A project-based approach to entrepreneurial leadership education

This paper discusses the evolution of the Entrepreneurial Leadership course (ENGR 310), which is one of the four core courses at The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State). The current teaching practices in the course, based on project-based learning practices, have been developed based on a comprehensive review of similar courses and entrepreneurship education literature. This paper discusses the new course curriculum, and relevant innovative changes. The results of a comprehensive assessment conducted to measure student satisfaction and perceptions of the course are included along with a summary of the experience gained while teaching the improved version of the course. In addition to the assessment results, two other results attest to the success of the course: (1) All teams completing the build and sell project made profits. In fact, one team made about $700 in profit, a great accomplishment considering the time they were allotted to work on the project. (2) Most students taking the class, who were not graduating, decided to enroll in the Entrepreneurship Minor. This paper aims to share implementation of these changes as an avenue for entrepreneurship educators to learn from others’ experiences, and to contribute to the entrepreneurship education literature.