In today’s dynamic business world, it is vital to gain and maintain a competitive advantage through innovation. As COVID-19 turned our lives upside down, many of us have had to learn new skills and innovative ways to get on with our day-to-day tasks. It has not even been one year since I moved to Australia and I not only started teaching in a new university and a new country, but we managed to move all our teaching online due to a global pandemic! In my case, I was teaching innovation for growth, a master’s course that helps students from different backgrounds to advance on their new venture idea. Learning from this experience, I am glad to share a student’s testimonial about this experience.
“I am writing to express my appreciation of the support I received during my learning journey in Trimester 1 in the course, 7030MKT innovation for growth. Because of the current pandemic, the course was delivered online instead of face-to-face as initially planned. This turned out to be a fantastic opportunity for me thanks to the technology available. Now I am more familiar with using digital tools such as Microsoft Teams and Collaborate to communicate with lecturers, classmates, and friends.”
“While battling study stress and social disconnection, I found that communication with empathy was a great way to build rapport under the current circumstances—seeking help when needed or giving support to fellow classmates where I could—we’re all in this together.”
“Although the concept of entrepreneurship was new to me prior to enrolling, this course has given me insight into what being an entrepreneur entails, such as constructing a business model canvas (BMC) through to a business plan. I also had a taste of pitching my idea.”
“I know this is just the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey and I look forward to discovering so much more.”
“I highly recommend this course for anyone wanting to learn more about entrepreneurship and recognising new product opportunities. Overall, I enjoyed the course very much and learned a great deal.”
Joanne Wing Hei Ng
Teaching entrepreneurship is an engaging experience that gives us the opportunity to interact with students, to get to know their innovative ideas, and support them in their process of growing their new ventures. Students also take great benefit from the in-class experience as they can interact and network with their peers and grow together. However, with the new regulations imposed to minimize the spread of the virus, our workshops have been moved online which made this engagement a great challenge for all.
Despite the initial uncertainty of how we would manage to offer students a similar learning environment, it was a joint effort from all to make this a blossoming experience. Also, the positive response from Joanne has made me realise how much can be gained from learning new skills—planned or unplanned. None of us expected to be in the situation we are in a few months ago. Yet we are not only surviving, but we are thriving.
Joanne also submitted one of her course assessments “JoJo’s 3D Printing Hub” to the Student Marketing Achievement organised by Australian Marketing Institute (AMI) which recognises students’ achievements in marketing during their academic studies.
Dr Carla Riverola is a Lecturer in the Department of Business Strategy and Innovation.
