The programming committee for the 77th Annual SAM International Business Conference is pleased to announce the acceptance of the presentation Engaging Entrepreneurial Students in Learning Marketable Skills by James Lawler of Pace University.
Presentation Abstract: Active engagement on course projects can benefit students. Collaborative cross-disciplinary engagement on entrepreneurial projects can be beneficial especially for students aspiring to be in industry. The authors of the paper are considering the benefits of a design factory methodology from Scandinavia for engagement of entrepreneurial inter-disciplinary students on projects. The methodology is an agile model for students functioning inter-dependently on projects of social entrepreneurship as members of self-directed teams. In the paper the authors are evaluating the impacts of the methodology on the learning of marketable skills by the students.
The paper is an evaluation of a design factory program applied at Pace University. Centered in a school of computer science and information systems, the program is not only for students in computer science and information systems, but is concurrently for business, liberal arts and nursing students of the university. The program is of inter-disciplinary projects of the inter-disciplinary students on self-directed teams. The program for the students is of learning the perspectives of other students in order to provide inter-disciplinary project solutions. The projects of the student teams are focused on real and simulated solutions for non-profit and profit organizations in the metropolitan region of the university, from which the students are perceiving to learn marketable skills.
In this paper the authors are evaluating the impacts of the design factory program in fall 2021 – spring 2022 on the learning by the mix of students. The learning of the skills is from a formulation of the projects of social entrepreneurship on the self-directed teams and from the non-profit and profit organization requirements for the semesters.
– The authors are evaluating a diversity of entrepreneurial skills: collaboration, communication, community, creative thinking, critical thinking, diversity, emotional intelligence, empathy, entrepreneurship, flexibility, management, motivation and problem-solving, ideal for multi-disciplinary students desiring to be eventually in industry.
Having entrepreneurial – inter-personal – skills as the focus of the paper can clearly be beneficial in the goal of the marketability of the students, not only of the computer science and information systems students, but of the business, liberal arts and nursing students of the university. In essence, this paper is attempting to interpret the perceptions of the students as to their learning of the skills – the reality of the skills – on the projects of social entrepreneurship.
Overall, this paper will contribute findings that will be helpful in deciding an active collaborative learning methodology for students. From the design factory methodology this paper will contribute findings helpful in expanding experiential learning of marketable skills. This paper will contribute further impacts from a model for productive projects of pandemic and post-pandemic social entrepreneurship. Importantly this paper will be helpful to professors pursuing student team-playing. In short, the authors of this research-in-progress paper will posit the findings of a methodology for providing marketable skills for multi-disciplinary students for their future in the workforce.
Join us online to see this great paper and many more March 31 – April 2, 2022. For registration information visit www.samnational.org/conference.