Most have heard of the popular business pitch television show, Shark Tank. Here at St. Norbert College, we have our annual Shark Attack! pitch contest where any student can pitch a business idea to a panel of judges in early December. Many of the students who participate in this contest are students in BUAD 215 Entrepreneurship.
Students work on their ideas throughout the semester using a series of scaffolded assignments that lead to a well-formulated business concept. During the fall semester of 2024, I taught two sections of Entrepreneurship, and I incorporated a Tech Bar assignment to enhance students’ learning experience. Students were introduced to the tech resources available during the first week of class and were asked to make appointments with Tech Bar associates by early October. Here is a description of that assignment:
Tech Bar Digital Competency Application
During the course of the semester, you will develop and apply at least one set of digital skills and competencies. You will work with the technical and human resources available at the Tech Bar here at SNC. There are four options for you to choose from as you decide which set of digital skills best suits your desired learning outcomes and which would best contribute to your business idea.
- Design Thinking. “Design thinking” is a way of thinking about the world, making quick prototypes, and then refining them, with a lot of thought about the eventual user’s experience. Learning outcomes:
• Become familiar with a range of creative, iterative, goal-oriented design processes for creating, testing, and refining new ideas or solutions to problems.
• Develop a personal “toolkit” of strategies for successfully creating, testing, and refining new ideas or solutions to problems.
OPTION 1: Learn to use the Tech Bar resources (software and 3D printer) to design and create a prototype of a product idea you have and are planning to pitch at the end of the semester.
- Digital Writing and Publishing. Have you ever made a website? published anything online? (social media counts!). Learning outcomes:
• Become familiar with and comfortable using textual mark-up languages, such as HTML and Wiki Markup.
• Become familiar with and comfortable using a range of digital publishing or social media tools, such as blogs, wikis, WordPress, Twitter, etc.
• Learning how to identify the digital publishing or social media tool that is most appropriate to given audiences, topics, and content.
• Learning how to give credit to other’s creative work and original ideas, through attribution conventions appropriate for digital media.
OPTION 2: Learn to use the Tech Bar resources to build a website for your business idea.
- Audiovisual Analysis and Production. To make a movie (or to analyze one for class), create a podcast, or tell stories online, you need to develop this competency. Learning outcomes:
• Learn to effectively communicate ideas using audiovisual media (podcasts, video, etc.) and techniques (e.g., digital storytelling).
• Become familiar with and comfortable using a range of tools for publishing and sharing digital audiovisual content and learning to identify those most appropriate to given audiences, topics, and content.
• Learn to format and optimize audiovisual media for sharing via different print and digital platforms.
OPTION 3: Learn to use the Tech Bar resources to create a Kickstarter campaign (including a video) for your business idea.
- Critical Data Visualization. If you have ever made a pie chart or mapped a progression over time? You’ve done some data visualization. Learning outcomes:
• Learn to critically interpret and evaluate arguments or meaning constructed through various different visual representations of data (e.g., charts, graphs, maps, timelines, infographics).
• Learn to effectively present data in one or more visual formats and choose the format most appropriate to given audiences, topics, or content.
OPTION 4: Use these data visualization tools to build presentations for (a.) one class assignment and (b.) your pitch at the end of the semester.
TECH BAR DIGITAL APPLICATIONS – STUDENT EXAMPLES
1. 3D Printing
Snap-on Fishing Lure
2. Website creation
PaceHer
3. Audiovisual Analysis and Production
Gridiron Fresh – e Glass
Quick Glove – Podcast
4. Critical Data Visualization
Smart Pot – Data Visualization
The desired learning expectations were achieved, and in many cases, were exceeded. The Tech Bar Digital Competency Application element of Entrepreneurship will continue to be part of this course going forward.
