This paper aims to enhance the understanding of entrepreneurship training dynamics in ruralsettings through a longitudinal case study of a programme designed for rural idea owners and entrepreneurs.It addresses the challenges of engaging rural entrepreneurs and delivering effective training, particularly asmany entrepreneurial ventures in these regions tend to be hobby or side businesses with limited growthambitions. By employing a case study method that involves observations and interviews with 22 participantswho have completed the programme, the paper underscores the importance of a tailored approach inequipping rural entrepreneurs with the necessary skills and resources to succeed. Empirical findings indicatethat practical workshops, networking opportunities, mentorship, and regional cooperation are vital for thesustainable development of rural businesses, offering significant policy implications for supporting early-stage enterprises in these areas.Keywords: Entrepreneurship training, entrepreneurship support, rural entrepreneurship

Despite the widespread use of various multimedia formats in teaching today, podcasts remain underutilized in higher education. This paper addresses the gap in understanding how podcasts can be effectively used as a learning method, particularly in the Swedish university context. Grounded in previous literature on podcasts in higher education and theories of blended learning, this study investigates how the integration of podcasts could enhance students' learning experiences. Using a quantitative approach centered on a survey of Swedish university students, this research explores students' preferences and experiences with educational podcasts. The findings show that for podcasts to be effective, they must be entertaining, approximately 20-30 minutes in length, and include analytical commentary and real-life examples from teachers. The findings contribute to effective solutions on how podcasts can be developed and implemented to help students in their self-directed learning processes in courses as well as solutions to teachers in their process of developing podcasts.

This paper describes and discusses social media influencers’ health-related costs of keeping traction as influencers. The paper is based on interviews and social media posts. Four paradoxes highlight the social media influencers’ contradictory circumstances: (1) the social media influencer’s well-being is situated between not being dependent on income and earning the income to avoid monetary stress; (2) well-being becomes associated with playing a role, while authenticity is crucial for the influencer; (3) the premises of being a successful social media influencer is what creates their despair; and (4) being exposed as a healthy role model risks harming the well-being of the social media influencer. The paper takes a unique perspective on social media influencers, focusing on their well-being rather than their promotional power. The paper helps to create socially sustainable conditions for influencers, while it adds to theory through outlining influencers’ paradoxical conditions.

At Linköping university, a model to facilitate impact and bridge the gap between research, education, and business creation, has been developed. It is named “ComICIR”, which stands for Commercialization of Innovative Challenges from Industry and Research. The model allows researchers, firms, and students to work in a co-creation process that are built on the following five steps: (1) research validation, (2) idea generation, (3) idea validation, (4) idea evaluation and, (5) innovation strategy. In the paper, we describe the model and analyse how challenges and ideas could be developed and experientially based pedagogical approaches could be adjusted in order to benefit the regional ecosystem of research, education and industry and contribute to reaching increased impact of innovative ideas and ventures. Our main finding is that CBL is beneficial but requires close cooperation between teachers and innovation support actors. Flexibility is needed to fit the purpose of the course as well as the needs of the challenge providers. Hence, challenges need to be categorized and qualified to take into account the aim and scope of the challenge as well as its degree of development as this affects how the challenges should be written and treated to get the best outcome.

Multimedia has been integrated in education the last 40 years but podcasts have more recently become popular. Since 2006 podcasts have become increasingly popular in Sweden and nowadays podcasts are used in all types of contexts but are yet to find a place in engineering education. Students do not acquire knowledge or solve problems in the same way. Using a mix of methods in teaching is therefore important if one has the ambition to democratize the learning processes and give students the same opportunity to learn. Traditionally, much of the university education has been based on lectures in classrooms and reading literature. During the pandemic, teachers switched to video lectures and online lectures. Even though all types of multimedia are involved in teaching today, podcasts have not become established as a learning method. This paper explores in what ways podcasts can be beneficial in engineering education. Specifically, the paper investigates what preferences students have on how podcasts for engineering education and how teachers effectively can design and develop podcasts in courses as a learning method. By addressing the gap of evidence on podcasts in engineering education, the findings contribute with effective solutions on how podcasts can be developed and implemented that will help students in their learning processes. © 2023 SEFI 2023 - 51st Annual Conference of the European Society for Engineering Education: Engineering Education for Sustainability, Proceedings. All Rights Reserved.

This paper aims to analyze what roles are needed in the team that organizes a challenge- based learning (CBL) course or event. We also aimed to share our experience and provide advice on working with CBL in entrepreneurship courses. To fulfil this aim, we have analyzed four courses in the Erasmus+ project ScaleUp4Sustainability where CBL is used, using theories on experience-based learning models in general and the literature on CBL in particular. Our main finding is that for CBL to work, three main roles are required: (1) the teacher role, which is knowledge-oriented; (2) the role of the coach, which is oriented toward skills; and (3) the role of the organizer, which is oriented towards the context in which the learning takes place – the challenges. Together, these three roles can be labelled “teamcher”. According to our own experience working with CBL, the teamcher role is preferably shared by a multi-disciplinary team of educators. CBL is resource-demanding education; hence, cooperation with actors such as tech transfer offices, innovation facilities and the regional innovation system can benefit this work. This is especially true as CBL has the ambition to contribute to society, something which also underlines the importance of regional triple helix collaboration. 

This paper aims to investigate the challenge-based learning (CBL) approach from the perspective of challenges and challenge providers (CPs), that is, how to successfully collaborate with external CPs and design challenges that work well in university courses and events. 

We base this paper on three pillars: literature studies, our own experience teaching CBL in two courses, one at Linköping University and the other at Twente University and interviews with companies and organizations that have participated in the courses as challenge providers. 

Regarding the literature studies, we can conclude that the literature on CBL, in general, is extensive. However, it is rather scarce when it comes to studies on how to work with challenges and especially with external CPs in practice; hence, there have not been many theoretical contributions from which to draw. However, those found are in line with our own experience. Through the analysis, we have created a list of learnings that hopefully can benefit organizers of CBL courses and events in their work of creating great challenges. 

This paper is based on qualitative analysis and addresses the important topic of small business entrepreneurialism in rural areas and its special conditions and needs. Our aim is to present examples of and suggestions for how to encourage firm start-ups and the continuation possibly also the development and growth of existing firms. The paper is based on three cases that illustrate (1) challenges in the support system in rural areas, (2) various forms of support that could be used in rural areas, and (3) expectations that are eligible to put upon support activities designed for rural areas. The main findings are that (1) that successful support of rural businesses requires a critical mass of regional entrepreneurs, firms, and support actors, (2) diversity is critical, and the various actors must be coordinated to carry out the desired measures effectively, (3) expectations for growth and orientation of the firms must be realistic because broad support is more important than targeted support, and (4) we were able to show that a cross-boundary collaborative work culture that avoids both thought silos and business silos and places no value on prestige should pervade all areas of business support.

In 2015, observers argued that the fourth agricultural revolution had been initiated. This article focuses on one part of this high-tech revolution: the origin, development, applications, and user value of unmanned aerial systems (UAS). Institutional changes connected to the UAS innovation are analyzed, based on a Swedish case study. The methods included autoethnography. The theoretical frame was composed by four perspectives: innovation, institutions, sustainability, and ethics. UAS can help farmers cut costs and produce higher quantity with better quality, and also has environmental benefits. However, this promising innovation was exposed to institutional forces and suddenly became subordinated the Act of Camera Surveillance. This study illuminates how legislative institutions can inhibit responsible innovation. The study shows that different ethical perspectives can collide with each other.

Digitalization and increased use of information and communication technology (ICT) are major change processes taking place in engineering education today. Self-study and examination are areas with high potential for beneficial use of digital ICT tools. Some advantages with such tools are that students' can continuously assess their own learning in relation to the course objectives while they also can provide an opportunity to meet the teachers' needs to control how the students absorb the course material. Moreover, automatic provision of quick or instant feedback through digital tools can stimulate students’ commitment and active learning and allow students greater flexibility in their learning process, with tests that can be conducted online regardless of time and space and can be repeated as needed. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how different types of ICT-based self-study and examination practices can be implemented in courses on topics such as project management, product development, and entrepreneurship, and build a knowledge base necessary for future systematic implementation of digital examinations. Our study is based on an educational development project at Linköping University, where we tested and evaluated different models and approaches for digital knowledge testing in a number of selected courses.We discuss both positive and potentially problematic aspects of the use of digital tools and conclude that successful implementation is dependent on well-planned integration of such tools into the overall course where different types of activities enhance each other. Thus, this study connects the areas of digital self- study and examination and provides examples of first steps on the way towards implementation of ICT-based examination practices.