ADAPTING ENTREPRENEURSHIP TECHNIQUES FOR CREATIVE TECHNICAL COURSE DESIGN

Innovation and creative capacity are integral skills for the development and training of engineering graduates. Traditionally, creativity is predominant in design-based courses, rather than technical engineering or science courses, despite the need for students to apply creative problem-solving to technical challenges. This paper describes the development of a course design architecture for designing technical postsecondary courses with embedded learning outcomes in creative thinking. The proposed framework adapts techniques traditionally used in entrepreneurship and business development and considers how they may be used to address the CDIO standards in both course and curricula design. This work includes the CDIO-informed adaptation of an innovation toolkit model for post-secondary course design, considering how elements such as customers, team members, value proposition, and product offering have similar parallels to post-secondary education. The use of a structured course design architecture for teaching creativity within technical courses allows instructors to consider the educational needs of students and industry. The proposed framework adapts a mapping tool used for entrepreneurial product development, requiring course designers to consider the outcomes for their intended users, the strengths of their team, the goals of their course, and the potential pains or gains of their course offering. These planning aspects complement the CDIO standards, in particular the identification of CDIO context, planning of learning outcomes, integrating across curricula concepts, and designing and implementing learning experiences. The results of two implementation case studies are described in the context of electrical and software engineering education. The first case study is a fourth-year technical elective in designing algorithms. The second case study is a first-year computing course. Both courses showed higher levels of engagement and better learning outcomes after the implementation of the proposed changes. Results demonstrate how courses can be improved through this entrepreneurship planning model to include more creativity, application, and innovation, while adding value to technical courses without impacting the required domain knowledge learning.