EASIP COMP meeting in Finland
31.5- 1.6.2022.
Meeting place: Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences.
Address: Ratapihantie 13, Helsinki.
Participants: Norway 4 persons, Italy 2 persons, Slovenia 1 person and Finland 3 persons.
Programme: 31.5. – 1.6.2022
On Tuesday, our team gave presentations on projects of students in the online entrepreneurship course. Then we had a lot of discussions about the overall course and student experiences. Students had done a remarkable job. Everyone was satisfied the documentation and instructions for the pilot course. Finally, the group discussed
evaluation, project management and the next newsletter.
On Wednesday, we continued to discuss IO2 design and common guidelines. Ideas on indicators and questionnaires for impact assessment were shared. The discussion was active and productive. Our team member Eevastiina Gjerstad presented Haaga-Helia’s AI emotions and sales laboratories and talked about her research. It raised many questions and debates.
The short text describes the experiences of student projects.
Norway
In Volda, the entrepreneurship course was completed by about 30 students with backgrounds in art and crafts, drama, music and PR studies. At the beginning of the course, they were tasked with creating a product or service that would make the city of Volda more attractive to tourists. The students formed seven groups. In addition to providing them with valuable input throughout the entrepreneurial class, Sunnmøre Business Park for Creative Businesses also provided them with extensive coaching. The students presented their results
three times: a presentation of business ideas halfway through the course. Then a pitch to business representatives – one group won a prize of NOK 5,000 (about 500 euros). And finally, an exam in which students presented their business ideas in detail and also reflected on their learning experiences and challenges. Student entrepreneurs came up with exciting ideas: Via Ferrata, a pop-up restaurant, tourist information app, an art festival, rental cars, an artistic souvenir and an eco-friendly off-grid mountain cottage as accommodation. It was exciting to monitor students' progress and see how they acquired important entrepreneurial skills.
Slovenia: UP FM Verkkoyrittäjyyskoulutuksen toteuttaminen
UP FM completed online entrepreneurship training developed by E.A.S.I.P. COMP’s project partners in the Entrepreneurship Principles course at the undergraduate level. The coursestarted on 7 March 2022 and was completed on 3 June 2022. Thirty-seven students took part in the course. We have formed 7 groups with 4-5 students. In the first week, students were offered the business challenge presented by the Regional Development Centre Koper (RRC Koper). The challenge challenged by our students included the following areas: How can we reduce the negative impact of human activity on the quality of our coastal areas, seas and oceans? How do we make tourism more sustainable? How can we reduce the amount of waste that has a major negative impact on the environment? Can waste become a new resource? Are there any other blue challenges that require a sustainable solution? Throughout the course, the students try to find possible solutions to the challenge given. They used several techniques for creative thinking, such as brainstorming, random feeding, method 635, etc. After brainstorming their ideas and evaluating their ideas, they conducted a field study to better understand their potential users and needs. Based on the research results, they continued to develop their solution and prepare their business model Canvas on the Mikrobiz platform (https://mikrobiz.net/). Each group tested their prototypes in another field study focused on learning customers and collecting valuable feedback. In the final part of the course, they have finalized their business model and created short videos that reflect their business ideas. At the last reunion, each group presented their business model, prototypes and videos to the other participants. Students played an active role during the presentations because they participated in evaluating their colleagues’ business ideas and were able to vote for the best. Based on the feedback given by the students, we believe it was a valuable learning experience for the whole class.
Finland / Haaga-Helia
In March 2022, Kaisu Honkala presented an online course to 12 Haaga-Helia teacher students.
Here are some of the passages that teacher students pick up from the online course:
- Nice and interesting site!
- I liked the fact that there were also newer forms of business involved (platform entrepreneurship/light entrepreneurship).
- The business department was also interesting. There was good basic information, the kind of information that every entrepreneur needs to successfully run a business, even though, for example, accounting has been outsourced.
- I liked the fact that the Business Canvas model had been made into a Sustainable Business Canvas model. However, I didn’t notice that tips were given.
- The video for the second episode of Lol’s World had a funny idea that immediately attracted interest!
- Interesting question layouts! It gave rise to thoughts.
- The technical implementation of innovation is not creativity. The video was bad. The voices in the background made the focus challenging, and the speaker’s cascade speech style was also difficult to follow.
- Defining a problem statement was an interesting part that would require better deepening. Fortunately, four W’s and five WHY executed it well in practice.
- Defining a business idea: I note that the English text and language itself are becoming heavy, and it is difficult to translate understandable ideas. But I might still have an idea.
Finland/Laurea
In Finland, the content of the online course has been trained for social work and nursing teachers. They took some of the course content as part of their own entrepreneurship course. Teachers in social and nursing considered the different forms and pricing of entrepreneurship to be particularly useful content. Pricing of one’s own skills was also considered important for another’s work, so that nurses and social workers could better understand the cost structure of the service. In addition, the course was offered to postgraduate students as an optional one, completed by about 50 students.
Eevastiina Gjerstad presents Haaga-Helia’s artificial intelligence feelings and sales laboratories.
