BYU-Hawaii's Willes Center for International Entrepreneurship, the BYUH Center for Instructional Technology and Outreach (CITO), two alumni and the Church Employment Resource Services office in Makati City, the Philippines, are launching the university's first-ever beta testing of a high-level CD-ROM-based entrepreneurship course this summer.
Center Director Gregory V. Gibson, J.D., explained the CIE has been working with CITO for the past two years "to put together an exciting program that we've just rolled out on a limited test basis. It's a high-level college course — the same one we teach here on campus, where it's called Entrepreneurship for Non-Business Majors — and includes accounting, finance, entrepreneurship and marketing principles. We've basically put the course online and actually improved it," he said.
Like many business courses, Gibson said the beta CD-ROM consists of case studies, but in this program they're "all derived from our own annual business plan competitions," including:
- A pig farm in Cambodia, started by Veasna Neang, a 2004 international business management graduate.
- A carpet cleaning business concept designed for Mongolia by 2005 accounting graduate Erdenetsetseg "Tseegii" Tumurbaatar and Tsogtbilegt "Tsgoto" Enkhbold, a current student.
- Da Kine Wireless, a cell phone business in Laie Shopping Center started up and already sold by 2004 international business management graduate Devin Moncur.
- The Fiesta Mexican Restaurant concept for Khabarovsk, far-east Russia, by international business management graduates Heber ('03) and Olga Molton ('05).
"This is really a cutting edge program. Each one of these case studies has six steps that teach all of the principles that are necessary," Gibson said. "In other words, we've solved problems which teach all aspects of starting your own business. At the end of the training, the participants will come up with their own business plan," Gibson said.
"The two things that are most important whenever you're teaching people who have been away from school for awhile, according to CITO's Dr. Dave Merrill, is you have to show them relevancy and engage them right away."
"We've used what we call the Macintosh approach to do that: We've taken very difficult concepts, which they learn in very small amounts at a time, and all of the different disciplines that an entrepreneur needs, and teach them together. Each lesson uses principles from marketing, finance, management, and operations — so there's no false barriers between the disciplines, just like in business," Gibson continued. "That's what an entrepreneur does."
"This is the best integrated approach I've ever seen to teaching entrepreneurship," said Gibson, adding the CD-ROM uses a Flash™-based interface that can be used on most computers.
He noted he recently returned from the Philippines where he delivered the latest version of the CD-ROM to Jomel C. Villanueva, Manager–North, Church Employment Resource Services office in Makati City; and BYU-Hawaii alumni Devin Moncur and Lalaine Lim, a 2005 accounting graduate who has returned home to the Philippines. The two alumni will conduct the beta testing out of that office.
Moncur recently sold his cell phone business in Laie Shopping Center and moved to the Philippines to fulfill a promise to his wife, Marieve Dimaya Moncur, a 2003 computer science graduate who is originally from the Philippines.
"When they got married, he promised her they would spend at least a year in the Philippines. They just left a couple of weeks ago," said Dr. Brent Wilson, Dean of the BYU-Hawaii School of Business. "Her father is going to be in the first group of students who go through the course."
"Devin and Lalaine are probably higher-level teachers than we might have in the future," Gibson continued. "We're hoping the program is strong enough that they'll be effective. The next part of the beta will be to see if we can take someone not as strong, for example, and teach the course."
"Everyone over there is very excited," said Gibson, adding the Presiding Bishopric is expected to give final approval this week, and potential students are being identified.
"We're trying for big diversity in the first group, because we need to find out how to best teach this program. For example, how many hours a week should they meet? Also, some of the individuals will have very little practical experience, so we're looking to gain a lot of data from this site."
"We're very fortunate to have Devin help us, because he started his business in Laie with very little money," Gibson continued. He pointed out that "eventually the course will be offered online through CITO, but most places don't have high-speed internet yet. Until then, it will all be very accessible through the CD-ROM program."
"We expect it to parallel the three-unit course that's offered here on campus, which requires 43 contact-hours of instruction. Our new visiting entrepreneur, Brother Sheffield, who will replace Brother John Simcox, will be teaching this course this coming Fall and Winter Semesters; but what we've got on the CD-ROM will be the backbone. Brother Simcox spent his last semester here working out the bugs."
"There's no charge for the program through the Church employment center," Gibson said, "but there will be a charge for the online course."
"This is exactly the model that we hoped for when we started this project two years ago," said Dr. Wilson.
"I'm excited," Gibson added. "Our whole plan from the beginning has been to have remote learning centers. This is the first one. We soon hope to roll this out in Fiji, then translate it into French and bring it out in Tahiti. The Chambers of Commerce in both Fiji and Tahiti have expressed strong desire for this course."
"The whole idea is to help people who will never make it to BYU-Hawaii get a college experience, and for them to be schooled in entrepreneurship at a high level. We're broadening and extending the reach of BYU-Hawaii in a big way."