Online and blended entrepreneurship education: a systematic review of applied educational technologies

The supply and demand of entrepreneurship education at university level commenced in 1938. With the proven entrepreneurial effectiveness in economic development and the efforts of scholars, policymakers and other stakeholders, competencies in entrepreneurship are becoming a set of essential learning objectives. In the digital era, entrepreneurship education can be made available in an online and blended format. Thereby, this study presents a systematic analysis of research focusing on blended and online entrepreneurial learning and teaching. Based on five keywords, collating an initial set of 121 articles, this systematic review details the research outcomes of the resulting set of 38 published research articles/contributions, where each described a specific online and blended learning environment. We obtained and analyzed the following information from each of these articles: definition of entrepreneurship education, context of study, methodology, applied technology, focused group, sample, outcome of entrepreneurship education and research rigor. Our findings showed that the current research status and achievements scholars have contributed in educational technologies utilized by online and blended entrepreneurship education can be summarized into three categories: social media, serious games and Massive Open Online Courses. In order to compare these technologies, we selected five examples from three educational technologies and utilized a marking sheet for evaluation and assessment. In general, it was found that Wiki was used to discuss entrepreneurial concepts and that Facebook was the most common social software in entrepreneurship education. In terms of serious games, FLYGBY and SimVenture facilitated the gamification and enjoyment of entrepreneurship activities the most. Finally, as Massive Open Online Courses platform, Coursera offers plenty of/online entrepreneurship education courses. In a nutshell, in online and blended entrepreneurship education, social media was utilized to facilitate cooperation amongst participants; serious games were used to enhance students’ enjoyment and engagement; and Massive Open Online Courses provided a platform as well as high-quality learning resources, anywhere anytime. Hence, each technology has advantages and challenges when we apply it to entrepreneurship education. We conclude that instructors and learners need to successfully compare and choose the most appropriate combination of technologies to achieve entrepreneurial course aims.