Creating a course for Startup Support Providers

Hi

We at www.startupready.net are looking to generate a free version of a business support qualification that is open and globally available. The idea is to use tech as much as possible to keep the costs side as low as possible.

We normally use social learning and peer mentoring at our events so feel this platform would be an ideal one to offer the same kind of learning processes just online.

We are looking to structure the course along the lines of this free mediation course - http://www.freemediationcourse.com/ . Here we feel the structure allows the learners to build a base level understanding before they interact with Entrepreneurs.

This ensures they are more effective in their interactions. The projects and feedback then ensures the course develops in accordance with their needs and experiences.

Look forward to your thoughts and support.

Maybe a good place to start is to say a little more what you do during your events, what is the main take-away for participants, what are the activities that they engage in and what materials do they use to complete the activities?

Sure. The events help the participants bridge the knowledge application gap using peer mentoring. This usually means they get exposed to some content say how to use crowd funding? Then they are broken into small group to work on a project, usually on how to apply the learning for their own projects. These groups are facilitated by mentors/ support providers - these are the target group for this free version.

The idea is that the facilitators need support and if this support can be offered online and is automated then it allows us at startup ready to stay focused on our core business.

In terms of the structure of the course we are trying organise here on P2PU. The intention is to introduce anyone interested in Entrepreneurship to understand what it is, how its different, the kind of tools to use for interacting with Entrepreneurs, what areas of business to focus on, how to structure the communications, and finally some human concerns that usually arise when working with entrepreneurs.

The intention is to help the learners understand the content through quizzes, get them to apply the learnings in real life projects they have with entrepreneurs and then use their feedback to improve the course.

Currently I have started a draft course using this link - https://p2pu.org/en/courses/2610/startupready-support-provider/ is the draft. Here the modules are labelled, the content of each module is nearly done. However, I just can’t figure out to organise a pre module quizz and a post module quizz. Once I can figure this out I can then structure the content taking the quizz structure into account.

If you look at www.edx.org they seem to follow a process of pre quiz - content - post learning quiz. We are looking to add real life projects, feedback and badges to the process as well.

Hope this is useful and look forward to your thoughts.

Would it be possible to turn quizzes into mini-assignments for each module? Working on something is normally more enticing for students and gives them something they can show for the online learning they’ve done.

For instance, you have the module: “Why are Entrepreneurs Different ?” Maybe ask learners who their favourite entrepreneurs are and why they like them, then introduce the content and afterwards ask them what type of entrepreneur those persons are. Ask students to share their answers in the comment section, on http://discourse.p2pu.org or somewhere else on the web and post a link.

You can do quizzes using a 3rd party tool like Google forms or something else, but we don’t really optimize for that.

Hi Dirk,

I found this platform to get a beta version of the course up - http://learningzen.com/Study/ViewCourse.aspx?CourseID=8607&SessionID=&ShowTab=Info . It is pretty much how we want it in terms of structure i.e. the learner first does a pre exam. Then covers each chapter followed by a review in the form of a short quiz at the end of each. At the end they then retake the initial pre exam again to seethe progress they have made.

It would be good to see if 1) this format can be replicated here at P2P Uni and 2) we can get some interest to beta test the content for us.

Look forward to your thoughts.

Zufi