Empower Assurance of Learning through Sustainability and Social Entrepreneurship Active Learning

Dea Debra, Sacramento Isabella, Mariano Sandra R.H., Rocha Saulo Barroso, Guenster Nadja, Cruz Luciano Barin, Pozzebon Marlei

Abstract
How can educators engage students while accomplishing assurance of learning for essential curriculum content? This workshop will describe innovative practices in active learning that deliver explicit course and school outcomes while immersing students in solving real world sustainability and social entrepreneurship challenges. By embedding financial, social, and environmental decision-making consequences into student projects and performance evaluation, educators can inspire passion for learning, foster development of core competencies, and improve assurance of learning. Workshop facilitators will describe engaging pedagogical models that incorporate purposeful design thinking, live problem solving, crowd-sourcing, university-wide integration, and social entrepreneurship. Panelists (and topics) include: Ana Siqueira, Duquesne University (experiential learning aligned with the Principles for Responsible Management Education), Diane Ramos, Duquesne University (design thinking in live consulting projects), Dianne Welsh, University of North Carolina, Greensboro (cross-disciplinary initiative with a sustainable student-run retail store on campus, winner of the 2012 USASBE Best Emerging Program and the 2013 Freedoms Foundation Leavey Award), Debra Sea, Bemidji State University (crowd-sourcing student videos for social enterprises), Isabella Sacramento, Sandra Mariano, and Saulo Rocha, Universidade Federal Fluminense (class activity generating a donation to a social enterprise), Nadja Guenster, University of California Berkeley (student-run socially responsible investment fund), and Luciano Barin Cruz (multi-year service learning abroad). The workshop will focus on sharing teaching practices, overcoming obstacles, and collaborating on new directions in active learning, including methodology for applying essential course concepts; platforms for student interface with external stakeholders; strategies for cross-functional team teaching; and use of metrics and multi-source feedback to evaluate student performance.

Keywords
Active learning; Social entrepreneurship; Sustainability