Educational escape rooms (EERs) are increasingly used in education as learning innovations for non-digital and game-based learning (GBL) since EERs positively influence student motivation. They are common in educational fields where skills developments are vital such as STEM subjects and healthcare. However, EERs are marginally implemented in entrepreneurship education (EE) because there is a lack of evaluated design elements to guide the creation of EER in this context, which hampers their wider adoption. Therefore, in this study, we evaluated design elements for EERs in EE. We are particularly concerned with experiential EE since EERs are well suited for experiential learning. We used a research-through-design approach and created an EER based on 11 design elements derived from the literature on social cognitive theory, entrepreneurship competence, and gamification. We created and evaluated the EER in two cycles with two diverse groups of students at a university of applied sciences in the Netherlands. We contribute to the literature and practice of experiential EE by presenting evaluated design elements for EERs. We show which design elements work well and which do not. We also present a comprehensively designed EER that educational professionals can implement in their experiential EE programs.
All over the world entrepreneurs drive changes. They develop new products and services, inspire others and take decisions that result in growth of their businesses. But the world around entrepreneurs is changing and so are entrepreneurs. Life-long selfemployment or permanent wage employment are of the past. And the way people perceive self-employment is changing as well. And so must our thinking. Changes in our society call for policies and programmes in support of enterprising people. Diversity, mobility and connectivity offer new opportunities for enterprising people. Markets are changing, become more accessible and there is less need to be bound physically to one place for an entrepreneur. New avenues for business are open thanks to our improved access to information, our connectivity globally through social media and our ability to travel freely and frequently from one country to another. With less focus on life-long (self) employment people now combine paid work (or unpaid – house- work) with self-employment, or opt for just parttime entrepreneurship. New, hybrid forms of enterprising emerge. This combining of work with self-employment is rather common in developing countries, but in Europe it is a phenomenon not yet reported on in statistics and for which policy makers and service providers have no answers yet. Neither exist clear definitions or classifications. This book may serve as an eye-opener: hybrid entrepreneurs are indeed around us and deserve our attention. The research unit Financial Inclusion and New Entrepreneurship of The Hague University of Applied Science challenges policy makers, academics and service providers (such as educational institutes, business advisers and financial institutions) to pay more attention to hybrid entrepreneurs, those enterprising people who intend to create new values for a fair and sustainable society. They might not yet been seen, but they exist…..
Purpose – The paradigm “think entrepreneur–think male” continues to prevail in entrepreneurship education(EE). Aiming to explore how EE educators and EE students engage with this paradigm, this paper examines how students’ beliefs about entrepreneurship are shaped within the classroom.Design/methodology/approach – This study is based on a single case comprising 32 interviews with EE students and educators from a variety of higher education institutions in the Netherlands. Observations were conducted in a learning environment where undergraduate students from a range of EE minors (general, social and tech entrepreneurship) collaborated on projects under the guidance of entrepreneurship educators.Findings – Our findings reveal that gendered constructs are deeply embedded in EE, shaping perceptions of entrepreneurship. However, these constructs are changing and challenging the “think entrepreneur–think male”.Originality/value – This study contributes to gender and entrepreneurship literature by challenging the existence of the prevailing paradigm “think entrepreneur–think male” in EE. We emphasise the importance ofacknowledging individual entrepreneurial motivations while recognising gendered constructs in entrepreneurial support and resource access.
