Toward a Model for Understanding and Improving Educational Quality in the Principles of Marketing Course

Abstract

Society is demanding that higher education be more accountable for student learning. To complicate this further, faculty are now expected to develop the student’s leadership, interpersonal, and communication skills in addition to teaching the basics of their discipline. To examine ways of achieving such goals, the authors have embarked on a long-term program aimed at implementing classroom-based quality initiatives for higher education. This article reports on the implementation of a specific mix of teaching techniques in the Principles of Marketing course. Results show that students felt this approach more interesting, challenging, and motivating than the more traditional lecture approach. Students considered the use of chapter objectives and lectures/discussions as major contributors to learning. From these findings, a proposed model for understanding student learning in a Principles of Marketing course is presented.