Familiarise yourself with the course site and course guide.

• Dates: Independent study before starting the course.
• Learning materials:
  • About IENT102
  1. Start here.
  2. Course guide.
• Key activities:
  1. Complete the OERu new participant survey (optional).
  2. Complete the 5 things you should do before starting the course

Establish your personal learning environment (PLE) and declare yourself.

• Dates: Independent study (recommend 2 days)
• Learning materials:
  1. Establish a personal learning environment
• Key activities:
  1. Work through the learning materials for this Learning pathway
  2. Post a “Toot” using the course IENT102 hashtag
  3. Create your forums account for IENT102 and complete your profile page
  4. Practice annotating a wep page with the IENT102 course code
  5. Create your bookmarks account and search for links using IENT102
  6. Create a learning journal blog for IENT102
  7. Complete the “Declare yourself challenge for IENT102

In this learning pathway, we explore the legal forms of a business. What different forms of business are there, and what is appropriate for your new start-up business?

• Dates: Independent study (recommend 2 days)
• Key actitvities:
  1. Work through the learning materials for this learning pathway
  2. Introduce yourself (WEnote)
  3. Deciding on the appropriate form of business ownership (Reading, Learning Journal)
  4. Sole proprietorship (Research Activity)
  5. Partnership (Research Activity)
  6. Corporation (Research Activity)
  7. Knowledge check (Business Ownership Quiz)
  8. Learning challenge
  9. Knowledge test (Quiz)

In this learning pathway, we explore business ethics.

• Dates: Independent study (recommend 2 days)
• Key activities:
  1. Work through the materials for this learning pathway
  2. Business ethics (Vote, WEnote)
  3. What is business ethics (Reading, Quiz, Reflection)
  4. Case studies (Reading, Vote, Reflection)
  5. Web search (Resource Bank Activity)
  6. Learning challenge
  7. Knowledge test (Quiz)

In this learning pathway, we explore the role of professional advisers and business mentors, in relation to a start-up business.

• Dates: Independent study (recommend 2 days)
• Key activities:
  1. Work through the materials in this learning pathway
  2. The importance of mentorship (WEnote)
  3. Getting advice about your business (Reading, Discussion Forum)
  4. What is mentorship? (Case Studies, Discussion Forum)
  5. Learning challenge
  6. Knowledge test (Quiz)

In this learning pathway, we explore business planning; the different elements, and the purpose and benefits of a business plan

• Dates: Independent study (recommend 2 days)
• Key activities:
  1. Work through the materials for this learning pathway
  2. What is a business plan? (WEnote)
  3. Purposes of business plans (Discussion Forum)
  4. Elements of a business plan (WEnote)
  5. Templates and Examples (Reading, Resource Bank Activity)
  6. The role of prototyping (Reading, WEnote)
  7. Learning challenge
  8. Knowledge test (Quiz)

In this learning pathway, we explore how to prepare a business presentation.

• Dates: Independent study (recommend 2 days)
• Key activities
  1. Work through the materials in this learning pathway
  2. Planning a presentation (WEnote)
  3. Audience expectations (Reading, Discussion Forum)
  4. The ‘investor pitch’ (Reading)
  5. Using visuals (Video, Reading, Quiz)
  6. Presentation resource bank (Resource Bank Activity, Learning Journal)
  7. Learning challenge
  8. Knowledge test (Quiz)