Fostering the entrepreneurial mindset through the development of multidis- ciplinary learning modules based on the ”Quantified Self” social movement

Traditional engineering curriculum and coursework lacks entrepreneurial experiences for students. While most entrepreneurship program models utilize curriculum that is delivered in a business school collaboration, more recently engineering colleges have started promoting the idea that Entrepreneurial-Minded Learning (EML) can be formalized within engineering education. Development of an entrepreneurial mindset is difficult while students are actively working on their senior projects, so additional experiential learning during the earlier levels of undergraduate education is needed. In this project, we set out to include EML in courses across engineering programs and at various levels of the ‘core’ curriculum. EML modules were based on the theme of “Quantified Self” (QS). This is a new, exciting, real-world entrepreneurship opportunity that uses wearable sensor technology to help people understand their personal health and wellness. The goal of this project was to develop teaching resources that used the QS theme to motivate EML in a variety of academic topics. During the first phase of this project QS modules were developed and implemented in four biomedical engineering (BME) courses at the freshman, sophomore, junior and senior levels. Direct and indirect assessment was used to gauge the effectiveness of modules at changing students’ perceptions and improving their entrepreneurial capabilities. Then, these resources were shared with faculty from four additional disciplines at three different institutions to develop and implement additional EML modules across a broad range of engineering and science topics. The EML modules were multi-week assignments that were organized following Problem Based Learning (PBL) pedagogical techniques. Each module combined several open-ended tasks that built sequentially following previously completed work and the topics that were covered in class. EML is an effective vehicle for including inductive learning pedagogies into technical engineering courses. Correspondingly, the QS theme provides real world motivation for students to engage with many technical topics. By spreading modules into a variety of different ‘core’ courses, students will be repeatedly exposed to each of the targeted entrepreneurship skills with an increasing levels of difficulty and expectations. These opportunity and impact recognition skills are an important prerequisite for students during their senior capstone projects. Motivation to include “Entrepreneurial Minded Learning” in the curriculum The goal of Bachelor of Science (BS) programs in engineering has focused on producing quality graduates with the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and liberal arts skills necessary for engineering practice (Regets, 2006). Historically, this process followed the traditional deductive teaching technique of proposing a concept, explaining the principles and demonstrating mathematical models of the concept (Froyd et al., 2012). This required the student to memorize the material or work examples which was followed by testing their performance on similar work during an exam (Prince and Felder, 2006). However, traditional engineering curriculum and coursework lacks important student learning opportunities, such as; the reason why these concepts or mathematics are important, what is their real-world relevance and how this will impact the students’ future career in engineering. An alternative to the traditional teaching method is inductive learning, which is a student-centered approach that encompasses many pedagogical methods including; Active and Collaborative Learning (ACL), Problem Based Learning (PBL) and others (Smith et al., 2005; Smith et al., 2009). These techniques begin with a real world problem or observation that is introduced to the students. The students determine that certain skills, facts, or principles are required to solve the problem and the teacher can then act as a guide to help them acquire the needed information (Figure 1). ACL and PBL techniques have been shown to be more effective at student retention of content when they are properly implemented (Prince, 2004). Figure 1. The Problem Based Learning pedagogical technique for course modules. The effectiveness of STEM education in the United States has been widely debated and criticized, but there is widespread consensus on the need for innovation and high-technology to maintain our strong economy (NAE, 2004; Davidson, 2006). While engineering is crucial for innovation and technology in order to contribute to future success, many leaders have pronounced a need for reforms that enable students to be better at adapting to new trends, embracing creativity and leadership, understanding engineering impacts on society and business, as well as providing more opportunities to experience engineering design (Fairweather, 2008). Recently, networks of engineering colleges supported by the Kern Family Foundation, VentureWell (formerly NCIIA), Coleman Foundation and National Science Foundation, among others have promoted the idea that “Entrepreneurship is a Mindset” and that engineering education must teach students the entrepreneurship process (Rae, 2005; Kriewall and Mekemson, 2010). Entrepreneurship programs directed at engineering students typically co-exist alongside the ‘core’ curriculum of the engineering program as minor, certificate, or extracurricular offerings (Shartrand et al., 2010). These models utilize coursework that is delivered in a collaboration between the engineering and business schools (Standish-Kuon and Rice, 2002). On the other hand a limited number of engineering schools, including Olin College, integrate entrepreneurship throughout courses in the engineering curriculum. Engineering design courses are frequently used to give students opportunities to practice entrepreneurial skills while working on real world engineering problems (Shartrand and Weilerstein, 2012). Entrepreneurial-Minded Learning (EML) pedagogy has been developed as techniques that emphasize students learning to create value, gather and assimilate information to discover opportunities or insights for further action (Melton, 2014). The EML pedagogy provides engineering faculty with a useful and effective tool for embedding entrepreneurship modules within individual technical courses. Rather than displacing technical content, EML promotes inductive learning and allows students to explore the “why”, “real-world relevance”, and “impact” of the problems that they are asked to solve. Engineering graduates entering industry require business and entrepreneurial skills, so Lawrence Technological University and others, have implemented comprehensive transformations of the engineering curriculum to instill an entrepreneurial mindset in students (Carpenter et al., 2011). These developments, funded by the Kern Entrepreneurship Education Network (KEEN), included an entrepreneurial certificate program and a seminar series that were strongly tied with the business programs. Entrepreneurial education was also integrated across the curriculum, throughout engineering, science, arts and humanities courses (Gerhart and Carpenter, 2013). Starting with freshman (Gerhart et al., 2014), the College of Engineering at Lawrence Tech is currently in the process of creating a cohesive, four-year multidisciplinary engineering design program focused on creating entrepreneurially minded engineers capable of; inquisitive initiative, societal and selfawareness, impact on society, excellent communication, and exemplary project implementation (DeAgustino, 2014). In conjunction with broader programs at the university and college levels, the goal of this project was to modify additional core curricular courses with EML in order to increase students’ experience with opportunity and impact recognition skills. The embedded modules were distributed broadly across various disciplines; Biomedical, Mechanical, Electrical and Robotics Engineering and Life Sciences and at all levels of the curriculum. By adopting EML as a running theme, the students were allowed an opportunity to develop a mindset that fosters creativity and collaboration (Nasir and Meyer, 2015a). “Quantified Self” entrepreneurship opportunity The theme for developing these EML modules was “Quantified Self” (QS), an exciting real-world trend in large consumer electronics companies and new digital health startups. In the past few years, many QS devices have been introduced with new sensors and data logging systems to allow individuals to understand their personal health and wellness through quantification and tracking a variety of biomedical measures (Table 1). QS also includes aspects of a broad social movement including social networks and fitness communities, as well as a grassroots community (quantifiedself.com) that is interested in flipping the traditional health and wellness from a top-down model to one that inspires individuals, families and communities to gain “self-knowledge through numbers” (Wolf, 2010). These enthusiastic participants can derive their motivation from two or more philosophies; type “A” do not fully trust health and wellness books, doctors, etc... while type “B” think that the self-awareness that they gain from QS is as beneficial as the data itself. The QS theme was initially identified because it was specifically related to the authors’ areas of expertise in Biomechanics and Biosensors. Some of the readily accessible examples of biomechanics in society include; videogame control of the kinematics based Microsoft Kinect and the kinetics based Nintendo Wii Balance Board, and human computer-interaction with the kinematics based Leap Motion. Some readily accessible QS topics related to biosensors include; the inertial motion measurement based Wii Remote and various smartphone apps, electromyography based Myo Gesture, and pressure based Nike Hyperdunk in-shoe sensors. The new QS devices also raise many interesting professional and ethical questions, such as; “What constitutes a medical device?” and “What safeguards are in place for privacy and security of personal and/or health related data?” In addition, the QS theme can be used to motivate a variety of academic topics (Figure 2). The explosive growth of QS devices has been made possible by the convergence of technologies such as sensors, computer miniaturization, big data and networks that allow widespread sharing of personal information (Figure 3). There is also tremendous growth in venture capital funding for “Digital Health” companies (http://rockhealth.com/resources/digital-health-startup-list/). The diversity of technological, social, and medical concepts easily allows this entrepreneurship opportunity to motivate a wide range of courses in many different disciplines and with any level of experience, technical difficulty and academic expectation that the faculty wishes to impart. These in-class modules are also easily expandable into higher levels of scholarship as student capstone design or into integrated research projects. On the other hand, by relaxing the technical and mathematical requirements, these activities can also work well for broader outreach programs aimed at younger students or the community at large (Nasir et al., 2014a). Table 1. Partial list of example QS resources for students to get started.