Coursera Course Teaches Tools for Making a Difference
Prof. Teresa Chahine’s free online course, Creating Change through Social Entrepreneurship, teaches participants how to define a problem and build a solution.
Since 2018, Teresa Chahine, the Sheila and Ron ’92 B.A. Marcelo Senior Lecturer in Social Entrepreneurship, has taught Yale students how to make a difference using the tools of social entrepreneurship, whether founding a new venture or working within an existing organization. Many of the insights she shares in the classroom are now available to anyone through her new Coursera course, Creating Change through Social Entrepreneurship.
“Have you ever wondered what it would be like to create real change?” Chahine writes. “You don’t have to start your own organization to make a difference in the world. Everyone can learn the social entrepreneurship mindset and skillset to build social impact. In this course, you will immerse yourself in a social or environmental challenge you want to tackle. You’ll start by researching your topic of choice, talking to people, and ideating a potential solution that you can contribute. Then, you’ll build a business model around that solution, understanding concepts like measuring social change, ensuring financial viability, funding and pitching.”
The course includes 11 modules, teaching participants through videos, text, and quizzes how to understand a challenge by talking with the people most affected by it, designing a solution, and creating an organization to carry it out.
Other Coursera courses offered by Yale SOM faculty include The Global Financial Crisis, taught by Professor Andrew Metrick and former treasury secretary Timothy Geithner; Introduction to Negotiation, taught by Professor Barry Nalebuff; and Financial Markets and Narrative Economics, taught by Professor Robert Shiller.
Learn more about Creating Change through Social Entrepreneurship.