Occupational Therapy

Objective:

• To encourage students to work effectively in teams.
• To develop students' abilities to delegate tasks, make decisions quickly, and deliver results under pressure.
• To develop students creative thinking and problem solving skills.

Overview:

The Egg Challenge is a fun activity, ideal to stimulate effective team working, creativity and effective problem solving with any group.

Split into small groups, learners are each given a real, raw egg, and a simple challenge: to prevent the egg from breaking when dropped from a height of 2 metres!

To assist them, students are given a small number of resources, and set against the clock to complete the challenge.

The activity works well as an ice-breaker, or as the introduction to a larger topic. It takes approximately 20 – 30 minutes to complete.

N.B. This activity uses raw eggs, and will not be suitable for learners will egg allergies.

Activity:

1. Organise the group into small teams (2 – 3 per team is ideal)
2. Provide each team with a raw egg (stress that the egg is raw, and should be handles carefully!)
3. Instruct teams that their eggs will soon be dropped from a height of 2m, and their challenge will be to prevent their egg from breaking. (You may wish to drop eggs from a different height, based on accessibility, and the space available. For example, if safe and appropriate, you may wish to drop eggs from an upstairs window, or in a stair well, to provide a considerable height. The higher the eggs are dropped from, the more exciting the challenge becomes!)
4. Inform teams that to complete the challenge, they will be given a set of materials (2x pieces of A4 paper, 4x drinking straws, 1m of string, 1x balloon and a role of sticky tape).
5. Using these, and only these materials, they must construct something around their egg, to protect it as it as drops.
6. Instruct the group that successful teams will be those whose eggs survive without a crack, and that they have 20 minutes to complete their constructions!
7. As groups work, ensure all stick to the rules that have been set, and provide regular time checks. (You may wish to play fast-paced music in the background as students' work, to add additional energy and tension to the task).
8. To add an element of silliness, you may wish to encourage teams to come up with team names (egg puns always prove popular), or provide felt-tips for teams to draw character faces on their eggs!
9. When time is up, instruct all groups to pass their constructions (eggs included) to the testing area. (In view of the whole class, set up an appropriate area for testing. You may wish to ensure the floor is appropriately covered to cater for any mess if eggs break!)
10. One by one, invite teams to explain to the group the reasoning behind their designs, before dropping their constructions from a height.
11. Retrieve the egg, and announce to the group whether the team have been successful, inviting applause.
12. Finish the session by inviting students to identify the skills they have developed through the activity, and how these apply to their academic and business practice. What was the difference between successful and unsuccessful teams? (Team work? Build Quality? Etc.).

Challenge Solution

There are numerous ways of successfully completing this challenge. Design ideas include;

• Using the paper to make a parachute
• Shedding the paper and using as padding
• Using the balloon as cushioning
• Constructing a basket for the egg using straws.

Successful designs tend to be those where weight is well balanced, where the egg resides near the centre of the construction, and where there is no way of the egg making direct contact with the floor on impact!

Skill Development:

After this activity, students will have a greater appreciation of how they work as teams, and how well they can perform in completing a time-limited challenge as a team under pressure. They will have stimulated their creative and problem solving capacities, and be better equipped for creative thinking, team-working, and problem solving based activities going forward.

Resources:

For each team;

• 2x pieces of A4 paper
• 1m of string
• 4x drinking straws
• 1x balloon
• 1x roll of sticky tape
• (Additional items may be added if desired to make the challenge harder / easier)

For the facilitator;

• A bin bag / floor covering for the testing area (just in case!)
• A step or footstool (if required).

Objective:

• Cultivate an entrepreneurial mind-set.
• Recognize limitations of entrepreneurial thinking (what holds one back).
• Practice improvisation for idea generation and creativity.

Overview:

This series of three short improvisational exercises offers students the opportunity to identify personal limitations to idea generation and reflect on situations where creativity may have been stifled. Students will consider their personal abilities and reactions to their improvisational abilities, as well as approaches to incorporate improvisational thinking in entrepreneurial endeavours. The overall goal is to demonstrate how students can develop an entrepreneurial mind-set through improvisation. Such exercises are routinely used for developing improvisational actors as well as for pre-show warm- ups for the actors. This methodology was created in the 1960s and remains the standard by which individuals learn to improvise. Improvisation is an important component of the entrepreneurship method because idea generation and the ability to incorporate relevant, timely information are critical skills for developing new ventures that will not only survive but thrive.

Usage Suggestions 

These exercises work for all audiences, undergraduate, graduate, or practitioner. It is particularly relevant for new venture creation courses, entrepreneurial creativity and/or leadership courses, entrepreneurship boot-camps, and workshops.

Activity:

Pre-Work Required by Students

The optional readings may be used for pre-work or post-work, depending on the audience (see ‘Theoretical Foundation in ‘References’).

Time Plan (1 hour)

This exercise can be extended to longer sessions so that students can begin brainstorming entrepreneurial ventures. For the purposes of an initial introduction to improvisation, this teaching note has been written so that the exercise requires at least 60 minutes.

Introduction 0:00–0:05 (5 minutes)

Begin the exercise by introducing the concept of improvisation: Ask students generally if they know what improvisation means. Opening questions for the discussion can include:

• What does improvisation mean to you? 
• Where have you seen improvisation? 
• Has anyone performed improvisation? Seen it performed?

Overview 0:05–0:15 (10 minutes)

Explain how the students will learn the basics of improvisation and see how they could apply it to entrepreneurship, in particular idea generation and creating new ventures. The instructor can show examples of comedy improvisation performance (either live or through video clips from YouTube. Some good short examples include scenes from the ABC show Whose Line Is It Anyway? An example clip can be found at http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v5Qd8bvNW9_h4).

After sharing an example, discuss how performing improvisation can be learned: there are lessons offered for comedy improvisation and improvisational acting performance in improv theatres worldwide. An established framework exists to learn how to improvise. For this class, improvisation equals thinking on your feet. They will now be “in” an improv classroom, and every improvisation theatre class begins with warm-ups. In order to think on their feet, they have to get up on their feet.

Warm-Up 1 0:15–0:20 (5 minutes)

• Tell them to begin walking around the classroom and to observe every single object in the room.
• Then tell them to point at objects as they walk past them.
• As they point at each object they are to say what it is out loud – only they cannot call it what it actually is. They are to label it something it is not. And they are to do it quickly. Provide a quick example by pointing to an object in the room like the board and then say out loud “dog,” and then point at another object like the desk and call it “potato” or whatever comes to mind.
• After one to two minutes of them walking and pointing and labeling out loud, ask them to stop and be silent wherever they are for a group discussion. When they stop, have them discuss how the experience of labeling objects was for them. Try to push them to explain what they were feeling. Some of the following questions can be used for this debrief: 
• How was this experience?
• Did you find this exercise difficult to do? Why?

Summary of Warm-Up 1

Students should experience and be able to articulate:

• How difficult it is to break away from known “answers”;
• How frequently they can get stuck in known patterns of thinking;
• The ease with which they start creating patterns with a known grouping (e.g. eggplant, cucumber, tomato, lettuce), which is a way to make the experience easier (get the “right” answer) as opposed to pushing and fostering creativity;
• The need for students to want to be in control, rather than searching for newness or playing;
• Feeling the sense of awkwardness in saying the “wrong” label out loud, but having others around doing a similar activity makes the exercise less awkward;
• How easy it can be just to listen to others and follow their answers rather than coming up with their own new idea.

Warm-Up 2 0:20–0:25 (5 minutes)

• Tell them to begin walking around the classroom again.
• When they come up to another student, they are to point at another student and name an animal, any animal that comes to mind, e.g. two students face each other and one points at the other and says “horse.”
• Then tell them that the student who has been pointed at and labelled with a type of animal has to make the sound of the animal. If they do not know what sound the animal makes, they are to make it up and make some sort of sound.
• Then they switch, and the student who just produced the animal sound – in this example, the horse sounds – points at the first student and names an animal, e.g. “cat.” This student then makes the sounds of whatever animal he or she was given.
• Once the interaction is completed, and both students in the pair have completed their animal sounds, they are to find new partners and repeat the warm-up exercise with two or three other students.
• After two to three minutes of animal sounds, ask them to stop and be silent wherever they are for a group discussion. Have them discuss how the experience of making animal sounds was for them. Try to push them again to explain what they were feeling. Some of the following questions can be used for this debrief:
• How was this experience? Did you find this exercise difficult to do? Why? 

Summary of Warm-Up 2

Students should experience and be able to articulate:

• Feeling a great sense of awkwardness – they are doing something they would normally be comfortable doing with children, but typically have never done in a classroom of adults or peers;
• Not knowing the right “answer” or sound a particular animal makes, they would feel very frustrated, and then forget the instruction they were given to just make it up;
• Once again, the ease with which they follow patterns – patterns offer a way to make the exercise “easier,” as they offer a means to come up with an answer or a label quickly rather than pushing creativity;
• How difficult it is for them to have no control as to what they have to do, rather than stepping back, enjoying the ambiguity, and searching for newness or playing;
• The fear they have of being “foolish” in a professional setting, how they do not want to be embarrassed by acting silly in front of others, and, in addition, the fear of feeling guilty, foolish, or rude for labelling others as certain types of animals with distinct connotations;
• This fear leads to self-judging and/or editing before they label their peer with an animal or before making the corresponding animal sound.

Warm-Up 3 0:25–0:35 (10 minutes)

• Tell them to form groups of four wherever they are in the room.
• Then instruct them to play a game of word association, where anyone can go first, say a word, whatever word comes to mind.
• The person to the left listens to the word and then says a word that comes to mind based on the word he or she just heard.
• They continue in this way until you stop them, and they are to go as fast as they can (tell them to listen for further instruction).
• Once they get started, let them go for a minute or so, and then very loudly instruct them to “Switch directions!”

After another one to two minutes of word association, ask them to stop and be silent. You can have them return to their seats at this point or have them stay where they are for the final group discussion. Now have them discuss how the word association experience was for them. Most will say this was easier to do, as they were in a group setting. So push them to explain what was happening rather than what they were feeling. Some of the following questions can be used for this debrief: 

• How was this experience? If this was easier than the last two warm- ups, why?
• If you found this exercise more difficult than the last two, why?
• What happened when you were told to change directions? Why did this happen?

Summary of Warm-Up 3

Students should experience and be able to articulate:

• The ease again they experienced of getting into routines or patterns – how much they wanted to “control” the situation and outcomes;
• How much they were trying to be clever, or funny, rather than just coming up with any word that came to mind and following the exercise;
• Typically they do not enjoy the ambiguity and opportunity to play and explore newness;
• Self- judging occurs again, they feel limited in the direction for the exercise, and what words they allow themselves to say owing to their need to feel included or pressure to continue established patterns rather than pushing creativity and undefined randomness;
• Students typically are not listening to the last word they just heard, and instead they focus on the words that people two ahead of them in the exercise are saying, as this way they can plan their response (this is highlighted with the change directions instruction).

Discussion 0:35–1:00 (25 minutes)

Once the students return to their seats, have them form groups of three to four and discuss what might be preventing their idea generation efforts related to initial new venture concepts. They should explore what holds them back when considering what they might do. Have them discuss the specific difficulties they experienced personally during the improvisation exercises and how they might get past these limitations to develop a more entrepreneurial mind-set. Have a member of each group report out one recommendation for fostering creativity through improvisation. A closing discussion should include how to incorporate improvisation in their idea generation practices.

Teaching Tips

It is important to keep the warm-up exercises moving fast. It might be helpful to tell the students before they begin the exercises that they will feel really uncomfortable, but feeling uncomfortable is the point of the exercise. In the debrief discussions, some students will genuinely enjoy the exercises and will say they found nothing in them difficult. Asking for a show of hands of those who found the exercise difficult to do first is often a better way to begin the debrief, before asking about how they found the experience (in case the students who enjoyed the exercises stifle the discussion). In warm- up 3 it is very helpful to move around the room encouraging groups to speed up their words so that there are no long pauses. It is important for them to think quickly and see how to come up with new ideas rather than thinking or planning and judging their ideas before they see where the new ideas can take them.

Skill Development:

Key Takeaways

• How to incorporate improvisation to develop an entrepreneurial mind-set: being quick on your feet and adapting or reacting rather than planning and pre-judging.
• Identifying and recognizing personal limitations to entrepreneurial thinking (why students are held back from creativity in idea generation, what their personal pitfalls are).
• How to develop an entrepreneurial mind-set by incorporating tenets of fast and free thinking through improvisation for idea generation and creativity.

Resources:

The full text ‘Teaching Entrepreneurship: A Practice-Based Approach’ can be purchased here > http://www.amazon.co.uk/Teaching-Entrepreneurship-A-Practice-Based-Approach/dp/1782540695

References:

This exercise is taken from;

• Heidi M. Neck, Patricia G. Greene and Candida G. Brush, 2014. Teaching Entrepreneurship: A Practice-Based Approach (pp.118 - 124). Edition. Edward Elgar Pub.

Attribution

• These exercises are based on foundational exercises used in improvisational training, widely taught in improvisational theatre courses worldwide.

Theoretical Foundations

• Spolin, V. 1959. Improvisation for the Theater: A Handbook of Teaching and Directing Techniques. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press. Johnstone, K. 1999. Impro for Storytellers. New York: Routledge/Theatre Arts Books.
• Hmieleski, K.M., and Corbett, A.C. 2008. The contrasting interaction effects of improvisational behaviour with entrepreneurial self-efficacy on new venture performance and entrepreneur work satisfaction. Journal of Business Venturing, 23(4), 482–96.
• Neck, H.M. 2010. Idea generation. In B. Bygrave and A. Zacharakis (eds.), Portable MBA in Entrepreneurship (pp. 27–52). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
• Balachandra, L., and Wheeler, M. 2006. What negotiators can learn from improv comedy. Negotiation, 9, 1–3.

Author:

• This exercise is taken from, Heidi M. Neck, Patricia G. Greene and Candida G. Brush, 2014. Teaching Entrepreneurship: A Practice-Based Approach (pp.118 - 124). Edition. Edward Elgar Pub, and is reprinted with the kind permission of the authors.

Objectives:

To understand the importance of values and explore how are values affect us and our decision making

To recognise our own values

To recognise the difference in people's values

Overview:

This session can be run by working with learners remotely (through a learning log or diary – see QAAreflectivediary) or in a group discussion in order to explore individual values. It can be useful to help groups explore their approaches and the values that underpin them.

Activity

This activity takes no more than thirty minutes to deliver in a group setting and needs few resources (have a prepared Flip chart replicating the grid with enough columns to suit the numbers in the group). However if delivered as a prompt within a reflective diary or personal learning document, this task and its outcome can be revisited throughout the learning process.

As a group task:

Ask each individual to take some time to read a list of values and decide which are the most important 5 values.

Once these values have been identified, they are asked to rank them by placing them in order of importance ie 1 being the most important. When they have all finished ask them to go behind the flip chart one at a time and put their scores in the grid when they have all sat down turn the flip chart around to group to discuss the range of findings.

Typically no two sets are the same, indicating the range across the group and ask them to discuss the diversity that they see.

Feedback and discussion should not now be task focused (particularly as values can be deeply held and discussions can be wide ranging at this point) but focused upon how to work together if the values are very different.

Please choose your top five values numbering your selection in order of importance 1 being the top and 5 being the lower value.

List of Values can be generic, task or profession focused or related to group work (see below)

Values listed could include:

• Wealth
• Peace
• Environmental Protection
• Human rights
• Animal rights
• Respect for all religions
• Health
• Family
• Friends
• Culture
• Arts

Amend: it may be possible to alter this generic list to make reference to issues or debates within your sector/industry or a potential profession. This may require some research or background reading by the students which may impact upon scheduling this task to the following week after the issues have been announced.

Amend 2: Reflective Group work task

It may also be useful in developing communication skills for group work to alter these values to key elements of group work and ask the group to explore these elements and explore what is important to those working in the group and how best to work together, where there are recognised differences. These could include:

• group harmony
• time keeping
• task compliance
• client satisfaction
• leadership
• consensus building
• deadlines
• delivery
• high quality
• respect for the individual
• satisfactory outcome
• professional expertise
• business like attitude
• creativity

Skill Development:

This is great exercise for getting people to appreciate how diverse we all are and we should be aware of that when working with others. It is important to ensure that respect for all participants is maintained throughout and it can be helpful to create ground rules at the start of the discussion; however it is also important to build the skills of active listening and build confidence in expressing emotions or strong feelings. It may be helpful to reflect with a colleague on this task, and the group undertaking it, if you wish to be prepared for the range of observations and discussions that may stem from the group.

Group discussions should conclude with consideration of how to take this learning forward into future activities and tasks, whilst individuals can be prompted in their learning diaries or personal reflective logs to explore their emotions in relation to these issues.

As one of the more fundamental elements of communication and improving interpersonal skills, it is important that, as a facilitator, you are able to draw out the learning from this task, rather than allow the merits inherent within each of the values/topics to dominate the discussions.

Resources:

• Paper
• Felt Tip Pens
• Flip Chart

Objective:

• To understand team dynamics and how teams come together to achieve a goal
• Understanding the importance of careful research, discussion and planning
• Listening to other members of the team
• Research
• Idea generation
• Sales, persuasion techniques (as needed)

Overview

This exercise is a fantastic way to get people working together as they tackle up to 10 tasks in a given time frame. With limited information (on each other and the tasks presented) the group must navigate through the challenges in order to be the most successful group (back within the time frame; most tasks achieved; most accurate delivery of the tasks). Depending on the tasks selected, specific industry or sector knowledge can be tested as widerskills of background knowledge, research and creative thinking are required. Insist upon evidence of the achievements (photos on flip or camera phones) as well as delivery of objectives.

Activity : This activity needs a long session (such as 120 minutes) to complete, reflection and analysis takes place at the end of the session.

The groups of up to 6 people are sent out to complete > 10 tasks (usually 3 cryptic, 3 researched and 4 fun)

Examples of these could include:

• To find an encryption or statue (or similar engraving) in the University Library
• Two examples of their subject/discipline in practice (photographs or illustrations of)
• Interview a relevant professional in the field
• Find a particular journal article
• How many people can you fit in a phone box
• Share a message on social media as widely as possible

These tasks should be developed beforehand to suit the environment where the day is taking place. Ensure there are fun tasks involved and that everyone has a chance to engage by creating a range of challenges that involve the physical, mental, social aspects of your learners.

To manage this challenge effectively, if it important that you:

• Give strict time frames and penalties for not meeting the time
• Consider the health and safety aspects of all the challenges and adapt to suit your learners (by keeping everyone on campus; in 1 building; or keeping all the tasks within the 1 room etc as necessary).
• Consider whether you wish to keep them all together as a team or are happy for individuals to split off to deliver tasks back to the group.

Practically it can also be helpful to give them a puzzle to solve before they can leave and a further one when they return. This means they are leaving at different times and they return to a final challenge, so that you can record time and award points.

Skill Development:

Depending upon the challenges you create, there is a wide range of transferable skills and knowledge base that you can test during this challenge. You can create tasks that draw upon their:

• Imagination and creativity
• Communication and Strategy
• Problem solving
• Teamwork and organisation
• Route Planning
• Research skills
• Leadership/Persuasion
• Decision making
• Logistics/Systems
• Speed/Precision/Efficiency
• Reflection/Review/Analysis
• Feedback

It is important that you review the challenges and how the groups tackled the tasks in order to draw out the subject learning and these wider skills, before reviewing the wider team experience by exploring:

• How the initial discussions went, did someone take the lead, was it a bit of a shouting match, was it chaos, was there a lack of ideas/too many ideas
• Whose ideas were listened to the most and why
• Who planned the route
• Who was ignored and why
• Whose ideas were taken on board and why, was a consensus achieved
• Who allocated roles
• Who put themselves forward for roles
• How did the actual production go, smooth, chaotic, who took the lead, who organised, how did it progress, how was the mood of the team?
• Was everyone involved? Did everyone need to be involved?
• How did the dynamics between the members of the group change as they went through the different stages
• Were more people involved, less people involved
• How did people participants feel at each stage, did confidence grow or recede
• What skills were employed by the task
• How are these important to a task/team

Drawing out the team dynamics will allow the students to identify the lessons that they can take forward that will improve their future group work and learning experiences.

Ask if they started by sharing their knowledge and skill set or just started on the tasks (the most typical response) and whether they would do that again. Ask when, or if they ever start a task by reviewing when they have collectively or individually undertaken something similar and what was learnt that they could take forward.

Resources:

• Prepared tasks – such as Two indoor puzzles/tasks
• Research the area for tasks to complete
• A flip phone or check if students have their own camera phone
• Flip boards or wall space to show evidence
• A prize
• A timer or watch

Objective: 

To let the participants champion themselves and each other, as well as getting to know each other better. 

It is used to introduce participants to each other in a positive, upbeat way that emphasises each participant's value to the group.

Overview: 

Champions will help a team to acknowledge and recognise the strengths of themselves and those around them. It is great for the start of a sessions as induces positivity to a meeting or discussion. 

Activity:

1. Have participants pair up.
2. Allow 5 minutes for participants to interview each other and learn more about each other.
3. Each participant then introduces his or her partner to the group.
4. The introduction should "sell" the person on how great he or she is and on how he or she will significantly contribute to the meeting or the task at hand.

For example... "This is Lucy. She's been a student for only a short time. She brings a different perspective, yes. But more importantly, she's very good at helping people work together. She helps find bridges and commonalities among differing opinions, and she can do this without making anyone feel as if he or she 'won' or 'lost.'"

It is important to make sure participants understand that the goal is not just to introduce their partner. The goal is to champion their partner, to show the rest of the group what a great asset their partner is to the meeting, team, or work group.

• You could also add some variation to this icebreaker.  Have participants work in teams of three. Two people introduce and champion the third one.
• If time is limited, or if you want to reinforce self-confidence, don't have participants pair up. Rather, each participant introduces himself or herself. During their introduction, participants champion themselves, explaining what value they bring to the group. 
• This activity can work for much larger groups by first dividing them into smaller teams.

Skill Development: 

The focus is to show the group that they have now broken the ice and that they know each other a little better than they did before, and they have figured out where there strengths lie. It's important for the facilitator to engage and make sure that there is time in the activity for reflection on what they have 'championed'.  

Key skills of public speaking and presentation are clearly apparent here and it can be useful to reflect with the group why it might be easier to showcase someone else, rather than themselves.  It is also possible to explore the styles of presentation used to "sell" or champion someone else to explore what forms an effective method to hook the audience.  Presentation styles can be scored across the group (or voted on by the group) to reinforce what was most appropriate and what appealed to the audience most, and from that key learning can be drawn out.

Objectives:

After participating in this exercise, learners should be better-able to:

• Achieve higher assessment literacy
• Formulate and negotiate assessment criteria for a task, and undertake the task with the criteria firmly in mind;
• Think constructively about the weighting of assessment criteria;
• Undertake peer assessment of other teams’ performance;
• Undertake self-assessment by reflecting on their own group’s performance;
• Recognise the benefits of team work (and address some of the problems of working in teams);
• On the basis of a ‘fun’ exercise, take forward useful thinking on assessment design.

Overview

The task is for groups of learners to make a container to hold an egg that is capable of being dropped from a specified height and position in the room without the egg breaking. To do this properly you need about two hours in a large flat room, big enough to enable groups to work independently. This is a practice task to familiarise learners with the concepts of meaningful assessment criteria, weighting and agency of assessment and is particularly useful during the first six weeks of the first semester of the first year. It is presented as serious fun which improves learners’ assessment literacy. It’s also a good staff development exercise to get staff to think hard about assessment issues.

Learners in a class (16-70) are divided into groups of 4-6, at separate tables around the room, and provided with a range of everyday objects as resources, including an unbroken fresh egg. They are briefed to use the resources in a specified time to arrange that the egg can be dropped from a specified height and position in the room to ground level, and remain unbroken by the fall. They are to use the various resources in a creative way to achieve this. But first the groups must come up with around five assessment criteria, which will be used by the other groups to assess each group’s achievement of the exercise, and the whole group of learners must assign weightings to each of the criteria. One criterion is not negotiable: “The egg remains unbroken by the fall”.

Activity

1. Divide the learners into small teams (groups of about 4-6 work well). This activity can be done with a class size of up to 50, but for smaller classes the minimum group size is 3.
2. Advise the learners of the purpose of the task, emphasising that it is competitive but essentially fun, and that actually the discussion around the task is much more important to their understanding of assessment conventions than the task itself.
3. Issue the materials to the groups, instructing them that no other items may be used, including waste paper bins, people and furniture. Insist no one handles the materials and egg before the start signal. You may need to be very strict about this. You may also wish to ham up the rawness of the egg by chucking them to the learners or ‘accidentally’ dropping one. Get each group to check their egg is not cracked when they receive it.
4. Ask learners to brainstorm up to 5 criteria on which they should be judged (5 mins)
5. Collate the criteria on a flipchart or white board, and telling them that the egg not breaking is the non-negotiable criterion, get them to collectively prioritise their further criteria. Ask them to include both product and process in the criteria. (Typical criteria include effective planning, aesthetic beauty, sustainability (all items could be reused), using all items provided or smallest number of items, team all worked together well, everyone contributed to the task in some way, achieving the task within the set time, and so on). You shouldn’t need to spend more than 10 mins on this but if you get into discussing how you judge aesthetic beauty it could take 15 mins.
6. Explain the concept of weighting of assessment criteria. Tell them that the egg not breaking is worth 40% and ask them to propose weightings for the other four criteria that add up to 100% with the most important things being given the highest weighting. (5 mins).
7. Negotiate agreed weightings for the criteria for the whole group and put on flipchart or white board. (5 mins).
8. Get the whole group to think up who will actually do the assessmenti.e. agency for 5 mins. Forexample, most product items could be assessed by the tutor or the learners acting as peers rating other groups (inter-peer assessment). If they are judging items like how well they worked as a team, this will have to be rated within the group by four peers each rating the fifth, i.e. intra peer assessment. Self assessment might be used for example if a negotiated criteria is something like individuals contributing to the best of their capabilities or enjoyment. Even if you only use a couple of agents, its helpful to discuss the full range and mention that other possibilities on future group work might include employers, placement managers and clients. (10 mins).
9. Get the groups to talk for 5 mins about what they plan to do and insist no one touches the materials until you start the task. 
10. Start the task advising them they have say 8 minutes in which to complete it. You may wish to add to the sense of fun by blowing a whistle, setting a kitchen timer, phone timer or whatever.
11. Watch learners in action, talking no part in the activity but you may wish to record any breach of the rules which you can bring up in your moderation/summing up.
12. Stop the task exactly on time. Blowing your whistle loudly is fun! Notice any learners who choose to carry on regardless and decide whether to penalise them totally by giving no marks at all (this gives you a chance to mention things like plagiarism policies and rules on issues like mitigation) and the risks learners can run by ignoring the detail of assignment brief.
13. Allow each group in turn to come to the ‘dropping point’ and use their equipment to drop their egg from the specified height to the floor, and prove whether or not their egg has been broken, carrying out the assessment using tutors and peers as appropriate. If you have a lot of groups, this can take quite a while. Discuss the assessment of the first six or so in detail, and then tell learners that to do every one in detail would take ages and this is after all a game about assessment (but do drop every egg and check the egg isn’t broken or else learners will feel cheated).
14. It is really important to get the learners back into small groups after the assessment to discuss the assessment issues for at least five minutes (try to stop them having endless discussions about whether their design was actually best or whether they were fairly treated, and so on) and then have 5-10 minutes in plenary with you summing up the learning points.
15. You might then wish to issue to learners the assignment brief for the next actual assessment task that follows in their course or module, and get them to bring along to the next session any queries they have about criteria, weighting, agency or anything else, arising from their reflections on the egg game.

Skill Development:

• Assessment literacy
• Team working.
• Creativity and originality of design.
• Time and task-management.
• Learners formulating and agreeing assessment criteria for the task.
• Learners proposing and agreeing the weighting of the assessment criteria.
• Peer-assessment of other groups’ performances.
• Self-assessment and reflection on what happened in each group. 

Resources:

Flipchart of white board to display agreed assessment criteria.
Supermarket carrier bag, per group, in which you place:

• a pair of scissors
• a small roll of sellotape
• a selection of about 4 items from the following: a newspaper, a plastic cup, paper plate, tissue paper (or a tissue), length of string (about 2 metres seems to work well), cocktail sticks, wooden or plastic clothes peg, square of bubble wrap (if you want to make it really easy for them) or whatever is available.
• one uncooked egg in shell.

It is important that each bag contains more-or-less identical kit, otherwise appeals of ‘unfairness of assessment’ may arise (though of course you might wish this to be one of the matters which will arise, in which case allow some differences in the kit).

References:

• Brown, S. (2015) Learning, teaching and assessment in higher education: global perspectives, London: Palgrave-MacMillan.
• http://sally-brown.net

Author's Website:

http://sally-brown.net

Objectives:

• Learners are given the opportunity to compose questions about a topic new to them; (links to intended learning outcomes)
• Learners are enabled to contribute things they already know about a new topic; (links to learning incomes)
• Learners are helped to learn from what each other already knows;
• Learners can gain confidence finding out that many others have similar questions.

Overview

This exercise greatly increases the ownership felt by learners about the curriculum content in a series of classes or lectures. This post-it exercise can usefully be a main part of the first lecture in a series on a topic or module. After a brief introduction to the ‘big picture’ of what is to be addressed in forthcoming sessions, learners are issued with a blue post-it and a pink post-it. They are given the opportunity to anonymously jot down (1) a question they believe could be important about the topic (pink post-it), and (2) something they already know about the topic (blue post-it).
They are then helped to look at each others’ post-its (both kinds).
The post-its are then collected by the teacher/lecturer, who uses them to plan the start of the next session in the series.

Activity
Session 1
1. Brief the learners very quickly (no more than two slides, or five minutes orally) about the main subject matter to be addressed in the forthcoming series about the topic or theme concerned. It can be useful at this stage to show on a slide (but not expand upon) the intended learning outcomes relating to the topic.
2. Issue blue and pink post-its, one to each learner (other colours if necessary of course).
3. Brief learners to write privately (and in clear handwriting) on the pink post-it one question about the topic, which they think may be important, but to which at this stage they do not know the correct (or best) answer to. Make the point that there’s no such thing as a silly question, and that it’s OK not to know the answers at this stage.
4. Then brief learners to use their blue post-its to write down one thing that they do already know about the topic. “Everyone knows something about anything” you might say. Encourage them to write down something interesting, or fascinating, or unusual if they can. Explain that at this stage it does not matter at all if what they know turns out to be wrong.
Steps 2-4 usually take no more than five minutes.
5. Ask learners to pass their post-its around, so they can look at each others’ questions, and the things their classmates already know about the topic. Learners’ confidence can often be seen to be increasing rapidly, when they see that several other learners have written similar questions to their own (“it wasn’t a silly question after all!”), and they are often quite fascinated by the things that others in the group have written on their blue post-its (“Well, I didn’t know that!”).
[optional] Suggest that learners spotting someone else’s question on a pink post-it could add a tick for ‘me too’ if they also want to find out the answer to the question.
Depending on the size of the group, and how interesting the learners find this task, this can usefully take 20 minutes or so.
6. When most learners have had the opportunity to look at most of the post-it entries, ask them to stick the post-its onto two charts, one for pink post-its (questions) and the other for blue post-its (things they already know).
7. This is probably most of the first session used up (if for example lecture slots are around 50 mins), and if so, only do general interest things until the end of the session, but take the charts with the respective post-its away with you.
8. Look through the pink post-its for recurring questions, addressing important topics in the curriculum, and linking well to one or more of the published intended learning outcomes. Look also for blue post-its which suggest that their owners already know the answers to these common questions. Prepare a slide as follows…
9. ‘37 of your pink post-its from the last session were similar to the following (very good) question: “…..” Hands-up if your question was similar to this one. Now hands up if you too want to find out the answer to this question’.

Session 2

10. Use the slide as above, then announce ‘Eleven of you probably know the answer to this question – I know this from what you wrote on your blue post-its! Hands up if you know the answer, and please keep your hand raised, until three or more people who don’t know the answer move to near you. Now, those who know the answer, talk your classmates through it.
11. You can then go on to another recurring question, with the same processes.

This kind of activity allows ownership of the important questions by members of the class, and the fact that other class members can share answers to these questions, rather than the teacher/lecturer providing the answers.

Skill Development:

This activity allows teachers/lectures to develop skills and confidence in allowing learners to contribute significantly to shaping the way that important questions are addressed in class.
It is also very comforting to learners entering a new topic to find out that many of their classmates have similar questions that they want or need answers to, and reassuring that lecturers/teachers take their questions seriously enough to base future class sessions on addressing them.

Resources:

A slide or two of very broad-brush briefing notes about the topic to be addressed in a series of sessions;
Pink and blue post-its, sufficient for one (or more) each for each learner:
Flipchart sheets for learners to stick the post-it onto, after the sharing activity;
Pens to give away for those who come without anything to write with!

References:

Race, P. (2014) ‘Making Learning Happen: 3rd edition’, London: Sage.
Race, P. (2015) ‘The Lecturer’s Toolkit; 4th edition’, Abingdon: Routledge.
http://phil-race.co.uk

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Objective:

Traditionally occupational therapy courses have not focused on the actual business of healthcare, meaning that once in practice, occupational therapists have been ill-equipped to deal with issues such as commissioning and service development requiring buy in from their organisation.

Introduction:

Occupational therapy students on the new PGDip/MSc occupational therapy programme at London South Bank University have to participate in a dragons’ den exercise as part of their module on leadership and service innovation. 

Activity:

The faculty has developed the dragons den as an enjoyable, light-hearted session but also one where everyone could think about what they might need to do to plan and pitch an innovative idea in healthcare. Students are divided into Action Learning Sets of around 6 to 10 individuals who decide on their innovative idea for an occupational therapy service and how to pitch it in 5 minutes to a group of dragons from a range of backgrounds in health and social care.

The task is made more challenging by requiring the students to demonstrate effective leadership skills to develop their ideas within a tight time frame, meaning that they have to divide the tasks between the group and remain in contact via email. The winning team receives a prize, but everyone gets positive feedback and encouragement to help them with “selling” service innovations once they get into practice.

Impact:

N/A

Learner Outcome:

The examples of curriculum development for enterprise related outcomes were originally outlined by Neil Coles at the International Enterprise Educators Conference under the heading 'From Archaeology to Zoology; an A-Z of enterprise in the curriculum'.  For his work in contextualising enterprise for any subject, Neil won the 2013 National Enterprise Educator Award.

Resources:

Insert links to appropriate How To Guides and Case Studies Here

References

• Cardiff University Enterprise | Be Enterprising | Make Things Happen. 2015. [ONLINE] Available at: http://sites.cardiff.ac.uk/cuenterprise/. [Accessed 06 August 2015].  
• London South Bank University. Occupational Therapy (pre-registration mode) - PgDip / MSc. 2015. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.lsbu.ac.uk/courses/course-finder/occupational-therapy-pre-registration-pgdip-msc#course_tab_modules. [Accessed 06 August 2015].

Author/Contact Details

• Neil Coles, Senior Enterprise Learning Officer, Cardiff University (enterprise@cardiff.ac.uk)
• Dr Ian Merrick / Alex Mears - London Southbank University (alex.mears@lsbu.ac.uk)

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Objective:

• Develop an understanding of the benefits of producing a business plan, for them and  their business
• Develop an understanding of the costs and resource implications of producing a business plan to them and their business 
• Alleviate concerns and promote their ownership of the business plan 
• To evidence the power of group work as ideas and issues are considered from different perspectives and shared through small group work

Overview:

This activity is designed to provide an opportunity for students to develop their understanding of the purpose and benefits of producing a business plan as well as expressing any concerns or issues relating to the process.  

Activity:

As an individual task – invite each student to consider the opposing statement below (that preparing a business plan is ‘a waste of time’ and ‘a valuable exercise’ and to make a list of the reasons why someone may agree with each of the statements. 

Each point can then be researched, discussed in small groups, and challenged within the small group situation to create a consensus for presentation.

The activity should be concluded by asking the group to agree where they would rank themselves on the continuum and make their position to the wider group.

This will create a range of presentations, which will draw out of range of concerns and issues, that can then be discussed and explored across the wider group.

Preparing a Business Plan

A waste of time ......................................  A valuable exercise
0                                                                          10

This can also be repeated, following business planning work, to provide a useful reflection tool at the end of the business planning process, when students are invited to consider the statements again having completed the business plan.  This can provide an indication of any change in the entrepreneur / small business owner’s view.

Skill Development:

The decision making within this task is both individual and within a group and therefore develops consensus building through discussion and debate.  The discussion will build deeper understanding of the business planning process and build confidence around this area, whilst the presentation skills to the wider group will build confidence in public speaking and debate.

Objective:

• To provide students with an opportunity to identify and reflect on their own skills.
• To provide students with an opportunity to generate business ideas, and identify opportunities.
• To provide students with knowledge and understanding of how to write and structure a business plan.
• To provide students with an understanding of how to use a business plan effectively.
• To provide students with an awareness of the advice, resources and support available to them.

Overview:

A well-structured, well-research and well-written business plan is an invaluable asset to any new enterprise. Yet many students considering starting up report difficulty in developing business plans and in particular, plans which actively work for them and their business.

Business Planning is a workshop serving as an introduction to the subject, inclusive of opportunities to reflect on skills and generate ideas, and information regarding how to build a strong and cohesive plan around those ideas, and advice regarding using that plan, to turn those ideas into successful businesses.
 
The activity is designed to fit within a typical one hour lecture session, but inclusive of ample opportunities for extension, through practical activity, group discussion or independent research, and could easily form the basis of a more comprehensive scheme of work on the subject. It is designed to be appropriate for students of any level or programme of study. It was originally developed through the HEFCW funded pan-Wales Enterprise Support Programme.

Lesson plans and AV presentations for use in the delivery of the workshop can be downloaded via the link to the ‘ZONE Enterprise Hub’ webpages listed in ‘References’ and ‘Resources.’

Activity:

The activity follows the structure outlined in the ‘Business Planning’ PowerPoint presentation, inclusive of all links and examples.

_{Figure 1. PowerPoint presentation which accompanies this activity.}

Pre-Activity

Students are not required to prepare anything in advance of this workshop. For workshop leaders, preparation is minimal, other than ensuring supporting AV resources are displaying correctly.

Introduction

• Students are welcomed and introduced to the themes that will be covered during the workshop.
• The group may be invited to share their own business experience or business ideas.

Why Bother?

• Students are asked to discuss and share where they see their ideas and business endeavours 10 years from now.
• Students are provided with a basic definition of a business plan.
• Students discuss the purpose of a business plan. Points are suggested and debated.

What to think about?

• Students are asked to reflect on the skills which they possess.
• Students are asked to explore and identify the products and services they can offer, supported by their skill set.
• Students explore how, by reflecting on a particular product or service, they can consider pricing, branding, marketing and sales.
• An indicative example is offered within the PowerPoint presentation to illustrate this. If desired, you may wish to reinforce this by working through a real example offered by a member of the audience.
• (An activity allowing students to identify their skills, and explore opportunities in a greater degree of depth can be found in How To Guide ‘Workshop: Breaking Problems Down and Putting Solutions Together.’)

What to write down?

• The key elements of a basic business plan are covered step by step, with class discussion of the key points at each stage. Namely, the elements covered are; The Executive Summary, The Business Vision, Marketing, Running the Business, Finance.
• Students are introduced to SWOT analysis. If desired, a member of the audience may be invited to offer their own business idea as an example, which a SWOT analysis can be worked through for collectively.
• Students are introduced to cash flow forecast. Again if desired, an indicative example may be offered to demonstrate how the forecast works.

Help and support

Students are provided with links and information regarding the support, advice and assistance available to them as they develop their business plans.

Conclusion

The key themes covered in the workshop are re-capped, and students are invited to ask any outstanding questions which they may have.

Post-Activity

This workshop is intended only as an introduction to the subject of Business Planning. Following the activity, students may utilise the information provided to research and develop their plans independently, or each element of the workshop may be revisited and explored in more depth by the group.

Skill Development:

Students will leave the workshop with greater confidence in their ability, with a better understanding of their skills, and how these skills will support the development of their endeavours. They will have a better knowledge and understanding of business plans and how to develop them, and a greater awareness of how to use business plans to effectively support them in their endeavours.

Resources:

PowerPoint Slides accompanying this activity can be downloaded here > Business Planning [PDF]

References:

Zone Enterprise Hub, Topic: ZONE Resources. 2015. [ONLINE] Available at: https://moodle.glyndwr.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=37§ion=11 . [Accessed 05 August 2015].

Objectives:

• To build a profile of (future) customer as a person
• To develop the business offer through a broader understanding of the customer needs
• To  support critical thinking and evaluation of ideas 

Overview: 

This exercise enables students to demonstrate their understanding of their potential customer and deepen that understanding to create a robust offer.

Activity: 

Give each group or individual a sheet of paper with an outline of (non-male or female) person drawn in the middle. 

Ask them to depict on the figure what they might know about their (future) customer.  This requires them to visually-describe their customer, including things like: 

• Where do they live, work, spend time outside of work and home
• How much do they earn
• Where else might they access products/services like yours
• How do they think, feel
• What experience do they expect 
• What concerns do they have
• What life to do they lead

The purpose is to try and establish a real understanding of what is important to a potential customer, rather than drawing out key “facts” about them (disposable income etc).

Once all the drawings are done, everyone looks collectively at the different customer outlines and tries to add further understanding from what they can see.  The owner of the drawing need not accept these, but can include anything relevant onto their picture.

Once every drawing has been explored, each team/individual needs to articulate one message that they have learnt from this exercise that they can take forward into their planning.  So if offering fast-food to a student customer base, they may have identified price as critical.  However the wider discussion might have identified that students may also select to eat somewhere that is offering free wifi to allow them to connect with others or make plans with each other.  Or if the customer base was a family, then other elements that are important to them such as child-friendly parking, might indicate 1 premises to be more attractive than another.  This “linked” thinking allows the student to draw out the wider benefits of their product or service and explore it in order to create an effective offer.

Skill Development: 

Whilst this task can be based on initial research undertaken by the student, the critical thinking comes from the assumptions that the wider group offer to develop their thinking.  This shows the power of group work and allows the students to deepen their own thinking through the examples of others.

It is useful to explore this task at the end of the session to see how the groups found sharing and testing their assumptions in a group environment.

Resources: 

Paper, pens, flipchart (outline of a person)

Objective:

• The learner will understand the importance of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial behaviour in the context of their subject area
• Will engage with subjects outside their discipline to pitch for and explore ideas and concepts
• To reflect and draw personal conclusions about their capacities and capabilities for entrepreneurial behaviour
• To research and persuade others of the feasibility and viability of their ideas
• To conclude with a ‘live’ opportunity which they can research and develop further through a research project/dissertation, employment or a new business venture

Overview: 

This type of module is appropriate on applied courses, or courses ‘with enterprise’. It is especially valuable where students from a range of disciplines are taught together, invited to ‘bring their discipline and interests with them’ (of course, discipline and interests are not always/often synonymous, and this approach helps with that!)

Activity: 

Students engage in a shared first lecture, setting the context for the module, discussing, and responding to individual learner expectations, and an introduction to innovation, delivered by an inventor, which asks the students to invest in one of a series of inventions, based on a case study of each in practice. They are encouraged to reflect on their choice, and in particular the reasons why they feel that their chosen option represents most value.

In week 2 students return to their own discipline (or choose an area of interest based on the available disciplines) and a session is led by academics and industry guests/entrepreneurs focussing on ‘the current and future trends in the XYZ industry’. This tends to be ‘products for users in Science and Engineering’ subjects (e.g. pets and children), and ‘approaches’ in other subjects (e.g. social and online media). 

Week 3 is a facilitated session in which students join interdisciplinary groups (formulated with as wide a variety of disciplines as possible (e.g. 1xcomputing science, 1xbiology, 1xmarketing and management) and share their findings from the previous week to identify areas of shared interest and the skills each member can contribute.

The remainder of the sessions are built around convincing the module assessors, and industry/entrepreneurs that your emerging idea is worth spending more time, money and effort on developing, and that individual students have the appropriate skills and motivations to deliver on the opportunity. The design of the remaining sessions is aimed at students achieving this objective. Remaining module content and tools can be designed together with the students, using flipped classroom, online resources, and update meetings alongside taught lecture material.

Skill Development: 

The confidence gained by the students is seen as they engage with each other and with externals (industry experts).  They are exposed to entrepreneurship through opportunity spotting and evaluation, and through building their reflective and persuasive/selling skills.  By working in teams they are building collaborative approaches to problem solving and task completion.

Resources: 

Planned engagement – including engagement of academics, entrepreneurs and industry partners in each discipline where a student originates.

Time to coach groups individually, access to mentors or online interaction.

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