THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF ZANZIBARDEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

COURSE OUTLINE

Course Code: CS 2212

Course Name: IT Innovation and EntrepreneurshipNumber of Credits: 10

Duration: 15 weeks of classes Number of contact hours: 3 lecture hours or its equivalent per week

Prerequisites: None, 4th semester

Course offered by:Department of Computer Science and IT

Course description:Course will mix theory and practice on innovation and entrepreneurship. Students will learn how to generate ideas, recognize needs and opportunities around them, develop concepts, commercialize ideas and apply basic marketing and sales skills. Students will be exposed to practical real-world problems, innovating new solutions and implementing ideas and solutions for real customers. Students will work in multidisciplinary teams of 3-5 participants, utilizing resources and ideas from different disciplines and the surrounding society. For example, collaboration in the projects is planned to include students of finance, tourism and environment.

Course will also cover setting up one's own enterprise and understanding basic cash flow and tax duties of a small business. Course will be implemented on the 4th semester with a mix of lectures, practical sessions, showcases, interactions, and is the prerequisite to CS 2229 IT Innovation and Entrepreneurship Industrial Placement, which students will work full-time on implementation of their idea with partner organizations and customers for those students who wish to continue to implement their ideas.

Learning outcomes:At the end of the course students will be able to:

understand the role of innovation in value generation

use creativity, brainstorming and problem-solving techniques

conceptualize and express their ideas and solutions clearly

commercialize and market new ideas

understand role of leadership in motivating their teams and stakeholders

understand and manage basic small business cash flows and tax administration

setup and establish a small business

carry out real-world innovation process from idea to evaluation.

Course outline:Week 1: Orientation

Understanding concepts innovation and entrepreneurship

Why are they important for businesses and society?

Seminar 1: personal reflection on entrepreneurship

Seminar 2: identifying cases of innovation and entrepreneurship utilizing IT in Zanzibar & East Africa

Week 2-3: Creativity and Innovation

How does innovation processes work

How does innovation add value to people, organizations and society

What is innovation ecosystem

Seminar 1: Using creativity and brainstorming techniques to find new ideas and solutions

Seminar 2: Mapping IT ecosystem on Zanzibar

Week 4: Identify problems and innovation opportunities utilizing IT

Outreach: students visiting external organizations on identifying problems, needs and opportunities for the innovation process / practical project

Week 5 - 6: Conceptualization

How to create and describe your idea as a concept?

How to present your concept visually and verbally?

Seminar 1: Writing a concept paper and presentation on the idea

Seminar 2: Pitching clinic on being able to express the idea verbally

Guest lecture: Industry case on conceptualization of an idea

Week 7 - 9: Commercialization and marketing

Understanding different IT business models

Simple marketing approaches for small business

Developing sales strategies

Seminar 1: Create a business model for your concept

Seminar 2: Generate marketing materials for your concept

Outreach: Present developed concept to stakeholders

Week 10-11: Leadership and motivation

Defining leaders and their roles

How can you motivate people and yourself?

Different leadership styles and tools

Seminar 1: Teambuilding and team leadership

Guest lecture: Leadership and management

Week 12-13: Cash flows

- Understanding cash flows in a project and small company

- Understanding basic accounting terminologies

- Invoicing and tax duties in business and project

- Seminar 1: Cash flow planning and projections for the project

Week 14 - 15: Setting up a small business

How to set up and register a new company

Options for financing startup company

IT incubation programs

Guest lecture: Banks, other financial institutions, government registrars

Method of Instruction: Mix of lectures, seminars, guest lecturers, presentations, outreach activities, practical project work, reading list. Students from similar groups are encouraged to read different books.

Assessment methods: The course assessment is based on individual and group assignments comprising of deliverables and a written exam (40 %). Deliverables consist of an individual essay on innovation and entrepreneurship based on reading list (20 %) and final project setup report (40 %). The project setup report shall comprise of details on how that project was proposed, agreed with customer, expected end result and the plan for execution of the project during 8 weeks placement. The essay will be delivered at the 12th week. A full project setup shall be presented on the 13th week for discussion and feedback and the final report must be delivered before the final day of the semester exams. Final marks graded from A to C as pass, D and E as fail.

Reading list:1. W. Chan Kim & Rene Mauborgne (2005). Blue Ocean Strategy

2. Mihaly Csikszentmihailyi (2003).Good Business.

3. Frans Johansson (2004).The Medici Effect.

4. Seth Godin (2008).Tribes.

5. John Kotter & Holger Rathgeber (2006). Our Iceberg Is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions.

6. Jason Fried (2010). Rework.

7. Eric Ries. (2011). The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses.

8. Alexander Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur (2010). Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers. Additional reading:1. William Isaacs (1999).Dialogue: The Art Of Thinking Together2. Gary Hamel (2008).Future of Management.

3. Ikujiro Nonaka & Hirotaka Takeuchi (1995).The Knowledge-Creating Company.

4. Richard Florida (2002).The Rise of the Creative Class. And How Its Transforming Work, Leisure and Everyday Life.

5. Anita Roddick (2005).Business as Unusual.

6. Jack & Suzy Welch (2005).Winning.7. Jim Collins (2001).Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Dont.

8. Peter Drucker (2001).The Essential Drucker: In One Volume the Best of Sixty Years of Peter Druckers Essential Writings on Management.