A Brief Review of Our Agile Teaching Formats in Entrepreneurship Education

Abstract

Companies are confronted with increasingly demanding environments, including globalization, technologization, intergenerationality, and crises such as the coronavirus pandemic. To accept uncertainties as a challenge and to recognize opportunities for development, well-educated and resilient founders are needed who can foster innovation and sustainable development within society and the economy. The majority of today’s entrepreneurs have an academic background. Hence, institutions for higher education need to provide comprehensive educational offerings and support initiatives to train and sensitize future entrepreneurs. Therefore, since 2013, agile teaching formats have been developed in our project at a Bavarian university of applied sciences. In two stages, we founded a limited company for hands-on experimentation with entrepreneurship and also conceptualized an elective course and an annual founders’ night. Based on a theoretical model and continuous teaching evaluations, we adjusted the individual modules to suit the target group. The objective is to promote the acquisition of key competencies and exert a positive influence on the startup quotient in the region. There are six startups by students who can be traced back to our project. This indicates that a target-group-oriented educational program encourages motivation and awareness of entrepreneurial thinking and action among students.

1. Introduction

Driven by the expansive growth of technology, globalization, highly networked systems, and increasing advances in human knowledge over the last decade, the global economy and life are becoming increasingly complex, volatile, unpredictable, and faster [1]. While this development opens up almost infinite possibilities and transformation opportunities for entrepreneurs and organizations, it also poses a new set of challenges and risks due to the technological and work organization-related increase in complexity [2]. To drive the innovation needed for a sustainable economy despite all uncertainties, creative founders who think outside the box [3], purposefully realize their ideas, and constantly orient themselves to the demands of the current economy and society are needed (see [4]).

Fostering entrepreneurship through specific educational programs at institutions of higher education (IHE) is a promising approach [5,6,7] to counteract negative trends in the incidence of startups and, at the same time, to develop the mindset of entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs. Thus, increasing scientific interest is focused on analyzing the research subject of entrepreneurship education at institutions of higher education [5,8,9] to further evaluate and identify promoters of or barriers to learning and competency acquisition. In Germany, universities of applied sciences should especially ensure practice-oriented education of skilled professionals [10] and foster the transfer between applied research, practical experience, and teaching [11].

1.1. Problem Definition

Generally, institutions of higher education provide a net addition to the entrepreneurial and innovation capital of a society [12] and the development of the economy [13]. Furthermore, $84\%$ of all founders have an academic background [14]. Nevertheless, in many curricula, the continuous integration of economic cross-functions [15] and the development of students’ entrepreneurial personality still have room to grow. The reasons may lie in the limitation of resources. In addition, it is a challenging task to comprehensively determine the personality traits of students and graduates as well as to specifically promote interpersonal and entrepreneurial competencies. In fact, considerable time and volition are required to redesign traditional curricula and to successfully implement new learning methods and media (e.g., blended learning). The survey of Entrepreneurship in Higher Education [16] concluded that $39\%$ of university representatives see a lack of teachers’ initiatives in this regard as a pitfall.

1.2. Our Project’s Purpose

To counteract the low number of startups in the region of norther Bayaria (Germany) [17], we implemented an internal project at our university of applied sciences (called institution of higher education (IHE) in the following) to promote entrepreneurship among students in a practice-oriented manner. Here, we developed individual educational formats (limited company, coaching, general elective, startup night, and entrepreneurship manual) to encourage students in their independent and creative actions and in testing new ideas. Similarly, technical skills were taught with innovative and multimodal teaching approaches (see [5,18]). In particular, the focus was on the development of social skills such as teamwork, resilience, reflection, and implementation strength. Agile teaching and learning methods are being increasingly transferred to the higher education context for this purpose [19,20,21,22]. The evaluation of the impact of agile teaching in entrepreneurial education and comprehensive didactical guides to its implementation are not yet represented in the literature [23,24]. The agility approach is also repeatedly discredited for being an old method in new packaging. In addition, frameworks, guidebook literature, and training on agile methods are highly commercialized [25].

There is a consensus in the discourse on entrepreneurship that agile teaching and the successful transfer and measurement of competencies are complex in themselves [3]. A reason for this is that a successful startup is determined by numerous internal and external influencing factors (i.e., founder personality, actions, and underlying conditions). Thus, one important foundation for the targeted development of competencies among students through entrepreneurship education is the specific knowledge about which competencies are possessed by successful founders. Some studies on entrepreneurship education at institutions of higher education [26,27,28,29] conducted tests to assess competencies and defined the corresponding competency frameworks. In our project, relevant entrepreneurship competencies were also derived as a starting point for the development of different teaching formats using a competency model from a sister project [30]. We intended to have a positive impact on the regional startup rate and therefore address the competencies that were identified in expert interviews with industry representatives and lecturers [30]. Further, the individual modules were tailored to the competencies to be developed (see Section 3). To ensure that the formats can be integrated sustainably into education at the IHE beyond the funding phase, evaluations were carried out among the participants, and the contents and didactics were improved to suit the target group.

With our contribution, we intend to highlight that the application of agile teaching approaches to develop competencies in students is useful and that entrepreneurship education must constantly address students’ individual knowledge levels, framework conditions, and motivations (see [5,31,32,33]). Our contribution aims to stimulate the development of further practice-oriented teaching formats and to list the associated limitations.

Before providing more detail about the underlying methods, the pedagogical approach, and the description of the modules, we give a brief explanation of the theoretical background.

2. Theoretical Background

As mentioned in the introduction, entrepreneurship is one of the most important levers to ensure social and economic development, e.g., to become more resilient to crises (such as the coronavirus pandemic) [4]. Etymologically, the term entrepreneurship is derived from the French term entreprendre (to undertake something). Unifying the term’s meaning by its definition is difficult due to the multitude of possible entrepreneurial ways of acting and thinking and its lack of definiteness [34]. Timmons [35] described entrepreneurs as resourceful strategy developers who take a holistic approach to thinking, reasoning, and acting with the aim of realizing visions and ideas. According to Timmons, entrepreneurship is about recognizing the potential and the opportunity, as well as having the volition, resilience, and risk-taking skills to create value and development opportunities for society (see also [4,36]). According to Schumpeter [37], an entrepreneur is defined as a person who is empowered and motivated to implement new ideas and approaches and turn them into successful innovations. In essence, entrepreneurship is a dynamic process characterized by creativity, willpower, and intuition that is usually complemented by professional knowledge (e.g., about market opportunities and legal requirements). Jacobsen [38] mentioned that entrepreneurship is about creating value to satisfy human needs. To conclude, entrepreneurship describes the process of the innovation-driven founding of new businesses from innovative ideas, whose success correlates with certain personality traits and competencies.

2.1. Decreasing Number of Startups in Germany

Generally, the number of startups in Germany is decreasing [5,39,40]. In addition to this, the average lifespan of local companies per se is only around 8–10 years [41]. The total early-stage entrepreneurial activity (TEA) rate is the sum of rates of all 18–64-year-olds in Germany who are aspiring entrepreneurs or have founded young enterprises [42]. Germany’s TEA is currently $7.6\%$, which is the lowest rate after Japan ($5.4\%$) compared to other leading economies, such as the USA, China, and the UK [40,42]. The declining rate has been registered in the past several years [5,40]. Although the startup rate increased slightly in 2020, it is expected that this development will deteriorate again due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic [39]. In addition, in a specific region, a strong industrial location in Germany, the number of startups is slightly declining, inhibiting the region’s innovation potential [17]. One important aspect concerning the worldwide demand of growth is that lower numbers of startups inhibit essential technological and non-technological advances and related social development [36]. Fortunately, entrepreneurship education at IHEs can positively influence the creation of startups.

2.2. Entrepreneurship Education

The aim of higher education institutions in periods of economic uncertainty and digital transformation is to create a sustainable change in learning mechanisms and teaching formats, to produce graduates who are highly fit for the labor market, and thus, to promote entrepreneurial thinking. The purpose of entrepreneurship education is to teach entrepreneurial awareness, which enables students to develop necessary skills and experiences. According to Fayolle et al. [33], all pedagogical offerings or educational opportunities that promote entrepreneurial attitudes and skills can be classified as entrepreneurship education. Concrete support for business startups is another aspect in this context [43]. Entrepreneurial education aims to provide (future) founders or persons interested in founding a company with appropriate methods to develop their professional and social skills to strengthen their motivation (see [36]) and awareness and, thus, to increase their chances of successfully founding a company. Important prerequisites for this are knowledge about the personality traits and professional competencies of successful founders, comprehensive networks with business associations and companies, exchanges with like-minded actors, and openness and inquisitiveness of the target group to start their individual personality development.

In conventional entrepreneurship education, subject-specific knowledge is taught, often in the form of instructor-led teaching, to initiate conventional learning processes. This focuses learning aims on the intentional acquisition of cognitive, physical, and social skills and knowledge. However, it has been proven that incidental learning processes are more sustainable and leave deeper synaptic connections within the brain. Since the acquisition of implicit key competencies is particularly important, a shift in the approach to (holistic) entrepreneurship education is observed in literature. The main emphasis is on the applicability of learning and learning subjects, for instance, by means of experiential learning approaches [44]. The objective of this approach is to create learning environments in which students experience a variety of stimuli and are able to constantly try out and apply the knowledge that they gained. This happens through a careful mix of learning elements, case studies, or digital business games. The study conducted by Dana et al. [36] started from the notion that technology-based businesses play an essential role in the economic (and social) development of a country. Based on a literature review and a quantitative survey (standardized questionnaire with n = 213 respondents), they tested hypotheses about influencing factors (entrepreneurial skill, intention, learning, and motivation) on the foundation of technology-based enterprises. A key influencing factor was personal motivation. This aspect urgently needs to be taken into account in entrepreneurship education. Similarly, our approach intends to sensitize students and strengthen their motivation by giving them a lot of room to maneuver and time to experiment during the educational programs.

In essence, the sustainability of entrepreneurial education depends on a didactically well-thought-out curriculum and the opportunity for practical experience and networking with like-minded people and stakeholders. Besides such general conditions, the interests and skills of the target group must also be taken into account when designing education programs. However, there are some challenges in this regard.

2.3. Underlying Challenges in Entrepreneurship Education

Interest in entrepreneurship education has significantly increased over the last two decades, especially in higher education [5,8,45,46]. In general, the amount of government funding and the provision of entrepreneurship education have increased worldwide [47]. The fact that entrepreneurship education can strongly influence the development of startup projects is confirmed by governmental or political bodies taking the initiative to empirically investigate the phenomenon and its effects [48,49]. An example can be seen in the European Commission in the survey of Entrepreneurship in Higher Education in Europe [16]. The study highlighted that in 2008, only $48\%$ of the 710 European universities surveyed offered entrepreneurship education. Simultaneously, it implied that around 11 million students lacked corresponding access to opportunities to enhance their entrepreneurial skills. Overall, due to diversified demands from stakeholders and students, it is an increasing challenge for IHEs to provide effective entrepreneurship education and thereby foster societal innovation potential [8].

Generally, IHEs play an important role in encouraging founders to start new businesses. The recent discourse reveals that entrepreneurship education has long been a global issue due to its many benefits for social and economic advancement as well as educational benefits [45]. Two convergent views are usually found: on the one hand, some researchers highlight the significance of entrepreneurship education for the progress of the economy and society [31,45,50,51]. On the other hand, other research groups argue that its impact cannot be proven reliably due to a multitude of other influencing variables and factors [8,50,51,52]. The study carried out by Nabi [53] included a meta-analysis of previous literature on the effectiveness of university (IHE) entrepreneurship education. Here, following the research of Pittaway and Cope [54], about 159 articles published in the period from 2014 to 2016 were critically analyzed. Finally, different impact indicators of teaching were defined based on perceived changes. These were, for example, attitudes towards entrepreneurship, concrete professional knowledge, and methodological knowledge on practicability. Similar approaches to the evidence of the teachability of entrepreneurship can be found in Schultz [5], Fayolle [33], Jones et al. [8], and Maresch et al. [32]. Tajpour and Hosseini [4] did not specifically examine the outcome of entrepreneurship education but rather the indicators of the successful performance of startups. A quantitative survey was used to test the variables knowledge sharing, reputation, and social relations in terms of increasing entrepreneurial intentions and increasing performance in digital startups. All tested hypotheses were significant and demonstrated the importance of knowledge sharing and networking with stakeholders, as well as social integration and social networks, for the performance of a (digital) startup. This requires dealing with digital media, an aspect that was also taken into account in our education program (for example, through digital business games and excursions to industry partners (see Section 4.2)).

Measuring the impact of entrepreneurial education based on the number of established startups only means that other positive factors influencing the development of personality, attitudes, and strategic foundations (e.g., business succession in >5 years) or further entrepreneurial activities were not considered. However, Nasra and Boujelbeneb [51] emphasized that various researchers were already able to demonstrate measurable effects of entrepreneurship education by using mixed methods [43,53,55]. Regarding the abundance of interacting factors and the increasing attention to the subject, Williams-Middleton and Donnello [3] concluded that, in the discourse, “it has been provisionally agreed that entrepreneurship can be taught”. To date, didactical and content-related elements have primarily constituted the research subject of these investigations [3,31,48,51]. Nevertheless, for subsequent research projects, there must be clarity about the definition and measurement of entrepreneurial success factors, including the entrepreneurial mindset [50]. In addition to lacking clear guidelines, Ratten and Usmani [31] stated that due to changing economic conditions, the “new emerging employment trends” need to be integrated into curricula, and future entrepreneurs should be prepared for digital transformation and the gig economy.

What can be clearly seen is that entrepreneurship education in institutions of higher education is gaining substantial importance. Therefore, the perspective of the science community is shifting from the demand for measuring the effectiveness of teaching methods to dealing with the claims of the didactical design. Less focused on operationalizing success factors, the research subject is now a matter of the substance and scope of an effective entrepreneurship education. This new approach includes criticism towards formalized training structures, i.e., curricula that merely focus on formal knowledge transfer. Towards the education of entrepreneurial thinking and behavior, the formal learning approach has been proven to be less useful than experienced-based learning.

3. Project Modules and Methods

Based on many years of teaching experience and engaged networking with alliances and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), we agree with the scientific consensus [3] that a entrepreneurial personality is not purely determined by a person’s dispositions, and that successful entrepreneurship can be taught and learned. The mandatory transfer of competencies towards a holistic entrepreneurial way of thinking and acting is what we term holistic entrepreneurship. The concrete research subject is shaped by the effects (effectiveness) of the designed, agile, and action-based teaching formats regarding the students’ learning success and the future number of startups in the region.

Within a five-year period, the living case LearnFab and a format for teaching entrepreneurship were designed and implemented in succession. The living case in the first project was about building competencies in entrepreneurship through practical experience. Due to the low throughput of students, multimodal agile teaching formats were developed within our second project phase. Accompanied by a higher degree of the curricular structure, the participation of the target group should be increased, while basic knowledge of entrepreneurship should also be taught. By creating an interactive learning environment, students were proactively sensitized and stimulated to draft and develop their own startup ideas. The research question guiding both phases was:

• To what extent can competency-based agile teaching formats strengthen the entrepreneurial personality traits of students?

The issue of how the entrepreneurial spirit and innovative ability of students can be demonstrably strengthened with innovative and holistic entrepreneurship education was examined. Below, the research question is discussed and answered by explaining the conception, implementation, and results of both projects.

Methodological Approaches

In the first phase, a limited company was founded, and a framework was created to guide students in realizing their ideas and developing their own startup concepts. Our theoretically derived understanding of teaching and learning preceded the development of a comprehensive laboratory environment. In our pedagogical approach, the multivariate use of sensory organs is intended to encourage effective learning growth. Thus, knowledge is not only formally conveyed but also made perceptible, resulting in the formation of deep synaptic connections. In this context, the conceptual meaning of agility was adopted and transferred to the pedagogical question and educational objectives. To change traditional teaching and learning structures and to prepare the ground for (agile) learning, the student living case LearnFab was founded. With the establishment of the limited liability company (GmbH), a protected, internal IHE environment was created in which students were able to perform typical business management tasks and take ownership of the decision-making process. Through this approach, they converted their own innovative ideas into marketable products and generated genuine and measurable revenue.

The second phase focused primarily on the targeted development of competencies using concrete, practice-oriented teaching formats (elective subject and founders’ night). As measuring the effectiveness of teaching formats is always challenging [43,53,55], we developed a theoretical model following the impact staircase by Kurz and Kubek [56] (see Figure 1).

Our aim was to illustrate the strategies planned in our project and their effectiveness. Following the impact staircase according to Kurz and Kubek [56], a threefold division into output, outcome, and impact was carried out. Here, the output represents the performance, the outcome is the effect on the level of the target group (green area), and the impact (orange area) represents the effect on the societal level. Based on this model, the teaching formats were conceptualized cf. [57] (see Appendix B). This approach allowed for visualizing strategies and predicting the effectiveness of the projects.

Further, the competence model of Lehmann and Wilke [30] formed the basis for the development of our individual modules. Here, according to the mixed-methods approach, qualitative and quantitative surveys were carried out from 2018 to 2020 with the aim of surveying the most important competencies of young professionals among industry representatives and teaching staff and categorizing them. As a result, 258 competencies were derived and transferred into a competency model. From this model, the competencies relevant to founding (yet to be tested) were cataloged and provided with individual definitions (for subsequent assignment). An excerpt of the tables with a short explanation is provided in Appendix B. To validate the specific competency model, 40 problem-centered interviews were conducted with lecturers at the university, who were asked to give their informal assessment of the individual competencies. Finally, a separate competency model was created with coded competencies that were assigned to individual teaching formats. This was intended to realize a custom-fit approach to competency development using individual educational modules.

In addition, conclusive evaluations were conducted in one-off events, and formative evaluations were implemented every six months in long-term courses to improve teaching according to a continuous improvement process (CIP) and to adapt it to the needs of the target group (students interested in founding a company). Furthermore, a survey was conducted using standardized questionnaires among all former participants who completed the courses (see Appendix A). Based on the subjective assessment of the interviewees, the extent to which the formats had a positive impact on their acquisition of entrepreneurial competencies was evaluated. In the following section, the outlined modules are explained in more detail.

4. Project Results

The following section contains the descriptions of our leading subprojects related to entrepreneurship education at our IHE.

4.1. Conception of a Living Case

A living case is a practical learning environment that exists over a long-term period and creates authentic conditions around the teaching subject [58]. Accordingly, the LearnFab project was established with the intention to create an internal IHE environment that enables students in the field of entrepreneurship education to become more autonomous in self-organizing their learning. In the LearnFab project, formalized knowledge taught in previous courses can be transferred to the respective situation by reflecting and internalizing through independent trial and error and by collecting positive and negative experiences. Designing this special experimental learning environment was realized by the establishment of a limited liability company (GmbH) in association with the Faculty of Business and Engineering, which was run by our participating students.

In fact, this concept is more than just a so-called junior company, as LearnFab GmbH (founded in 2014) was legally and economically independent. The employees were exclusively students who took full responsibility for their operational and strategic decisions. To provide professional and academic supervision, a project coordinator and two coaches were employed. These coaches were tasked with operational supervision and integration of the results within the faculty. Coaching sessions were offered to the students for professional support. Right from the beginning, the so-called founder coaches of LearnFab GmbH were responsible for conceptualizing the project, i.e., devoting themselves to creating a business plan, obtaining agreement from shareholders, and developing the didactic design. It was also necessary to acquire appropriate shareholders, define the startup approach, and develop sustainable company structures. Various student assistants were employed to cover administrative tasks and topics, create guidelines, and design case studies that were later integrated into teaching courses.

The objective was to stimulate a transfer of knowledge from theoretical learning content to real business practice. Accordingly, 7–12 students were able to participate simultaneously. To encourage more students to participate, the activities of LearnFab were integrated through various case studies into the IHE. The intention was to link and consolidate learning content across the entire value chain. Until then, practical formats, for example, had only been supplemented by digital business games. Through the creation of close-to-real conditions, students were able to learn entrepreneurial competencies and transfer their knowledge into practice.

To evaluate these activities, cross-sectional surveys were conducted among the involved stakeholders (students and teaching staff). The findings of the founders’ portfolios (see

Table 1. Curriculum of the general elective subject.

No	Teaching Content	Teaching Format/ (Didactical Approach)
1	Creativity and team building	Impulse and exercise (Flipped classroom)
2	Business model canvas	Impulse and exercise (Decision making, group work)
3	Resource planning and finances	Impulse and exercise (Presentation, lecture)
4	Pitch to investors/business game round 1	Exercise and simulation (Group presentation, business game)
5	“How do I become a BRAND?”	Impulse and exercise (Group work, idea scribbling)
6	Human resource management/evaluation of business game round 1	Impulse and exercise (Three-step interview, active listening)
7	Excursion to a laboratory/ Business game round 2	Impulse, exercise and simulation (Excursion, business game)
8	Market research and market databases/ evaluation business game round 2	Impulse, exercise and simulation (knowledge management, business game)
9	Questions about the seminar paper/ Business game round 3/ Workshop Founder Scholarship	Impulse, exercise and simulation (Learning from solutions, business game, world cafe)
10	Insurance and finance for founders/ Evaluation of simulation round 3	Impulse, exercise and simulation (Learning with solution examples)
11	Dialogue and exchange of experiences with founders	Impulse, exercise and simulation (Discussion/fishbowl)
12	Funding opportunities for innovative ideas/ Corporate design	Impulse and exercise (Presentation/lecture/storytelling)
13	Submission of seminar paper/ Reflection round	Exercise and reflection (Creative writing/reflection)

) show that $95\%$ of the students took their responsibility very seriously and were committed to fulfilling their tasks. Subjectively, the learning success or increase in knowledge was particularly evident in subject-specific knowledge such as cost awareness, striving for economic efficiency, leadership of employees, and development of corporate structures and strategies. Economically, the business situation remained excellent, and the company gradually expanded with the aid of its existing customers. The economic development turned out to be much better than expected. Additionally, the number of participants steadily increased from the initial 2 up to 10 employees (in the period 2014–2017).

Some shortcomings also became apparent during the LearnFab subproject. On the one hand, only a few students (10–20, depending on the course and offer) were able to participate and enjoy the benefits of the first project. On the other hand, challenges often arose in the practical field that had not been addressed in the previous courses. For example, retrospectively, the importance of soft skills training, such as dealing with difficult customers and handling unpredictability and uncertainty, was rated much higher. Furthermore, the project required a large amount of resources (personnel, time, and finance) compared to the observed and measured benefit. This led to a need to offer more effective and accessible formats during the second project, the curricular design of a general elective subject.

4.2. Curriculum Design for a General Elective Subject

In the subsequent project, two teaching formats were developed based on the data from the competency model as well as a large network with regional cooperative partners. Social interaction, which is essential for the acquisition of key competencies, is reduced compared to other teaching formats. Due to varying effectiveness and sustainability of different (didactic) learning approaches (e.g., formal vs. incidental learning), conventional frontal teaching in entrepreneurship education should be avoided.

Thus, based on the objective of imparting relevant knowledge related to innovation competency, the general elective module, accessible to all students at the university, was piloted in 2018. It included lectures, blended learning units, a business game, practice simulations, and a founder portfolio, as well as numerous networking meetings. Since the 2017/2018 winter semester, a total of 436 participants have been registered, of which 157 students actively participated and completed the elective module. In the meantime, an equivalent, condensed course with around 10 international participants was staged during the 2019 summer semester—part of an international week program. With this provision, the effort and benefits were well balanced and allowed us to integrate this course strategically into mainstream courses of the IHE as well as to provide access for more international students.

The wide range of topics covered in the courses is intended to develop the personal, social, and professional competencies required for founding a business, as well as to impart the relevant professional principles, methods, and expertise. The curriculum contains eight courses, including a blended learning element (see Table 1).

The units were designed according to the flipped classroom method, i.e., by reversing the role of homework and knowledge transfer. This means that students learn independently at home and apply theoretical knowledge collectively during (frontal) teaching (cf. [59]). Moreover, a renowned business game was conducted during the semester to support students in applying acquired knowledge in a fictitious startup setting as well as acquiring interpersonal skills and consolidating their knowledge by reflecting. This game-based approach creates a learning environment that simulates the real-life challenges and conditions of entrepreneurs. Simultaneously, the game’s basic characteristics provide immediate feedback on the decisions made, which positively affects the participants’ motivation and engagement.

The other strategic element of the module is ongoing networking. The aim of this process is to educate students in a hands-on manner and teach them to present themselves and their ideas in front of potential decision-makers. This was achieved by integrating collaborating partners and associated excursions to enterprises, professional associations, or other research teams from IHEs. Within this context, the participants of the elective subject were able to attend related events and receive individual counseling and coaching. For successful completion, the general elective subject required—besides practical contributions—written homework, continuous participation, and a seminary thesis reflecting on the accumulated experience. By passing, the students initially received 2.5 and later 5 European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) credits. In addition, a founder’s portfolio documented their individual achievements, initiatives, and the learning and development goals achieved. The evaluations carried out since the beginning indicate positive attitudes with a net promoter score of $100\%$.

Multimodal didactical approaches serve to empower students to take independent, empathetic action and encourage creativity and autonomy. Additionally, specialized topics related to entrepreneurship can be taught. In our project, we focused on developing and sensitizing students’ attitudes towards founding (their own startup). Therefore, the teaching format directly affected the students and included practical, hands-on topics, such as sustainability, digitization, and social entrepreneurship, that will most likely be relevant for future founders.

4.3. Concept for an Annual Founders’ Night

Additionally, a founders’ night, the so-called Campus Startup Night (CSUN), was developed and piloted to further strengthen students’ ability to reflect on theoretical knowledge and transfer it to entrepreneurial objectives. After an initial selection process that allowed students to apply for participation with ideas and projects, competitive conditions were created in two runs involving an average of 80 participants and 35 spectators. Interdisciplinary and international students worked in teams during the format from 5 p.m. to 11 a.m. The next day, students outlined, concretized, and visualized ideas and presented them in front of a panel of judges. The teams’ work phases involved four expert workshops. Topics included developing technical (business) know-how, designing a simplified version of a prototype (a so-called pretotype), delivering an impactful presentation of the proposal, and conceptualizing the pitch in front of the panel of judges. Numerous associated partners funded this event, including by providing prize money for the top six ranks. The event and close involvement of stakeholders served to popularize the efforts of entrepreneurship education within the region.

Another intention of CSUN was to initiate a sustainable learning process resulting from self-organized teamwork, the agreements reached within the teams, and their collective success or failure. Individual participants learned about their own abilities and were able to apply their knowledge and ideally complete the general elective subject. While topical knowledge was imparted in a protected environment (IHE), the corresponding pressure generated due to the competitive situation (competition, time, audience, judge panel, etc.) was effective in generating a practical and sustainable learning experience. Overall, half of the participants were international students. The participants came from nearly all faculties of both IHE locations. This resulted in an international, diverse, and multidisciplinary team composition, exclusively communicating in English. For all participants, it was a borderline experience focusing on one topic throughout the whole night and testing their self-discipline and persistence.

The final evaluation also suggests that CSUN offers great potential for acquiring individual competencies, as about $95\%$ of the participants considered the individual learning experiences and the opportunity to present their ideas and concepts in front of a larger audience to be more motivating than the actual prizes. Since evaluations are essential for the improvement of programs, an overall evaluation should complete the project phases and provide a starting point for follow-up projects.

4.4. Approach to Evaluating the Modules

In our project, classic entrepreneurship is supplemented by other aspects such as intrapreneurship, fempreneuership, and lifestyle impact. This focus is what we call holistic entrepreneurship. Here, this refers to the holistic approach to imparting competencies to founders. The aim is to promote the individual personality of the target group holistically, i.e., in addition to imparting formalized expertise. Important factors in this context are the will, perseverance, and self-discipline of the students. The conceptualized measures were transferred into a further model (see Figure 2). The aim is to describe the chains of the effects of the developed measures. On the one hand, the focus is on the acquisition of competencies through the educational process of “doing”, and on the other hand, it is on the competency assessment process.

In general, the measurement of success and effectiveness proved to be complex. It is difficult to determine a concrete positive impact on the number of new businesses in retrospect, as no direct comparison group is available. Moreover, the period for founding a new business is quite short, and the participation rates of quantitative surveys were often low. In addition, interpersonal competencies that are primarily acquired incidentally are difficult to measure. To address these challenges, a questionnaire was developed for the last project phase from July to September 2020, which addressed all participants of the entrepreneurship teaching formats. The aim was to conduct subjective assessments of the acquisition of competencies through the formats. Following the approach of the Berlin Model for evaluation, the five competency scales of professional, methodological, communication, cooperation, and personal competences were represented using five distinct categories (see

Table 2. Results of subjective self-assessment.

Competency Category	Acquisition	Neither Nor	No Acquisition
Professional Competence	19.2	3.4	0.4
Methodological Competence	16.2	5.2	1.2
Communication Competence	16.8	4.6	2
Cooperation Competence	16.2	4.2	2.6
Personal Competence	15.8	4.8	2.4

) [60].

Questionnaires in German and English were distributed to approximately 200 students from the e-mail distribution list. Although 144 people accessed the web survey server, after a period of four weeks and two reminders, only 23 complete data sets could be utilized. The response rate was $11.5\%$. A 5-point Likert scale (from 1 = very true to 5 = not true at all) was used to assess whether a statement was true or not. On the one hand, findings in accordance to the items were described by the mean value and standard deviation. On the other hand, the results were further summarized by grouping the ordinal scales 1–2 (=competence acquisition) and 4–5 (=no competence acquisition). Due to the lack of a control group, inferential statistical evaluation, e.g., testing a difference hypothesis, could not be carried out. Based on the particular mean value, Table 2 shows how the students assessed their competence acquisition. For example, $83\%$ stated that they experienced an increase in professional competence. Even competences that are difficult to assess explicitly, such as cooperation or personal competence, were confirmed to be acquired by $70\%$ and $68\%$, respectively. Only a few people ($7.5\%$) denied the acquisition of competences.

5. Discussion

The leading intention of the described projects is to encourage students in international and interdisciplinary teams to interact with each other and to reflect on acquired knowledge and its application within a realistic setting. Focusing on competency-based, entrepreneurial thinking and action, a learning process is initiated. This self-regulated learning is not directly controlled by the teacher but rather initiated by the student. Existing and acquired knowledge are intended to be integrated self-reflexively to cope with challenges arising during the process and to realize successful learning (internalization).

Regardless of how scientifically reliable and representative (in relation to the sample) the results of the evaluations are, it is clear that our educational approaches were met with sincere interest on the part of the students and on the part of the business partners (see sponsors at the founders’ night). Furthermore, continuously conducted evaluations allow the conclusion that, with our study population, a quality approach was realized to make the topic of entrepreneurship better known at our IHE, to show students new perspectives, and to support them in their personal development. The acquisition of competencies intended by the projects not only has an effect on an existing startup but also trains students to become confident, self-organized employees in their working environment (see intrapreneur) who want to make a value-adding contribution with their work and way of thinking. Referring to the problem derived from the literature about the lack of consensus on how programs in entrepreneurship education have to be concretely designed to become effective and measurable, we note that the differences in framework conditions and individual motivations and abilities are too great for standardized training programs. Another consideration is that differences in the form of entrepreneurship (see social entrepreneurship [61]) also need to be taken into account in educational programs.

We used experiential learning and placed a high emphasis on self-organized teams [62] to connect academic education and acquired practical experience. The promotion of self-organization positively affects interdependent learning processes, the development of team skills [22], and the utilization of individual skills and creativity for complementary application within work processes. Additionally, establishing a positive culture of mistakes (for example, within the limited company) according to the Benson principle [63] proved to be helpful. Addressing mistakes and errors as part of a constructive feedback loop turns them into highly productive learning experiences. Through the (coronavirus-related) conception of hybrid formats, our students were trained in trying out new teaching methods (digital and hybrid) and being open-minded to innovative solutions when facing external challenges. Combining digital and analog learning impulses serves to increase the ability to apply competencies in innovative, digital, and entrepreneurial contexts. Furthermore, as evidenced in Tajpour and Hosseini’s study [4], skilled use of digital media is an influencing factor in the success of startups in today’s world and economy.

With our programs and ongoing evaluations, we mostly found that effectiveness and success need to be analyzed much more precisely. Rather, entrepreneurship and the required hard skills and soft skills need to be operationalized using indicators. Generally, all students of our institution should be surveyed, for example, to identify unknown potentials (those who, for example, have not thought about the topic of founding). However, it is evident that a combination of different didactic approaches in teaching, precisely aligned with the content and learning objective of the course, was very well received by the target group.

Our content-related and didactic variety of the formats and associated events aimed to prepare the students for real-life conditions and the heterogeneous customer environment in which founders must operate. The participating teachers provided assistance for self-help only if and as far as was mandated by the concrete steps to be taken by the participants. Agility and an agile approach to learning ensured a deep-rooted connection to the real-world environment faced by founders and leaders today. Within the learning program, the focus was on the individuality of the actors involved, provision of a stimulating working environment leading to deep learning, and increased performance of the individual. Transferred to the development of new teaching formats, this leads to a reversal of conventional hierarchical teaching and learning structures as well as a new understanding of the advancement and education of students. At the same time, all teaching formats were regularly reviewed and adapted to changing needs. The result is a versatile and sustainable way of imparting knowledge that is based on teachers’ and learners’ drive and creativity.

6. Conclusions and Further Research

Referring to the research question guiding the project, we can conclude that practice-oriented entrepreneurship education based on modern teaching and learning methods is indispensable to support the acquisition of key competencies among students (see [3]). The conducted evaluations and surveys allow the conclusion that competency-focused teaching formats shape the entrepreneurial personality of students and provide them with important attitudes, expertise, and experience to develop themselves into successful entrepreneurial personalities. This coincides with the notion that entrepreneurship can be taught and learned [5,8,32,33]. Regardless of the inadequate validity or reliability of the final survey due to the small sample and lack of inferential statistics, the results are compatible with the common evaluations carried out periodically during the project. All students and associated partners were very satisfied with the formats, and many of them participated in the additive modules.

In general, the aspect of measuring the effectiveness of the introduced formats leaves substantial room for improvement. This can be attributed to the fact that both projects strongly focused on the outcome and impact, i.e., practical experience and experience-based learning, rather than enriching the academic discourse with profound, new knowledge. Furthermore, both funded projects represented the first internal approach to incorporating entrepreneurship education into higher education. Raised awareness and supportive networking structures were considered a plus and offered appropriate support to young entrepreneurs. Our future research projects should start there to enrich the scientific discourse with valuable insights, as well as to validate the teaching formats to determine their effectiveness. This requires well-chosen comparison groups, longitudinal surveys and studies (minimum two years), and pretests. The aim will be the development of a survey design that allows the identification or delimitation of independent variables as far as is feasible. A further perspective may represent the creation of strength–weakness diagrams, which adapt the current and future labor market requirements. Alternatively, using personality tests to diagnose competencies before and after the teaching formats (again over a minimum of two years) could be a helpful tool for measuring acquired competencies.

Furthermore, the insufficient scientific evidence available today could also be complemented by subsequent projects of other researchers. One suggestion here is to conduct a quantitative survey (self-assessment of competency acquisition, see Section 4.4) with a representative sample (n $\ge$ 150) and analyze the data more scientifically. A consecutive quantitative survey in a longitudinal section, i.e., a survey of the same sample (n = 23), after one or more years would be another approach. Here, it could be deduced who subsequently founded a startup or generally drew on knowledge and experience gained from our educational program (immediately or after a couple of years). In addition, other informative digital formats should be developed to promote entrepreneurship in local educational institutions and schools. Specifically, a digital presentation (e.g., video or podcast) concerning the project results might be created and made publicly available on various websites.

A more practice-oriented idea for a research project is to examine the previous framework conditions and initiatives of German universities of applied sciences and thereby identify best practice examples. From this, a guideline for entrepreneurship education at universities of applied sciences could be created, which scientifically prepares the most relevant terms, explains the best practice examples, and includes further references (such as funding bodies and consulting institutions).

Regardless of the strong practical focus of our project, there are findings indicating that all approaches to establish a entrepreneurship education will be met with interested persons and can be modified step by step in accordance with the level of knowledge and the needs of the target group. We also pursue the topic of entrepreneurship education strategically within our institution and, following these projects, have obtained further third-party funding to design a curriculum for entrepreneurship education over a period of five years.

Our projects mark an important milestone in optimizing entrepreneurship education within our region. According to the literature, it is difficult to determine the measurable effectiveness of entrepreneurship education due to the various influencing factors [43,53,55]. Ultimately, the goal for IHE, especially in the context of digital transformation, third mission, and VUCA, is to increasingly use sustainable, innovative teaching formats, thus creating a viable alternative to classic case-based business training. IHE that ventures into holistic entrepreneurship education can act as a highly effective interface between higher education institutions and the region’s labor market, fostering and contributing to a sustainable innovation culture.