Active learning in Marketing Research with cross-course team interactions

Abstract

This paper outlines the benefits of team-based active learning including increased realism, an applied focus, and career preparation. Lincoln University has been successfully applying these concepts to their undergraduate Marketing Research course for over 20 years. Student teams meet with the client, establish the marketing research problem, develop research questions and hypotheses, create questionnaires, perform door-to-door interviews, input and analyse the data, test their hypotheses, and write up their results and recommendations in a professional report. Recently, this research process has expanded to involve a Property Research course, where teams of Property students are the clients of the Marketing Research teams. This approach made the learning environment closer to the iterative process of communication and submission/evaluation of ideas and proposals found in the industry. This approach is not without its drawbacks, mostly in terms of extra class coordination, but the outcomes, including student engagement and satisfaction, outweigh the extra effort.