A Brief Guide to Student Projects with Industry

Abstract

Student projects with industry have much to offer in terms of enhanced student learning, but they can be difficult to create, plan, and manage sustainably. This paper details and distills the best practices from a four-year process to develop an undergraduate business strategy course around a student project with industry. This reflexive process revealed that our traditional analytical approach to business strategy was not teaching students how to create strategy in practice. Integration of course learning objectives with project deliverables was a key to replicating a practical project-based learning experience each semester. The needs for an industry liaison, additional student preparation, and active client engagement in the learning process are also discussed.