Essential MOOC Courses In Business For October

Beyond Silicon Valley: Growing Entrepreneurship in Transitioning Economies

School: Case Western Reserve University

Platform: Coursera

Registration Link: Beyond Silicon Valley: Growing Entrepreneurship in Transitioning Economies

Start Date: October 3, 2014 (6 Weeks)

Workload: 2-3 Hours per Week

Instructor: Michael Goldberg

Credentials: Before joining Case Western Reserve as a Visiting Professor of Design and Innovation, Michael Goldberg served as the Director of International Business Development for America Online, where he negotiated multi-million dollar partnerships, including a $200 million dollar joint venture with China’s largest PC manufacturer. He also co-founded a venture capital firm that invests in medical devices. Before that, he worked for the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), to conduct voter education programs before South Africa’s first democratic national election in 1994. He holds an MBA from Wharton.

Graded: Students will receive a signed Certificate of Accomplishment for completing the course.

Description: Silicon Valley is only one model for entrepreneurship. Locally and globally, there are numerous models for supporting entrepreneurial growth. And you’ll find many of them in Cleveland, Ohio, which is ground zero for this course. According to Professor Goldberg, each weekly session “will feature a different entrepreneur from Northeast Ohio and look at how government and donor organizations combined with private investment to help them grow their companies. We will examine why the various programs and organizations were put in place to support entrepreneurs, how the success of these initiatives are measured, and where there are challenges. We will also provide different perspectives from international entrepreneurs and thought leaders who will compare and contrast their experience on a particular topic with their counterparts in Northeast Ohio.” In addition, the course will examine seed acceleration, angel investing, and accessing venture capital.

Students will be evaluated using video quizzes, posts to discussion forums, surveys, and a peer-review profile of a local entrepreneur. The course will also be heavily interactive, where students will have opportunities to question entrepreneurs and guests.

Review: “Excellent course offering wide knowledge about different ways for support of entrepreneurs, interestingly designed and it opened my mind to think more deeply in the topic. It is very interactive and offers a unique chance to learn how the transitioning economies are creating models for support of entrepreneurship. Also you can see variety of interviews with entrepreneurs worldwide, sharing their stories and what types of support they used. So it actually motivated me to raise some questions and look for solutions: what is the situation in my country regarding this topic, what are the challenges, how can some of the creative models for growing entrepreneurship that I have saw during the course can be adapted in the economy where I live and help in creation more jobs, etc. I warmly recommend it.” For additional reviews, click here.

Additional Note: Professor Goldberg would prefer that students submit a two-minute video as part of their final project.

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