TRANSDISCIPLINARY COURSE WORK IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES
Year: 2017
Editor: Berg, Arild; Bohemia, Erik; Buck, Lyndon; Gulden, Tore; Kovacevic, Ahmed; Pavel, Nenad
Author: Germany, Jason O'Neill; Lillegard, Nathan
Series: E&PDE
Institution: 1: University of Washington, United States of America; 2: University of Oregon, United States of America
Section: Collaboration and Industrial involvement in Design Education
Page(s): 230-235
ISBN: 978-1-904670-84-1
Abstract
As many academic fields aim to facilitate an educational environment that mixes foundations with elements of professional practice, it is no surprise that mixed disciplinary experiences are increasingly becoming part of educational curriculum. In particular, entrepreneurship poises a unique opportunity to act as a core catalyst in facilitating on-campus transdisciplinary activities, course work and thinking. This paper disseminates the findings and insights resulting from a transdisciplinary course between product design and management students focused on new product ventures. The goal of this course was to create a single piece of curriculum that required the same accomplishments for each student as opposed to an interdisciplinary approach where each student simply relied on their own field of expertise. A mixture of design thinking and lean startup methods were brought to bear on this course which produced a hybrid structure between the two activities of design and management. The results of this class indicate that a truly transdisciplinary course can produce challenges for knowledge sharing, course projects, student focus, and faculty alignment. Although there were challenges with this scheme, this paper will also discuss new opportunities for transdisciplinary education models in entrepreneurship curriculum.
Keywords: Entrepreneurship, Transdisciplinary, Industrial Design, Management, Curriculum