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  • 1.  Course design: Digital Entrepreneurship

    Posted 03-16-2021 17:17

    Dear Colleagues,
    I am planning to design and teach a course on "Digital Entrepreneurship" for undergraduate business students. It will be beneficial for the students if the course is experiential. Would you have any suggestions on course design, curriculum, books and resources, activities, or any other relevant advice? Really appreciate your suggestions.

    Thank you very much.

    Smita

    Smita.srivastava@wichita.edu



    ------------------------------
    Smita Srivastava
    Wichita State University
    Wichita KS
    (540) 922-3262
    ------------------------------


  • 2.  RE: Course design: Digital Entrepreneurship

    Posted 03-17-2021 07:39
    Hi Smita,

    There are lots of useful experiential exercises on https://www.teachingentrepreneurship.org, including some that are useful for digital entrepreneurship, such as building a website in 60 minutes or a no-code app.

    Best wishes
    florian




     

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    Prof. Dr. Florian A. Täube

    Professor of International Business and Entrepreneurship

     

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  • 3.  RE: Course design: Digital Entrepreneurship

    Posted 03-17-2021 12:51
    Edited by Franz Lohrke 03-17-2021 15:28
      |   view attached

    Hello Smita,

     

    I have taught a course in Digital Entrepreneurship ranging from a 3-week Jan term to a full 15-week course. I've attached a Spring 2019 syllabus for the latter.

     

    Obviously, professors can structure the course in a lot of different ways, depending on their interests.  The overall focus I take is a functional one…how will digitalization change entrepreneurship as well as marketing, management, and finance?

     

    For example, I have students set up a website and then work to drive traffic to it.  They then do an SEO assignment related to this project. They also examine issues like how apps affect price competition, omni-channel marketing affects distribution, and social media affects brand development.  A 3D printing assignment encourages them to think about topics like how distribution channels might change.

     

    In terms of management, I focus on how digitalization will affect issues like recruiting and training. So, students do a LinkedIn project where they build a site and connect with friends and university alumni. When I was at LSU, the University also provided students free access to Lynda.com (now LinkedIn Learning), so I had students complete a short training course in something that interested them (like photography or web development) and write a short experiential paper about it.  (They then posted this accomplishment on their LinkedIn profile.). Other topics like "Are gig economy workers really employees or independent contractors?" work well here, too.

     

    Finance was probably the easiest one to pick topics for with the on-going focus on blockchain and "fintech."  Several students each semester did their final projects on topics related to Bitcoin and finance apps.

     

    Obviously, there aren't many textbooks for a course like this, given the speed at which things change. That said, I've found several HBR (like Hui, 2014 and Iansiti & Lakhani, 2017) and other practitioner articles (like on ZDnet) that provide good conceptual foundations for topics. Ted Talks and tech podcasts (like TWiT, This Week in Tech) are also extremely helpful. 


    This is also a good course to bring in guest speakers. I'm already making a list of alumni and other university stakeholders to have discuss topics like SEO and blockchain for the next time I teach the course.  I know just enough about each to be dangerous, but we have some accomplished alums (some of whom started businesses based on these technologies), and they get pretty excited to talk to students about these topics.

     

    Good luck developing the class.

     

    Best regards,

     

    Franz Lohrke

     



    ------------------------------
    Franz T. Lohrke

    Lowder Endowed Chair in Entrepreneurship
    Harbert College of Business
    405 W. Magnolia Ave.
    Auburn University, AL 36849
    P: 334-844-6697  I  Twitter: @ftlohrke and @AuburnEntrep

    ------------------------------

    Attachment(s)

    docx
    ENTR 4010 Spring 2019.docx   73 KB 1 version


  • 4.  RE: Course design: Digital Entrepreneurship

    Posted 03-17-2021 15:43
    Dear Franz,
    Thank you very much for sharing the syllabus as well as your thoughtful insights. I like it how you have given a twist to the course from a finance perspective too. In my planning I was thinking of including marketing, management and international angles to the Digitization and entrepreneurial activities but now I think finance would be very interesting too. Especially after the introduction of Bitcoin, entrepreneurs have to be pragmatic and futuristic while modeling their businesses.
    regards,
    Smita

    ------------------------------
    Smita Srivastava
    Assistant Professor
    Wichita State University
    Wichita KS
    (540) 922-3262
    ------------------------------



  • 5.  RE: Course design: Digital Entrepreneurship

    Posted 03-17-2021 12:52
    Thank you very much Florian. Yes this one has a lot of useful exercises.

    ------------------------------
    Smita Srivastava
    Assistant Professor
    Wichita State University
    Wichita KS
    (540) 922-3262
    ------------------------------



  • 6.  RE: Course design: Digital Entrepreneurship

    Posted 03-17-2021 12:52
    I have taught this several times. This is how I do it. It may or may not work for you.

    Before the first class I send an email informing the students that the first day of class will be a work day. We will not be going over the syllabus and stuff. We will be setting the list of course topics, and if they wish to learn something specific, it is in their best interest to attend.

    During the first class the students and I generate a list of topics they wish to learn about. Typical topics are making websites, utilizing social media, payment systems, and so on. Sometimes I get a real curve ball, such as using crypto currency, or how to use the dark web for business.  Then, each class member gets somewhere between three and five votes to use to support one or more topics. Near the end of class I sum the topics, and pick 12-20 to cover during the semester. Usually I have at least ten of them pre-prepared from having done this before. Then after class I arrange them in a sensible order and create the syllabus.

    Typically I have at least ten weeks to prepare for any topics I'm not up to speed on.

    Each module consists of web based reading/watching, a brief quiz at the beginning of the first class on that module to determine what I need to cover in person, the lecture, and a learning activity. Proof of work is a completed project.

    Typically by the end of the semester, students have a functioning e-commerce enabled website, some have actual products, others just have it set up to prove it works. Most semesters students have dedicated social media accounts. Some students choose to purchase advertising and begin developing a sales funnel. Some topics don't fit directly into this format, so they do those separately. (One example: students often want to learn to sell things on Amazon, so I have them put something up and see if I can navigate to where I can purchase it. This can be something as simple as listing a snack from a vending machine or as complicated as sourcing a pallet of skateboards from Alibaba, branding them, and offering them for sale, depending on the student's level of commitment.)

    I would be very interested to hear about what you end up doing.


    Best,

    Thomas E. Nelson, PhD
    Director, Melton Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation
    University of South Alabama, Mitchell College of Business
    5811 USA Drive South, Room 116
    Mobile AL 36688

    (251)341-3861





  • 7.  RE: Course design: Digital Entrepreneurship

    Posted 03-17-2021 15:43
    Thank you very much Thomas for sharing your style of teaching this class. I really liked how you decide on the topics and allow students to share their topics/interest  too. I am sure this facilitates better motivation and hence learning. I may borrow some of your bold teaching style. I have to think deep though on this style of teaching. I am hoping that we will start the face-to-face classes again and then I will have the freedom to use the physical space in the classroom to my advantage and engage students better.  I will be in touch once I put together some form of a tentative syllabus for the course.
    Smita

    ------------------------------
    Smita Srivastava
    Assistant Professor
    Wichita State University
    Wichita KS
    (540) 922-3262
    ------------------------------



  • 8.  RE: Course design: Digital Entrepreneurship

    Posted 03-18-2021 09:21
    Dear Smita,
    You might find this book very helpful: Digital Entrepreneurship - Impact on Business and Society | Mariusz Soltanifar | Springer. The book and all of its chapters are freely available. It is an open access edited volume published by Springer in late 2020. I co-edited the volume with Mariusz Soltanifar and Lutz Gocke. It focuses on impact on business and society, and each chapter contains cases, examples and tools.

    Best wishes,
    Mat

    Dr Mathew (Mat) Hughes, Ph.D.

    Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation

    School of Business and Economics

    Loughborough University

    Loughborough LE11 3TU

    United Kingdom

    Tel.: +44 (0) 1509 223263

    E-Mail: m.hughes2@lboro.ac.uk

    Skype: mathughes1979; Twitter: @M_Mat_H

    Associate Editor, Journal of Family Business Strategy

    Editor, Entrepreneurship Research Journal

    Staff Profile: www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/sbe/staff/hughes-mat

    Research Center: www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/sbe/ccei/

    Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=3BB3sfMAAAAJ&hl=en



    ------------------------------
    Mathew Hughes
    Professor
    Loughborough University
    Loughborough
    +44 1509 223263
    ------------------------------



  • 9.  RE: Course design: Digital Entrepreneurship

    Posted 03-22-2021 07:03
    Dear Mathew,
    Thank you very much for sharing the information on the book. It is indeed a great source with cases and other examples.  Very helpful.
    regards,
    Smita


    ------------------------------
    Smita Srivastava
    Assistant Professor
    Wichita State University
    Wichita KS
    (540) 922-3262
    ------------------------------