Teaching with Technology

by: Judy Strauss (Southern Illinios) & Donna Hill (Indiana University)

Marketing Education Review 2007

Blog: Lynn Barnsback

 “Nearly one half of marketing students do not embrace Web-based instructional (WBI) tools.” This article was published in 2007, so hopefully this is no longer as big a gap, however, these students, the 50% not embracing technology have probably just graduated so it is interesting to see what the state of Teaching with Technology was just 3 short years ago.

 The authors indicated many times that “many college students do not use the Internet for their education” and often don’t recognize the value in Web tools. They refer to them as “Laggards” and set forth to do a category based classification of WBI tools and their use by students. Often, a student will identify a tool as beneficial but use them rarely. This gap was  a concern. They define WBI as teaching supported by the attributes and resources of the internet to browser equipped learners

Strauss & Hill discuss the differences in WBI work of students due to learning styles. Visual Style learners seem to prefer technology-based learning. Above average learners might also benefit from the self-paced nature of internet assignments. Asian students were more comfortable speaking in a Web format & that “non-traditional students had more positive attitudes toward computers.” Unless motivated, independent learners, students prefer traditional instructional modes. Their conclusion to all their research on prior studies is that “there are some competing positions regarding student satisfaction with WBI tools, and further research is needed.”

 The authors chose to question students in Principles of Marketing at two mid-sized Midwestern schools; one private, one public. The sample size was 444. Obviously, the it was primarily “traditional students” surveyed. Students completed a questionnaire with 16 internet tools listed. They were asked about use, perceived benefit and competency levels.    

 Short List:

• Most used tools:
  • e-mail – 1. Instructor 2. students
  • Research on the Web (class work and seeking company information
• Half never use:
• •  bulletin boards; chat rooms; online tests; videos; create own web pages; e-mail to businesses
• Largest Gaps between Perceived Benefit and  Actual Use:
  • Practice Tests
  • Online Class Readings
  •  Actual Test
  • class e-mail newsletter
  • electronic bulletin board (online forum)
• Lowest scoring items
  • Post e-mail to electronic bulletin board
  • Chat room for class work

The study was exhausting, moving items in and out of the calculations and attempting to find a variety of correlations. The authors note that information was only gathered at two schools and the students were fairly traditional “present high face validity.” They also did not include some “newer” tools like texting & social network sights.

 Summary/Conclusions:

• Half of students in Principles of Marketing classes are “light” users of Web-based instructional tools
• Light Users tend to be female
• Students can see something as beneficial (on line test/ bulletin board) yet not use it
• Faculty does not require usage of these technologies so students don’t use them
• Heavy e-mail users take up most of faculty e-mail time (over a quarter e-mail weekly to daily)
• Research tools were considered beneficial and used by both heavy and light WBI users
• Group communication tools are used the least and felt to have the least benefit.

 The recommendations were, after much sorting of information, fairly obvious- faculty should provide and require more of the desired tools for students. Move light users to heavier usage this way and allow marketing graduates to have higher internet skill levels. This is a trend in higher education anyway so this study, however robustly done, was not ground breaking.  The results, although tainted by the limited demographic, were interesting to see and it is always good to have data to back up what we “know” or can guess about  student perceptions and behavior;  like children and vegetables, you need to make the web required  for students to use it and gain the benefit.