2008 - Marketing Educators' Association

THE CLASS LESS TRAVELED – TEACHING INNOVATIONS THAT MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Susan Cadwallader, California State University, Fullerton 92834; scadwallader@fullerton.edu
Claudia M. Bridges, California State University, Sacramento 93819; bridges@csus.edu
Thomas C. Boyd and Katrin R. Harich, California State University, Fullerton 92834;
tboyd@fullerton.edu, kharich@fullerton.edu
Renee Shaw Hughner, Arizona State University at the Polytechnic Campus,
Mesa, AZ 85212; renee.hughner@asu.edu
SESSION OVERVIEW
The objective of this special session is to generate a
critical discussion about various perspectives on and
applications of innovation in teaching. The
presenters have made their classes “less traveled”
by infusing innovation in: (1) required and elective
courses; (2) undergraduate and graduate level
courses; and (3) traditional and online “virtual”
classrooms. The session will cover a number of
important themes in the study and application of
innovation in teaching. The presenters in this
session will address methodological issues including
taking an idea forward to successful classroom
implementation and student learning assessment.
SPECIFIC TEACHING INNOVATIONS
Claudia Bridges will present a team-based final
project she employs in her Advertising course. Over
the course of several years, Claudia has fine-tuned
this hands-on project to illustrate and incorporate
many of the course’s core concepts. This project
has several sections and has been applied in
numerous contexts in both undergraduate and
graduate classes. Actual advertising plans based
on the project’s framework have been developed for
a high-end audio/video retailer, several non-profits,
Sacramento State University, the California State
Parks Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation
Division, and others. Beginning with the identification
of the organizational mission statement and the
firm’s position in the marketplace, this project leads
students on a journey of discovery which culminates
in the development of advertising, direct mail and
sales promotion materials.
Tom Boyd will report on his development of a
process for integrating Marketing Principles and
Intermediate Microeconomics. The six-credit course
is currently being collaboratively developed by Tom
and a member of the economics faculty at California
ABSTRACT
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State University, Fullerton. He will discuss the
degrees of collaboration, how to deal with common
topics, different vocabulary for similar concepts, and
the difference between true integration and simply
team teaching two courses simultaneously. Tom will
present the development of one example,
"Influences on Consumer Decision Making."
Susan Cadwallader will discuss how student teams
create marketing plans for actual firms – their own
firm, a family business, a current employer, or a
local business – in her Marketing Strategies course.
Teams prepare either an initial “start-up” plan for a
new business or a “reformulated” plan for an
established business. Students are to assume that
they are presenting their plan to potential investors
who might provide them with the funds needed to
implement their plan. The graded deliverables
include a professionally written report and a formal
presentation given in class with the actual firms’
company officers or owners in attendance.
Katrin Harich will discuss her attempts at
empowering students in her Buyer Behavior course
by allowing them to customize their learning
experience. Katrin will present the various options
that she presents to her students for midterm and
final examinations, group projects, individual
projects, and extra credit assignments.
Renee Shaw Hughner will discuss her experiences
with teaching large sections of Marketing
Management using a hybrid course format. When
properly designed, a hybrid course combines the
best features of in-class teaching with the best
features of online learning to promote active student
learning. While hybrid teaching has typically been
implemented in graduate programs or for nontraditional
students, Arizona State University (ASU)
is moving towards adopting the hybrid course format
in traditional full-time undergraduate programs. Two
issues have motivated ASU to implement the hybrid