Welcome to BUS652: Creativity and Ideation in Entrepreneurship

Specific information about this course and its requirements can be found below. For more general information about taking Saylor Academy courses, including information about Community and Academic Codes of Conduct, please read the Student Handbook.

 

Course Description

Begin the first phase of your entrepreneurial journey by developing and vetting an idea while ensuring it meets your personal and professional goals.

 

Course Introduction

The first step in entrepreneurship is understanding your personality traits and mindset that will help your new business venture succeed. This course will address this first step in your journey by allowing you to better understand the role of entrepreneurship in society and address creativity processes to help you develop your new idea. Many tools can be used to help you develop an idea, such as Timmons' Framework, which we will address in this course. Once you consider the creativity process, generating ideas is a key aspect of the planning phase of your business. As ideas are generated, you'll consider if they are viable financially and marketable, but also address if they meet your personal goals. Once you have a list of ideas, you can begin to vet them – determining which ones have viability in the marketplace. In this course, you will learn several ways to vet ideas, such as through competitive analysis, feasibility studies, and opportunity assessments. Let's get started!

This course includes the following units:

  • Unit 1: Creativity and the Entrepreneur
  • Unit 2: The Ideation Process and Innovation
  • Unit 3: Idea Evaluation and Analysis
  • Unit 4: Planning the Next Steps in Your Venture

 

Course Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:

  • categorize methods to use for creativity in the ideation process, such as the innovation pyramid, while considering the diffusion of innovations;
  • explain the need and elements for an entrepreneurial mindset, such as the need for a vision;
  • compare and contrast methods for ideation and innovation for a new business idea;
  • analyze the feasibility of an idea using a variety of techniques such as SWOT, competitive analysis, and business model canvas; and
  • choose an opportunity based on market and financial constructs using feasibility plans and opportunity assessment tools.
Throughout this course, you will also see learning outcomes in each unit. You can use those learning outcomes to help organize your studies and gauge your progress.

 

Course Materials

The primary learning materials for this course are readings, lectures, and videos.

All course materials are free to access and can be found in each unit of the course. Pay close attention to the notes that accompany these course materials, as they will tell you what to focus on in each resource and will help you understand how the learning materials fit into the course as a whole.

 

Evaluation and Minimum Passing Score

Only the final exam is considered when awarding you a grade for this course. In order to pass this course, you will need to earn a 70% or higher on the final exam. Your score on the exam will be calculated as soon as you complete it. If you do not pass the exam on your first try, you may take it again as many times as you want, with a 7-day waiting period between each attempt. Once you have successfully passed the final exam, you will be awarded a free Course Completion Certificate.

There are also end-of-unit assessments in this course. These are designed to help you study and do not factor into your final course grade. You can take these as many times as you want to until you understand the concepts and material covered.


Tips for Success

BUS652: Creativity and Ideation in Entrepreneurship is a self-paced course, which means that you can decide when you will start and when you will complete the course. There is no instructor or set schedule to follow. We estimate that the "average" student will take 45 hours to complete this course. We recommend that you work through the course at a pace that is comfortable for you and allows you to make regular progress. It's a good idea to also schedule your study time in advance and try as best as you can to stick to that schedule.

Learning new material can be challenging, so we've compiled a few study strategies to help you succeed:

  • Take notes on the various terms, practices, and theories that you come across. This can help you put each concept into context and will create a refresher that you can use as you study later on.
  • As you work through the materials, take some time to test yourself on what you remember and how well you understand the concepts. Reflecting on what you've learned is important for your long-term memory and will make you more likely to retain information over time.


Technical Requirements

This course is delivered entirely online. You will be required to have access to a computer or web-capable mobile device and have consistent access to the internet to either view or download the necessary course resources and to attempt any auto-graded course assessments and the final exam.

  • To access the full course, including assessments and the final exam, you will need to be logged into your Saylor Academy account and enrolled in the course. If you do not already have an account, you may create one for free here. Although you can access some of the course without logging in to your account, you should log in to maximize your course experience. For example, you cannot take assessments or track your progress unless you are logged in.

For additional guidance, check out Saylor Academy's FAQ.

 

Fees

This course is entirely free to enroll in and to access. Everything linked in the course, including textbooks, videos, webpages, and activities, are all available for no charge. This course also contains a free final exam and course completion certificate.

Last modified: Friday, 24 January 2025, 12:36 PM