Peer Review

Edupreneur Academy: Free Self-Paced Course

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Reviewed:: Sep 17, 2022 by Professional Coaching

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Ratings

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:

This site and course support individuals who are interested in learning more about school start-ups or innovating within an existing school model. The free course is available at the bottom of the homepage, as well as a paid version.There are blogs, podcasts, and case studies provided on this site, as well.

The materials allow for an on demand, self-paced certificate course in Edupreneur Leadership. This course supports individuals who are interested in learning more about school start-ups or innovating within an existing school model.

Type of Material:

Online Course

Recommended Uses:

This material is written in a way that could be used in a self-paced individual fashion.

Technical Requirements:

Website, web browser

Identify Major Learning Goals:

The major learning goals are well articulated in each unit. The overall purpose of the course is to describe the new figure called "edupreneur". The authors provide detailed content on the characteristics of a successful edupreneur and how they can apply to the creation of a new school. The course also touches on topics such as governance, ownership funding, school operations, and marketing strategies that matter when planning for a new school. Topics covered include:

Learn what is an Edupreneur

Learn what an Edupreneur does

Learn about leadership skills and the big picture

Learn how to become an asset to the schools and universities as an Edupreneur

Certificate course: learn what it takes to start up a school

Target Student Population:

College General Ed, and above would be the target population. Special interest groups, such as religiously motivated individuals would be a target as well.

Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

Basic computer skills are required. No previous knowledge about the topic is needed. However, an educational background in K-12 or higher ed, educational technology and instructional design background would be helpful.

Content Quality

Rating:

Strengths:

Comprehensive and detailed presentation. Diverse topics covered, with enough content to provide an overview of the different components involved in creating a school and making it sustainable.

The way the units are structured is very good (videos, content, polls and quizzes) and easy to follow. There is also a great infographic.

Videos are of very high quality, the content is excelent and they are very well balanced in terms of amount of content provided, time and clarity of the message. Picture quality, sound and format is very good in all units.

Concerns:

The quality of the content is variable.

As mentioned above, the videos are excellent. The quality of some of the graphics is poor (particularly the last 6 graphics, from individual schools). There are typos that merit attention, particularly those large letter typos on figures (Scholorships, Vitural), Capitalization in the infographic needs attention.

Some of the photographs chosen to complement the text need a second thought. The figure chosen to go along the text describing an entrepreneur is extremely stereotypical and certainly departed from the audience this particular course would like to target.

Terminology such as 2020 pandemic should be rephrased as COVID 19 pandemic.

The authors refer to the No child left behind act. That has been replaced by the “Every Student Succeeds Act” and the text should be replaced.

Too much information on Oklahoma, that does not seem to serve a clear purpose.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:

Strengths:

Clean and well designed site. Good navigation. There are scholarships available and the course is connected to Oklahoma University. "Contact us If you are interested in taking the Edupreneur Leadership course for college credit through Oklahoma State University."

Great professional development opportunity and badge option:

"Free Course and Badges to Use for Professional Development

This version of the course allows you to earn individual badges in each of the five modules listed below. Earn just one badge or work towards multiple badges. This version of the course does not include mastery assignments or feedback from the instructor. Upon completion of each module, you can apply for a badge of completion to add to your learning record and share on your social profiles.

The Edupreneur Mindset
What’s a School
Designing a School
Operating a School
Taking Care of Business "

Concerns:

Full version is not free. However, the available content is useful though limited.

The teaching-learning goals and consequent uses are not easy to identify until treading the module called Discover.

The units are of variable depth. Some units do not seem to fit the course (i.e.: economy). They do not bring enough depth to the topic, creating a confusion rather than provided a new element to complement the learning.

Quizzes need to be revisited. Some of the questions target memory and not learning. There are question such as: "how many guidelines", or "what is the name of a school" instead of asking about content delivered in the unit. Formulating questions is a complicated exercise. If quizzes are added to the course, the questions need to be formulated properly and targeting acquired knowledge.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:
Strengths:: Good instructions for use and clear and consistent layout. Simple software easy to navigate. No issues with the flow of the entire course. No broken links. Videos run properly.
Concerns:: At least one photo does not download, so content owner needs to review and replace outdated or broken image links.

Other Issues and Comments:: Most of the issues were described above. Some of the text has typos, such as in the topic Core values (many, many duplicated)
Creative Commons: