterprise Education. Education +Training, Emerald Publishing (Forthcoming)

Penaluna, K., Penaluna, A., Jones, C. and Matlay, H. (2014) ‘When did you last predict a good idea?: Exploring the case of assessing creativity through learning outcomes’, Industry and Higher Education, Vol.8, No.6, December 2014: 399 - 410

Penaluna, A., Coates J. and Penaluna K., (2011) Creativity-Based Assessment and Neural Understandings: A Discussion and Case Study Analysis. Education + Training, Emerald Publishing, Volume 52, Issue 8/9, pp. 660 - 678

About the Author
This guide was produced by Professor Andy Penaluna, University of Wales, Trinity St David.

A Compendium of Pedagogies: THE USE OF DRAMA (QAA 6,7)

Group Size ? 1.) Small group (teams of 4-6)
2.) Individual Task
3.) Large Group
4.) Any

Any

Learning Environment ? 1.) Lecture Theatre
2.) Presentation Space
3.) Carousel Tables (small working group)
4.) Any
5.) Outside
6.) Special

Any

QAA Enterprise Theme(s) ? 1.) Creativity and Innovation
2.) Opportunity recognition, creation and evaluation
3.) Decision making supported by critical analysis and judgement
4.) Implementation of ideas through leadership and management
5.) Reflection and Action
6.) Interpersonal Skills
7.) Communication and Strategy
8.) Digital and Data Skills

6Interpersonal Skills 7Communication and Strategy

Objective:

Entrepreneurs need to be able to act out different roles in different situations. A good entrepreneur is a good actor. In building relationships with different stakeholders the entrepreneur will need to act out different roles –with a banker, venture capitalist, government official, employee, regulator, customer and so on. It is a key essence of entrepreneurship to see oneself through the eyes of major stakeholders. As well as building personal confidence there is a strong emphasis upon being creative under pressure making collective decisions rapidly and working together as a team.

Overview:

The use of drama is the creation and performance by an individual or group of an incident, scenario or sequence of events designed to portray the emotional and relationship as well as cognitive aspects of the scene. Its use can serve a number of purposes:

  • It is a reminder that no information received from interviews and research approaches (no matter how good the checklist) is truly objective. The results always reflect the values and beliefs of the person interviewed and often their recent experiences and emotions. For example, a person who has recently been convicted by police of a speeding traffic offence will have a different response to questions about the role and value of the police force in general than someone who has just been saved by the police from an assault. A dramatic presentation of interviews will demand interpretation of the emotions behind the message.
  • It demands of the creators of the drama that they must put themselves 'in the shoes' of the provider of information and see the results from their point of view. The conventional academic process of data collection often makes little or no demand upon understanding the data from the providers' point of view.
  • Drama demands that individual characters in the drama are understood through the eyes of the other characters. The dramatist makes the character believable by portraying him/her through the eyes of other characters in the drama.
  • Messages and information delivered in innovative ways will make a bigger impact and can create wider understanding. Entrepreneurs often need to use creative ways of delivering messages. TV advertising is, for example, drama. A presentation can be dramatic to make an impact.
  • Drama provides training in acting skills, which build confidence and ability to personally project.
  • Developing a drama demands the use of creative ability often the need is to develop a metaphor to enhance the impact of a message or indeed generalise it.
  • Developing drama in groups also creates a powerful bonding process.

Activity:

Use of drama can take a number of forms including Role Play and Hot Seating (see further How To Guides).

Participants can be asked, in small groups, to create a scene portraying a single message, often through metaphor. For example, in the entrepreneurship context they can be asked to prepare a short scene portraying one of a number of entrepreneurial behaviours or attributes e.g. entrepreneurial risk taking; opportunity identification; initiative taking; strong sense of autonomy; networking; learning by doing, and so on. The 'audience' of other participants is then invited to guess the message, to score the creativity of the metaphor and the degree of entertainment delivered.

The drama can also be constructed around a piece of research - for example, in the context of dramatising a series of interviews as a method of enhancing insight into the results of formal data collection. In this case the key issues arising from the research are discussed in a group and the messages to be delivered are set out. A metaphor is then created and dramatised under guidance and later performed. The audience is then asked to record the key messages of the drama and to score the presentation for creativity and entertainment.

Skill Development:

Participants gain understanding of the emotional aspects of knowledge and how difficult it is to be truly objective. They understand the importance of gaining empathy and insight into the passions, emotions and contexts of situations. They learn about the process of consolidation of ideas and of the importance of presenting these creatively but in a form that will be easily understood.

Resources:

  • A Compendium of Pedagogies for Teaching Entrepreneurship. Professor Alan Gibb and Alison Price  
  • For further guidance on related activities referenced in this guide (above) see the ETCToolkit How To Guides 'Compendium of Pedagogies: THE USE OF ROLE PLAY' and 'Compendium of Pedagogies: THE USE OF HOT SEATS

References:

N/A

About the Author
This guide was produced by Professor Allan Gibb and Professor Alison Price.

Quick Smart Presentation (QAA 3,7)

Group Size ? 1.) Small group (teams of 4-6)
2.) Individual Task
3.) Large Group
4.) Any

Individual Task

Learning Environment ? 1.) Lecture Theatre
2.) Presentation Space
3.) Carousel Tables (small working group)
4.) Any
5.) Outside
6.) Special

Lecture Theatre, Presentation Space

QAA Enterprise Theme(s) ? 1.) Creativity and Innovation
2.) Opportunity recognition, creation and evaluation
3.) Decision making supported by critical analysis and judgement
4.) Implementation of ideas through leadership and management
5.) Reflection and Action
6.) Interpersonal Skills
7.) Communication and Strategy
8.) Digital and Data Skills

3Decision making supported by critical analysis and judgement 7Communication and Strategy

Objective:

  • To present ideas in a short space of time
  • To communicate effectively under time pressure
  • To determine the content which most effectively communicates within the artificial constraints
  • To deliver a quality presentation working on your own

Overview:

(small paragraph/ 2 -3 sentence)

Described as the art of concise presentation, this format of presenting with PowerPoint ensures that all the speakers have a fixed time to communicate their ideas to their audience.

There are a range of time scales/number of slides (such as delivering 20 slides, 15 seconds each slide or 20 slides, 20 seconds each) but the essence of this format is to keep the delivery clear and crisp under strict time constraints.

Activity:

The preparation for this task will be done by the student in advance.

As their tutor, you issue them with a topic and the constraints by which they must work –

Either to deliver 20 slides, each timed for 15 seconds to provide a 5 minute talk

Or you can give them 20 slides, each timed for 20 seconds.

Ideally provide them with a template which will automatically move on after 20 seconds (downloadable – see resources) so that they cannot take longer over 1 slide or extend their point.

This format makes a great presentation showcase format for student conferences, workshop days or presentations.

You may wish to provide the links provided in the references to allow students to see how the format works – or prepare your own to show in advance.

Skill Development:

The challenge comes from the automatically moving slides which requires that that the students plan their short, but powerful impact.

Upon completion of this task, it is worth reviewing with the group their experience of this approach as a communication method and how they found the challenge.

Resources:

Powerpoint (optional pre-set slide show format such as available here - http://ignitebristol.net/speak/guidance-for-speakers/

References:

http://www.pechakucha.org/

http://bettakultcha.com/bettakultcha-events/

http://ignitebristol.net/speak/guidance-for-speakers/

http://www.speakingaboutpresenting.com/content/fast-ignite-presentation/

About the Author
This guide was produced by ARP.

Communication Icebreaker Introduction (QAA 3,6,7)

Group Size ? 1.) Small group (teams of 4-6)
2.) Individual Task
3.) Large Group
4.) Any

Large Group

Learning Environment ? 1.) Lecture Theatre
2.) Presentation Space
3.) Carousel Tables (small working group)
4.) Any
5.) Outside
6.) Special

Carousel Tables (small working group)

QAA Enterprise Theme(s) ? 1.) Creativity and Innovation
2.) Opportunity recognition, creation and evaluation
3.) Decision making supported by critical analysis and judgement
4.) Implementation of ideas through leadership and management
5.) Reflection and Action
6.) Interpersonal Skills
7.) Communication and Strategy
8.) Digital and Data Skills

3Decision making supported by critical analysis and judgement 6Interpersonal Skills 7Communication and Strategy

Objective:

  • To engage learners in wider concepts of communication
  • To explore/appreciate their own judgement and decision making skills
  • To encourage learner to appreciate non-verbal communication and tools to engage with and understand each other
  • To act as an ice-breaker

Overview:

This short task is designed to build the foundations of effective initial communication within a group, by exploring the concept of instant judgement (against knowing more about an individual or situation). It uses non-verbal communication to draw out stereotypes and explore how communication extends beyond verbal to all aspects of presentation (of person, of situation etc).

Activity:

At the start of a session, explain that you would like to them join you in an icebreaker activity and invite them to work with people that they haven't met before and that there is one key instruction: that no one talks to each other (or uses other communication such as texting).

Split the large group onto smaller groups ( 2-4 people in each group) and request each participant to select 3 items that they are happy to show to others, from their bags, pockets, clothes or the room or wider area (leaf; research article; equipment etc). Invite them to place these items selected in the table in front of him/her in a small pile.

Now, within each group, each person writes on post-it what assumptions they have made about the person, and places them around the items (so they made public). These opinions should be formed based on the displayed items by the person. This attempt at "personality analysis" should be gathered from their ownership/possessions of items/belongings.

Once they have completed this task, the group should be invited to talk together and work through each pile of items and comments together. They should be left for a reasonable length of time to talk/explore their assumptions and get to know each other. This stage is important to allow enough time to work through their points and learn more about each other.

Finally conduct a whole group debrief regarding assumptions and non-verbal clues. Ask the group about how they felt undertaking the task, and to recognise their emotions (arriving to a new programme to meet new people) as part of the process.

Skill Development:

The skills developed within this ice-breaker related to confidence, non-verbal communication and assumptions. However they are also exploring their skills of analysis and ability to reach conclusions, together with inter-personal skills as they began their feedback. This required listening to others, acceptance and openness and emotions will have played a part throughout the process.

Resources:

Papers, pens, items owned by individuals

About the Author
This guide was produced by Enterprise Evolution.

Teaching Entrepreneurship: A Practice-Based Approach - EXERCISE: BUILDING THE CULTURE OF YOUR BUSINESS WITH THE SIMS (QAA 2,3,4,5)

Group Size ? 1.) Small group (teams of 4-6)
2.) Individual Task
3.) Large Group
4.) Any

Any

Learning Environment ? 1.) Lecture Theatre
2.) Presentation Space
3.) Carousel Tables (small working group)
4.) Any
5.) Outside
6.) Special

Presentation Space, Carousel Tables (small working group)

QAA Enterprise Theme(s) ? 1.) Creativity and Innovation
2.) Opportunity recognition, creation and evaluation
3.) Decision making supported by critical analysis and judgement
4.) Implementation of ideas through leadership and management
5.) Reflection and Action
6.) Interpersonal Skills
7.) Communication and Strategy
8.) Digital and Data Skills

2Opportunity recognition‚ creation and evaluation 3Decision making supported by critical analysis and judgement 4Implementation of ideas through leadership and management 5Reflection and Action

Objective:

  • Use and explain the critical interdisciplinary definitions related to organizational culture and entrepreneurship.
  • Describe the relationship between organizational culture, structure, and leadership.
  • Evaluate personal approaches to a professional work-life.
  • Design and assess an emerging organizational culture.
  • Critically evaluate the approaches to the intentional creation of organizational culture.

Overview:

By the time most enterprise founders start thinking about ensuring a healthy culture in their business, it is usually too late. The culture has already emerged and is not always the most conducive to the health of the founder and employees, or even the enterprise itself. The culture of the enterprise emerges from the mind, values, and practices of the founder(s) while the business is being created, a time when the founder generally places more priority on the creation of economic value than the creation of culture. This exercise is based on a combination of organization and entrepreneurship theory and uses an off-the- shelf computer game, The Sims: Open for Business™, to investigate the core values, assumptions, interpretations, and approaches that combine to define the culture of a new venture. The students are assigned to play the game for a minimum of two hours outside of class, with no introduction given around the concept of culture. The heart of the exercise is the in-class debrief (including viewing the game), which reveals the culture that was created, what it means for all stakeholders, and what actions could be taken to adjust that culture.

Usage Suggestions

This content of the exercise works for all audiences, undergraduate, graduate, executive, or practitioner. The delivery requires that the students have access to the game and are able to play it before the discussion. The exercise lends itself well to online courses, as the debrief and illustration can also be done online, preferably in a synchronous mode, although asynchronous will work too. The exercise works best when each student is able to log on to his orher game for the debrief. This exercise is positioned in the course when emphasis is on resources. Culture is presented as a resource that can either add to or detract from the value of the company.

Activity:

Pre-Work Required by Students

  • Play The Sims: Open for Business™ for a minimum of two hours.

Time Plan (90 minutes)

This 90- minute exercise can be adapted to fit various time schedules, including an entire class. Prior to the exercise the students would have been told to play the game for two hours. No other instructions are given. In this way, playing the game provides a shared experience and serves as the live case for the discussion.

Step 1 (Introduction) 0:00–0:10 (10 minutes)

Ask the students to open their laptops and log on to their games. Each game should open at the point at which the student left the game. The opening or warm- up questions should be about just playing the game:

  • How many of you had played some version of The Sims before? Anyone played this particular expansion version?
  • How was it? Did you enjoy it? If so, why? If not, why?
  • Were there any particular challenges?
  • Where there any particular surprises?
  • How long did you actually play? (Probe for who played the longest and why.)

Step 2 0:10–0:40 (30 minutes)

Divide students into groups of five to six and give them the following directions: “Please select a scribe and a reporter to first capture the themes of your work and then be ready to report out to the full class on your work. First, individually, each write down the answer to this question: What is the culture of the business you created – and how can you tell? You have five minutes for this individual work. After five minutes, and I’ll tell you when the time is up, we’ll switch to working with your team. 

  1. First, each student please share with your group the business you created.
  2. Second, as a group create your list of criteria that create an organizational culture.
  3. Third, please describe the impact of how people will carry out work given the culture you have created.

Step 3 (First report out and discussion) 0:40–1:10 (30 minutes)

Start with the first table and have the reporter share their top two criteria, along with an explanation and illustration of each. Then ask each table to add two criteria to the ones already listed. If desired, you can take a hand count at the end to establish what was considered as most important, and so on. The board map should match the theoretical criteria of your choice. For the purposes of this teaching note the primary source is Schein (1983) and focuses on the basic underlying assumptions around which cultural paradigms form. Examples include:

  • The organization’s relationship to its environment: Is recycling important?
  • The nature of reality and truth: How important is time?
  • The nature of human nature: how employees (insiders) are treated and how customers (outsiders) are treated.
  • The nature of human activity: the physical design of the employee break room.
  • The nature of human relationships: Is the focus on competition or cooperation?

Summary and Close 1:10–1:30 (20 minutes)

Ask the students to again work individually and list the three things they would keep about their culture and the three things they would change, along with how they would implement that change. Lead the closing discussion in such a way that the students discover:

  1. What types of cultural approaches are common across most businesses?
  2. What is the role of fit between the founder, the company, and the environment in creating culture?
  3. How does culture become a positive resource for your business?

Teaching Tips

The game generally has to be ordered online, so you need to allow students time to order and receive it. The ideal experience is for the classroom to have wireless internet access and for each student to have a laptop. However, if teaching students with no access to computers or ability to buy the game, the instructor can lead the class in playing the game as a group, with one computer and the screen projected on the wall.

Skill Development:

Key Takeaways

  • The importance of intentionally creating organizational culture during firm emergence.
  • Organizational culture can be a positive or negative firm resource.
  • Organizational culture needs to be a fit between the founder, the firm, and the environment.

Resources: 

Materials List

  • Video game: The Sims and the expansion packet The Sims: Open for Business™.

The full text ‘Teaching Entrepreneurship: A Practice-Based Approach’ can be purchased here > http://www.amazon.co.uk/Teaching-Entrepreneurship-A-Practice-Based-Approach/dp/1782540695

References:

This exercise is taken from;

  • Heidi M. Neck, Patricia G. Greene and Candida G. Brush, 2014. Teaching Entrepreneurship: A Practice-Based Approach (pp.110 – 113). Edition. Edward Elgar Pub.

Suggested assigned reading:

  • Schein, Edgar H. 2010. Organizational Culture and Leadership, Vol. 2, Chapters 1 and 11. Wiley.com.

Theoretical Foundations

  • Barney, J.B. 1986. Organizational culture: Can it be a source of sustainable competitive advantage? Academy of Management Review, 11, 656–65.
  • Brush, C.G., Greene, P.G., and Hart, M.M. 2001. From initial idea to unique advantage: The entrepreneurial challenge of constructing a resource base. Academy of Management Executive, 15(1), 64–78.
  • Cameron, K.S., and Quinn, R.R. 1999. Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture: Based on the Competing Values Framework, Chapters 2 and 3 only. Reading, MA: Addison- Wesley.
  • Schein, E. 1983. The role of the founder in the creation of organizational culture.
  • Stinchcombe, A.L. 1965. Social structure and organizations. In J.G. March (ed.), Handbook of Organizations (pp. 142–93). Chicago: Rand- McNally.

Author:

  • This exercise is taken from, Heidi M. Neck, Patricia G. Greene and Candida G. Brush, 2014. Teaching Entrepreneurship: A Practice-Based Approach (pp.110 – 113). Edition. Edward Elgar Pub. and is reprinted with the kind permission of the authors.

About the Author
This guide was produced by Patricia G. Green.

Creating an agenda for future sessions from learners’ contributions (using post-its) (QAA 1)

Group Size ? 1.) Small group (teams of 4-6)
2.) Individual Task
3.) Large Group
4.) Any

Large Group

Learning Environment ? 1.) Lecture Theatre
2.) Presentation Space
3.) Carousel Tables (small working group)
4.) Any
5.) Outside
6.) Special

Lecture Theatre

QAA Enterprise Theme(s) ? 1.) Creativity and Innovation
2.) Opportunity recognition, creation and evaluation
3.) Decision making supported by critical analysis and judgement
4.) Implementation of ideas through leadership and management
5.) Reflection and Action
6.) Interpersonal Skills
7.) Communication and Strategy
8.) Digital and Data Skills

1Creativity and Innovation

Objectives:

• Learners are given the opportunity to compose questions about a topic new to them; (links to intended learning outcomes)
• Learners are enabled to contribute things they already know about a new topic; (links to learning incomes)
• Learners are helped to learn from what each other already knows;
• Learners can gain confidence finding out that many others have similar questions.


Overview

This exercise greatly increases the ownership felt by learners about the curriculum content in a series of classes or lectures. This post-it exercise can usefully be a main part of the first lecture in a series on a topic or module. After a brief introduction to the ‘big picture’ of what is to be addressed in forthcoming sessions, learners are issued with a blue post-it and a pink post-it. They are given the opportunity to anonymously jot down (1) a question they believe could be important about the topic (pink post-it), and (2) something they already know about the topic (blue post-it).
They are then helped to look at each others’ post-its (both kinds).
The post-its are then collected by the teacher/lecturer, who uses them to plan the start of the next session in the series.

Activity
Session 1
1. Brief the learners very quickly (no more than two slides, or five minutes orally) about the main subject matter to be addressed in the forthcoming series about the topic or theme concerned. It can be useful at this stage to show on a slide (but not expand upon) the intended learning outcomes relating to the topic.
2. Issue blue and pink post-its, one to each learner (other colours if necessary of course).
3. Brief learners to write privately (and in clear handwriting) on the pink post-it one question about the topic, which they think may be important, but to which at this stage they do not know the correct (or best) answer to. Make the point that there’s no such thing as a silly question, and that it’s OK not to know the answers at this stage.
4. Then brief learners to use their blue post-its to write down one thing that they do already know about the topic. “Everyone knows something about anything” you might say. Encourage them to write down something interesting, or fascinating, or unusual if they can. Explain that at this stage it does not matter at all if what they know turns out to be wrong.
Steps 2-4 usually take no more than five minutes.
5. Ask learners to pass their post-its around, so they can look at each others’ questions, and the things their classmates already know about the topic. Learners’ confidence can often be seen to be increasing rapidly, when they see that several other learners have written similar questions to their own (“it wasn’t a silly question after all!”), and they are often quite fascinated by the things that others in the group have written on their blue post-its (“Well, I didn’t know that!”).
[optional] Suggest that learners spotting someone else’s question on a pink post-it could add a tick for ‘me too’ if they also want to find out the answer to the question.
Depending on the size of the group, and how interesting the learners find this task, this can usefully take 20 minutes or so.
6. When most learners have had the opportunity to look at most of the post-it entries, ask them to stick the post-its onto two charts, one for pink post-its (questions) and the other for blue post-its (things they already know).
7. This is probably most of the first session used up (if for example lecture slots are around 50 mins), and if so, only do general interest things until the end of the session, but take the charts with the respective post-its away with you.
8. Look through the pink post-its for recurring questions, addressing important topics in the curriculum, and linking well to one or more of the published intended learning outcomes. Look also for blue post-its which suggest that their owners already know the answers to these common questions. Prepare a slide as follows…
9. ‘37 of your pink post-its from the last session were similar to the following (very good) question: “…..” Hands-up if your question was similar to this one. Now hands up if you too want to find out the answer to this question’.


Session 2

10. Use the slide as above, then announce ‘Eleven of you probably know the answer to this question – I know this from what you wrote on your blue post-its! Hands up if you know the answer, and please keep your hand raised, until three or more people who don’t know the answer move to near you. Now, those who know the answer, talk your classmates through it.
11. You can then go on to another recurring question, with the same processes.

This kind of activity allows ownership of the important questions by members of the class, and the fact that other class members can share answers to these questions, rather than the teacher/lecturer providing the answers.

Skill Development:

This activity allows teachers/lectures to develop skills and confidence in allowing learners to contribute significantly to shaping the way that important questions are addressed in class.
It is also very comforting to learners entering a new topic to find out that many of their classmates have similar questions that they want or need answers to, and reassuring that lecturers/teachers take their questions seriously enough to base future class sessions on addressing them.

Resources:

A slide or two of very broad-brush briefing notes about the topic to be addressed in a series of sessions;
Pink and blue post-its, sufficient for one (or more) each for each learner:
Flipchart sheets for learners to stick the post-it onto, after the sharing activity;
Pens to give away for those who come without anything to write with!

References:


Race, P. (2014) ‘Making Learning Happen: 3rd edition’, London: Sage.
Race, P. (2015) ‘The Lecturer’s Toolkit; 4th edition’, Abingdon: Routledge.
http://phil-race.co.uk

About the Author
This guide was produced by Professor Phil Race.

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If you have any questions regarding completing the template, please Contact Us.

Embedding Entrepreneurship

If you or your students are interested in developing a business idea, becoming self-employed/freelance or creating a business here are some tools to help and also some links to business start-up support.

How To Guides

These guides have been selected to build QAA (2018) entrepreneurship skills in your teaching.


Defining your Customer (QAA 2,3,7)

Group Size ? 1.) Small group (teams of 4-6)
2.) Individual Task
3.) Large Group
4.) Any

Small group (teams of 4-6), Individual Task

Learning Environment ? 1.) Lecture Theatre
2.) Presentation Space
3.) Carousel Tables (small working group)
4.) Any
5.) Outside
6.) Special

Carousel Tables (small working group)

QAA Enterprise Theme(s) ? 1.) Creativity and Innovation
2.) Opportunity recognition, creation and evaluation
3.) Decision making supported by critical analysis and judgement
4.) Implementation of ideas through leadership and management
5.) Reflection and Action
6.) Interpersonal Skills
7.) Communication and Strategy
8.) Digital and Data Skills

2Opportunity recognition‚ creation and evaluation 3Decision making supported by critical analysis and judgement 7Communication and Strategy

Objectives:

  • To build a profile of (future) customer as a person
  • To develop the business offer through a broader understanding of the customer needs
  • To  support critical thinking and evaluation of ideas 

Overview: 

This exercise enables students to demonstrate their understanding of their potential customer and deepen that understanding to create a robust offer.

Activity: 

Give each group or individual a sheet of paper with an outline of (non-male or female) person drawn in the middle. 

Ask them to depict on the figure what they might know about their (future) customer.  This requires them to visually-describe their customer, including things like: 

  • Where do they live, work, spend time outside of work and home
  • How much do they earn
  • Where else might they access products/services like yours
  • How do they think, feel
  • What experience do they expect 
  • What concerns do they have
  • What life to do they lead

The purpose is to try and establish a real understanding of what is important to a potential customer, rather than drawing out key “facts” about them (disposable income etc).

Once all the drawings are done, everyone looks collectively at the different customer outlines and tries to add further understanding from what they can see.  The owner of the drawing need not accept these, but can include anything relevant onto their picture.

Once every drawing has been explored, each team/individual needs to articulate one message that they have learnt from this exercise that they can take forward into their planning.  So if offering fast-food to a student customer base, they may have identified price as critical.  However the wider discussion might have identified that students may also select to eat somewhere that is offering free wifi to allow them to connect with others or make plans with each other.  Or if the customer base was a family, then other elements that are important to them such as child-friendly parking, might indicate 1 premises to be more attractive than another.  This “linked” thinking allows the student to draw out the wider benefits of their product or service and explore it in order to create an effective offer.

Skill Development: 

Whilst this task can be based on initial research undertaken by the student, the critical thinking comes from the assumptions that the wider group offer to develop their thinking.  This shows the power of group work and allows the students to deepen their own thinking through the examples of others.

It is useful to explore this task at the end of the session to see how the groups found sharing and testing their assumptions in a group environment.

Resources: 

Paper, pens, flipchart (outline of a person)

About the Author
This guide was produced by Alison Price.

Design Thinking: From creative thinking to enterprising action (QAA1,2,3,5,6,7)

Group Size ? 1.) Small group (teams of 4-6)
2.) Individual Task
3.) Large Group
4.) Any

Large Group

Learning Environment ? 1.) Lecture Theatre
2.) Presentation Space
3.) Carousel Tables (small working group)
4.) Any
5.) Outside
6.) Special

Any

QAA Enterprise Theme(s) ? 1.) Creativity and Innovation
2.) Opportunity recognition, creation and evaluation
3.) Decision making supported by critical analysis and judgement
4.) Implementation of ideas through leadership and management
5.) Reflection and Action
6.) Interpersonal Skills
7.) Communication and Strategy
8.) Digital and Data Skills

1Creativity and Innovation 2Opportunity recognition‚ creation and evaluation 3Decision making supported by critical analysis and judgement 5Reflection and Action 6Interpersonal Skills 7Communication and Strategy

Objective:

  • Know about a range of ideas and concepts about enterprising mind-set and entrepreneurship
  • Reconnecting with your creativity 
  • Introduction to design thinking and exploring a challenge 
  • Apply design thinking to addressing a challenge 
  • Developing a chosen idea (including proto-typing if possible) 
  • Introduction to engaging others in your ideas (moving beyond a ‘Pitch’) 
  • Introduction to crowd funding and funding the idea from within the student and stakeholder audience (external if possible)

Introduction: 

This session suits larger groups of learners being introduced to the concept of enterprise, creative thinking and solving complex challenges. Working with interdisciplinary groups works best to encourage maximum creativity and adds depth to the chosen solution. An introduction to effective engagement with audiences which moves beyond a pitch is introduced and the session closes with the audience crowd funding the idea using specially designed local currency. 

Activity:

This is best run over a 4-6 hour period and can be split between 2-3 sessions to allow for further research into the challenge. Session starts with some team building activities set firmly within the context of the challenge. This can help students to better appreciate the challenge area and develop empathy with various perspectives/realities in relation to the challenge.  

Then follows some creativity exercises with an introduction to design thinking. Teams then apply this process (as time allows) through to completion with ideally prototypes being developed (if not posters/electronic adverts etc). 

Then the large group is introduced to the need for effective and authentic engagement of themselves and their ideas (moving beyond the ‘pitch’). Individual or group presentations are developed and practiced. Depending on timing and group size, there can then follow a couple of rounds of presentations with a final selection presenting to the whole group. Ideally this should include at least one external stakeholder/s linked to the challenge context (clinical/engineering/finance etc) able to provide authentic feedback. 

It can be fun then to introduce/revisit the concept of crowd funding and provide everyone in the audience with some currency (we have developed some university notes) and get them to fund their favourite proposal. Of course it could be that there will be some real funding available…

Impact:

This works best with some facilitators to help support the various groups as they progress through each activity and often can make a significantly positive impact where groups from different curriculum areas meet for the first time. Utilising external stakeholders to share their challenges can also help to add real value and excitement for learners. Learners tend to enjoy the active nature of the workshop and the rigours of presenting to an external stakeholder with potential solutions to the challenges set. 

Learner outcome:

Tend to see an increased awareness of wider enterprise and boost in confidence in terms of team working, design thinking, negotiation and engagement with audiences. A useful taster for deeper enterprising learning. Skilled reflection is vital throughout and post session/s through on-going programme.  Depending on the nature of the ‘challenge’ this can be extended to a module/programme duration.

Resources: 

  • Team building activities based in context – e.g. Clinical setting/Engineering/Creative/Education. 
  • Usual flip charts and pens etc. 
  • Raw materials for prototyping if possible 
  • Electronic devices to film short presentations 
  • Bespoke Currency for crowd funding session 
  • Prizes 

References:

Brown, T (2008) Design Thinking, Harvard Business Review, June 2008  (pages 85 – 92)
Dweck, C (2006) Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, By Dweck, Carol S. ( Author ) Dec-26-2007 Paperback
Krueger, N.F.Jr. (2010) 13 Looking Forward, Looking Backward: From entrepreneurial Cognition to Neuroentrepreneurship in Acs, Z.K and Audretsch, D.B. (eds.), 2nd Edition of the Handbook of Entrepreneurship Research, Springer 
Westfall, C (2012) The New Elevator Pitch: the definitive guide to persuasive communication in the digital age, Marie Street Press  

About the Author
This guide was produced by Carol Langston.

Reflection Icebreaker Entrepreneurial Line up

Group Size ? 1.) Small group (teams of 4-6)
2.) Individual Task
3.) Large Group
4.) Any

Large Group

Learning Environment ? 1.) Lecture Theatre
2.) Presentation Space
3.) Carousel Tables (small working group)
4.) Any
5.) Outside
6.) Special

Lecture Theatre

QAA Enterprise Theme(s) ? 1.) Creativity and Innovation
2.) Opportunity recognition, creation and evaluation
3.) Decision making supported by critical analysis and judgement
4.) Implementation of ideas through leadership and management
5.) Reflection and Action
6.) Interpersonal Skills
7.) Communication and Strategy
8.) Digital and Data Skills

5Reflection and Action

Objective:

  • Understanding entrepreneurial experience and unpacking the expertise of the learners/participants
  • Benchmarking the group to plan development and awareness activities

Introduction:

This activity is a great start to a business planning or business start-up module, as it works well as an ice-breaker in any group seeking to explore the spectrum of activity and can be repeated at the end of teaching programme/input to see how the levels of student confidence in the topic have changed.  

Activity:

At the very start of an activity as an ice-breaker, students are asked to line up (single-file) in a continuum of entrepreneurial experience (from ‘I have never heard of entrepreneurship’ to ‘I am running, or have ran my own business’. They have to talk to one another in order to position themselves. A selection of willing group members from various stages of the link tell the group why they are standing where they are. After each one, individuals are asked if they would like to reconsider their position in the line. Teaching and activities follow that unpack the entrepreneurial mind-set, and ways of developing the characteristics, drawing equally on entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship, and then the line-up is repeated. If you have the opportunity for multiple interventions, the line-up can be repeated at any point (formatively or summatively), to help students learn from each other and the teacher/facilitator to learn more about the needs of the cohort as a whole.

Impact: 

It also denotes a significant change in teaching style – and therefore student learning and engagement – will be required for this module. It signifies that there will opportunities to share experience, and pitch own expertise or ideas. 

It allows the students to benchmark where they are in the context of peers and understand where they may gain further support from during the programme.

It builds confidence by drawing out smaller examples of entrepreneurial endeavour, particularly those that have taken place through involvement in clubs, societies or outside education.

Learner outcome: 

For a short ice-breaker, or reflective activity this group tasks alerts students to the approach being taken within this area of teaching - “I knew this class was going to be different when we all had to stand up before the PowerPoint had even been turned on”.

Students ‘huddle’ together and start discussing their experiences in the area and this forms bonds and provides insights to potential future group members.  The outcome is a powerful ice-breaking activity that builds confidence in the group as a whole.

References:

Link to HOW TO GUIDE _ Interpersonal Icebreaker: Line of Evaluation

About the Author
This guide was produced by Katie Wray.

Your How To Guide Here

If you would like to have your How to Guide featured, please download the template and email the completed version to hello@etctoolkit.org.uk.

We have produced a guidance sheet which will assist you in completing the How to Guide.

If you have any questions regarding completing the template, please Contact Us.

Case Examples

Your Example Here

If you would like to have your Case Study featured, please download the template and email the completed version to hello@etctoolkit.org.uk.

We have produced a guidance sheet which will assist you in completing the Case Study.

If you have any questions regarding completing the template, please Contact Us.

Additional Resources

Cases Studies of Good Practice

can be found in Higher Education Academy booklet (2014) Enhancing Employability through Enterprise Education Case Studies

Business Start-Up Resources

BOSS stands for the Business Online Support Service, provided by Business Wales. This service provides online learning courses to help people who are thinking about, or actually, starting a business, already running a business or looking to grow their business.

Big Ideas Wales The Big Ideas Wales campaign is part of the Business Wales service, designed to support the next generation of young entrepreneurs in Wales.

Nesta Creative Enterprise Toolkit
Our enterprise resource toolkit contains tried and tested methods for teaching enterprise skills to creative individuals who are thinking about setting up a business. Available for purchase - with access to resources here http://www.nesta.org.uk/sites/default/files/cet_worksheets_case_studies_and_tutor_notes.pdf