Social Entrepreneurship

Yukari ITO (Center for International Education and Exchange)

Capacity
   30

Cource Objective
   To develop an understanding of basic methodology and knowledge about social innovation.
   To encourage an understanding of social and regional problems.
   To overview a problem, develop user-centered concepts, create a model plan and share ideas with team members.
   To utilize design thinking in order to develop new ideas that simultaneously meet social needs and create new social relationships or collaborations.

Requirement / Prerequisite
   Participating in and collaborating during team-based work and multi-disciplinary discussion are essential in class.
   This class is for intermediate students.

Course Content
   In this course, we will explore the process of design thinking approach and create new business plan for social and regional problems. We will map out the methods and knowledge about social innovation. We encourage participants to work with trial and error approach in team work.

Class Plan

• Week 1-2: Orientation and Getting to Know Each Other
  By using "elevator pitch", every participant should introduce himself or herself.
  In terms of building a team in this class, we will get to know each other at early stage.
• Week 3-9: Social Entrepreneurship and Key Knowledge
  We will move to topics about Social entrepreneurship: building a new team, fundraising, and managing an organization. We will use case studies to understand the background and context of social innovation.
• Week 10-14: Group Work
  We will make a new business plan regarding social and regional problems by group work.
  We will have a mid-term presentation and get a feedback before the final presentation.
• Week 15: Final Presentation (Open Presentation in Campus)
  We will have an open presentation event inside the university.
  We will invite guests at the class and have comments for group's proposal in the class.

Textbooks
   No assigned textbook.
   Various reading materials and references will be distributed in each class.

Grading Policy
   Evaluation will be based on class contributions: attendance and activities (40%),
   oral presentation (30%), and written assignments (30%).