Two-course integration with student collaboration: rapid prototyping and entrepreneurship

The increasing complexity of the business world, the overabundance of business graduates and the opportunity for entrepreneurship to reduce unemployment necessitates classroom experiences that extend beyond the traditional pedagogical cloisters of higher education. Entrepreneurship education often leads the way in advancing cross-disciplinary education through partnerships across collegiate lines. In the current study, we describe the efforts of a program at a large, public Southeastern University in the United States to create undergraduate coursework that combines competencies from engineering pedagogy with the skills-based training of entrepreneurship education. We offer details of the design of the coursework and discuss the pitfalls and successes of this program for other universities interested in developing their own cross-disciplinary courses. These types of action-based, interdisciplinary courses impact student entrepreneurial attitudes and intentions hereby increasing the likelihood of future entrepreneurial activities.