President Paul W. Ferguson's Centennial Commitment called for Ball State to adapt to entrepreneurial learning.
Immersive Learning Director Jenn Blackmer is the first person to hold her position, which organizes immersive learning under central leadership. She and the Strategic Planning Leadership Team are trying to determine what entrepreneurial learning will look like at Ball State.
Blackmer said by the end of this semester she wants to have more of a concrete idea to answer that question.
She plans to have a communications plan, faculty development and a new funding structure for the Provost Immersive Learning Grant completed or in the works by the fall.
Entrepreneurial Learning
Blackmer said some departments, when they hear “entrepreneurial,” think Ball State is transitioning into a business school, but that is not the university's intention.
Mike Goldsby, director of the Entrepreneurship Center, said at its core, entrepreneurship is about bringing something new into the world—looking at problems, finding solutions and getting other people to believe in those solutions.
He said entrepreneurs are always looking ahead to see what comes next.
“The base of entrepreneurship is opportunity,” Goldsby said. “Entrepreneurship is, when an opportunity comes, [having] confidence in skill and the mindset to pursue that opportunity.”
He said what makes a business entrepreneur successful can also work for an artist who starts something new or a scientist with a lab, and that skill set can be provided by the university.
Entrepreneurial vs. Immersive
Blackmer compared an entrepreneurial mindset to a toolbox filled with different tools. An immersive learning experience would be one of the tools in that toolbox.
The community has been accustomed to the buzz phrase “immersive learning,” a university-wide initiative since 2007, but entrepreneurial learning is different.
Entrepreneurial learning will not replace immersive learning, Blackmer said. Rather, an entrepreneurial mindset will make room for other types of learning as well.
“Not every field has the ability to do [immersive learning] exactly,” she said. “There has been a culture up to this moment where immersive learning was put on some pedestal, but all these other experiences that were going on in these other colleges weren’t celebrated to that extent. This new amount of entrepreneurial learning is going to be very inclusive.”
Senior speech pathology major Hayley Mason's Ball State experience is an example of the difference between entrepreneurial and immersive.
Speech pathology majors work in Ball State’s Speech Language Clinic for two semesters providing free speech pathology sessions to underprivileged children in the community.
Technically, the clinic does not meet the criteria for immersive learning because the treatment sessions are not "a tangible outcome or product."
Mason said her professors never refer to the clinics as immersive learning, but she values the real-world experience just the same.
“It sets the stage for our field,” she said. “We do it far into our major so we have learned all the skills and we are able to apply it. It furthers our knowledge and makes it all realistic—that’s what we’re going to be doing.”
This approach would be recognized as entrepreneurial learning, because the students are contributing to the community and using real-world skills.
Honors college professor Timothy Berg, who directed an immersive learning project last semester, said an entrepreneurial mindset can reach more students than could participate in an immersive learning project.
“[Immersive learning] is a little bit too rigid,” he said. “You have to have a product and a community partner. [It’s expensive], it’s not ideal for everything. What kind of in-between things can we do?”
In Practice
Goldsby cited a new business course as an example of a way that entrepreneurial learning could work in practice.
This year, the business college began offering MGT 241 The Entrepreneurial Experience to students of any major. Goldsby said in its first year, more than 800 students have taken the course, and non-business majors are learning things they can take out and apply to their own disciplines.
The School of Music is jumping in also. It is in the final stages of creating a certificate of entrepreneurship in the School of Music, where students can learn entrepreneurial skills like how to make opportunities for themselves and market their degree.
Goldsby imagines an on-campus academy where faculty and administrators can go to train. They could then take the knowledge to their disciplines and programs, or even start new ideas on their own. Through working with all areas on campus, Goldsby said the university can deliver teachable skills that will help students and faculty improve at realizing opportunity.
“I don’t think it’s going to be required, but if students want that type of experience they will have a chance to do that,” he said. “We want to provide opportunities for faculty, administration, students and alumni. We want to make a big sandbox.”
Berg thinks it can transform regular classroom learning.
A veteran of large-lecture classes, he now teaches smaller classes that are inquiry-based instead of focusing on delivering content.
“We’re not about delivering content, we’re about creating a process,” he said. “As students start to demand this, some people are going to be less satisfied sitting there, listening and being fed.”
He said there are challenges with different teaching methods especially in large classes, but part of the future will be trying new ideas and figuring out what works.
Student-Centered
Blackmer said many students feel like they go to school for four years, come out and are at the mercy of the job market. She hopes by equipping students with a self-starting, entrepreneurial mindset they won’t feel that way.
Students should think of building their lives the way an entrepreneur builds a business, she said.
“It isn’t just starting a business,” she said. “It’s about starting a life. Undergraduates spend four years here—we want them to leave with the tools to start their lives.”
The Indiana Commissioner for Higher Education Teresa Lubbers said with immersive learning, Ball State has been leading the way for different undergraduate experiences.
“Most colleges and universities are trying to increase the value of a student’s college experience by making sure it aligns to their career aspirations as well,” she said. “Ball State has been at this for many years—they have actually been a leader in this regard.”
She sees the value of varied learning experiences as two-fold, from an individual perspective as well as the state's.
“They are more prepared for the world of work when they get out,” she said. “[It's] important to the state of Indiana, it’s a way to keep people [here]. If you had a quality internship or some type of experience while you are in college, there is a really good chance you will get a job and a really good chance you will stay in Indiana.”
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