{"id":6534,"date":"2020-04-22T13:54:12","date_gmt":"2020-04-22T10:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aole2017test.aalto-legroup.seravo.fi\/?p=6534"},"modified":"2020-04-29T16:55:47","modified_gmt":"2020-04-29T13:55:47","slug":"reaching-a-wider-audience-with-entrepreneurial-skills-via-online-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onlinelearning.aalto.fi\/aol\/blog\/6534-reaching-a-wider-audience-with-entrepreneurial-skills-via-online-learning","title":{"rendered":"Reaching a wider audience with entrepreneurial skills via online learning"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guest post by Tommy Byman
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With the current situation on Coronavirus, most education has moved online. Luckily, Aalto Ventures Program didn\u2019t have to start everything from scratch, there\u2019s already Starting Up\u2014an online course for the basics of startup entrepreneurship\u2014and just recently another online course became available. Read more on the development and ideas behind Entrepreneurship Intro\u2014a video-based course for future entrepreneurs\u2014below.<\/em><\/p>\n

The current way of teaching entrepreneurship in Aalto University might not cater for all student groups. Many students consider self-employment and having their own business as career options, but don\u2019t feel that the startup world is for them. Not everyone is interested in creating the next Uber or Facebook\u2014some people would just like to open a small boutique to sell their products or services such as furniture, art or consulting. However, most entrepreneurship education caters for the first group of people, the startup enthusiasts, focusing on solving complex problems and impressing potential investors. This is necessary, of course, but it\u2019s not for everyone.<\/p>\n

From idea to concept<\/h3>\n

H\u00e5kan Mitts<\/strong> and Lidia Borisova<\/strong>, both teachers at Aalto Ventures Program, noticed this discrepancy and decided to do something about it. They wanted to create an introductory course aimed at the other group of students, something that would be easily accessible for everyone, while introducing some of the basic steps of starting one\u2019s own business.<\/p>\n

There were already one-credit introductory courses to entrepreneurship such as Refresher on Business Research<\/a> and Yritt\u00e4jyys Aallossa<\/a>. Lecturing, however, did not feel like the right approach for the new course. H\u00e5kan and Lidia wanted to do something more engaging and less traditional than having everyone sit through a lecture or two and write a reflection paper. They decided to go completely online.<\/p>\n

Once they started to draft the first ideas for the upcoming online course, H\u00e5kan and Lidia realized something else they could now do differently to make entrepreneurial skills more easily accessible. Currently, quite a bit of entrepreneurship education is provided in pieces of information, but there\u2019s little to no story or timeline involved, and it can be hard to understand how the pieces fit together. They decided to create a story to which all the pieces would fit logically and chronologically, and as a result Veera was born.<\/p>\n

Veera is an animated character and the protagonist of the story told in the course. She\u2019s a budding entrepreneur on her path towards setting up her own business, and the students follow her journey throughout the course, learning everything she does.<\/p>\n