For this class I employed synthesis - learning by building. Here the object is constructed and learning derives from building the intellectual components and then figuring out how to fit them together coherently. So, to learn about how a technically-driven business works, students construct an enterprise by creating the constituents (Engineering, Marketing, Finance, Operations, etc) and then combining them. A business plan which describes how the “object†functions (and why it should exist) is written.
In the weeks prior to the class, I solicited ideas from Caltech Professors. In the first week of classes, the students then agree on an idea according to their own interests and predilections. The concept is - here is a cool technology - so what! Teams are then formed and launched.