Instructor Interview
The pages linked below present the instructor’s insights from the 2014 version of the course, but he notes that they are enduring and are still very much valid today:
Assessment/Grading
MIT students may take this course for 3 units of Pass/Fail credit. To receive credit, attendance at each session is required and a writing requirement must be fulfilled.
Curriculum Information
Prerequisites
None
Requirements Satisfied
None
Offered
Annually during MIT’s Independent Activities Period (IAP)
Student Information
Enrollment
50 students
Breakdown by Year
Most of the students taking the course for credit were graduate students, but the majority of attendees were signed up as not-for-credit listeners; among them were MIT faculty, staff, postdocs, researchers, and alumni, as well as members of the wider community.
Breakdown by Major
Typically, students from the Schools of Engineering, Science, and Architecture and Planning comprise about 50% of the class, while students from the Sloan School of Management make up the remaining 50%.
Typical Student Background
Students who enroll in the class typically are in the early stages of developing a new business venture.
How Student Time Was Spent
The course’s content was delivered in six three-hour sessions over a period of two weeks. Students wishing to receive academic credit for this course were expected either to write an executive summary for a new venture they were developing or to prepare a pitch deck presentation for their new venture.
