Assessment of a New University-Wide Entrepreneurship and Innovation Minor

The paper describes the new Entrepreneurship and Innovation minor at Penn State. The unique inter-college minor consists of several clusters that center on entrepreneurship and innovation in relation to different majors, industries, and contexts. An assessment plan was developed in conjunction with the minor and initial results will be reported. The overall goal of the assessment is to track the students’ progress, knowledge, skill development, and attitudinal changes as the students proceed through the minor and begin their careers. As the first step in this process, students from the core classes of the minor were asked to complete a survey near the beginning and end of the semester to capture their attitudes toward entrepreneurship and innovation. A vast majority of the students who completed the survey were enrolled in their first entrepreneurially focused class. As a result, the survey responses provide a unique opportunity to examine students’ initial thoughts about entrepreneurship and innovation, which will serve as a baseline for future assessments.