Entrepreneurship: Launching an Innovative Business - specialisation is a go

One of the primary focuses for all of the studying I have been doing over the past year has been to demystify the many intimidating intricacies of entrepreneurship. 

However, in order to now consolidate all of the disparate pieces of that learning, in addition to bridging any gaps that still remain in my knowledge, I have enrolled myself on the Entrepreneurship: Launching an Innovative Business specialisation as offered by the University of Maryland on Coursera.

A brief overview of the specialisation.

Being a specialisation this is a little different to the MOOCs I have taken in the past, mainly because it is made up of three separate MOOCs; with a final capstone project in which I will have to produce a portfolio demonstrating my learning from the three MOOCs. 

I am also paying for this one.

However, at the successful completion of the full cycle of the specialisation I will have gained a verified specialisation certificate and, hopefully, I will finally possess a thorough and working knowledge of the entrepreneurial process.

Specilisations (combining MOOCs) are a new offering my coursera, no doubt other platforms with follow.

The specialisation is broken down into the following subject areas and timespans: 

1. Developing Innovative Ideas for New Companies: The First Step in Entrepreneurship, 01/12/2014 - 01/01/2015
2. Innovation for Entrepreneurs: From Idea to Marketplace, 05/01/2015 - 05/02/2015
3. New Venture Finance: Startup Funding for Entrepreneurs, 09/02/2015 - 09/03/2015
4. Entrepreneurship Capstone, 02/03/2015 - 20/04/2015

I am already three weeks into the first MOOC and I am already finding the workload to be pretty intensive, but hugely rewarding! 

I have spent a good while looking/waiting for an adequate online entrepreneurship course to undertake and this specialisation looks and feels like it really does fit the bill. 

I have already undertaken a few others on FutureLearn - Innovation and Enterprise, Starting a Business: Realise Your Vision,  Innovation: The Key to Business Success - and while these did provide many useful insights (which will be invaluable here), overall they just felt a little too loose and in many ways they lacked the no-nonsense cohesive approach of this specialisation. 

#3 Overall Business Course on Coursera.

The first MOOC of the specialisation was named the #1 entrepreneurship course on coursera and the University of Maryland's Master of Technology Entrepreneurship, which this specialisation is sourced from, also looks very promising, so I feel like I am in safe hands with this specialisation. 

I will not be posting a reflection for each week of the specialisation, as that will not be manageable in terms of time or the amount of content I would have to cover. Instead I will be posting a learning reflection at the end of each of the three MOOCs, with maybe a few additional relevant posts here or there. 

And the capstone? 

Well, no idea. I will deal with that one when I get there. 

If I get there that is...