The technological disruption of E-Learning offers Entrepreneurship Education (EE) an unprecedented opportunity to leverage the affordances of web 2.0 and to widen the scope of entrepreneurship educational programs. However, in practice, high dropout rates in online courses (near 90%) pose major challenges to EE researchers. In this paper, we use learning analytics to explore the case of dropout during a female-oriented online entrepreneurship educational program. We observed that the evolution of dropouts and learning behavior of the participants in this program is not linear in time. Persistence decays in a two-step process: The first dropout phase reaches approximately 30% before the middle of the program and then stabilizes around that number. A second dropout phase is triggered in the last quarter of the program and it continues declining until the end of the program. This dropout pattern corresponds to the interaction indicators at aggregated level: Before the middle of the program the level of interaction drops together with the number of active users. However, the reduction in the interaction frequency is disproportionate in relation to the fall of number of the active users. After dividing by the percentage of active users the number of interactions still drops before the middle of the program. Using social network analysis (SNA) we show that initial dropouts have a considerable effect on the connectivity of the communication network, this is consistent with the observed decrease in social interactions. We also found significant correlations between entrepreneurial competencies and indicators of learning behavior and persistence, at the individual level. In line with the relevant literature, the most significant feature associated with persistent behavior was found to be the risk-taking orientation. Our findings suppose the first step towards an empirical model of persistence in Entrepreneurship Education online programs providing valuable insights for future research and for developing retention methods in online courses.
The objective of the study is to examine the extent to which shortcomings can be identified in the sub-process chain for securing and evaluating the learning transfer in vocational education at companies in the Federal Republic of Germany. It is argued that there are shortcomings in securing the learning transfer in vocational education at companies in Germany. All the companies in the DAX30, MDAX, SDAX and TecDAX and/or the 500 family-owned companies with the highest sales revenue and at least 1,000 employees were surveyed in this investigation. The sampling consisted of 632 of 660 companies in total. 107 companies took part in the online survey. The findings in the study show that only one quarter of the examined companies in Germany secured and evaluated the entire process chain for the learning transfer. The methods applied for securing the learning transfer at companies exhibit conceptual shortcomings in the securing of the learning transfer. A model for securing the learning transfer has been developed and recommended for specific transfer securing of vocational education for German companies.
The key features of female entrepreneurs' learning and its outcomes within the four dimensions of Kirkpatrick model are well documented. At the same time, each training program provides a unique instructional and social framework to be empirically explored. The current paper contributes to the evaluation of the Women Entrepreneurs: The Education and Training for Success Programme, which is a four-year project within the Horizon 2020 European Union initiative. We apply GLS Fixed-Effects and Logistic Regression models for a merged student-tutor log dataset to examine the interaction between participants' learning and instructors' direct facilitation levels. Our analysis shows that despite a low share of student-tutor interactions within the course activity, they are the only significant predictor of learners' engagement with the course content (p<0.001) and dropout probability (p<0.05). This implies that the exclusive application of the constructivist perspective for business education should be revisited, in particular with regard to the female firm owners.
Introduction: The extent of new enterprise creation is a key driver contributing to economic, social, individual, and cultural values. Given a relatively low rate of Total Early-stage Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) in Germany, an understanding of the predictors of adolescent entrepreneurial career preferences is critical in developing ways to foster the interest of young people in entrepreneurship. Although the late precursors of the intention to become self-employed are largely understood, only a few studies have investigated which early individual-level factors affect the subjective probability of becoming an entrepreneur. Objective: The objective of the current study is to identify and statistically examine personality factors that affect the subjective probability of adolescents becoming entrepreneurs. Methods: Based on the German Socio-Economic Panel, we employed logistic regression to research the dependence of the variable “probability of becoming self-employed” on independent variables such as gender, locus of control (LoC), and personality traits for German adolescents aged between 16–17 years. Results: The study reveals a positive influence of the personality traits conscientiousness, extraversion, and LoC on the probability of being self-employed for German adolescents aged between 16–17 years. Agreeableness and neuroticism were found to have no significant effect on the subjective probability of adolescents becoming entrepreneurs, and openness was found to have no significant impact on high likelihood of being self-employed. For adolescents, being female has a significant impact only on a medium probability to be self-employed. Conclusion: To the current body of personality models explaining early adolescent entrepreneurial career preferences, we contribute a model which refers to a representative sample of adolescents in German society.
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