INCREASING STUDENT ENGAGEMENT USING ‘MEME BASED’ EXERCISE INNOVATION

Abstract

ABSTRACT The practice of “memes” – taking an image from pop culture and adding humorous or inspiring text to it – are an opportunity for marketing practice. We posit that memes also provide an innovative technique to help students become more engaged in marketing classes. We propose requiring students to submit one or more graded homework exercises using a meme (instead of the traditional slide deck or typed document file). Moreover, to create even more engagement and connection, we propose requiring the students to use a picture of the instructor teaching (from posted media choices by the instructor) as the background photo for the meme. Results of test usage in classes occurring in 2020 and 2021 indicate that this technique is helpful in students becoming more engaged in critical thinking toward class learning topics and class structure topics, this was especially evident when the meme course exercises leveraged competitive aspects such as student voting on them and prizes. Discussion of relevant technology adoption elements to consider in setting up exercise parameters are outlined.