E-Learning Modules

An entrepreneurial mindset applies to all aspects of life, beginning with curiosity about our changing world, integrating information from various resources to gain insight, and identifying unexpected opportunities to create value. An engineer equipped with an entrepreneurial mindset is able to create extraordinary value within any type of organization. To foster an entrepreneurial mindset in all engineering students in the Tagliatela College of Engineering, a total of 18 interactive online learning modules were developed over six years and integrated into courses spanning all four years across all engineering and computer science programs. These modules are shared educational resources, and are available to the public at .


The modules

The e-learning modules, listed below, are interactive, structured in a way that will allow integration into regular courses or utilization as supplementary resources, and each are accompanied with a teaching guide. The modules are generic enough to allow their deployment in various courses and majors. The length of each module is 3-9 hours of online student work. Online student work includes the amount of time a student is expected to spend reviewing material in a module as well as the average time needed to complete module assignments, activities or exercises.

Click to see the learning outcomes for each module.

  • Learning Outcomes

    • Explain the ways in which new and existing firms are impacted by changing business conditions
    • Describe the various factors that make up market/business conditions
    • Perform environmental scanning on the business environment
    • Describe ways in which firms deal with changes in its business environment
    • Describe the attitudes, behaviors and entrepreneurial characteristics of people (and organizations) that survive given challenges and setbacks

  • Learning Outcomes

    • Define system, systems architecture, and system engineering
    • Decompose system hierarchy to at least four levels
    • Define any system from various perspectives, including technical feasibility, value risk, and societal impact
    • Describe four methods of developing a system architecture
    • Apply the heuristic architecting method to develop a system architecture

  • Learning Outcomes

    • Compare and contrast corporations and communities
    • Develop a list of values shared with a targeted corporation or community
    • Describe why having relationships with organizations and communities is important
    • Create a script for contact with a representative of a targeted organization

  • Learning Outcomes

    • Identify success factors at each life-cycle stage of the team development process that influence productivity
    • Differentiate between consensus and compromise
    • Examine individual preferences’ dichotomies found in a personality comparison instrument
    • Identify factors that influence actions and decision-making
    • Recognize four different viewpoints used to reach consensus
    • Relate the importance of team and individual performance to reaching overall objectives
    • Design a performance plan
    • Identify ways to address conflicts in teams most productively

  • Learning Outcomes

    • Identify the market scenarios for a product
    • Analyze the effects of different business models
    • Describe the nature of the firm that will be best for the product and its environment
    • Describe the behavior of costs in the short run and long run production
    • Identify economies of scale and disc-economies of scale through long run cost curves
    • Apply various methods to suggest a selling price based in the costs of production
    • Describe different market structures
    • State the characteristics of the long tail and internet markets

  • Learning Outcomes

    • Classify valuable physical and intellectual assets 
    • Explain why intellectual property (IP) assets are important to a
      company’s valuation and its stakeholders
    • Employ methods to protect valuable trade secret and confidential
      information IP assets
    • Use trademarks, industrial designs, and copyrights to protect brand
      value
    • Describe how to file patents

  • Learning Outcomes

    • Identify potential competitors to a technology/company
    • Identify commercialization risks in a regulated product environment
    • Describe the risks associated with transferring technology from prototype phase to manufacturing
    • Identify commonly used reimbursement pathways
    • Describe product development strategies that can increase the likelihood of customer adoption

  • Learning Outcomes

    • Identify an innovative and differentiated business concept 
    • Develop a strategy for returning value to economic stakeholders
    • Construct a business’s value chain, showing the company’s operational flow
    • Assess a business market opportunity, including competitive positioning
    • Develop market entry, growth and exploitation strategy
    • Develop key business plan assumptions and simulate business performance
    • Utilize resources to prepare valuable business plans

  • Learning Outcomes

    • Determine product stakeholders through use of a stakeholder selection matrix
    • Identify stakeholder requirements
    • Explain how misunderstanding customer needs can adversely affect the design process
    • Describe how to incorporate empathy into design

  • Learning Outcomes

    • Explain the requirements for financing a business
    • Formulate financing requirements
    • Differentiate between alternative business financing methods
    • Outline a plan for securing business financing
    • Select financing plans that are compliant with legal regulations
    • Appraise alternate methods for projecting the valuation of a business

  • Learning Outcomes

    • Differentiate between an idea and an opportunity
    • Describe how to identify new business opportunities by observing social and environmental trends
    • Recognize how to find business opportunities through identifying needs and offering viable potential solutions
    • Explain how identifying gaps in the marketplace can lead to finding viable business opportunities
    • Describe a variety of techniques that can generate ideas of value

  • Learning Outcomes

    • Summarize the types of organizational constraints
    • Identify how organizational constraints can hinder innovation
    • Define four types of innovation
    • Discuss how each type of innovation can be used to overcome organizational constraints
    • Apply innovation tools – reverse brainstorming and assumption reversal – to create solutions within organizational constraints
    • Create an innovation portfolio comprised of solutions to a problem within organizational constraints

  • Learning Outcomes

    • Explain the basic steps used in human-centered design thinking
    • Examine the innovation mindset used in human-centered design thinking
    • Create solutions to challenges using a human-centered design thinking process focused on end-user needs
    • Apply design-thinking skills to a client challenge

  • Learning Outcomes

    • List common mistakes in the product development cycle for real world projects
    • Develop a list of practical options to correct or avoid potential mistakes that may occur in specific projects
    • Explain the potential risks of failure and proposed solutions in terms familiar to various stakeholders
    • Provide recommendations for deciding when to stop a project or when to continue it
    • Extract practical lessons learned by reviewing case histories of failures

  • Learning Outcomes

    • Conduct a self-assessment of ethical behavior
    • Define ethics in the context of professional settings
    • Explain why ethical behavior and the trust it engenders are essential for all engineers especially entrepreneurial engineers
    • Analyze ethical dilemma case studies and explain who resolved them and how they did so
    • Apply three methods for resolving ethical dilemmas

  • Learning Outcomes

    • Describe each element of the total product concept
    • Apply the Product3 concept to past product successes and failures
    • Define the concept of value
    • Explain the value proposition canvas
    • Relate the Product3 concept to the value proposition canvas
    • Evaluate value creation using the value proposition canvas

  • Learning Outcomes

    • Identify the value proposition of a product or service from the point of view of a variety of stakeholders
    • Articulate the criteria that yield an effective pitch
    • Outline a process for developing elevator pitches
    • Implement strategies for recovering from an unsuccessful pitch experience

  • Learning Outcomes

    • Describe the meaning of creativity, a rare but achievable form of thinking
    • Explain the observation that creativity is influenced much more by nurture than nature
    • Describe the universality and power of the divergent-convergent thinking process
    • Apply the Medici Effect when forming teams
    • Apply the Ask-Ask-Ask method
    • Apply the Fishbone Diagramming method
    • Apply the Mind Mapping method
List of Universities and Colleges that have Deployed Modules

In addition to internal deployment, the e-learning modules were deployed outside of our institution. 77 faculty from the 57 institutions listed below used 12 of the 18 modules in their courses.

  1. Arizona State University
  2. Baylor University
  3. Boise State University
  4. California State Polytechnic University - Pomona
  5. California State University, Chico
  6. Drexel University
  7. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
  8. Fairfield University
  9. Florida International University
  10. George Fox University
  11. Georgia Institute of Technology
  12. Grand Valley State University
  13. Hofstra University
  14. James Madison University
  15. Kettering University
  16. Lafayette College
  17. Lawrence Technological University
  18. Lehigh University
  19. Manhattan College
  20. Marquette University
  21. Michigan State University
  22. Michigan Technological University
  23. Milwaukee School of Engineering
  24. Ohio Northern University
  25. Pennsylvania State University
  26. Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
  27. San Francisco State University
  28. Santa Clara University
  29. The Citadel
  30. Trine University
  31. Tulane University
  32. University of Alabama at Birmingham
  33. University of Arkansas Little Rock
  34. University of California - Davis
  35. University of Colorado Boulder
  36. University of Cincinnati
  37. University of Connecticut
  38. University of Dayton
  39. University of Denver
  40. University of the District of Columbia
  41. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
  42. University of the Pacific
  43. University of San Diego
  44. University of Southern California
  45. University of South Florida
  46. University of Tennessee
  47. University of Texas - Dallas
  48. Valparaiso University
  49. Villanova University
  50. University of Virginia
  51. University of Wyoming
  52. Walla Walla University
  53. Weber State University
  54. Western Carolina University
  55. Western New England University
  56. West Virginia University Institute of Technology
  57. Wichita State University

Related Publications

The development and implementation of the e-learning modules have taken place over the past seven years. The papers and conference presentations listed below document that effort.

  • Carnasciali, M., Erdil, N. O., Harichandran, R.S., Nocito-Gobel, J., and Li, C. (2020) “Student and Faculty Perceptions of Integrated E-learning Modules Aimed at Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset”. Proceeding, American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference, Virtual.

  • Harichandran, R.S., Erdil, N. O., Carnasciali, M., Li, C., Nocito-Gobel, J., and Rana, A. (2019) “EML Indices to Assess Student Learning through Integrated e-Learning Modules”. Proceeding, American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference, Tampa, FL, USA.

  • Harichandran, R.S., Erdil, N.O., Nocito-Gobel, J., Carnasciali MI., and Li, C. (2018) “Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset in Engineering Students using Integrated E-learning Modules”. Advances in Engineering Education.

  • Carnasciali, M., Harichandran, R.S., Erdil, N. O., Nocito-Gobel, J., and Li, C. (2018) “Integrated e-Learning Modules for Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset: Direct Assessment of Student Learning”. Proceeding, American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference, Salt Lake City, UH, USA.

  • Erdil, N. O., Harichandran, R.S., Carnasciali, M., Nocito-Gobel, J., and Li, C. (2017) “Impact of Integrated e-Learning Modules in Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset based on Deployment at 25 Institutions”. Proceedings, ASEE Annual Conference, Columbus, OH, USA.

  • Erdil, N.O., Harichandran, R.S., Carnasciali, M., Li, C., and Nocito-Gobel, J. (2016) "Integrating e-Learning Modules into Engineering Courses to Develop an Entrepreneurial Mindset in Students”. Proceedings, ASEE Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA USA.

  • Harichandran, R.S., Carnasciali, M., Erdil, N.O., Li, C. Nocito-Gobel, J., and Daniels S. (2015). “Developing Entrepreneurial Thinking in Engineering Students by Utilizing Integrated Online Modules”. Proceedings, ASEE Annual Conference, Seattle, WA, USA.