The NCIIA 9th Annual Meeting • March 17-19, 2005 • San Diego, CA ©NCIIA 2005 193 Peer-reviewed papers A Methodology for Curriculum Development, Revision, and Assessment for Entrepreneurial Skill Development: Stage I—Entrepreneurial Leadership course Gül E. Okudan, Elizabeth Kisenwether, Sarah Rzasa The Pennsylvania State University—University Park Abstract This paper first discusses the overall assessment plan for the Engineering Entrepreneurship (E-ship) minor at The Penn State University (Penn State). Then, it gives the example of an assessment carried out for the Entrepreneurial Leadership course (ENGR 310), which has been revised to better meet the minor’s vision. ENGR 310 is one of the four core courses of the E-ship minor at Penn State. The current practice has been developed after a comprehensive review of similar courses and entrepreneurship education literature as well as taking into account the vision for the minor. This paper discusses the new curriculum of the course, and relevant innovative changes. The results of external and internal benchmarking and course assessment conducted to measure student satisfaction and perceptions of the course are included in the paper. Overall, the aim is to share implementation of these changes and curriculum analyses as an avenue for entrepreneurship educators to learn from others’ experiences. Introduction At Penn State, the vision of the Entrepreneurship minor is to deliver a dynamic, multidisciplinary minor that inspires and prepares students to be world-class technology/business innovators. In order for all faculty to help achieve this vision, a comprehensive curriculum assessment has been underway since the inception of the minor. The overall goal of this assessment is to give feedback to ensure the continuous improvement of the offerings. As the core construct of the assessment benchmarking, external and internal, is used. Benchmarking was developed in the late 1970s and early 1980s as a systematic process for quality improvement. Harrington and Harrington (1996) describe it as a “systematic way to identify, understand, creatively evolve superior, services, designs, equipment, processes, and practices to improve your organization’s real performance.” For external benchmarking, entrepreneurship education related publications and similar course and program offerings are used. For internal benchmarking, our resources are the minor’s vision, the advisory board’s vision, and course offerings within the minor. It is proposed that course curricula are developed and revised after a benchmarking completed internally and externally. Then, short term and long-term assessment data are collected to provide feedback for subsequent revisions. Course curriculum that is assessed to meet the minor objectives is