Teamwork, Innovation, and Student Engagement in Technology Entrepreneurship - A Case Study

Hardly any evidence exists to support purposeful innovation and entrepreneurship education specifically targeted to computing students in comparison to engineering students. Because computing is closely aligned with engineering in much theories and practices, it is reasonable to assume that the visions of future computing professionals would be similar to those of future engineers. Therefore, it is realistic to expect that while in college future computing professionals should at least be similarly educated and trained in business practices that expose them to entrepreneurship in the context of teamwork and innovation. This paper discusses the design, implementation, learning outcomes, and student engagement in a National Science Foundation funded technology entrepreneurship course offered in an urban university computing program. This course primarily focused on teamwork, innovation, and entrepreneurship. It sought to train students in becoming well-rounded business-minded technocrats grounded in disciplinary theories and technical skills as well as in innovative thinking, entrepreneurship, problem solving, teamwork, and communication skills. The course was supported by case studies of technology entrepreneurs as well as guest lecturers and mentors. The case studies mainly highlighted the experiences and advice of successful entrepreneurs through their business development ventures and problem solving strategies. The guest lecturers included both academic and non-academic professionals experienced in innovation and entrepreneurship. They provided the students with experiential knowledge and insights on teamwork, innovation, and entrepreneurship including specific examples of business problems encountered. The mentors were either technology entrepreneurs or senior level managers from industry versed in teamwork, innovation, and entrepreneurship; they assisted the student teams in financial or healthcare problem identification appropriately defined for solutions within the constraint of the semester; they further provided guidance, realism, and insight to the teams' ideas for a feasible problem solution. These interventions helped to supplement the content provided in the case studies and lectures. A central product of the course was the creation of a business plan developed to support an innovative problem solution to satisfy a financial or healthcare customer's need with its subsequent pitch. Students' performance in and enthusiasm for the course were generally positive as evidenced by the course grade percentage errors, learning performance indicators, interviews, and surveys. In addition, some of the products/services were judged by industry experts to be capable of satisfying the identified customer need if they were further developed. Nothing should be inferred from these results, however, because of the small sample size of 12 students, but the results seem to suggest that this approach to teaching teamwork, innovation, and entrepreneurship is meritorious in providing computing students with the professional skills needed for the global knowledge economy. The Technology Entrepreneurship course as described in this paper differs from most of the other related entrepreneurship courses in that it provided formal pedagogical instruction in teamwork, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Moreover, its assessment and evaluation included not only surveys, interviews, and performance-based assessment, but also journals as well as examinations.