How to foster entrepreneurial mind-set in a compulsory course with many students?

A clear trend in today’s society and work life is a growing need for skills in interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation. Industry requires engineers with good communication and teamwork skills and a broader understanding of how to solve real-world problems and create value in the marketplace by competing on innovation [1].

Therefore, many universities are developing educational programs to foster competences within innovation and entrepreneurship and these educational programs have grown in pace and scale worldwide also in engineering education, with the aim to develop engineers who have entrepreneurial ways of thinking and working, which they can apply within existing organizations of different sizes and types [1].

Entrepreneurship education is about developing attributes and competences in students, developing personal attributes and skills that form the basis of an entrepreneurial mind-set and behaviour including creativity, initiative, risk-taking, autonomy, self-confidence, amongst students of self-employment and new venturing as possible career choices.

In terms of learning style, the development of an entrepreneurial mindset, calls for use of pedagogical tools like problem solving, problem-based learning and active engagement of the students [1], [2] Another trend to take in to consideration is the growing class size at many universities and the need to rethink the teaching style and learning design by supporting authentic and self-directed learning on courses with many students.

With larger classes and especially with compulsory courses, the student group often becomes more diverse regarding motivation, commitment, professional prerequisites and experience with project work and working with open challenges. In this study, we explore how a framework for a course in innovation and entrepreneurship can be designed when aiming at a course set up for large classes that can both inspire and motivate the students and foster an entrepreneurial mind-set.