Experiential Learning in an Online Setting: HOW Entrepreneurship Education Changed During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

In March 2020, when the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, more than 90% of the world’s student population went through an unprecedented and sudden transition to distance learning. Although this was a challenging time for instructors across all disciplines, entrepreneurship educators faced the unique dilemma of preserving the experiential nature of entrepreneurship education in the online environment. We look at how entrepreneurship educators addressed experiential learning through online education during the pandemic and some of the solutions adopted given the experiential, hands-on nature of entrepreneurship education. We review the first wave of literature on the topic, and we offer the results of a recent survey of entrepreneurship educators who are members of the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE). In doing this, we have added to a growing literature on the shift of entrepreneurial education to an online setting.

Introduction

After COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization in March 2020, educators worldwide had only a few days and no previous training to pivot their classes to an online environment. By April 2020, more than 90% of the world’s student population had undergone an unprecedented and abrupt transition to online learning (DeVaney et al., 2020). COVID-19 was an exogenous shock that challenged traditional teaching methods, modalities, and student learning experiences.

Although this was an extremely challenging time for instructors across all disciplines, entrepreneurship educators faced a unique dilemma—how to deliver experiential learning, used in almost all entrepreneurship classes, in a virtual setting (Ribeiro et al., 2020). Experiential learning approaches are predominant in modern entrepreneurship education (EE) (Schindehutte & Morris, 2016). Most experiential activities and teaching tools cater to face-to-face contexts (Matthews et al., 2021). We are writing this article only 2 years after the pandemic began. Although COVID-19 is still an ongoing emergency in many countries, it is already possible to observe the long-lasting impact of this crisis on EE.

Most entrepreneurship programs focus on project-based learning and experiential approaches, with real-world immersion and hands-on activities, because it is through these activities that students develop an entrepreneurial mindset (Jones & English, 2004; Kassean et al., 2015; Neck & Greene, 2011). However, the downside is that such educational experiences are difficult to replicate when teaching online due to the lack of interaction between professor and student (Liguori et al., 2021). Modern EE uses a participatory style of learning. Typically, EE immerses students in the business community and provides them with knowledge, skills, and connections to facilitate their future transition from college to real-world entrepreneurship. We have witnessed a lack of suitable, similar interactions in many online courses, and this presents a growing concern for EE (Ratten, 2020).

The sudden shift to online learning undermined EE’s primary structure and practices, forcing educators to find creative ways to engage students online and develop educational innovations to improve existing learning practices and create new ones (He & Harris, 2020). COVID-19 restrictions offered entrepreneurship educators and scholars an unprecedented opportunity to rethink EE delivery in higher education institutions. The dependence on online learning as a principal educational modality presented opportunities to adopt new digital technologies and learning modes (Ratten, 2020). This time also brought awareness of the significant lack of research on pedagogical approaches to teaching experiential EE online (Black & Davidson, 2022; Matthews et al., 2021).

Since the pandemic’s beginning, a growing body of literature has examined how changes due to COVID-19 have affected aspects of entrepreneurship (Sufyan et al., 2021). However, few studies have looked at the effects of the pandemic on EE. This study aims to explore the effects of the pandemic on EE and guide research and educational efforts in exploring the future of EE. EE and educational innovation received scarce attention from scholars, especially in the crisis management literature, which primarily focused on the corporate response (Ferreira et al., 2018). The disruptions caused by COVID-19 in higher education institutions and the resilience and responsiveness of educators across all disciplines who were able to keep delivering high-quality education despite the challenges deserve more attention from scholars (Lambert & Rennie, 2021).

To shed light on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on EE, we first reviewed the literature published on the topic from January 2020 to October 2022. Further, we conducted a qualitative survey sent to the members the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE), one of the leading organizations for EE in the United States. The study has a strong qualitative and explorative nature, which given the recency and uncertainty surrounding the end of the pandemic, moves future research forward. In the process, we build on the growing literature on the changes brought on by the crisis, with studies looking at the impact of the pandemic on entrepreneurship programs in community colleges, pitch competitions, and other aspects of EE.

In the following paragraphs, we discuss what experiential learning means in entrepreneurship pedagogy and review the existing literature on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on EE. We then proceed to discuss the results of our study. Further, this study provides an overview of entrepreneurship educators’ main challenges when their courses moved online, the most innovative and effective strategies implemented to overcome them, and what pedagogical innovations remained once classes were in person. This article provides several considerations on the future of EE and research avenues that can fill the current gaps in the literature.

Entrepreneurship Education and Experiential Learning

Entrepreneurship was offered as a class for the first time at Harvard Business School in 1945 (Mwasalwiba, 2010). However, its popularity began to grow only in the 1980s and 1990s, which reflected the importance of new business creation due to changes in technology, government policy, and students’ preference for startups rather than careers (Hägg & Kurczewska, 2022). The number of schools teaching entrepreneurship in the United States went from 263 in 1979 to 1,400 in 1992 (Solomon et al., 1994). This number kept growing exponentially due to the extensive resources invested in EE programs (Landström, 2020). Research indicates that EE can stimulate students’ creativity and innovativeness, broaden their career options, and increase startup rates (QAA, 2018). Studies have also demonstrated that EE supports countries’ and industries’ economic growth, job creation, and entrepreneurial activity (Liguori & Winkler, 2020).

Jones and English define EE as “the process of providing individuals with the ability to recognize commercial opportunities and the insight, self-esteem, knowledge, and skills to react on them” (2004, p. 416). There is consensus that EE teaches the skills necessary to start and grow a business (Mentoor & Friedrich, 2007). Entrepreneurship educators are responsible for delivering effective entrepreneurship curricula, building relationships with the business community, and supporting students as they take their first steps towards starting a business (QAA, 2018). Many instructors today tend to adopt a broader perspective on the benefits of EE that have proved to help students develop an entrepreneurial mindset and acquire practical skills for any career and setting (Ratten & Jones, 2021). Developing an entrepreneurial mindset is not only about starting a new business; it also encourages students to develop knowledge, skills, abilities, and convictions that are useful in a corporate setting.

Although experiential learning is becoming increasingly popular in business education (Perusso et al., 2020), our study focuses on the specific case of EE. Contemporary EE strongly focuses on experiential learning and real-world immersion to increase self-efficacy and develop students’ skills in recognizing patterns (Kassean et al., 2015; Liguori et al., 2021; Neck & Greene, 2011). The goal of the experiential approach is to make students active learners (Smith & Muldoon, 2021), where they do entrepreneurship rather than observe or are told about it (Higgins & Elliott, 2011). Research shows that an experiential approach in EE is particularly effective in providing students with increased intentions, inspiration, and efficacy (Cho & Lee, 2018). Experiential learning happens when interactive experiences are part of business curriculums and students can interact with the entrepreneurial community. The contact with the entrepreneurial environment in which students will potentially start a business during college or after graduation is a fundamental part of the experiential learning approach and is difficult to reproduce in a virtual setting (Pittz, 2014). As such, experiential learning provides students with high-impact learning experiences through several pedagogical methods. The methods used to deliver experiential learning in the entrepreneurship field are numerous. They include starting an actual or simulated business; writing a business plan; working in groups to brainstorm ideas and solve problems; doing internships at startups, incubators, or accelerators; going on field trips to local companies; meeting entrepreneurs; and participating in pitch competitions (Lackéus, 2020; Ruskovaara & Pihkala, 2013). Furthermore, using high-impact learning experiences is considered a best practice by AACSB and the broader learning community—including state legislators and other education funders (LeClair, 2018).

According to experience-based theory, experiential learning happens when students live experiences and reflect upon them in a cycle that motivates them to implement what they learned in “active experiments,” leading to new concrete experiences (Kolb et al., 2014). The cycle comprises four stages. First, students engage in a new concrete experience (first stage). Following that, learners reflect on the meaning of the experience (second stage), which leads them to the abstract conceptualization phase (third stage), where they get to appreciate the implications of learning through the authentic experience. Finally, through active experimentation, students use the concepts learned in the process in new concrete experiences (fourth stage); (Kolb et al., 2014). For instance, listening to a guest speaker, visiting an incubator, or attending a business event during an entrepreneurship course are examples of high-impact experiences that could teach students concepts. These experiences can be the foundation for new experiences, such as presenting at a pitch competition or solving a business challenge within a group project. Replicating these types of active experiments in online courses can be challenging due to the lack of interaction with the outside world and more limited access to concrete experiences (Baasanjav, 2013).

The EE system’s effectiveness was tested in 2020, when the insurgence of COVID-19 forced most universities worldwide to transition their courses online with little time to convert content traditionally taught in a face-to-face context to a completely virtual environment. During this challenging time, entrepreneurship educators found creative ways to adapt the teaching tools typically used in their face-to-face courses to a virtual setting during an unexpected transition to online learning. Entrepreneurship was taught online before the pandemic; however, online EE has not gained the same popularity as traditional programs. There are several reasons: general concerns regarding the applicability of the experiential approaches online due to the limited interaction between instructors and learners and the many obstacles occurring when replicating online common experiential activities, such as brainstorming ideas, engaging with the local business community, or participating in pitch competitions (Smith & Muldoon, 2021).

Many will remember the disruptions caused by COVID-19 to higher education, but it is important also to highlight the growth opportunities brought about by this crisis. Educators are acquiring new digital skills and practices, developing resilience, and introducing educational innovations in their courses (Ratten & Jones, 2021). As discussed in the following few paragraphs, several changes were made to EE during the transition to online learning. Some of these changes became permanent and resulted in innovative practices, such as hosting guest speakers online or having virtual pitch competitions, and are still used now that most courses are back to being taught face-to-face. Recreating experiential learning in online courses is a fundamental matter even in the post-pandemic era as online education becomes more popular daily (Barber et al., 2021). Accordingly, our study aims to answer the following research questions: (1) What main challenges emerged when EE transitioned online, and (2) how did entrepreneurship educators overcome these challenges?

Entrepreneurship Education During the Covid-19 Pandemic

To identify the existing literature on the topic, we conducted Boolean searches comprising combinations of COVID, “COVID-19,” coronavirus, pandemic, SARS, and lockdown in the abstract and “entrepreneurship educat*,” “student entrepreneur*,” “university entrepreneur*,” “college entrepreneur*,” and “entrepreneurship program” in the title or abstract. Quotation marks are used to find only documents where the two words are adjacent. At the same time, asterisks at the end of key words account for variations in this root word (e.g., “educat*” will include education and educator results). Only peer-reviewed articles were included in the search (Podsakoff et al., 2005), which included multiple databases to ensure a wide-ranging search process, such as EBSCO Host Business Source Complete, ABI/Inform, and JSTOR (Delgado Garcia et al., 2015). The time frame of the search was January 2020 to October 2022. The search included only scholarly articles written in English. Starting from an initial sample of 67 articles, we read the papers to determine whether the essential criteria of relevance were met (Pukall & Calabro, 2014; Rashman et al., 2009). For example, many articles looked at different aspects of entrepreneurship during the COVID-19 pandemic and included one of the education-related key words, but they were not about EE. Consistent with previous literature (Adams et al., 2016; Calabrò et al., 2019; Rashman et al., 2009), we also conducted hand searching and citation tracking to account for the studies not included in the original search. Several articles were excluded based on quality rating (Chen et al., 2021). These articles did not have a solid theoretical basis; showed several weaknesses in methodology; were published in predatory journals; or were written with poor grammar, spelling, and organization, making the research challenging to understand. It was also clear that the papers had not gone through proper proofreading and review for quality content and presentation and, therefore, were untrustworthy. The final sample comprised 11 articles that were analyzed using an Excel data extraction sheet (Rashman et al., 2009), where we included descriptive elements and main findings (Calabrò et al., 2019).

The first wave of literature published on the topic shows a general agreement that contemporary entrepreneurial curricula are more challenging to teach online than other business subjects because they require real-world experiential learning (Liguori et al., 2021). We grouped the existing literature’s main challenges into five categories with the proposed or implemented solutions: pitch competitions, group work, networking and engagement with the business community, business model or business plan, and instruction. In the following few sections, we discuss how entrepreneurship educators from different universities around the world adapted their courses to the virtual environment and some of the best practices created in the process that emerged from the first wave of publications. A summation is in Table 1.

Table 1.

Summary of Main Findings.

Studies	Main Challenges Emerged When EE was Transitioned Online (RQ1)	How Did Entrepreneurship Educators Overcome These Challenges? (RQ2)
Smith and Muldoon (2021) Secundo et al. (2021) Smith et al. (2022)	Pitch competitions • Lack of reliable technological access and limited bandwidth • Students were not familiar with presenting online and struggled with screen-framing and capturing their voices • It was difficult to engage with the audience	Hosting pitch competitions online • Pitches were pre-recorded and made available to judges • Coaching opportunities were offered to students to practice the pitch • The winning pitch was showcased during a brief synchronous event with the involvement of the local business community
Liguori et al., (2021) Lambert and Rennie (2021) Secundo et al., (2021)	Group work • Underperforming team members • Lack of social interactions and bonding time usually experienced in face-to-face meetings • International students that went back to their home countries at the beginning of the pandemic and dealt with different time zones	Facilitating group work in a virtual setting • Microsoft teams was used to communicate with team members, assign tasks, and clarify misunderstandings • Assignment of tasks through Microsoft teams allowed international students to complete their tasks at a time of the day that worked for them • Different tools were used to facilitate collaborative work (Microsoft teams, Google Drive, Qualtrics, Doodle Poll) and informal peer communication (WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, GroupMe)
Diaz Vidal et al., (2021) Secundo et al., (2021)	Networking and engagement with the business community • Lack of networking opportunities and in-person entrepreneurship showcases • Not being able to use incubators or maker labs • Not being able to host guest speakers or invite speakers and judges at pitch competitions	Creating engagement and networking opportunities with the local business community when teaching entrepreneurship online • Guest speakers (including international guests and senior executives) were hosted in online (synchronous and asynchronous) presentations • Podcasts were created with the involvement of the local business community • New online business events were organized, or students were encouraged to attend existing ones
Lambert and Rennie (2021) Secundo et al., (2021) Ribeiro et al., (2020)	Business model and business plan • Designing an effective method to teach these tools online • Transferring theoretical knowledge and practical skills, and fostering creativity	Business model and business plan development through digital technologies • Weekly instructor-team meetings were offered to stimulate communication, knowledge sharing, and collaboration • Asynchronous communication was used to provide more detailed feedback and promote reflective learning • Students had access to a selection of resources with detailed instructions and examples • Students presented the final version of their business model or business plan online, with pre-recorded or live presentations
Liguori et al., (2021) Ratten (2020) Ruiz and Barron (2022) Ribeiro et al., (2020)	Instruction • Choosing the most appropriate delivery mode • Creating engagement and establishing a connection with the students in the virtual setting	Online instruction: Synchronous versus Asynchronous • Most educators adopted a combination of synchronous and asynchronous classes, with the synchronous meetings being much shorter than the usual face-to-face class time • Zoom breakout rooms were implemented to facilitate peer-based interaction and learning • Zoom or Microsoft teams chat feature was used to create a flipped classroom approach • Digital tools such as Marvel App were used for prototyping on paper or VideoScribe to create explainer videos

Hosting Pitch Competitions Online

Pitch competitions are one of entrepreneurship educators’ most popular experiential learning tools (Smith & Muldoon, 2021). Most entrepreneurship courses include a group or individual project culminating in an elevator pitch. Many universities regularly host pitch competitions that allow students to present their business ideas to a set of judges in front of an audience (Chan et al., 2020). Hosting pitch competitions online created numerous challenges that created several solutions. The main obstacles experienced were the lack of reliable technology access and limited bandwidth, which forced many entrepreneurship educators to conduct the pitch competitions asynchronously (Smith & Muldoon, 2021). Many students had no previous experience with presenting in a virtual environment, and despite the guidelines provided, most struggled with screen framing and capturing their voices with their devices’ microphones. Most entrepreneurship educators teach their students to “engage with their audience” while pitching their ideas and ask targeted questions to get the judges’ or investors’ attention. The virtual environment limits the interactions that would typically take place in a traditional pitch competition, especially in the case of prerecorded presentations where students have to pretend to be in front of a specialized audience (Secundo, et al., 2021). Time constraints (virtual events are usually shorter than face-to-face ones) and technology barriers led to students prerecording their pitches. Judges gave feedback without having the time limitations of a live event. The winning pitches were showcased during brief synchronous events, creating networking opportunities with the local business community (Smith & Muldoon, 2021). Each recorded pitch followed specific guidelines distributed via email and distance learning platforms and during synchronous training sessions much shorter than usual face-to-face workshops. Coaching opportunities to practice the pitch were offered to students through virtual meetings, discussion boards, or emails.

Facilitating Group Work in a Virtual Setting

Group projects are fundamental in EE because students can learn how to work with unfamiliar people with diverse backgrounds and different working styles, resembling the dynamics of the working world (Cooper et al., 2004). The primary skills acquired through group projects are team building, group working, problem-solving, and negotiating, which are fundamental whether the student wants to create their own business or work for an existing one (Cooper et al., 2004). Even though it is more difficult to establish and facilitate connections among students in a virtual environment, in online learning, students greatly benefit from connecting with their peers (Clayton et al., 2018).

The transition to an online environment often exacerbated the challenges experienced by entrepreneurship students dealing with group projects. Dealing with underperforming team members is generally experienced by most students during their college career; a problem made even more pronounced with online interactions. Underperforming group members could join their team meetings while keeping their cameras off and perhaps doing other tasks without contributing to the group discussion, causing the other students stress and frustration (Lambert & Rennie, 2021). Another issue experienced by many students was the lack of social interactions and bonding time that usually happens during face-to-face group meetings.

Creating Engagement and Networking Opportunities With the Local Business Community

Most entrepreneurship educators embracing an experiential approach create opportunities for active learning in which students engage in different types of activity with the local business community (Johnson, 2013). According to Liguori et al. (2021), more than half of the educators interviewed stopped implementing experiential approaches in their classes or used less than they usually did in their face-to-face courses after the onset of the pandemic. Some of the main challenges highlighted were the lack of networking opportunities, in-person entrepreneurship showcases, getting the business community involved in the pitch competitions, not being able to use incubators or maker labs, or inviting guest speakers to class or to pitch competitions. The solutions adopted were inviting guest speakers online in synchronous or asynchronous (recorded) presentations (Secundo et al., 2021), a choice that gave many the possibility to invite international guests or senior executives that otherwise would not have been able to present at that university (Lambert & Rennie, 2021). Students could attend the live presentations, or watch the recording, and reflect on the presented content. Diaz Vidal et al. (2021) discussed the compelling case of Enfactor, a podcast designed to provide students with an opportunity to engage with the local business community during the pandemic Instructors also encouraged students to attend local virtual business events for networking opportunities (Diaz Vidal et al., 2021). The online pitch competitions also constituted opportunities for networking with the judges and audience (Smith & Muldoon, 2021).

Business Model and Business Plan Development Through Digital Technologies

Most entrepreneurship courses implement a business model canvas, business plan, or a combination of the two tools (Türko, 2016). A business plan is a detailed, formal, written document that establishes the business’s goals and how the company plans to achieve them and contains analyses related to aspects such as marketing, operations, and finances. In contrast, a business model canvas represents how a company creates, delivers, and captures value (Tokarski et al., 2017). The creation of a business model canvas or a business plan requires theoretical knowledge, practical skills, and creativity, which constitutes a challenge for educators trying to teach these tools online (Secundo et al., 2021).

Entrepreneurship educators taught the business model canvas and business plan during synchronous meetings and prerecorded lectures. They offered resources that students could access, including examples and detailed instructions (Ruiz & Barron, 2022). Mentoring and opportunities to foster creativity occurred through dedicated synchronous virtual meetings. The instructor would meet with the team and stimulate knowledge sharing, collaboration, and communication among group members (Ribeiro et al., 2020). More detailed feedback was delivered asynchronously through recorded videos or written messages to promote reflection and critical thinking (Secundo et al., 2021). As happened with the pitch competitions, many instructors had their students present their business model or business plan online, through prerecorded or synchronous presentations, with the involvement of judges or guest speakers (Secundo et al., 2021; Smith et al., 2022).

Online Lectures and Other Common Obstacles Experienced by Entrepreneurship Educators

Research has shown that simply posting content online without creating occasions for interaction does not create connections between students and instructors. Students need the ability to ask questions, share opinions, and interact with their instructors and classmates (Barber et al., 2021). The engagement and connection felt by the students are greatly affected by the combination of synchronous and asynchronous activities implemented in the online course (Picciano, 2002). Synchronous instruction happens in real time using technologies (i.e., Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Skype). Asynchronous lectures are prerecorded presentations made available to students through distance learning platforms. Asynchronous instruction includes forum discussions, assignments, readings, podcasts, and any activity the students can complete independently (Barber et al., 2021).

According to the sample of studies analyzed in this literature review, most educators adopted a combination of synchronous and asynchronous classes, with the synchronous meetings being much shorter than the usual face-to-face class time (Liguori et al., 2021; Ribeiro et al., 2020). Zoom breakout rooms (a feature that allows the meeting host to assign the meeting participants to smaller groups to conduct an activity or discussion) could create occasions for peer-based interaction and learning. In contrast, using the chat feature helps implement a flipped classroom approach (Ribeiro et al., 2020). In online courses, a flipped classroom approach can help better leverage the synchronous time, where instruction is asynchronous and the synchronous time is used for discussing and applying concepts (Bishop & Verleger, 2013). Smith and Muldoon (2021) discussed how several digital tools were used to teach entrepreneurship online, such as Marvel App for prototyping on paper, VideoScribe (to create explainer videos), Articulate, Miro, WeVideo, Loom, or Kahoot!

By reviewing the existing studies on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on EE, we provided an overview of the main obstacles presented to entrepreneurship educators and the pedagogical approaches adopted to overcome them. Although the existing literature was published during the first 2 years of the pandemic and describes, from different perspectives, the effects of COVID restrictions on EE almost in real time, we surveyed entrepreneurship educators in the post-pandemic world. Our survey aims to learn more about entrepreneurship educators’ experience during the COVID-19 pandemic and, most of all, explore how EE changed after the pandemic.

Method

We collected data through a survey sent to all the members of USASBE, a community of entrepreneurship educators based in the United States. Two emails containing a Qualtrics link were sent to the entire membership in September 2022. There was a 2-week period that elapsed between the emails. Fifty-nine entrepreneurship educators took the survey, which included multiple-choice and open-ended questions. The list of questions used in the survey is available in Appendix. None of the questions in the survey were mandatory; respondents were given the option of answering those that applied the most to their situation. Although this resulted in some participants not completing the entire survey, all respondents provided valuable information in the present study. The survey did not collect any identifying information to ensure anonymity. Because of the nature of this study, we did not seek statistical significance (Smith et al., 2022). Instead, the study tried to capture a snapshot of the evolution of EE following the COVID-19 pandemic. In the following section, we present some of the descriptive results and discuss the information provided by the respondents to the open-ended questions.

Results

As we have mentioned, the experiential nature of EE is vital to the preparation and development of the next generation of entrepreneurs. However, the shift to online education (accelerated with the COVID-19 crisis) places this as a threat because of this medium’s real and perceived limitations. We surveyed college entrepreneurship educators for their thoughts on this issue.

All the survey participants are entrepreneurship educators at public 4-year universities. Thirty-five percent declared to work at institutions offering a degree in entrepreneurship, 29% at schools offering a concentration in entrepreneurship, 18% in universities with entrepreneurship majors, and 18% with entrepreneurship minors. When asked whether they taught an online course, we found an even parity between those with experience teaching entrepreneurship online and those without.

To explore the possible change in the demand for online courses after the COVID-19 pandemic, we asked instructors if they noticed an increase in students registering for online entrepreneurship classes. This question is important because a demand shift may signal students’ growing acceptance of the virtual nature of EE and entrepreneurship. We do not suggest that pedagogy is the sole reason for the growth of online education. However, acceptance of this method is a factor. Additionally, these courses are often feeders for extracurricular institutional entrepreneurship activities, such as pitch contests. Enrollment data is historical data that the survey respondents, who are closest to the courses, were able to weigh in qualitatively. The results show that the enrollment was essentially the same (see Figure 1). However, we can still observe an increase in enrollment in courses that used an online methodology as the course delivery method.

Figure 1.

Change in enrollment and course offerings.

Correspondingly, we also inquired about institutions’ increased entrepreneurship offerings online in response to the aftermath of the pandemic. Although the results suggest that offerings stayed the same at most universities, several institutions started offering more online courses. Taken with the previous question results, this could be a forerunner of the future in which universities will provide more online courses in entrepreneurship but will continue to offer face-to-face options. We acknowledge that, at this juncture, this may be speculative. It follows a general trend of universities increasing online offerings, especially in the post-COVID-19 era (Guppy et al., 2022).

This two-prong approach acknowledges the growth in the online space and the preservation of traditional delivery options. There are several potential explanations for this finding. Namely, stakeholders regard face-to-face classes as a more acceptable version of EE, but other stakeholders believe in the merits of online education. Another issue could be that the technology has not advanced in effectiveness or efficiency to create a valid experiential exercise.

Those who did teach online used varying tools and techniques to foster student engagement (see Table 2).

Table 2.

Providing Experiential Learning.

What are Some Strategies You Use to Provide Experiential Learning in Your Classes?
Students know that entrepreneurship is based on innovation and so they like new activities. They feel very involved
The individual project that I assign requires the student to network with 3 businesspeople who can provide assistance in the student’s career pursuits. I am pursuing a simulation exercise to add to the class for a group project
Make sure there is a small hands-on deliverable due at the end of every class
Interactive lectures, feedback surveys, group meetings (recorded), simulations
Students actively engage in entrepreneurial activities, including running an actual business
Students refine a new-business idea using the business model canvas, research, peer, and professor review, and submit and present a final business plan
Customer interviews, competitive analysis (surveys) by getting out into the field; critical assumption analysis; case studies
We have a student business that gets handed off from semester to semester. Students have the opportunity to manage and perform all the functions necessary to run a small startup business

According to our survey, videos were the most used, followed by forum discussions and course projects, to enhance knowledge acquisition and demonstrate subject matter mastery (Heng & Sol, 2021; Suprianto et al., 2020; Sutarto et al., 2020). Entrepreneurship simulations and one-on-one mentoring came in among the last types of activities chosen. Although both activities are fundamental to fostering knowledge and building relationship, there could be many reasons for their slow adoption (Lei & So, 2021; Saha et al., 2022). There are future research opportunities to explore whether financial issues raised by the crisis limit funds needed for adoption. Another explanation could be that conferences disappeared for more than a year, and it is during conferences that academics are introduced to new technologies.

The survey investigated what activities from traditional face-to-face courses were perceived as difficult to replicate in an online setting. Several respondents mentioned that online replicating “creativity exercises, experiments, and other class activities” was somewhat difficult or less effective than in traditional face-to-face environments. Many brought up the inability to offer field trips, such as visiting local businesses or incubators, or the challenges linked to inviting guest speakers and having the students interact with them, providing feedback on assignments or projects, and working in teams. In general, many experienced some level of difficulty with establishing good group discussions online, managing group projects, and offering one-on-one mentoring. Broadly, the responses categorized as discussion outpaced every other category. Discussions being the most recurring issue identified is interesting given that discussion forums are a foundational staple in online course environments (Berry, 2019; Bicksler & Hannah, 2022).

We also asked the respondents if the experiential nature of most entrepreneurship courses could be replicated online. Most respondents, 62%, indicated that it could. Alternatively, 38% of the responses indicated that it could not be. Christian et al. (2021) believed that the experiential education model online could amplify students’ knowledge acquisition opportunities. Not surprisingly, the answers to this question were mixed, as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2.

Experiential nature of entrepreneurship education online.

Such differences reflect divisions in the profession because some educators believe that the movement to online education is a step backward, whereas others view this development more favorably. This sample size is too small to draw any firm conclusions. However, there is one common theme: most respondents remain skeptical of online classes but will use that modality if there is no other option.

The results offer interesting insights into those professors who believe that online education can lead to some benefits from a teaching standpoint. Namely, unlike a field such as traditional liberal arts or even business, the innovative nature of online education is not a hindrance to EE. Instead, many (but not all) see the shift to online education as a challenge. Indeed, the newness of this type of education appeals to entrepreneurial students and entrepreneurship professors because of the dynamic nature of online education. Some reasons include online education allowing for more significant contact with business leaders and entrepreneurs in the ecosystem. Likewise, students can produce small deliverables or simulations that mimic, in some ways, the experience of being in the classroom. Assignments could include a business plan, customer analysis, case studies, competitor analysis, feasibility studies, and all the functions a small business would have to consider. One typical response has been the video pitch. The video pitch is like a commercial, which the student could use even after graduation. As business changes, a video pitch will be an important consideration because it is a richer medium that builds a personal connection, unlike the traditional executive summary, as well as a crucial practice to help students develop fundamental communication skills.

One particular issue is that information technology has expanded the entrepreneurial ecosystem to include resources beyond those based in a local ecosystem (Muldoon et al., 2022). For example, through online education, speakers do not need to go to the university to address the students but can do so virtually. Online education can create more opportunities for a more diverse set of speakers that are now available. This transformation has both benefits and downsides. One advantage is that students can access venture capitalists, suppliers, and entrepreneurs outside their ecosystem. Accordingly, we should see an increase in the level of trade of goods, services, and knowledge. However, there is a downside where small rural universities can have difficulty supporting the required information technology (Dubey & Pandey, 2020). Given how wedded they are to their local towns, rural universities may have difficulty expanding to more involvement with the online ecosystem.

Online classes also bring some challenging issues that educators are struggling to address. One of the most pressing issues is that tasks that require interaction between students or students and teachers are difficult to do because of the limitations of technology. For example, several respondents stated that mentoring and discussions were challenging in an online setting. Some particular issues are that production blocking is widespread with Zoom and other meeting software, participants fear talking over each other, and they cannot see body language and other issues. The two most common challenges were peer reviews and discussion in terms of online responses. Two of the solutions that professors employed to improve learning were more individual meetings with students and changing the technology used for student interaction.

Instructors shared fascinating insights when asked how they provided experiential learning in their classes. Some created a startup business that was handed off to new students from semester to semester, where students managed and performed all the functions necessary. Several respondents mentioned having the students interact with real entrepreneurs, engage in entrepreneurial activities, and conduct customer interviews.

When asked whether they preferred teaching online, more than 24% disagreed, 19% somewhat disagreed, and only 5.5% agreed (see Figure 3). The results indicate more comfort with teaching entrepreneurship in a traditional mode than a hybrid or fully online modality. These responses represent future opportunities pedagogically. The segment of respondents who were firmly against teaching online was higher than any other category. Sims and Baker (2021) suggested that perceptions around this could originate from factors such as online readiness, sufficient prep time, or appropriate resources.

Figure 3.

Teaching preferences.

Most respondents declared that they were not planning on changing how their entrepreneurship courses were delivered before the pandemic. Those looking at including other types of activities considered field trips and, in general, more experiential activities: increasing the offering of online courses and on-demand content, more tech integration, including current research in their classes, and revising their curricula to meet modern EE needs.

Most respondents confirmed that the pandemic forced them to make changes to their courses tied explicitly to a response to COVID-19 mitigation strategies as opposed to what they initially planned. When asked to specify the changes introduced, most survey participants mentioned only moving their courses online or to a hybrid format and keeping several of the course interactions asynchronous. In contrast, others provided more detailed answers, as shown in Table 3. Several respondents mentioned adopting fewer experiential approaches, favoring case analysis and other activities, and fewer group projects, favoring individual assignments.

Table 3.

Changes tied explicitly to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Changes Specifically Tied to Covid as Opposed to Pre-covid Planned Changes
Simulations, meetings, speeches radically changed to make them more effective online
We transformed to a live online class meetings with a taped option. We also transitioned to a flipped approach where students prep prior to class and the live sessions are primarily discussion based
I changed content to suggest students to reach out virtually and complete competitive surveys by driving around in their car rather than walking or asking businesses in person
Making courses case-based rather than experience based
Turned my in-person exercises into a virtual format to be used in discussion posts. I also turned live pitches into video pitches
Provided solutions for polling and virtual pitching - I taught online synchronous
More individual projects as opposed to team projects

We finally asked respondents what changes they reverted to and what they decided to keep as the world adjusted to the presence of COVID-19 and universities eased some of the restrictions. Although 60% of the respondents did not reverse the changes made to their courses during the pandemic, the remaining 40% declared they reverted to prior course delivery methods. Some instructors who used the pandemic as an opportunity to innovate their courses stated that even when reverting to teaching face-to-face, they retained activities such as prerecorded lectures and on-demand content as additional resources. These faculty pointed to virtual pitch competitions, guest speakers, and online video presentations as effective tools.

Discussion

Our study examines how entrepreneurship educators responded to the pandemic by making adjustments to provide experiential learning opportunities for their students, given the shift to online delivery. The online modality is a new and controversial one. As we can see from the evidence provided, entrepreneurship educators responded to the issues raised by the COVID-19 pandemic in several ways. Namely, the deployment of technology helped bridge the gap between faculty and students divided by distance and frequently time. Given the educational experiences of emerging college students and faculty during the pandemic, there was greater use of technology to transform learning experiences (Mustapha et al., 2021). The extent to which these implementations have lasting benefits is unknown at this time.

Nevertheless, the adoption and use of technologies has increased legitimacy, indicating that higher education will not entirely revert to old entrepreneurial learning methods (Muldoon et al., 2022). Indeed, as we have witnessed, pitch competitions may have increased the use of recording videos (such as a commercial) to sell their entrepreneurial vision to potential investors. Likewise, using technologies like Zoom may bridge the gap between students and guest speakers by allowing students and guest speakers to be dispersed rather than located in one place. In addition, judges can now view projects without being near the university (Smith & Muldoon, 2021; Smith et al., 2022).

Accordingly, with any exogenous shock, we have witnessed the transformation and legitimation of processes through which stakeholders in entrepreneurship seek to move practice from one phase to another in EE and ecosystems. This transition is similar to other exogenous shocks that have occurred. For example, the job classification system that occurred during the Second World War evolved because stakeholders required, and indeed demanded, a better system of job responsibilities and duties to support the war effort (Baron et al., 1986). Likewise, students, educators, and even administrators are embracing new teaching methods. As life returns to normal, and we witness the end of the lockdowns, going back entirely to the old methods (e.g., exclusive face-to-face education) is probably not an option. As such, each of the stakeholders in the entrepreneurial ecosystem had better prepare for the changes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath.

The challenge in higher education is to make changes to the curriculum to meet student and other stakeholder needs without losing appropriate rigor. There is tension in this challenge because what students and administrators desire may differ from what other stakeholders want. For example, venture capitalists may emphasize a video pitch more, whereas potential employers may prefer more face-to-face interactions. Likewise, scholars may struggle to adjust their research to the new reality. Traditional management research has been accused of being a closed, incestuous loop (Hambrick, 1994), lacking validity (Tourish, 2020) and not saying anything substantial or practical, making (Joullié & Gould, 2022) practitioners and teachers discount management research. It is an ongoing question whether entrepreneurship will suffer a similar outcome.

Another potential issue is the possibility of pushback by other stakeholders. For example, at some regional institutions, local community members may wish for more activities on campus because of the opportunities provided by students who live there. If the students are distant learners, this could cause a potential issue. Likewise, state legislatures may oppose funding for online education due to the perceived lack of rigor. Given that both stakeholders control potential financial contributions to the school, either donations or tax dollars, they may have a degree of control over the curriculum.

An additional issue is consistent access to better information systems, similar to public or private universities that continually invest in technology. Although the term information systems is broad, generally speaking, this encompasses hardware (infrastructure), software (desktop, enterprise, cloud), processes for faculty and students (which would include outside-of-classroom educational opportunities to enhance skill acquisition and retention of the information systems), and related data. The lack of consistency creates an increased disparity of outcomes. Many colleges and universities are currently struggling with adequate funding. The financial struggle is either due to the economic slowdown brought by the pandemic and its aftermath or declining enrollment due to demographic terms. Due to these trends, we are entering an era of budget cuts and a lack of funding. Therefore, it should not surprise that lower-tier schools, which often have minority populations of less affluence, may be disproportionally affected by the trend to increase virtual components.

Future Research

Because this is an early study of COVID-19-era impacts on EE, future research will be required to determine the extent of the longevity of current changes in teaching practice. Several issues need examination, many of which can affect the delivery of EE. First, there is the ongoing question of the extent to which the changes brought by the pandemic are long-lasting or merely a fad. Given the mixed reaction of our respondents, the entrepreneurial education community may oppose these changes. Second, although the studies published in the past 2 years were timely and crucial in understanding the ongoing transformation of EE, we need a more specific look at the technologies and teaching tools entrepreneurship educators adopted and developed while teaching entrepreneurship online during the pandemic. As highlighted by Ratten (2020), more studies are needed to better understand the pedagogical innovations introduced in EE because of the COVID-19 pandemic and how the different digital tools and platforms can support an experiential approach to EE. As time goes by, longitudinal studies will be possible, providing a chance to demonstrate the evolution of EE and proving the extent of the influence that the COVID-19 pandemic had on EE despite course modality (online and in person).

Based on the findings of our systematic literature review, we identify some gaps in the literature and propose avenues for future research. One unexplored research topic concerns virtual incubation services. There has recently been an exponential growth of university-based incubators, accounting for one-third of all business incubators in the United States (Pellegrini & Johnson-Sheehan, 2021). University-based incubators are a fundamental part of experiential education and crucial for creating knowledge and disseminating universities’ intellectual property (Nicholls-Nixon et al., 2018). There is growing evidence that many incubators and accelerators worldwide still offer the online incubation services developed during the pandemic. There is no substantial research published on the role of university-based incubators during the pandemic. Future research efforts can target understanding the types of services offered online by university-based incubators, how the students received those services, and whether the universities kept providing them virtually in the post-pandemic era.

Another research topic needing more attention is community outreach. In his 2010 literature review, Mwasalwiba highlighted how few studies explored EE’s role in community improvement. Community outreach activities in entrepreneurship courses mainly occur through business centers and clubs with local entrepreneurs, student consulting projects, summer schools for potential entrepreneurs in the community, or mentorship services offered to local entrepreneurs and high school students (Mwasalwiba, 2010). Some studies looked at online opportunities to allow students to engage with the local business community. However, there is limited research on the community outreach activities carried out by entrepreneurship programs during the pandemic, especially considering that many small business owners found themselves in greater need of support and mentorship as they tried to overcome the obstacles during the first lockdowns and COVID-19 regulations. Scholars should examine whether community outreach activities were discontinued or transitioned online during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and which services were kept virtual in the post-pandemic era.

In her 2020 study, Ratten suggested that technology, such as simulation games, should be used to preserve the experiential nature of EE in the online setting. The use of serious games in EE also did not receive enough attention. Serious games are increasingly implemented in experiential EE because they mimic a real business environment where students can make decisions and grow a business virtually (Chen et al., 2021). There is proof that business simulations create an enhanced learning experience and positively influence entrepreneurship intentions and entrepreneurial skills (Almeida, 2017). Future research is needed to shed light on the use of serious games during the initial transition to online teaching and in the post-pandemic world.

Research Limitations

This article presents some limitations familiar to many exploratory studies with a qualitative nature, which usually do not look at numerical representativity but rather at understanding and exploring aspects of reality that cannot be quantified (Queirós et al., 2017). Although the small sample size prevents us from statistically generalizing our results, we draw on the views of a not insubstantial number of entrepreneurship educators. It is fundamental to emphasize that our primary goal is to offer illustrative information that can advance the knowledge of the impact of the pandemic on EE. Future research should consider including a larger sample and ensure greater reliance on actual behavior, rather than anticipated behavior and perceptions, to further strengthen the rigor of the study and ensure its generalizability.

Conclusions

As governments worldwide were imposing lockdowns and social distancing measures to slow the spread of COVID-19, higher education institutions underwent an unprecedented accelerated digital transformation and disruptive technological innovation. The sudden interruption of the traditional, face-to-face methods of instruction resulted in pedagogical innovations that will likely have a long-lasting impact on EE and provide “new alternatives for learning” (García-Morales et al., 2021, p. 3).

During the pandemic entrepreneurship educators adopted new teaching methods, pedagogical tools, and educational technologies. This study summarizes the first efforts made by scholars to comprehend this transformation and offers new insights based on a survey of entrepreneurship educators who experienced in person the disruptions and evolution of EE caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and post-pandemic time. Our literature review shows that although entrepreneurship educators had to face some of the challenges that affected all disciplines across higher education, such as the lack of reliable technology access, limited bandwidth, the lack of familiarity with online learning, the difficulty in creating engagement in a virtual environment, and the absence of social interactions, they also had to deal with the peculiar problem of redefining experiential learning to make it work in online courses. From hosting online pitch competitions to creating virtual engagement opportunities with the local business community and finding ways to facilitate group work and foster creativity as online students created their business plans, entrepreneurship educators introduced new pedagogical practices that had a major impact on EE. As demonstrated by our survey, most respondents did not completely abandon the changes made to their courses during the pandemic. They used this experience to innovate how they teach entrepreneurship, including hosting guest speakers online, having virtual presentations, prerecording lectures to make them available to students asynchronously, or offering more on-demand content.

Even though lockdowns are no longer happening in most countries, COVID-19 is still a threat, and new variants continue to emerge. Given the ongoing limitations and obstacles posed by the effects of COVID-19 to higher education, there is an unprecedented real-time opportunity to collect data and observe the new pedagogical approaches and instruments developed in response. Due to the degree of experientiality, the analysis of this period can affect new generations of entrepreneurship students.

Appendix.

Questions Asked

• • Have you noticed an increase in the number of students registering for online entrepreneurship classes after the pandemic?

• • Has your institution increased the offering of online entrepreneurship courses after the pandemic?

• • What are some of the activities you use in your online entrepreneurship courses?

• • What activities from your in-person entrepreneurship courses, in your opinion, are difficult to replicate in your online courses?

• • Do you think the experiential nature of entrepreneurship education can be preserved when teaching the subject online?

• • What are some strategies you use to provide experiential learning in your classes?

• • Do you prefer to teach online?

• • Before Covid were you planning on making changes to how your entrepreneurship courses were delivered?

• • If yes, what changes were you planning and why were you planning changes?

• • Did you change any course objectives, or program outcomes because of the pandemic?

• • If yes, how did Covid-19 influence the changes?

• • What changes did you make in how you taught entrepreneurship in terms of student engagement?

• • As the public started to adjust to Covid, and more pre-Covid opportunities returned, did you reverse any changes made in response to Covid? Why or why not?

ORCID iDs

Jeffrey Muldoon https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3913-6293

Douglass Smith https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1316-0455