HOW DO STUDENTS RESPOND TO USE OF STUDENT MENTORING IN AN ENTREPRENEURSHIP COURSE?

Purpose:
The purpose of this article is to study students' attitude and performance using students as mentors in the subject ING101 Technology Management, Economics and Innovation at Bergen University College. The course is for non-business students at the undergraduate level. The aim is to facilitate student’s team-processes and their work with a demanding semester-assignment where the groups use theory in practice.

The student population is engineering students enrolled in a compulsory entrepreneurship course with practice-based elements. The course named ING 101 Technology Management consisting of 10 ECTS credits is developed at Bergen University College (BUC) in Norway, and it combines traditional lectures with practice-based learning. The traditional lecture permits students to acquire the academic and theoretical aspects of disciplines and the use of theory in practice gives experiential learning. The course is for all engineer students at BUC in the bachelor program, 3rd to 6th semester. The learning outcome of this course is how to transform ideas into a business idea, further develop a business model, writing a business plan and presenting it as an “elevator pitch” in front of a panel of investors and Technology Transfer Officers (TTO). Students learn to use innovative tools and to take a practical approach to writing a realistic business plan together in a team of 2-5 students.

In the last 10 years the lecturers at Bergen University College have supervised the student groups within innovation and entrepreneurship courses. Last semester we employed student mentors in ING101, who focuses on students work with the term assignment and group dynamics. They who were recruited as student mentors had an earlier experience as a student within the course or/and was a master student within innovation. Their duties were to organize meetings with the student groups, ask questions about their assessment and how the process was going within the student group so it made it easier for the student groups to ask for help. It was important that all student groups met their student mentor, but they could choose how much help the wanted to ask for. The student mentors had to go through voluntary as well as mandatory assessment. There were created a common platform for teamwork and communications between lecturers and student mentors.

Results:
Using student mentors in ING101 Technology Management shows results. Firstly, students monitored by the student mentors, covers a role the lecturer does not cover due to (1) Age difference (2) Lecturer will grade the students and students may be reluctant to ask questions. Second, the use of student mentor has resulted in decreased reported scope of the subject.

These findings have important implications for the further development of the subjects ING101 Technology Management and other courses in innovation and entrepreneurship. Our hope is that this article will lead to more use of students as tutors/mentors and inspire researchers and lecturers to continue to investigate and explore new ways to use students as a resource.