An Entrepreneurship Minor for Liberal Arts Majors: Communicating the Basics of Accounting and Finance

Abstract

This paper describes a new course, ER 305: Accounting and Finance for Entrepreneurs, in a sequence of seven courses for students enrolled in an interdisciplinary minor in entrepreneurship. There are no prerequisites for entry into this 21-semester-hour program, so it attracts students with liberal arts majors with no background in business courses. ER 305 then is a 3-semester-hour “crash course” in accounting and finance for mostly innumerate students! The course is being offered now, in the fall 2011 semester, and we are assessing student performance gains by a 33-item pre- and post-test. [Pretest results are now in hand; the post-test will be administered in early December.] The test has also been administered to a control group of finance majors enrolled in an investments class. A detailed item analysis will be performed when post-test results are available.