Making Principles of Marketing Case Studies Tangible Through Computer-Aided Interactivity

Abstract

A web-based principles of marketing case study module was developed over a two year period between marketing students and faculty and instructional design students, staff, and faculty. The module was tested with five sections of principles of marketing students to find out whether or not students perceive a difference in learning marketing concepts and problem-solving skills when working on a paper case with no interactivity versus a Web-based case study module with computer-aided interactivity. This study further investigated whether students find a web-based case more enjoyable than a paper case and if students are more likely to be interested in marketing as a field of study after using a web-based case study module than if they had only done a paper case. Although students indicated that the web-based interactive module enabled them to learn the marketing concepts significantly more easily than the paper case study, other findings showed unexpected results.