Evaluation of Face-to-Face and Online Learning for Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Courses

Abstract

Having moved predominantly online with the UK national lockdown of 2020, a comparison was made of two entrepreneurship courses at The University of Manchester, taught its first online academic year, with the previous year's versions which were face to face. It was found that students generally adapted well to online teaching, feedback and attainment were similar to previous years. However, students felt it was important to have additional access to their lecturers through live sessions, extra assignment help, and need longer time to absorb the material with recorded lectures broken down into smaller videos and activities to aid concentration. They found the live session helpful to meet and work with peers and as part of their studies they want access to both asynchronous and synchronous learning methods. Analysis and recommendations were provided on what the authors consider to be the contributing pedagogic factors of delivering a successful online pedagogic approach in entrepreneurship and make recommendations as to how online learning could be improved.