Active learning for an introductory tourism course—a case study

ABSTRACT Hospitality and tourism programs in institutions of higher education are confronted with unique challenges in preparing students for the complex world. Characteristic shifts in their learning styles, coupled with dynamic changes in the global mobility landscape, demand curricular innovations. This case study illustrates the transformation of an introductory tourism course from traditional teaching to student-orientated active learning. The redesign removes the textbook and exams and creates course components of Atlas, Landmark, QuickTrip, MyTrip, and GlobalTrip. The redesigned course emphasizes students’ involvement and empowerment in sourcing course materials, using learning tools, and applying acquired knowledge to real-world projects. In addition to the end-of-semester course evaluation, students complete a questionnaire to assess the effectiveness of the course redesign. The findings from the assessment reveal the contribution of each of the redesigned components to the course learning objectives. The case study concludes with the proposition of a student-orientated active learning process for introductory tourism courses and the discussion on its implications for hospitality and tourism curricula.