A Brief Guide to Student Projects with Industry
Mark E. Hillon, Yue Cai-Hillon
Harmon College of Business and Professional Studies, University of Central Missouri, Warrensburg, Missouri 64093, {hillon@ucmo.edu, cai-hillon@ucmo.edu}
Darrell Brammer
Small Business and Technology Development Center, University of Central Missouri, Warrensburg, Missouri 64093, {brammer@ucmo.edu}
Abstract
Student projects with industry have much to offer in terms of enhanced student learning, but they can be difficult to create, plan, and manage sustainably. This paper details and distills the best practices from a four-year process to develop an undergraduate business strategy course around a student project with industry. This reflexive process revealed that our traditional analytical approach to business strategy was not teaching students how to create strategy in practice. Integration of course learning objectives with project deliverables was a key to replicating a practical project-based learning experience each semester. The needs for an industry liaison, additional student preparation, and active client engagement in the learning process are also discussed.
Key words
small business development center; industry liaison; project deliverables; strategy; experiential learning
History
Received: June 2011; accepted: June 2012
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Citation Information
Hillon, M. E., Y. Cai-Hillon, D. Brammer. 2012. A Brief Guide to Student Projects with Industry. INFORMS Trans. Ed. 13(1) 10-16. Available online at http://ite.pubs.informs.org/.