SM9543 - Recognising Entrepreneurial Opportunities

The module builds on Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice and has a focus on student-centred enquiry. Here we want you to integrate your personal theories with academic theories through a process of active experimentation and reflection. To facilitate this, sessions are broken up between discussions of theory, problem solving and work that is directly aligned with your assignment (including video production skills to support your assessment format).

You will be supported by a Teaching and Learning Plan (TLP) which outlines the contact time in facilitated sessions (workshops) and provides details of tutor-directed and independent study/learning.

This module will be designed and managed by the designated module tutor who will be responsible for guiding you in your engagement and learning on this module. Academic guidance will be provided in facilitated sessions and via email where appropriate. All relevant instructions and notes will be accessible online and through mobile devices via the e-Learning Portal (eLP).
The module is supported by a teaching and learning plan (TLP) which outlines the formal sessions, together with the tutor-directed study and independent study and team activities. An interactive approach to facilitated learning sessions will draw upon the directed learning undertaken and your own experiences. Throughout, the emphasis will be on high levels of participation, both individually and within teams. You can therefore expect the reflective-practitioner approach to learning to be embedded in all facilitated sessions through undertaking activities which promote the application of theory to practice.
Directed learning will include a range of activities including pre-reading, preparation for facilitated sessions, use of the e-learning platform and other on-line resources, group work and individual challenges, together with reflection on these activities.

Independent learning will centre upon you identifying and pursuing areas of interest in relation to the subject area or by providing deeper/broader knowledge and understanding of the subject through a range of learning activities that might include extended reading, reflection, research etc.
Critical reflection on knowledge, experience and practice underpins the learning and teaching philosophy along with the explicit development of competence.

All modules at Northumbria include a range of reading materials that students are expected to engage with. The reading list for this module can be found at: http://readinglists.northumbria.ac.uk
(Reading List service online guide for academic staff this containing contact details for the Reading List team – http://library.northumbria.ac.uk/readinglists)

Knowledge & Understanding:

• Critique key theories relating to the recognition and assessment of opportunity (MLO1)

Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:

• Identify, analyse and assess relevant opportunities (MLO2)
• Understand and implement techniques for the production of video pitches for use in crowdfunding campaigns (MLO3)

Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity) (PVA):

• Make ethical choices based on reflections on economic, social and environmental values (MLO4)

There are two summative assessments:
1. A 5-minute video where you pitch an opportunity (MLOs 2, 3, 4) (50%)

2. A critique and assessment of 3 peer produced videos, 500 words each. (MLOs 1, 2,3,4) (50%)

Formative assessments will be integrated into workshops and you will have numerous opportunities for feedback on both generation and assessment of opportunities.

Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice

N/A

Opportunities are all around us, waiting for the alert individual to recognise, develop and capitalise upon them. They may have an external existence that requires someone to perceive them, or exist as possibilities that need to be brought into the world through a creative process. Whilst they are a critical component in the entrepreneurial process they can be elusive and hard to locate in time, space and place.

Taking a research enquiry based approach, this module will support you as you develop the skills required to generate and assess entrepreneurial opportunities. Within a workshop format (supported by challenges and seminars / webinars) you will explore different approaches to generating opportunities and explore how to evaluate them. For your assessment you will produce a video pitch on an identified opportunity and critically assess the opportunities identified by others.

This will be a stimulating, at times chaotic, and always interesting module that will sharpen critical entrepreneurial skills and allow you to identify what good opportunities look like.