MSLV4101 Communication for leaders Course description

Courses consist of lectures, seminars and practical work. In addition, workshops and discussion groups are offered to facilitate and stimulate learning. Written work requirements are intended to develop reflective, argumentative and critical responses to the curriculum and lectures, as well as to acquire writing skills at post-graduate level. Oral presentations and discussions develop discursive skills, whilst specialisation in an area of research promotes scholarly and independent learning. The students will also be required to attend several hackathons or similar seminars or events with external stakeholders.

The teaching method relies on practical training, since there is a consensus among several scholars within entrepreneurship that entrepreneurship education should be based on experiential learning. Moreover, experiential learning enables students to experience what it is like to be an entrepreneur prior to reflecting on theory offered through the foundational entrepreneurship courses in the programme.

Learning process

• Faculty have a close professional relationship with the students and take on a facilitating role.
• Students take action, experiment and iterate through and with real ventures/projects in the value creation process. This gives students a high degree of responsibility for the process of learning by doing.
• Students learn to act first, then reflect, react, readjust and then act again.

Incubation

All students are offered access to incubator programmes. An important function of incubator programmes is to provide a space where students can sit and work on their ventures or projects.

Incubator programme will be in contact with startups to enhance the learning community and to share resources and spaces, and the choice of incubator programmes is based on the students' needs and the nature of their ventures or projects.

Mentorship

Internal and external mentors contribute to the delivery of the programme and serve as support mechanisms for the students and for the programme.

Mentors contribute to the programme in a variety of ways. First, they serve as role models for the students while bringing in up-do-date and relevant experience and second they help develop students’ ventures by providing support, advice and access to networks and mentoring them on pressing issues. Teaching methods

The master’s programme in entrepreneurship at OsloMet combines student-centred and teacher-centred teaching and working methods. There is also an overlap between them, where student-centred methods are also teacher-led.

Teaching methods include:

• Lectures
• Workshops (both faculty and industry)
• Game-based learning
• Inquiry-based learning (where teachers are available for questions)
• Expeditionary learning (out of the building and explore)
• Flipped classroom
• Group/individual mentoring (linked to business)
• Coaching (personalised learning)
• Cases with teacher-led discussions
• Group work and collaboration between students
• Experiments, iterations, prototyping and hypothesis testing
• Participation in real-life seminars and events with external stakeholders, e.g. hackathons
• Guest speakers

OsloMet uses Canvas, a cloud-based learning platform that facilitates student-active forms of work and teaching and serves as the university's channel of communication with its students.

This master's degree programme gives students an understanding of global entrepreneurship and innovation-driven ecosystems and markets. The programme seeks an international orientation along several dimensions. The programme uses international lecturers and guest speakers, and all compulsory reading consist of international articles and books.

Students can choose to write their master´s thesis abroad in conjunction with one of the exchange programmes offered to all master students at OsloMet, or be connected to one of OsloMet’s partnering universities around the world.

Students can also join current ongoing research projects (for example within the European Project Semester (EPS) or other within internationally financed research projects or in collboration with Centre for Welfare and Labour Research).

Students can also apply to the Norwegian School of Entrepreneurship (Gründerskolen) summer school managed by the University of Oslo. Students can travel to Boston, Toronto or San Francisco.

Students are expected to attend and participate in classes and learning activities. Practical experience from compulsory learning activities and classroom discussions are important for student learning. Coursework requirements are compulsory. Assignments that are not handed in on time or that are found unsatisfactory will disqualify students from sitting the final examination. All specific coursework requirements are outlined in the course descriptions. The coursework requirements help support the learning outcomes by training students in performing the tasks and ensuring that students acquire skills and knowledge that are not tested during the exam itself.

The students' rights and obligations are set out in Regulations relating to studies and examinations at OsloMet. The regulations describe conditions for resitting/rescheduling exams, the right to appeal, and definitions of cheating in exams, etc. Students are responsible for registering for any resits or rescheduled exams. Students are responsible for familiarising themselves with these rules and regulations.

The forms of assessment vary and are outlined in the course descriptions. They apply to term papers, portfolios, process papers, essays and presentation. The master's thesis is an independent piece of work related to a topic of the student’s choice.

Exam papers are assessed by one internal and one external examiner. The master's thesis is assessed by one internal and one external examiner. The assessment is outlined in the respective course descriptions. A grading scale from A to F will normally be used in assessments. Pass grades range from A to E, while F is a fail. Students have the right to appeal against a grade, whereupon examinations are re-evaluated by two new examiners (one internal and one external). Students are advised that an appeal may result in a grade lower than the grade originally awarded.

The following compulsory activity must have been approved in order for the student to take the exam:

• Compulsory activity: Skills training is part of the course. The minimum attendance requirement for teaching activities is therefore 80%. In the event of absence above 20%, the student must submit an alternative piece of coursework in the form of a written memo of 2-4 pages. If the alternative coursework requirement submitted is unsatisfactory, an improved version must be submitted within a deadline stipulated by the lecturer. This compulsory activity lets student train and observe communication in practice

Compulsory activities must be completed and approved by the given deadline in order for the student to take the exam. If absence exceeds 40%, the student will not be permitted to take the exam.

The exam in the course is an individual home exam over a period of three days (72 hours). The exam paper must have a scope of 8-10 pages. Font and font size: Arial/Calibri 12 points. Line spacing: 1.5.

All aids are permitted, as long as the rules for source referencing are complied with.

Grade scale A-F

The exam papers are assessed by one internal and one external examiner.

At least 25% of the exam papers will be assessed by two examiners. The grades awarded for the papers assessed by two examiners form the basis for determining the level for all the exam papers.

Hilde Mobekk