Distance Learning Centers
The CIE is organizing distance learning facilities and on-line entrepreneurial instruction (“Distance Learning Centers”) to teach entrepreneurship. The Distance Learning Centers facilitate the needs of the large number of students who lack means to attend an expensive distant university. After completing the Center’s curriculum and mentoring program through the distant learning facilities, graduates will have the tools necessary to recognize profitable business opportunities in their respective homelands. They will be empowered with the entrepreneurial tools necessary to envision their life as a successful business owner in their own society. And, each CIE graduate will have an enlarged vision of what he or she can individually accomplish, along with the courage, assurance and confidence necessary to seek out and better their respective lives through entrepreneurship.
The Curriculum
The curriculum of the CIE Distance Learning Centers will consist of six basic courses or modules that will be offered to potential entrepreneurs both at BYUH, on-line and through Distance Learning Centers in the target areas. These six courses are to cover the fundamental principles and basic skills required to successfully create and run a sustainable business. The courses are:
1. Developing a Business Idea into a Business Opportunity
2. Basic Principles of Accounting and Business Record Keeping
3. Fundamentals of Small Business Management
4. Principles of Marketing and Market Development
5. Basic Finance and Small Business Funding
6. Business Operations and Small Business Practicum
“Proctored” Distance Learning
These six courses are designed for a “proctored” learning environment. This means that the courses, while all self-contained using the principles of “distance learning,” utilize an on-site, active trainer or proctor. These proctors will have already successfully completed the course and demonstrated that they have mastered the skills taught. Proctored courses give students the opportunity to ask clarifying questions of an immediately available “teacher,” provide immediate feedback and approval from a live person, and enhance the student obligation to progress and finish course work. This provides incentives for learning that non-proctored “distance learning” courses cannot provide. Successful pilot programs have already been completed. Although still in the development stages, the demo course for that pilot can be seen at http://apps.byuh.edu/faculty/entreprenuer/main.html . (The demo currently only works in Internet Explorer.)
