Effect of an Entrepreneurship Program on GPA and Retention*, The

Journal of Engineering Education, Oct 2004 by Ohland, Matthew W, Frillman, Sharron A, Zhang, Guili, Brawner, Catherine E, Miller, Thomas K III

ABSTRACT

There is a small but growing body of evidence that entrepreneurship programs add value to students, the degree programs in which they are housed, and the institutions that host them. The Engineering Entrepreneurs Program at North Carolina State University, a program in which undergraduate students participate in design teams formed around technology start-up company themes, was started with funding from the NSF-sponsorcd SUCCEED (Southeastern Universities and Colleges Coalition for Engineering Education) Coalition primarily to improve the confidence and retention of engineering students.

Multiple assessment approaches including surveys, focus groups, interviews, longitudinal assessment of retention and academic performance, and anecdotal evidence triangulate on the success of this program at meeting its primary objectives and others. Particularly, the longitudinal study revealed that program participants had higher engineering retention rates (70 percent vs. Sl percent) and GPAs (3.08 vs. 2.83) than a matched set of non-participants. The program and its rigorous assessment serve as models for the engineering entrepreneurship community.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, longitudinal study, assessment

I. INTRODUCTION

The need for curricula that educate engineering students about market forces and other business concepts has been discussed widely [1-3]. In today's economy, entrepreneurial activity is primarily responsible for job creation [4] and economic growth [5]. A broad set of constituencies including the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (an initiative of the Lemelson Foundation) and the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology have recognized that engineering graduates need a broad range of skills and knowledge beyond a strong science and engineering background [6-11]. Engineering students are rarely exposed to cntrepreneurship in undergraduate or graduate programs [1, 2, 12], which focus on design-and-build projects emphasizing technical excellence instead [e.g., 13-15].

This paper reviews entreprcneurship programs in engineering and their assessment, describes the Engineering Entrepreneurship Program (EEP) at NC State, traces how formative assessment shaped both the design of the program and its further assessment, and reports results from a longitudinal study that demonstrates the benefits of this program to higher rates of engineering persistence and higher cumulative grade point averages of freshman and sophomore students who took the course between its inception in 1993 and 1999.

II. ENGINEERING ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROGRAMS AND THEIRASSESSMENT

Entrepreneurship programs in engineering vary in intensity and focus. They can be three credits [2], a two-semester course [6], even an entire degree program [16]. Program features include internships and corporate mentoring [5, 6], mentoring by MBA students [17], expert lectures [6, 17], studio teaching and computer-based learning modules [18], and project-based learning [3]. Some programs serve students from only one engineering discipline [5], while others are open to students from all engineering (and sometimes other technical) disciplines [16].

There is little formalized assessment of entrepreneurship in academia, and even less of engineering entrepreneurship programs [12, 19, 20]. Many who have implemented entrepreneurship programs offer no evidence substantiating their programs' success [1, 3, 5-8, 16, 18, 21]. Some describe classroom assessment techniques related to entrepreneurship [6, 17].

Some report assessment of entrepreneurship courses, but acknowledge that the assessment is anecdotal in nature [17, 22]. A comparison reference is important to a rigorous assessment in order to discuss what students gain from the entrepreneurship experience-some have achieved this by comparing pre- and post-semester instruments, including Kisenwether and Matson's use of the General Enterprising Tendency (GET) Test, a computer-based instrument that measures students' views of various entrepreneurial attributes [2, 23, 24]. Separate end-of-semester questionnaires for faculty and students show the program from different perspectives, and interviewing students provides a greater depth of information [2]. Surveying program participants after graduation provides yet another perspective [24]. Vesper and Gartner have sought to develop a universally acceptable measure of entrepreneurship programs [25].

The most significant contribution of the NC State EEP to engineering entrepreneurship education is the comprehensive multi-source assessment of the program that has been conducted since its inception. The comprehensive assessment results that follow include results from studies of student records, surveys, and interviews in addition to a variety of compelling anecdotal evidence including commercial success, alumni endowment, and media recognition.

III. THE NC STATE ENGINEERING ENTREPRENEURS PROGRAM

Fueled by the excitement of watching two student entrepreneurs chase and grab hold of their dream of starting a technology company and tempered by his own experience with a small start-up venture, Tom Miller started the Engineering Entrepreneurs Program [26] at North Carolina State University in 1993. Funding from the National Science Foundation through SUCCEED, the Southern University and College Coalition for Engineering Education [27], supported the creation of this program, designed to teach students how to navigate the entrepreneurial process. At the time, SUCCEED was engaged in its own form of venture capitalism, funding ideas targeted at improving underclass retention through early design experiences. Miller proposed a course that included lower division students in the senior design experience and overlaid business and entrepreneurship education. The course was intended to help the lower division students appreciate the real work of engineering and entrepreneurship at the point in their academic careers when they were most likely to leave engineering. The lessons learned about the administration of this course are available elsewhere [28].