Bridging the Theory and Practice Gap in Marketing Education
Rui Patrício
a
UNIDCOM/IADE - Unidade de Investigação em Design e Comunicação, Av. D. Carlos I, 4, 1200-649, Lisboa, Portugal
Keywords: Marketing, Education, Teaching, Methodologies.
Abstract: The paper proposes a new marketing course curriculum for bridging the theory and practice gap in marketing
education. This new approach aims to develop students' marketing and soft skills like communication,
creativity, and collaboration and facilitate their integration into professional life. By applying a project-based
learning approach and integrating innovation methods like design thinking, the course curriculum improves
students’ engagement and ability to address and solve real and impactful company challenges. The paper also
provides a detailed road map of tasks related to the preparation phase and project modules for instructors who
consider implementing this new marketing curriculum. Moreover, it identifies areas for further research
related to measuring this new course curriculum's impact on the learning process and faculty development.
1 INTRODUCTION
Due to students' lack of engagement in traditional
learning activities and the difficulties of preparing
students for their professional life, there is a
significant interest in new marketing curricula from
instructors and the academic community (Casado-
Aranda, Sánchez-Fernández, Montoro-Ríos, &
Horcajadas, 2021).
The paper draws on an actual marketing plan
course, a mandatory subject in the third year of the
undergraduate study program in Marketing and
Advertising (bachelor study). The course was
transformed into a PBL type entirely focused on
company projects to respond to the marketing
curricula challenges. This new curriculum started in
2018/2019 and has evolved to the academic year
2021/2022, incorporating different activities,
dynamics, methods, and tools.
The goal of this paper is twofold. Firstly, to
provide marketing faculty with clear insights on the
particular challenges of marketing applied projects in
company challenges. Secondly, to propose a new
learning and teaching methodology for effectively
implementing marketing course curricula and,
therefore, to bridge the theory and practice gap in
marketing education. The relevancy of this
contribution is supported by educational trends and
recent studies that call for new approaches in
a
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5428-1803
marketing curricula (Athaide & Desai, 2005; Ferrell
& Ferrell, 2020).
The paper starts reviewing the marketing curricula
challenges (section 2) discussed in theory and based
on studies from pedagogical, project-based learning
and business-oriented education fields. Section 3
draws on a case of a marketing course, a structured
approach designed to overcome the acknowledged
issues in marketing education. Then, section 4
examines the results of new course implementation
from the perspective of students and companies. The
paper discusses results against the theory (section 5)
and concludes with the lessons learned, limitations,
and opportunities for further research (section 6).
2 MARKETING CURRICULA
CHALLENGES
2.1 Active Learning and Company
Projects
The fast-changing academic and business
environment demands new educational marketing
methods and tools, in line with the challenges
students face when concluding their studies. More
than ever, instructors are required to prepare students
for their professional life. Besides delivering in-depth
498
Patrício, R.
Bridging the Theory and Practice Gap in Marketing Education.
DOI: 10.5220/0011061700003182
In Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU 2022) - Volume 2, pages 498-505
ISBN: 978-989-758-562-3; ISSN: 2184-5026
Copyright
c
 2022 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved

theoretical knowledge, it is critical to enhancing
students' creativity and practical ability to address
society's present and future challenges and the
business world (Mei & Hu, 2018).
Marketing instructors also need to put the widely
accepted principles of key pedagogical thinkers into
practice, particularly some of the views of John
Dewey (e.g., we do not learn from experience...we
learn from reflecting on experience; the real process
of education should be the process of learning to think
through the application of real problems) and Jean
Piaget (e.g., the goals of educations are to create men
who are capable of doing new things and form minds
which can be critical, can verify, and not accept
everything they are offered).
Marketing education is having issues with the
involvement of students in traditional learning
activities, e.g., lecture classes with textbooks, slides
and videos (Casado-Aranda, Sánchez-Fernández,
Montoro-Ríos, & Horcajadas, 2021). Several factors
drive the lack of students’ engagement and
motivation: i) too much focus on lecture classes that
do not provide students the required work skills such
as creative problem-solving, teamwork, leadership or
critical thinking; ii) traditional (not updated) content
and methods; iii) difficulty to apply digital
technologies in a more meaningful, exciting and
relevant manner; iii) silo approach, which limits
integrated learning and active teaching
methodologies (Athaide & Desai, 2005; Casado-
Aranda et al., 2021; Mills & Hair, 2021).
One of the learning activities introduced in higher
education to respond to students' disengagement is
the PBL problem-based learning in company projects
(Bartholomew, 2021; Casado-Aranda et al., 2021).
Adopting PBL provides an opportunity to create a
new curriculum that moves away from the traditional
theory-based education and focuses on student-
centered, project-centered, and business integrated
perspectives (Mei & Hu, 2018). Students become the
protagonists and active players in addressing real-
world company challenges/problems, acquiring
knowledge, participating successfully in the tasks,
learning by doing, reflecting about what they are
doing and why, and collaborating more with their
peers.
Moreover, active learning and engagement can
also be achieved in marketing curricula with design
game elements and mechanics, to prepare students for
the situation analysis stage of the marketing planning
process (Harding & Alexander, 2019).
2.2 Integrative and Digital Curricula
The call for more interdisciplinary and integrative
marketing curricula aligned with industry practice is
not limited to current silos of interest, e.g., strategy,
sales, or consumer behavior (Athaide & Desai, 2005;
Ferrell & Ferrell, 2020). When incorporated in the
marketing plan curricula, emergent innovation
approaches like “lean start up” and “jobs to be done”
and “design thinking” facilitate the development of
desired innovation skills among students that meet the
21st-century workplace requirements (Klink, Zhang,
& Athaide, 2020). For instance, several studies
suggest that design thinking, and other related
concepts like business design, design-driven
innovation, or service design are being integrated into
marketing education as an appropriate approach to
respond to market complexity and turbulence (Glen,
Suciu, Baughn, & Anson, 2015; Schumacher &
Mayer, 2018). Incorporating design thinking
approaches in the curricula allows students to develop
a set of critical capabilities (e.g., user empathy,
problem framing, visualization, prototyping and
testing, and multidisciplinary collaboration) that will
prepare them for future company/business roles.
The digital learning transition accelerated by
Covid-19 also stressed the need to revise marketing
curricula and new pedagogical tools. As in many
other areas, processes have become more digital to
overcome the limitations of the pandemic. New
communication platforms, like Zoom, and Microsoft
Teams and collaboratives online spaces like Miro and
Mural are becoming the standard to match actual
learning activities (e.g., PBL company projects) with
students’ learning styles and interests (Bartholomew,
2021). At the same time, more awareness is given to
complex issues associated with AI and other advances
in technology, safety privacy and ethics (Ferrell &
Ferrell, 2020).
3 MARKETING COURSE
DESIGN
3.1 Course Overview
The course is divided into 15 weeks during a semester
with 2 classes of 3 hours each week in 90 contact
hours. There are 27 students average in a course and
nearly eight courses running during the first and
second semester of the academic year. It is intended
to integrate multidisciplinary knowledge that students
have learned during multiple disciplines, e.g., market
Bridging the Theory and Practice Gap in Marketing Education
499

research, consumer behavior, finance applied to
marketing, strategic and operational marketing.
Students work in teams performing the planned
activities (see 3.3). Most of the classes are devoted to
practice (hands-on and monitoring) but also powered
by dedicated theory pills (concept delivery) to enrich
the learning process. Until so far, students are allowed
to form their teams by themselves, but other options
might be available, e.g., teams created by the
instructors.
During 2020–2021 it moved to a hybrid model
with synchronous online classes complemented with
some presential classes, which posed other types of
challenges and limitations in terms of interaction and
engagement. Instructors needed to adapt the class
dynamic, approach, and flow to a new environment,
making students more committed to the classes and
course plan. Besides having access to most of the
features of Blackboard learning management system
(now using Canvas, e.g., groups and discussion
forums), and implementing new communication and
collaborative tools (e.g., Miro and Mural digital
workspaces), students were encouraged to prepare the
classes in advance by having a detailed program and
expected outcomes.
3.2 Course Objectives and Setup
The course was designed to reach the following
learning objectives: i) to develop marketing skills by
applying new methods and tools to real company
challenges; ii) to develop soft skills like
communication, creativity and collaboration; iii) to
facilitate the integration into professional life,
incorporating solid theoretical and practical
components.
The entire learning experience is driven by a clear
focus on company market challenges, e.g., launching
new products/services in the marketplace, improving
the customer experience, designing business models
for entering in new market segments, expanding
distribution channels, designing marketing
campaigns. Students’ teams, formed by 3 up to 6
members, are requested to prepare a marketing plan
accordingly to the type of challenge submitted by the
company. Students always bring a different and
exploratory perspective and their personal and
creative vision of the challenges.
This focus partially explains why this curriculum
has been applied positively in collaboration with
many diverse companies, e.g., beverages, energy,
cosmetics, business services and retail, during the
past years. Another reason is the integration of new
perspectives, methods and tools like design thinking
that enables the development of work skills and
contributes to bolder ideas. Finally, the type of classes
has been adapted to growing face-to-face interactions
from 2021/2022 onwards. Three formats may coexist
in a single class. One is the concept delivery class
(CDC), a more lecture-based class that introduces the
fundamental concepts that student teams should use
throughout the project phases and programmed
topics. The other is a more hands-on class (HOC) for
applying concepts to respond to project phases and
topics. The third is the mentoring class (MC) to
monitor and evaluate the workouts and provide
feedback for further developments.
Every semester, instructors engage with company
managers to understand their challenges and explore
opportunities for collaboration. The chosen company
challenges are interesting for both parties, i.e., for the
convenience of the company and the overall students
learning experience. Companies are aware that this is
an academic project, which seeks to improve learning
by responding to specific market needs. It is not
intended to do consulting work for the company but
to use real challenges and company data to bridge the
theory and practice gap. For this reason, the
assessment of the work carried out by student teams
is solely the instructor's responsibility.
Companies undertaking these projects prepare a
briefing with internal and market data and provide
details about the challenge, presented to students at
the beginning of the course (see course plan). Despite
the teams’ responsibility for collecting appropriate
data for their project, companies typically maintain an
open channel with the instructor to provide more
information and answer upcoming questions. At the
end of both project assignments (see course plan),
company managers will assist the marketing plan
presentations and give concrete feedback to each
team.
As this is a structured learning process, teams can
apply appropriate methods and tools to conduct the
project and respond to concrete and real company
challenges. The project-based learning method
encourages active participation of student teams in
discussions, exercises, and execution of project tasks,
enabling them to incorporate input from company
managers, instructors, and peers.
3.3 Course Modules
The project consists of teamwork (3-5 students) to
prepare a marketing plan for a company throughout
the semester. Before going through the modules that
correspond to the 3 stages of a typical marketing plan,
teams are required to prepare the project.
CSEDU 2022 - 14th International Conference on Computer Supported Education
500

3.3.1 Introduction
 0.1 Challenge confirmation – team's
interpretation of the company challenge.
 0.2 Definition of methods and tools - team's
definition of the most appropriate
methodological approach to responding to the
challenge, including data collection (primary
data, e.g., interviews, surveys, observations,
and secondary, e.g., market studies, scientific
articles, trend reports, benchmarking with other
sectors, statistics) and data analysis (methods
and tools that will be used throughout the
different stages of the project).
3.3.2 Module 1. Analysis (Current State and
Trend Inputs)
 1.1 Internal analysis: characterization of the
company in terms of strategy, organizational
culture, portfolio of products and services,
customer segments (in volume and value),
personas and experience mapping, portfolio
life cycle, brand positioning, marketing
variables used and evaluation of the company's
most critical resources and capabilities.
 1.2 External analysis: trends and forces of
change in the marketplace, relationship with
the main stakeholders, direct and indirect
competition, quantification of the actual and
potential market in the primary market
segments.
 1.3 Systematization of findings and
identification of ideas to address the company
challenge.
3.3.3 Module 2. Strategy (Choices about the
Desired Future State)
 2.1 Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning: STP
definition for the chosen idea.
 2.2 Definition of the value proposition (using
Geoffrey Moore Value Proposition approach).
 2.3 Design the prototype for the chosen idea:
e.g., using drawings, mockups, apps screens, or
any other form of visual demonstration.
 2.4 Presentation of the prototype to the target
customers to test their interest in the proposed
idea (if they don’t demonstrate clear support,
phases 1.3 to 2.3 must be repeated).
 2.5 Confirmation of the value proposition: VP
can be refined following target customer
feedback.
3.3.4 Module 3. Plan (Actions to Get to the
Desired Future State)
 3.1 Definition of objectives (financial,
marketing and social), indicators and targets.
 3.2 Outline the main actions/initiatives
proposed to implement the objectives, the team
and the scheduling of actions over the next 3
years.
 3.3 Presentation of the idea's impact on
customer experience (new mapping, which can
be based on the comments received in point 2.4
by target customers who tested the prototype of
the proposed idea).
 3.4 Presentation of the financial impacts of the
idea: using sales forecast, marketing budget
and estimating other costs needed for the
presentation of the profit and loss statement.
 3.5 Evaluation and control of the plan by
elaborating scenarios, such as realistic,
optimistic, or pessimistic, to measure the
strategy's progress.
3.4 Student Assignments
Students will have to deliver 2 project reports and
individual creative work. The purpose is to have a
more balanced evaluation of students based on a
project team and individual contributions (table 1).
Table 1: Assignments.
T
yp
es of Assi
g
nments Deadlines Wei
g
hts
Project Report
(Modules 1 and 2)
Middle of
semeste
r
30% of final
grade
Project Report
(
Modules 1, 2 and 3
)
End of
semeste
r
40% of final
g
rade
Individual work
(
Lo
g
book
)
End of
semeste
r
30% of final
g
rade
The evaluation criteria for the 2 project deliverables
encompasses:
 Presentation – 30% (with 40% peer review)
that includes: clarity and organization of ideas
(70%); visual and oral communication (30%).
 Report content – 50% that includes: quality of
work plan and proposed structure (50%);
justification of all the assumptions (20%); the
potential impact of proposals in response to the
challenge (30%).
 Reading and visual appearance (20%).
Introducing the logbook, which replaced an
individual written test, provided students a more
creative platform to express the lessons learned and
their critical views of the learning experience. The
Bridging the Theory and Practice Gap in Marketing Education
501

logbook encourages students to keep a record
(physical preferred, but digital is allowed) of the
course learning process, insights and outcomes in real
time. This is also a method to help them become
aware of the course learning goals and a simple way
to return to them later in their professional careers.
This type of assignment is graded based on the
following criteria:
 Breakthrough views/conclusions (40%);
 Variety of topics registered (30%);
 Organization and readability of content (30%).
3.5 Course Implementation
The tasks related to the preparation phase and project
modules are broken down into 30 classes during a
semester, providing a detailed road map for
instructors who consider implementing this new
course curriculum (figure 1).
Figure 1: Course implementation steps.
3.5.1 Introduction
Four up to six classes are needed to introduce the
course and form the groups. The first two classes
(CDC) help define the course structure, evaluation,
methodology (PBL), and planning. It also contributes
to reflecting on project core concepts by discussing
an inspiring marketing and strategy article.
The following two classes (HOC) are dedicated to
discussing the company's challenge (prepared in
advance by the company manager in collaboration
with the instructor) and planning the collection of
secondary and primary data (that can, in some cases,
be common to all groups). An active search for new
marketing and innovation methods and tools is also
promoted among the groups.
The last classes are dedicated to presenting the
company briefing and discussing the challenge with
the company manager (HOC). Having a clearer
picture of the challenge, groups will define the
methodological approach (phases, methods, and
tools) they should follow during the project. Then,
each group should present the steps of their project,
the methods and tools they intend to use, and the type
of data they intend to collect (primary and secondary
data) and receive feedback from the instructor (MC).
3.5.2 Analysis
This first step requires six up to eight classes to
perform the strategic analysis and the identification of
an idea to respond to the company challenge. It starts
with a strategic analysis and identification of business
opportunities class (CDC) and others (HOC) to
conduct the internal and external analysis (1.1 and
1.2). Data collection follows in parallel - secondary
(desk research) and primary (e.g., preparing
interviews and surveys scripts; conducting field
research and sharing the findings).
Immediately after the class about strategic
analysis methods and tools (CDC), groups should
systematize their findings and identify potential ideas
(1.3). The final class (MC) will be dedicated to
discussing market opportunities from the situation
analysis. Each group should list 3 ideas and choose
the one with more significant potential to respond to
the company challenge and receive feedback from the
instructor.
3.5.3 Strategy
The instructor opens the discussion about the strategy
definition process (CDC). Based on the chosen idea,
groups should define their segmentation, targeting,
positioning and value proposition (2.1 and 2.2) for the
following two classes (HOC). Then, a new class
(CDC) is needed to explain how groups will
prototype and test their strategy/idea (2.3), followed
by two other classes (HOC). One is to present the
value proposition of their strategy/idea and receive
feedback from the instructor. The other serves to
design the prototype for the proposed idea. Having
this task concluded, each group should test the
prototype and receive feedback from target customers
(2.4). Finally, groups with the support of the
instructor (MC) should confirm / refine the value
proposition (2.5).
Before delivering the first assignment, groups
should have the opportunity to present a draft version
of their report. This intermediate presentation aims to
receive feedback on the project's status and improve
its reports. In the final class (MC), groups should
present the 1st report (steps 1 and 2) to the company
manager and instructor.
CSEDU 2022 - 14th International Conference on Computer Supported Education
502

3.5.4 Plan
The third step takes nine up to eleven classes. It starts
with a class (CDC) to discuss the way groups should
set the objectives, indicators and targets (3.1), followed
by practical classes to execute this task (HOC).
Subsequently, two classes (HOC) are required to
define the main actions/initiatives proposed to
implement the objectives (3.2). Each group should be
well-positioned to present their objectives, indicators,
goals and main actions/initiatives and receive feedback
from the instructor (MC).
Another set of classes is needed to underline the
significant impacts of the proposed ideas. This
process starts with a discussion (CDC) of the meaning
and implications of the desired customer experience
(3.3.) and a practical class (HOC) to groups present
the impacts of their ideas. The other type of impact is
the financial (3.4). Besides going through the details
of the creation of the financial model (CDC), groups
should also present their cases.
Two classes (HOC) using ideaChef design
thinking game are planned to test the proposed idea.
Groups should discuss their views from different
perspectives to better understand the potential of the
idea to address the company challenge. Before
concluding the project, groups should take other
classes to revise the prototype, value proposition, and
the evaluation and control of the plan (3.5). In the last
two classes (MC), groups should first present a draft
version of their report and then, in the final class
deliver the 2nd report (steps 1, 2, and 3) to the
company manager and instructor.
4 FINDINGS
4.1 Student Outcomes and Assessment
Students involved in this type of course curricula are
usually surprised with the approach and the results
achieved. The word cloud (figure 2) shows the
feedback provided by a sample of 53 students
collected on June 2020 concerning the following
question: what is the word that best describes the
experience you had during this course?
Figure 2: Student’s experience.
Several comments, collected during the classes,
reinforced the satisfaction of working with company
cases. At the same time, students mentioned their
main difficulties in handling such a complex project.
Besides the usual constraints associated with the
pandemic situation still impacting the learning
process, e.g., lack of in-person meetings, interviews,
and observations, students revealed two significant
difficulties. The first was conducting financial
analysis and projections due to market uncertainty
and lack of data (not always provided by companies).
The second was a lack of analytical skills.
4.2 Company Outcomes and
Assessment
Eight companies were asked to evaluate the project
results after the final students' presentation. The
following examples (table2) illustrate the type of
feedback received.
Table 2: Company’s experiences.
Companies Testimonials
Head of Brand
& Marketing -
Non-food
Retailer
The balance was very positive.
Teams had several opportunities to
apply knowledge from different areas
of marketing, such as digital
marketing, UX design, content
marketing, app development, among
others. They all demonstrated a high
level of proficiency with the research
phase, problem outline, solution
design and prototyping.
General
Manager - Co-
Working
Spaces
Teams demonstrated creativity,
commitment to do more and better,
good manners and proper conduct.
The reports were detailed and
conducted with rigor. It was a very
exciting project.
Marketing
Director -
Beverages
All teams innovated with ideas
related to product, brand activation
and Route2Market.
Head of Design
- Online Luxury
Marketplace
It was a pleasure to attend the
students' presentation and definitely
their proposals were relevant to our
p
roduct.
Marketing
Manager -
Distribution
and marketing
of liquid fuels
The students’ external views and
out of the box ideas allowed us to
understand if our strategy is aligned
with the market and our target needs.
It is important for students to have
concrete challenges from companies
a contact with the business reality.
These were very enriching
experiences for both of us.
Bridging the Theory and Practice Gap in Marketing Education
503

Table 2: Company’s experiences (cont.).
Companies Testimonials
CEO - Co-
Working
Spaces
The recommendations and
quality of the marketing plans
responded to the challenges and went
beyond expectations, identifying
future growth opportunities.
Co-Founder,
CMO & E-
commerce -
Distribution
and marketing
of food snacks
As an emerging brand in the
market, it is essential for us to be
close to the new generations of
consumers, and being challenged
with students’ open mind and
creativity. No doubt it was enriching!
This is also fundamental for us to
identif
y
talent.
Marketing
Manager -
Online Multi-
Brand
Marketplace
Proposed solutions will for sure
contribute to design the future of our
company. Through field research,
students were able to gather valuable
inputs. One of the teams proposed a
solution to engage with the
community beyond the purchase,
which will serve to retain and attract
customers.
5 DISCUSSION
The course findings show that the proposed
marketing curriculum successfully addresses the
challenges identified in the literature. By looking into
the requirements for new educational marketing
methods and tools, it is possible to understand how
this new type of curricula can provide multiple
positive outcomes, particularly in the engagement and
training of students for their professional life. It is
recognized by students and companies the advantages
of enhancing students' creativity and learning through
the application of real problems (Mei & Hu, 2018).
The redesign of the marketing curricula focuses on a
student-centered and project-centered teaching and
active learning environment (Mei & Hu, 2018).
Applying PBL in company projects
(Bartholomew, 2021; Casado-Aranda et al., 2021) is
not a novel approach. But it is an excellent
opportunity to incorporate and integrate new
disciplines and digital tools that are critical for the
development of a set of essential student work skills,
e.g., teamwork, collaboration and creative problem-
solving (Athaide & Desai, 2005; Casado-Aranda et
al., 2021; Mills & Hair, 2021).
Companies and students acknowledge the benefit
of using disciplines and innovation approaches like
design thinking (Glen, Suciu, Baughn, & Anson,
2015; Schumacher & Mayer, 2018) and game-based
learning (Harding & Alexander, 2019). These
approaches are much more appropriate for dealing
with the market turbulence and uncertainty related to
the usual company challenges that teams address.
Students also benefit from using new online
collaborative workspaces, e.g., Miro and
communication platforms, e.g., Microsoft Teams
(Bartholomew, 2021), that are commonly used in
companies. Learning to apply these technologies in
company challenges also improves their
collaboration with other parties and future co-
workers.
Definitively, having a clear purpose and a
challenging project to accomplish, which is clearly
shown in the feedback received, contributes to
increasing students’ commitment and engagement in
the learning process, making it more active and in line
with future workforce requirements.
6 CONCLUSION
This type of curricula improves students’ ability to
address and solve real and impactful company
challenges. The proposed course design seems
appropriate and can match major requirements for
new educational marketing methods and tools.
Lessons learned about this new approach are listed as
follows:
 Applications – While primarily targeting
marketing instructors, practitioners may also
benefit from these new marketing curricula
when they need to organize teams and
processes to address fundamental challenges.
Any business and innovation challenge can
apply the cutting-edge methods and tools used
by teams during the project. For instance, the
presentation of the prototype to the target
customers (module 2, step 2.4) enables the
project team to experiment with user-helpful
ideas by constantly iterating the initial offering
and continuously learning from market
feedback.
 Resources – This new marketing curriculum
follows a process that requires specific
recourses. The classroom must accommodate a
variety of activities, from lectures to
workshops, where students go through
experiential learning that is not well suited with
fixed desks. Furthermore, it is critical to find an
instructor with the experience, skills, and exact
fit for this particular approach, setting the
class's tone.
CSEDU 2022 - 14th International Conference on Computer Supported Education
504

 Time requirements – This process relies on
having enough time to discuss, reflect and fully
understand the company challenge, do market
research (data collection and analysis) and
conduct all the project activities, e.g.,
observing, interviewing, prototype reviewing
and testing. And also, time to acquire, advance
and master the new skills.
This paper also has limitations that can be
addressed by future research. Firstly, there is apparent
new curricula miss-matched with less soft-skilled
students. Despite all the advantages already
identified, it was found that it is still hard for some
students to take full advantage of this approach due to
difficulties adapting and changing their mindset. As
an example of these types of problems, one student
recognized that was not able to concentrate on tasks
and develop the project during the hands-on classes.
Most probably, some students are still too much
influenced by traditional learning activities and have
difficulty moving to another type of learning. Also,
the kind of approach that supports the new curricula
encourages students to constantly review their
assumptions and move back and forth until they
become more confident with the results. It means that
it is a constraint for students that show problems
learning in a non-linear manner. Further research in
this field would probably help students quickly adapt
to this new type of learning and improve their
capability to collaborate with others.
Secondly, it is still needed to measure the real
impact of this new course curriculum in the learning
process. It would be helpful to test the differences
between students who take the new versus traditional
course curricula and understand, for instance, the
areas that require development and opportunities for
applying other methods, tools and technologies to
improve the course’s effectiveness and student´s
engagement. This course can be adapted and
enhanced with additional tools, resources, and
dynamics.
Finally, there is also room for improvement in
terms of faculty development. Instructors may also
face barriers to moving into this new teaching and
learning environment. This new process is more
transparent and requires new teaching skills like
mentoring and co-creating value with students. Thus,
it makes sense to explore both the obstacles and
methods that instructors can apply to overcome
adoption issues.
REFERENCES
Athaide, G. A., & Desai, H. B. (2005). Design and
implementation of an interdisciplinary
marketing/management course on technology and
innovation management. Journal of Marketing
Education, 27(3), 239–249. https://doi.org/10.1177/
0273475305279529
Bartholomew, D. E. (2021). A Snapshot of the Marketing
Capstone Course at U.S.-Based AACSB Schools.
Marketing Education Review, 31(1), 26–40.
Casado-Aranda, L. A., Sánchez-Fernández, J., Montoro-
Ríos, F. J., & Horcajadas, M. I. A. (2021). Evaluation
of the work-integrated learning methodology: Teaching
marketing through practitioner experience in the
classroom. Mathematics, 9(17). https://doi.org/
10.3390/math9172164
Ferrell, O. C., & Ferrell, L. (2020). Technology Challenges
and Opportunities Facing Marketing Education.
Marketing Education Review, 30(1), 3–14.
https://doi.org/10.1080/10528008.2020.1718510
Glen, R., Suciu, C., Baughn, C. C., & Anson, R. (2015).
Teaching design thinking in business schools.
International Journal of Management Education,
13(2), 182–192. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijme.2015.0
5.001
Harding, L. M., & Alexander, J. F. (2019). Teaching
Innovations That Work The (Marketing) Plan.
Marketing Education Review, 29(2), 105–106.
https://doi.org/10.1080/10528008.2019.1611378
Klink, R. R., Zhang, J. Q., & Athaide, G. A. (2020).
Designing a Customer Experience Management
Course. Journal of Marketing Education, 42(2), 157–
169. https://doi.org/10.1177/0273475318818873
Mei, Y., & Hu, Y. L. (2018). Application of project-based
teaching in the tourism marketing course. Kuram ve
Uygulamada Egitim Bilimleri, 18(6), 2759–2765.
https://doi.org/10.12738/estp.2018.6.176
Mills, A. J., & Hair, J. F. (2021). Consumer Insights: A
Turning Point for Marketing Research Education.
Journal of Marketing Education, 43(3), 279–284.
https://doi.org/10.1177/02734753211046448
Schumacher, T., & Mayer, S. (2018). Preparing Managers
for Turbulent Contexts: Teaching the Principles of
Design Thinking. Journal of Management Education,
42(4), 496–523. https://doi.org/10.1177/1052562917
754235
Bridging the Theory and Practice Gap in Marketing Education
505