Abstract:

Entrepreneurship education has gained particular relevance during the last two decades, due to its impact in the development of personal skills useful, not only for the creation of new businesses but also in the pursuit of a professional career. Although the relationship between the impact of EE and teaching methods has not been fully understood, there is a general agreement that active methods, such as case studies, group discussions, business/computer game simulations, role models, business plan development, guest speakers, and the creation of junior enterprises are likely to be more appropriate for fostering entrepreneurial behaviour among students (Almeida, Daniel, & Figueiredo, 2019; Bennett, 2006).

Due to the Covid-19 outbreak, most universities in Europe and the United States have shift classes online to help control the spread of the coronavirus. Although this has brought a number of challenges for universities at different levels, it is particularly relevant to assess how this change has affected the teaching of entrepreneurship, mainly because the success of learning depended mainly on the use of active and practical approaches. This paper presents the main results of a quantitative study aiming at understanding how students perceive the impact of on-line entrepreneurship classes in terms of:
(1) learning outcomes;
(2) skills development;
(3) quality of the course; and
(4) level of difficulty.

Data was gathered through a questionnaire sent to higher education students, from a Portuguese University enrolled in entrepreneurship education courses during the Covid-19 lockdown. Data were analysed using SPSS-25. The results obtained show that from the students' perspective they were able to achieve the defined pedagogical objectives and managed to develop skills related to communication and team management. Moreover, the quality of the course was not affected but they considered that when switching to online classes the level of difficulty of the course has increased. The results obtained are useful to understand how to better develop on-line or blended courses of entrepreneurship.

References:
[1] Almeida, J., Daniel, A. D., & Figueiredo, C. (2019). The future of Management Education: The role of entrepreneurship education and Junior Enterprises. International Journal of Management Education.
[2] Bennett, R. (2006). Business lecturers’ perception of the nature of entrepreneurship. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research, 12(3), 165–188. https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13552550610667440

Keywords:

Entrepreneurship education, Covid-19, learning outcomes, skills development, quality of the course, level of difficulty.