Will this count for any credits towards a BSc or BA in SIAT or a Business Minor?
The two IAT courses can be applied to either the BSc or BA degree in SIAT. The two Business courses count towards a Business Minor.
Is there any recognition such as a certificate? (I understand the tangible business/idea at the end is worth more.)
This is a great question. The BoD experience is not a certificate (which has a higher credit requirement than the BoD course load), but BoD is currently part of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Certificate (http://www.sfu.ca/students/calendar/2017/summer/programs/innovation-and-entrepreneurship/certificate.html). We are currently working with the faculties so that, if you complete all 4 BoD courses, this is stated on your academic transcript. By the time you graduate, we hope to have figured this administrative piece out so that your graduating transcript will state your participation in BoD. But we cannot guarantee this.
How would you suggest I can communicate the importance and gain recognition of this program for future employers?
The whole experience is structured to enable to you to communicate and gain recognition for your skills and abilities. That's one of the key outcomes of the course. The other, of course, is that you will have conceptualized, designed, created, built, marketed, communicated and launched a business. You will put this on your resume, along with all the skills you developed and put into practice in the process.
Will I learn aspects of business (both theory and practical) including project management, marketing and financing a venture?
You learn how and why to create a business. You have to manage multiple projects. Marketing is implicitly and explicitly discussed at every point. We talk about financing, but raising finance is not the focus of the program. Identifying customers, building relationships and delivering sustainable value, however, are discussed constantly and continuously throughout the program.
What skills would you say I can take away from this experience if I am planning to pursue an MBA or career as a UX designer?
The BoD experience enables you to create the business that you would then go on to lead and grow with the knowledge provided in the MBA. If you decided you didn't want to lead or grow a business, but wanted to focus on UX design, BoD would be the place you would identify this and deploy your UX skills to help create and launch a company.
To confirm, I understand there was previously a Business Design IAT481 course but, is 2018 Fall - 2019 Summer the first run of the full 4 course program?
No, 2016-2017 was our inaugural year of the BoD. IAT481 is a code assigned to special topics courses. So each of the 3 of the BoD courses had IAT481 course codes (the 4th course had an IAT482 code) with descriptors that identified exactly which topic was being covered that semester. 2018-2019 will be our third year of BoD and we now have official course numbers (IAT 330, BUS 339, BUS 476 and IAT 430).