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Entrepreneurship education is being delivered to greater numbers of engineering students through a variety of courses, programs, and experiential learning activities. Some of these opportunities are designed primarily to serve engineering students in their departments and colleges, while others are cross-campus, university-wide efforts to serve students from many disciplines. To date, few researchers have examined to what extent differing program models and experiential activities impact students' perceptions of their entrepreneurial knowledge, skills, and self-efficacy. This paper examines these issues based on the results of a survey of 501 senior level engineering students enrolled in three institutions that offered three different models of entrepreneurship education. Findings indicate that higher perceptions of entrepreneurial knowledge were associated with the number of entrepreneurship courses taken and involvement in experiential learning activities. Further, students who were enrolled at an institution with a multidisciplinary program tended to rate their entrepreneurial abilities higher than those at two institutions with programs more embedded in engineering departments. This research provides faculty and administrators with valuable insight that can inform the development of entrepreneurship programs targeting engineers, and suggests areas for future research.

Entrepreneurship programs and courses in engineering education have steadily increased in the United States over the past two decades. However, the nature of these entrepreneurship courses and programs and the characteristics of the instructors who teach them are not yet well understood. The paper explores three research questions: 1) What content is typically included in engineering entrepreneurship courses and how is this content taught?; 2) What are instructors' beliefs about how entrepreneurship should be taught in the engineering context; and 3) How are instructors' beliefs actuated within a particular class related to students' self-reported perceptions of their entrepreneurial knowledge and abilities? The study shows that content associated with different course types, such as "Becoming an Entrepreneur," "New Venture Development," and "Product Ideation and Development," often overlaps substantially, suggesting a lack of clarity in how these types of courses are defined. Second, instructors who teach entrepreneurship to engineering students believe that programs and courses should focus equally on both teaching skills and developing values and attitudes; and instructors feel confident in their ability to focus on both of these in their courses. Finally, at the end of the entrepreneurship course, students' perceptions of their own abilities were found to be similar to their instructors' intentions for the courses, particularly for students with less entrepreneurial experience as measured by their coursework, involvement in entrepreneurship-related activities (e.g., clubs, competitions). As students' prior experience with entrepreneurship increased, they reported greater familiarity with concepts than expected given their instructors' intentions.

Major private and government organizations in the U.S. are promoting entrepreneurship education for undergraduate students, including engineers. Different configurations of entrepreneurship learning opportunities have emerged, not all within or in partnership with schools of business. There is some uncertainty about how entrepreneurship programs targeted to engineers are structured, with what purpose and pedagogical approaches. This study is designed to address uncertainty about entrepreneurship learning opportunities for undergraduate engineers and examine facets of formal engineering entrepreneurship programs. Our study considers the histories, missions, and pedagogies of these programs. We conducted in-depth interviews with program directors at 12 entrepreneurship programs across the U.S., and then coded the interview transcripts in a two-stage, collaborative process. Our findings show that entrepreneurship programs for engineers often are designed to provide business education in light of otherwise limited opportunities for formal, classroom-based business and entrepreneurship learning. Student demand is key to program growth; available faculty resources can pose a challenge. Programs vary in terms of goals around venture creation, types of interactions with students from other disciplines, and even how "entrepreneurship" itself is defined. Pedagogical features include experiential learning and hands-on activities, and self-directed learning environments that promote tolerance for ambiguity and failure. Implications for assessment of student outcomes, new program development, educational research, and engineering education as a whole are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of entrepreneurship programs at universities targeting engineering students has grown substantially in the last decade. However, few research studies have examined the practices and beliefs of instructors in these programs. Understanding these beliefs will help the development of pedagogical and theoretical models to drive entrepreneurship education. The purpose of this paper is to gather information on instructors' beliefs and teaching practices relating to engineering entrepreneurship education. Three research questions were addressed in the study: 1) How do faculty members define the entrepreneurial mindset? 2) Do faculty members believe that the entrepreneurial mindset is something that can be developed? 3) How do faculty members teach entrepreneurship; is there a relationship between their teaching practices and their beliefs? The study was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, twenty-six instructors of entrepreneurship participated in an in-depth structured interview focusing on their perceptions of entrepreneurship education. The results of this study led to the construction of an online survey that was administered to 37 instructors at three institutions in the second phase of the study. Results showed that faculty tended to believe that the entrepreneurial mindset is a function of both innate characteristics and skills that can be built through instruction. Faculty also felt that entrepreneurship programs should focus on venture and be taught through formal programs. The participants advocated for the use of experiential learning for teaching entrepreneurship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Capstone courses offer opportunities for students to apply their knowledge and skills directly by working on teams and solving real problems within external constraints and limited time frames. As such, capstone courses offer unique opportunities to acquire and apply entrepreneurial skills in the context of the design process. This article examines what is distinctive about an entrepreneurial approach to capstone design and describes strategies used by faculty to promote entrepreneurial learning within the context of the senior capstone design experience. Implications of these different approaches for engineering students' acquisition of entrepreneurial skills and experiences are addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]