EIP: Assessment

EIP is assessed entirely through coursework assignments. All coursework is submittted via Learn. 
The course involves a number of pieces of assessment that carry no weight in the final mark but support the production of those that are formally assessed and marked. You will receive feedback on all submitted pieces of coursework within a week from submission. 

Value Proposition Business Plan (50% of total course mark)

For this assignment, students will produce a web site and pitch as a team that presents their business idea, product, value proposition, market research, team, financial plan, and long-term strategy. Submissions will be based on the following criteria: 

• They submission demonstrates a solid understanding of all elements of developing a business value proposition.
• The product demo delivered as part of the pitch demonstrates the value of the innovation.
• The submission and pitch clearly describe and justify assumptions and decisions made in the process of developing the proposition.
• The submission clearly identifies the roles and contributions of each team member

Teams will create a WordPress site and submit it via Learn. They will also present a demo and pitch at an in-person session to a panel of judges and course staff in Week Eleven. There are no specific requirements on the size of the submission, however it should be possible for the user to consume all key information in a concise, straightforward way. There will be no penalties for overlong submissions, however presenting redundant information on the web site will be penalised. In-person pitches will be kept to a strict time limit.

Submissions will be marked by the course organiser, taking scores and feedback received from an expert panel of judges after the pitching session as well as input from the course demonstrators into account. Individual marks will take the descriptions of individual contributions as presented by team member into account. 

Students will receive face-to-face feedback in a class feedback session after the submission and pitching panel. A written version of this feedback will be separately provided. 

A draft web site will be submitted in Week Eight that will not be formally assessed to receive feedback while you are developing the final submission. 

Financial Statements Test (20% of total course mark)

Students will complete a take-home exam to demonstrate their individual knowledge of financial statements, modelling and business planning concepts. Submissions will be assessed based on the following criteria:

• The submission demonstrates that the student can explain and apply key financial concepts used in financial statements
• The student is able to analyse example financial statements and perform relevant calculations correctly
• The student is capable of developing a financial model and projections based on key modelling and business assumptions
• The student has developed critical skills that allow you to question assumptions and challenge deficiencies in financial statements

Students have 48 hours after the coursework is issued to submit their using Gradescope via Learn. Submissions will be checked for plagiarism, and the exam will provide specific instructions on the length of each answer. Any additional text that exceeds the limits set out in the assignment will be ignored for marking purposes, but will not be penalised. Written group feedback will be provided that addresses common errors together with a model solution. Individual feedback will by provided through annotations and comments on the submission and sent out by e-mail. 

A practice financial statements exercise will be issued in Week Three that carries no formal marks.  

Reflective Essay (30% of course mark)

Students will have to submit an essay to reflect on the skills they developed in the course, problems the encountered, and approaches they tried out to address these. Essays be assessed based on the following criteria:

• Ability to extract key learnings from the course in terms of new insights and knowledge that advanced the student's understanding of entrepreneurship and innovation.
• Ability to describe and explain the approach the student took to perform the tasks required for the course, including difficulties encountered and measures taken to overcome these.
• A ability to reflect on own strengths and weaknesses and how the student leveraged and addressed those, respectively, explaining how this affected their experience in the course.
• Ability to evaluate how external factors (e.g. technical issues, other team members’ behaviours, prior knowledge, unexpected events) impacted learning.
• Ability to demonstrate critical thinking, appraising circumstances and behaviours in a balanced and thoughtful way, and to exercise rigour in terms of presenting evidence and easoned arguments to support the views presented.

The essay is submitted using Gradescope via Learn, and submissions will be checked for plagiarism. The essay should be no less than 1,500 and no more than 2,000 words. Any additional text that exceeds the 2,000 word limit will be ignored, but will not be penalised. You will receive extensive written feedback on your submission by e-mail.

Seven weekly personal blog entries (300-500 words) will be submitted between Weeks Two and Eight to provide feedback and support incremental development of the essay, and it is anticipated that the final piece of work will be put together using a substantial amount of content from these blog posts.