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Multimodal learning via the use of smart devices, online social interactions, and intuitive communication platforms are fundamentally changing teaching and learning settings. Consequently, educators face unique challenges around student engagement as learners increasingly look to the use of technology-enabled activities for meaningful collaboration. Within this context, this research explores the role of digital storytelling in promoting perceived individual student and group engagement, and how these interact with group functioning, in a postgraduate marketing subject. We evaluate the implementation of this assessment as an avenue to optimize the benefits of the blended learning setting. It contributes to understanding by incorporating the concept of collective, or collaborative engagement where there is a scarcity of research despite the widespread application of group assessment in business education, and marketing education in particular. We employed canonical correlation analysis as an exploratory technique to gain initial insight into its efficacy for student engagement. We contend that digital storytelling shows promise as an inherently social and interactive learning task to provide an authentic assessment for a range of marketing problems. In turn, these attributes provide a stimulating vehicle for student engagement that can promote learning and satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peer learning, a pedagogical approach whereby students are partnered together to have one student actively help another student learn predetermined content or skills, has long been utilized as an effective complement to more traditional instructional methods across a wide range of educational disciplines. This approach has been found to reduce the stress of learning, increase student engagement, and yield benefits to both the tutor and the tutee to a roughly equal degree. Yet, pedagogical research to this point has mostly failed to explore the usefulness of this approach to marketing and sales education. In the present research, we examine the effectiveness of peer-learning applications in a sales context and discuss marketing educators' implications. More specifically, we assess college sales students' perceptions of peer-learning role-play exercise and further examine whether peer-learning exercises can improve students' abilities. The results indicate that peer-learning exercises are not only enjoyed by students but are capable of producing objective performance improvement for both introductory and advanced students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This longitudinal pedagogical research investigates students' perceptions and learning outcomes by integrating web and social analytics–based learning activities (i.e., Google Analytics courses and certification test) into Public Relations Research course design. Results from the pretest before introducing the analytics learning assignment confirmed that students' knowledge on web and social analytics is low but their desire to learn is high. Results from the posttest after passing the certification test indicated students are eager to have more experience-based learning activities to apply knowledge related to web and social analytics in public relations research and practice. More pedagogical recommendations are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The popularity of social media among students and practitioners has encouraged marketing educators to find ways to incorporate social media into their classrooms. We offer results from an intercollegiate collaboration that provides an innovative learning environment through a social media education ecosystem. Participating students discuss current marketing topics with peers, marketing practitioners, and faculty to reinforce course concepts, improve learning perceptions, and increase professional communication skills and networking opportunities. An initial exploratory study provides a snapshot of Twitter analytics, illustrating the reach of students' marketing-related discussions. Next, survey data collected from students show increased learning satisfaction and favorable behavioral intentions. Finally, tweets from the 12-week project were analyzed using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count. Results suggest that participants improved their professional communication skills while using language that provokes greater cognitive processes. Implications for marketing educators and future directions for the project are also provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Influencer marketing is an emerging technological disruptor for marketing across a wide range of industries. This tactic allows companies to promote products in a more organic, trust-affirming manner compared with other forms of paid advertising. As the use of influencer marketing is rapidly growing, marketing educators have a unique opportunity to prepare students to perform this in-demand marketing skill. This article outlines a classroom exercise, called the Matchmaking Activity, which introduces the concept of influencer marketing, provides hands-on experience, and encourages critical thinking to solve a simulated marketing dilemma. The end goal is for students to gain confidence that can be applied to a real-world marketing environment. To assess the effectiveness of the Matchmaking Activity, the exercise was conducted with students in digital marketing classes. Based on findings from a post-activity reflection survey completed by students, the Matchmaking Activity results in the achievement of several desirable learning outcomes. Ideas for adapting this exercise for use in a variety of other marketing courses are also provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we present an educational approach that bridges theory and practice: an applied retail track. The track has been co-created by faculty and 10 partnering retail companies and runs in parallel with traditional courses during a 3-year bachelor’s degree program in retail management. The underlying pedagogical concept is to move retail education from simple dissemination of knowledge toward the production of learning by way of experiential, situated, and skill-based learning. Overall, we believe that this learning approach has helped to create a win-win-win situation for students, retailers, and faculty. Students gain unique insights from retail practice to complement their topically oriented course-based learning, thus enhancing their attractiveness to employers after graduation. Retailers gain in-depth knowledge about the competencies of young prospective employees, and faculty and retailers jointly benefit from exchanging ideas about contemporary challenges in retailing. This article describes the program’s main features and successes and offers recommendations for others seeking to implement all or some of its components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engaging students in the classroom is a struggle all faculty face especially in the age of modern technology. This article proposes a novel approach to engage and motivate students through the mobile business “on wheels” marketing concept. The growth in mobile business retailing (e.g., food trucks, mobile dog groomers, etc.) is an appealing concept for today’s entrepreneurial-minded students. This concept provides students with an opportunity to combine their creativity with their understanding of the seminal marketing concepts of a principles of marketing course. The project involves two marketing challenges: the promotion of a mobile business retailing event on campus and the development of a marketing plan for a unique mobile business retailing idea developed by the students. The project provides a variety of hands-on, engaging pedagogies to guide the students from concept creation based on primary research through campaign proposals integrating digital media examples. Resources in project design, implementation, evaluation, and critical analysis of this comprehensive marketing project are outlined in this article. Recommendations for future research and implementation are also provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The responsibility for knowledge acquisition is increasingly being shifted to students though the utilization of experiential learning, teamwork, online, and flipped classroom pedagogies. Students are expected to enter the classroom prepared to engage in thoughtful knowledge application activities; however, many students have not adequately prepared, leading to minimal team contribution and learning. Readiness Assurance Testing is often implemented to help enforce student preclass preparation. These individual and group quizzing techniques can help motivate some students to keep current in the readings, but they do not assist students in learning comprehension. In order to improve learning comprehension and document preclass preparedness, an innovative note-taking method, Connected Notes, is offered as a way to assist students in recording, organizing, and connecting content in personally relevant ways. To improve comprehension and stimulate deeper levels of learning cognitive science supports the effectiveness of creating connections through multiple pathways. Students generate connections between chapter concepts and their consumer experiences, their careers, and company examples in preparation for team-based activities. Results from this study suggest the Connected Notes intervention improved the direct learning outcome (exams) while producing no negative effect on student evaluation of teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marketing instructors using simulation games as a way of inducing some realism into a marketing course are faced with many dilemmas. Two important quandaries are the optimal size of groups and how much of the students’ time should ideally be devoted to the game. Using evidence from a very large sample of teams playing a simulation game, the study described here seeks to answer two fundamental questions: What effects on performance does group size have? And, is it possible for groups to spend too much time on decision making? The results indicate that performance increases in line with group size until teams have five members, and then tapers off. Furthermore, performance is shown to rise as time spent on decision making increases, up to a point, after which additional time spent on the game is shown to detract from performance. Implications for marketing instructors are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although marketing education has seen a dramatic shift toward hands-on, experiential learning in recent years, the teaching of pricing has fallen behind complementary elements of the marketing mix in pedagogical execution. Although the teaching of pricing has shifted focus from economic-based models to value-based pricing in theory, available pedagogical tools for teaching value-based pricing are scarce. This article proposes and outlines an experiential class assignment that engages students in a real-world, applied, market exchange environment. While avoiding the inherent risks of using actual money for transactions, this assignment enables students to explore the consumer motivations and perceptions of value central to value-based pricing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research has discussed the opportunities associated with the use of social media tools in the classroom, but has not examined the perceptions students themselves hold about its usefulness in enhancing their educational experience. This research explores students’ perceptions of social media as an effective pedagogical tool. Undergraduate students in a midsized, private university taking a marketing course were surveyed about their social media usage and preferences as well as their perceptions regarding the use of social media in higher education. Additional qualitative data collection with students probed into motivations for social media use in education as well as instructor and university perceptions. Findings reveal openness to using social media in education, uncover interactive and information motives for its use, and offer theoretical and pedagogical implications. Importantly, we offer insights into how educators can strategically incorporate social media tools into the classroom as well as how the use of social media can potentially affect students’ views of the instructor and the university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research supports the idea that the success of hybrid or online delivery modes is more a function of course design than delivery media. This article describes a case study of a hybrid Principles of Marketing course that implemented a comprehensive redesign based on design principles espoused by the Quality Matters Program, a center for improving online and hybrid course design through a faculty-centered, peer review process. The resulting team-taught course was well received by students, more efficient for faculty to deliver, and showed equivalence in direct measures (no difference in exam scores) of student learning. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In an application of experiential learning, assessment, and career development, this article reports a field experiment of teaching sales students adaptive selling skills via an Improvisational (Improv) Comedy technique: Yes, And. Students learn this well-established theatrical improv method via classroom lecture, demonstration, and role-playing exercises. A control group (no improv training) experienced all aspects of the class with the exception of the improv training. After the classroom instruction, both student groups (improv and no -improv trained) participated in a real-world, 4-week sales project selling tickets for professional sport teams that partner with the class. The study’s findings reveal increased ticket sales performance among the improv group students who learn Yes, And. Also students in the improv group gave higher class evaluations. Methods presented in this article could be utilized as an in-class exercise or as an integral part of a semester-long sales project. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Sales education has grown in importance, particularly throughout the last decade, with an increasing number of university sales centers offering programs to prepare new generations of sales professionals. In this article, we describe how work-based learning, action research, and reflective practice used in a sales master program can be used in undergraduate sales education to facilitate the emergence of a new mindset of professional selling in future practitioners. This mindset is characterized by enhanced awareness and personal transformation that lead to improved relationships through the discovery of new ways of identifying and creating customer value. We argue this mindset is required to respond to the unprecedented level of change and increased complexity in professional selling. Sales education is vital to ensure that future and practicing sales professionals continuously develop the competences required to perform in demanding contexts. Universities and business schools alike now play a pivotal role in developing sales talent by combining in unique ways academic research in sales, advances in pedagogy, and practitioner experience. The findings of our study reveal the significance of student-centered pedagogies in sales curricula. We discuss how the experience gathered from educating practicing sales professionals can be applied to educating novice sales students adopting work-based pedagogies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

More universities are incorporating sales content into their curriculums, and although the introductory courses in professional sales have much common ground and guidance from numerous professional selling texts, instructors teaching the advanced selling course lack the guidance provided by common academic tools and materials. The resulting potential variance in content and pedagogy in advanced selling courses makes comparing programs or assessing the relative preparedness of students coming from different universities challenging for recruiters, faculty, and students. A review of the syllabi of the instructors currently teaching the advanced selling course reveals common themes, content, and pedagogy that are helpful to instructors desiring to develop an advanced selling course or those currently teaching the course. A review of the common content of the advanced selling course and an argument for the need of the advanced selling course are provided, along with suggestions for developing the course with examples of various projects and pedagogy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A meta-analytic review of self-directed learning (SDL) research over 30 years, five countries, and across multiple academic disciplines is used to explore its relationships with five key nomologically related constructs for effective workplace learning. The meta-analysis revealed positive relationships between SDL and internal locus of control, motivation, performance, self-efficacy, and support. The use of an actual SDL project in an undergraduate sales management course and an MBA selling and sales management course is used to provide supporting evidence and practical advice for educators seeking to use SDL to promote lifelong learning skills in students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creativity and marketing imagination are essential core competencies for marketers. Therefore, higher marketing education emphasizes creativity in several ways. However, assessing creativity and creative problem solving is challenging and tools for this purpose have not been developed in the context of marketing education. To address this gap, we analyze the use of Structure of the Observed Learning Outcome (SOLO) taxonomy as an assessment tool in creative problem solving and in doing so develop an assessment framework by contextualizing SOLO taxonomy for client-based marketing development projects. We first introduce earlier literature on assessment and SOLO taxonomy. We then describe a client-based marketing course on creative problem solving. We use SOLO taxonomy to analyze the outcomes and development processes of six student projects and in doing so develop an assessment framework for creative problem solving. Finally, we give suggestions for teachers on how to enhance creative problem solving and its assessment in marketing classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changing curriculum content requirements, based on shifting global perspectives on corporate behavior and capitalism as well as business school accreditation requirements, mean that many marketing instructors have attempted to introduce discussions of organizational ethics, corporate social responsibility, and corporate governance into their classes. How these issues are addressed will, of course, depend on the instructor, the course, the level of the students, and the time available during the course to discuss the issues. Whether ethical issues in marketing are introduced as part of an existing class discussion, as a separate weekly subject topic, or as an entirely dedicated course, we recognize that it can be difficult to get students actively engaged and involved. In this paper, we present an alternative and interactive in-class exercise using group analysis and discussion of imagery and symbolism—understood as a reflection of public sentiment—in political cartoons. We introduce theories of cartoon analysis as social commentary, describe the exercise and methods, and then illustrate an example of the exercise as conducted with our own students. We conclude by noting the method’s limitations and considering alternative pedagogical applications of the analytical framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educators continually seek innovative methods by which to engage students. Kolb’s experiential learning theory was a catalyst for designing and incorporating a pop-up retail consignment store into a junior level retail promotion course. After five years of use and refinement, the project has proven to be a powerful method to engage students in the learning process. The purpose of this paper is to add to the experiential learning literature by discussing the design, implementation and evolution of this project. A content analysis is discussed along with outcomes and future plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]