“Is the lecture worth saving?” Honestly, this is a question that I have asked myself many times during my nearly 20-year career in higher education. As educators, we have a responsibility to our students, and ourselves, to think differently about traditional lectures and to develop innovative teaching approaches that foster significant student learning experiences. In addition, it is critical that we consider the different backgrounds and learning styles of our students. Thus, I leveraged four complementary approaches when teaching the MBA Digital Marketing and IMC course to include active learning, experiential learning, developmental learning and collaborative learning.
Active learning is something that I have always emphasized in my courses, even when I did not know the formal term for this practice. Active learning strategies, “unlike open class discussion, are timed, structured, and designed to give students a chance to learn by acting on a specific piece of content in a specific way” (Yale Center for Teaching and Learning, 2019, para. 1). Each of my classes involves at least one active learning exercise for students, as an individual or as part of a team. Individual exercises include describing yourself as a brand and video reflections. Team exercises include perfect pitch video peer reviews and in class discussions on the IMC project.
The terms “active” learning and “experiential” learning are often used interchangeably. However, I perceive a distinct difference between these two concepts. While active learning focuses on classroom exercises (such as reading, writing and discussing), experiential learning applies what is studied in the classroom to an actual situation or organization (such as service learning or consulting). Keeton and Tate (1978) (as cited in Kolb, 2015) offer this contrast between experiential and active learning. In experiential learning, the “learner is directly in touch with the realities being studied. It is contrasted with the learner who only reads about, hears about, talks about, or writes about these realities but never comes into contact with them as part of the learning process” (Kolb, 2015, p. xviii). In the MBA course, experiential learning involves students working in teams to develop a semester-long IMC campaign for an organization of interest to them.
This MBA course also offers opportunities to encourage the developmental learning of students. As Baxter-Magolda (2009) notes, a student often follows societal expectations until they reach a crossroads in their life, when they realize the need to develop their own path. Many students reach a crossroads when they decide to enroll in the MBA program; they view it as an opportunity to further develop their own beliefs and share those beliefs with others. The perfect pitch video assignment is an ideal opportunity for students to reflect upon their own value, and how they can share their value with others.
Since 40% of a student’s performance evaluation in the MBA IMC course is based on a team project, it is critical that students take a collaborative and inclusive approach to their studies. Collaborative and peer learning can lead to the “developmentof higher-level thinking, oral communication, self-management, and leadership skills” (Cornell University Center for Teaching Innovation, 2019, para. 3). Anderson, Bond, Davis-Street, Gentlewarrior, Savas and Sheehy (2014) assert that peer learning experiences must not only involve the factors essential to creating and facilitating a successful team, but also emphasize the issues of diversity and social identities of the team members.
