Offering an Entrepreneurship Course to All Engineering Students: Self-efficacy Gains and Learning Benefits

Abstract

In order to develop an entrepreneurial mindset in future engineers, entrepreneurial training has become a key aspect of engineering education. Following this trend, a large and prestigious engineering school in Chile designed and implemented a third-year compulsory course on technology-focused entrepreneurship. To understand how course teaching and assessment methods have benefited students in terms of self-efficacy and learning gains, a cross-sectional survey study has been conducted since 2015. Over the last four academic periods, we assessed Pre-Post self-efficacy gains and learning benefits in 1,335 students. These survey results show that students perceived positive benefits from all course teaching and assessment methods. Thus, we discuss how a core engineering course can develop an entrepreneurial mindset in a diverse population of students.