Penn State Report Named Best Paper At Entrepreneurship Consortium
A report prepared by a trio of Penn State researchers describing innovative new methods for teaching entrepreneurship recently won the Best Paper Award at the National Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers in Portland.
Penn State Report Named Best Paper At Entrepreneurship Consortium
UNIVERSITY PARK, PA (October 19, 2004)—A report prepared by a trio of Penn State researchers describing innovative new methods for teaching entrepreneurship recently won the Best Paper Award at the National Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers in Portland. Sponsored by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, NASDAQ, and Beacon Venture Capital, the event concluded Oct. 2.
“A scalable Problem-Based Learning System for Innovation Education” outlines steps the University has taken and plans to take in the future to open entrepreneurial instruction to larger populations of students. The paper was written by Ralph Hanke, instructor in Penn State’s Smeal College of Business; Liz Kisenwether, assistant professor of engineering and director of the Penn State entrepreneurship program; and Tony Warren, director of Smeal’s Farrell Center for Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
“The acquisition of entrepreneurial skills is vital for assuring the future of the U.S. economy in a changing global knowledge based environment,” the authors write. “However, there is to date no system of course materials that can adequately support a broadly available entrepreneurship educational initiative at the K-12 and college levels.”
After receiving a grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation at the start of 2003, the Farrell Center and the Leonard Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Education in Penn State’s College of Engineering, began developing a new problem-based learning course in which students interact, respond to problems, seek the advice of proven entrepreneurs, and test progress primarily through an online architecture. The initiative transforms the faculty role from lecturer into entrepreneurial mentor.
More than 50 students took part in the class during spring 2004. The short term goal outlined in the report is to engage 100 students in each of the fall 2004 and spring 2005 semesters while also demonstrating the course to faculty at various colleges and campuses throughout the Penn State system. Longer-term plans include development of a computer-based curriculum to provide training for those faculty and teachers across the country interested in adopting the course and helping students develop skills in entrepreneurship.
REPORTERS & EDITORS: For more information, please contact Wyatt DuBois in the Smeal College of Business Media Relations Office at 814-863-3798 or wed112@psu.edu.
Penn State's Smeal College of Business offers highly ranked undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA, Ph.D., and executive education opportunities to more than 5,500 students at all levels. Featuring academic departments of accounting, finance, marketing, insurance and real estate, management, and supply chain and information systems, the college is also home to major research centers such as the Center for Supply Chain Research, the Institute for the Study of Business Markets, the Center for Digital Transformation, the Farrell Center for Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the Center for Global Business Studies, and the Center for the Management of Technological and Organizational Change.
