Unit Outline

Entrepreneurship is a way of looking at business that is focused on opportunities, creativity, and innovation. It is also about having a passion for doing the things that are important to you and making the world a better place by solving problems in innovative ways. It is about challenge and persistence. It is about the development of an enterprising mindset and being the kind of person who sees problems as opportunities and is not afraid of doing the hard work of building something from nothing.

In this unit you will learn about the elements of an entrepreneurial mindset and how to cultivate these traits and behaviours in your own life. You will learn how to use design thinking to reframe problems as potential opportunities. You will learn how to come up with new business and social enterprise ideas, and how to evaluate those ideas and find the most promising ones amongst them. You will learn how to use the lean startup methodology to build a business that learns quickly and outpaces its competitors. You will learn how to build viable and sustainable business models around your own innovative product ideas and how to evolve those business models over time in response to lessons you learn as you continue to develop your business. Finally, you will learn the important art of pitching and how to convince other people to join you in your entrepreneurial mission, as cofounders, employees, or investors.

While we often think of entrepreneurship as being solely concerned with new businesses, in this unit you will learn how to apply the tools, skills and mindsets of entrepreneurship more broadly. You will learn how to apply the tools you learn about in this unit to your work within larger organisations and to not-for-profit businesses and social enterprises as well. By the end of this unit, you will be equipped with a range of methods that you can use to develop innovative new ideas and put them into practice.

Intended Learning Outcomes

As per the Assessment and Results Policy 1.3, your results will reflect your achievement against specified learning outcomes.

On completion of this unit, you will be able to:

1.	Use innovation and entrepreneurship tools, mindsets, and practices to develop innovative product ideas and sustainable business models.
2.	Communicate innovative ideas to a professional audience.

Requisites

REQUISITE TYPE	REQUISITES
Anti-requisite (mutual excl)	ZAA234 and BAA203

Alterations as a result of student feedback

None

Teaching arrangements

ATTENDANCE MODE	TEACHING TYPE	LEARNING ACTIVITY	CONTACT HOURS	FREQUENCY
On Campus / Online	Other	Self-directed content review / activities / workbooks / assignments	6	Weekly
	Online	Online discussion session	1	Weekly
	Workshop	Face-to-face workshop	6	Study Period 3 times

Attendance / engagement expectations

If your unit is offered On campus, it is expected that you will attend all on-campus and onsite learning activities. This is to support your own learning and the development of a learning community within the unit. If you are unable to attend regularly, please discuss the situation with your course coordinator and/or our UConnect support team.

If your unit is offered Online, it is expected you will engage in all those activities as indicated in the Unit Outline, including any self-directed learning.

If you miss a learning activity for a legitimate reason (e.g., illness, carer responsibilities) teaching staff will attempt to provide alternative activities (e.g., make up readings) where it is possible.

The Tasmanian School of Business and Economics regularly hosts Masterclasses and Industry Engagement and Employability Events, which students are encouraged to attend. Registration and details will be available via the College of Business and Economics channel on the Uni App and/or via your Unit Coordinator.

How will I be Assessed?

For more detailed assessment information please see MyLO.

Assessment schedule

ASSESSMENT TASK #	ASSESSMENT TASK NAME	DATE DUE	WEIGHT	LINKS TO INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES
Assessment Task 1:	Opportunity Pitch + Workbook	Week 6	50 %	LO1, LO2
Assessment Task 2:	Investor Pitch + Workbook	Week 12	50 %	LO1, LO2

Assessment details

Assessment Task 1: Opportunity Pitch + Workbook

Task Description:

Entrepreneurs are the kinds of people who see problems and recognise them as opportunities. In our module on opportunity recognition, we looked at strategies that entrepreneurs use to identify problems that potential customers have and frame them as opportunities for new products or services.

In this assessment task, you will identify a problem that potential customers have, which you believe could be an exciting opportunity for a new business or social enterprise. For this task, you will not need to focus on a proposed solution, just outline the opportunity itself and why you believe that it may be an idea that is worth pursuing further.

Your video presentation should answer the following questions:

What is the problem that you have identified?
Who has the problem?
Why do you think this problem represents an exciting opportunity?
What is currently being done to solve the problem and what are the limitations of those existing solutions?

This assessment is delivered as a digital workbook that includes a series of activities for you to complete and submit via MyLO alongside your video presentation.

Task Length:

4-minute video presentation + workbook

Due Date:

Week 6

Weight:

50 %

CRITERION #

CRITERION

MEASURES INTENDED

LEARNING OUTCOME(S)

1	Use design thinking principles and tools to empathise with potential customers and identify new opportunities.	LO1
2	Use opportunity recognition principles and tools to critically evaluate newly identified opportunities.	LO1
3	Use visual aids and verbal communication to present newly identified opportunities to a professional audience.	LO2

Assessment Task 2: Investor Pitch + Workbook

Task Description:

Identifying a new opportunity and coming up with an idea for an innovative product or service is only the first step for an entrepreneur. After that, they need to develop a business model that defines how their newly created organisation will create and capture value. For a socially responsible entrepreneur, this also means evaluating how the resulting business might create positive or negative externalities for the environment or wider community. In addition to building a business model, entrepreneurs also need to be able to pitch their ideas to investors, potential employees, potential customers, and other key stakeholders.

In this assessment task, you will take a new and innovative business opportunity that you have identified and develop a viable and sustainable business model around it. You will do this through a process of iteration, where you make assumptions and validate those assumptions by talking to potential customers and undertaking your own market research. Once your business model has been fully developed, you will formalise your work into an 8-minute investor pitch video, in which you will aim to convince your viewer that your innovative idea is worth investing in.

This assessment is delivered as a digital workbook that includes a series of activities for you to complete and submit via MyLO alongside your video presentation.

Task Length:

8-minute video presentation + workbook

Due Date:

Week 12

Weight:

50 %

CRITERION #

CRITERION

MEASURES INTENDED

LEARNING OUTCOME(S)

1	Use business model design principles and tools to create a viable, sustainable, and internally consistent business model for a business idea of your own design.	LO1
2	Create a professional pitch deck that outlines your proposed business model for potential investors.	LO1
3	Use visual aids and verbal communication to pitch an innovative business of your own design to a professional audience.	LO2

How your final result is determined

To pass this unit, you need to demonstrate your attainment of each of the Intended Learning Outcomes, achieve a final unit grade of 50% or greater, and pass any hurdle tasks.

Submission of assignments

Where practicable, assignments should be submitted to an assignment submission folder in MYLO. You must submit assignments by the due date or receive a penalty (unless an extension of time has been approved by the Unit Coordinator). Students submitting any assignment in hard copy, or because of a practicum finalisation, must attach a student cover sheet and signed declaration for the submission to be accepted for marking.

Requests for extensions

If you are unable to submit an assessment task by the due date, you should apply for an extension.

A request for an extension should first be discussed with your Unit Coordinator or teaching support team where possible. A request for an extension must be submitted by the assessment due date, except where you can provide evidence it was not possible to do so. Typically, an application for an extension will be supported by documentary evidence: however, where it is not possible for you to provide evidence please contact your Unit Coordinator.

The Unit Coordinator must notify you of the outcome of an extension request within 3 working days of receiving the request.

Late penalties

Assignments submitted after the deadline will receive a late penalty of 5% of the original available mark for each calendar day (or part day) that the assignment is late. Late submissions will not be accepted more than 10 calendar days after the due date, or after assignments have been returned to other students on a scheduled date, whichever occurs first. Further information on Late Penalties can be found on the Assessments and Results Procedure.

Review of results and appeals

You are entitled to ask for a review of the marking and grading of your assessment task if there is an irregularity in the marking standards or an error in the process for determining the outcome of an assessment. Details on how to request a review of a mark for an assignment are outlined in the Review and Appeal of Academic Decisions Procedure.

Required Resources

Required reading materials

Recommended reading materials

The recommended textbook for this unit is:

Entrepreneurship: The Practice and Mindset (2nd Edition, 2020)
Written by Neck, H., Neck, C. and Murray, E.

You can purchase physical and digital copies of the textbook directly via the publisher or through Amazon, Booktopia and other online stores. Please note that this textbook is not required to succeed in this unit, however, you will find it is useful if you are able to access a copy. There are also a range of other recommended readings. You can find details for these recommendations on MyLO.

Other required resources