Validating survey instruments to measure entrepreneurship education outcomes for undergraduate students

Heydi L Dominguez; Prateek Shekhar

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Conference: 2022 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference
Location: Newark, New Jersey
Publication Date: April 22, 2022
Start Date: April 22, 2022
End Date: April 23, 2022
Page Count: 2
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--40080
Permanent URL: https://216.185.13.174/40080
Download Count: 182

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Paper Authors

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Heydi L Dominguez New Jersey Institute of Technology

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Heydi Dominguez is a graduate student pursuing her Master's Degree in Mechanical Engineering at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Her research interests include conducting research in the field of engineering education, to connect her research findings and implementation of the findings into her future career as an educator. Heydi Dominguez has earned a Bachelor's of Science in Engineering from the department of Mechanical Engineering. Her experience in research ignited her decision to further her education and pursue a career in the field of Engineering Education.

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Prateek Shekhar New Jersey Institute of Technology orcid.org/0000-0001-6552-2887

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Prateek Shekhar is an Assistant Professor - Engineering Education at New Jersey Institute of Technology.. His research is focused on examining translation of engineering education research in practice, assessment and evaluation of dissemination initiatives and educational programs in engineering disciplines. He holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, M.S. in Electrical Engineering from University of Southern California and B.S. in Electronics and Communication Engineering from India.

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Abstract

In the recent years, there has been an increase in the development of entrepreneurship education programs within undergraduate science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education. The inclusion of entrepreneurship related projects and courses offers students different pathways to develop an entrepreneurial mindset, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, and skills essential for a successful professional career in a technology-driven economic landscape. To evaluate the impact of entrepreneurship education programs on student outcomes, it is critical to have valid and reliable assessment instruments. In this paper, we focus on validating assessment instruments to measure self-efficacy as a student outcome in entrepreneurship programming. Self-efficacy is a key outcome that reflects student’s self-perceived confidence in their ability to perform certain tasks or demonstrate specific behaviors. Specific to entrepreneurship programming, we focus on three types of self-efficacy associated with student outcomes: entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE), creative self-efficacy (CSE), technological self-efficacy (TSE). In entrepreneurship education literature, entrepreneurial self-efficacy is viewed as an important characteristic that reflects student’s self-perceived confidence in their ability to perform various tasks associated with the entrepreneurship process. Along similar lines, creative self-efficacy outlines a student’s belief in their own capacity to specifically perform creative tasks to realize their creative potential. Further, technological self-efficacy reflects a student’s self-perceived confidence in their ability to utilize technology-related tools, which will allow them to perform successful technological tasks. For the assessment of the three outcomes, we utilize existing instruments from relevant literature. The validity and reliability of these instruments were examined for an upper-division entrepreneurship course using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and multiple reliability metrics respectively. We anticipate that this work can provide survey instruments that can be used for assessment in entrepreneurship education in STEM contexts. Future efforts and implications of this ongoing work are also discussed.

Citation
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Dominguez, H. L., & Shekhar, P. (2022, April), Validating survey instruments to measure entrepreneurship education outcomes for undergraduate students Paper presented at 2022 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference, Newark, New Jersey. 10.18260/1-2--40080

TY - CPAPER
AB - In the recent years, there has been an increase in the development of entrepreneurship education programs within undergraduate science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education. The inclusion of entrepreneurship related projects and courses offers students different pathways to develop an entrepreneurial mindset, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, and skills essential for a successful professional career in a technology-driven economic landscape. To evaluate the impact of entrepreneurship education programs on student outcomes, it is critical to have valid and reliable assessment instruments. In this paper, we focus on validating assessment instruments to measure self-efficacy as a student outcome in entrepreneurship programming. Self-efficacy is a key outcome that reflects student’s self-perceived confidence in their ability to perform certain tasks or demonstrate specific behaviors. Specific to entrepreneurship programming, we focus on three types of self-efficacy associated with student outcomes: entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE), creative self-efficacy (CSE), technological self-efficacy (TSE). In entrepreneurship education literature, entrepreneurial self-efficacy is viewed as an important characteristic that reflects student’s self-perceived confidence in their ability to perform various tasks associated with the entrepreneurship process. Along similar lines, creative self-efficacy outlines a student’s belief in their own capacity to specifically perform creative tasks to realize their creative potential. Further, technological self-efficacy reflects a student’s self-perceived confidence in their ability to utilize technology-related tools, which will allow them to perform successful technological tasks. For the assessment of the three outcomes, we utilize existing instruments from relevant literature. The validity and reliability of these instruments were examined for an upper-division entrepreneurship course using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and multiple reliability metrics respectively. We anticipate that this work can provide survey instruments that can be used for assessment in entrepreneurship education in STEM contexts. Future efforts and implications of this ongoing work are also discussed.
AU - Heydi L Dominguez
AU - Prateek Shekhar
CY - Newark, New Jersey
DA - 2022/04/22
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Validating survey instruments to measure entrepreneurship education outcomes for undergraduate students
UR - https://216.185.13.174/40080
DO - 10.18260/1-2--40080
ER -