Institutionalizing the assessment of engineering entrepreneurship

Several years ago, Penn State received a grant from General Electric to establish a minor in Engineering Entrepreneurship at the College of Engineering. Along with the grant came a requirement for extensive assessment and evaluation of the program. Now that the grant period has expired, there is a desire to continue the assessment process that was created. Unfortunately, with the expiration of the grant came the loss of funds dedicated to the assessment of the entrepreneurship program. Institutionalization is seldom a concern when a program assessment is contemplated, designed, or executed. A well-planned process, however, can become a continuing source of quality data for many years with little or no additional cost to the user. This paper reports on the efforts taken to continue the assessment of the entrepreneurship minor without the funds that were previously available. This requires the development of a leaner design. The use of online forms, automation, and existing college-level databases is discussed.