Enhancing learning outcomes through application driven activities in marketing

This paper introduces an activity used in class to allow students to apply previously acquired information to a hands-on task. As the authors have previously shown active learning is a way to effectively facilitate and improve students' learning outcomes. As a result to improve learning outcomes we have overtime developed a series of learning activities reinforcing marketing theories. In this paper, we provide details of a marketing communications exercise which in addition to being a vehicle for active learning also allowed students to apply the results of their previous research thereby effectively aligning all learning and assessment tasks. The activity required students to take a previously completed environmental analysis of a foreign country and using that information develop a print advertisement for an Australian branded product unavailable in that country. Details are provided on the in-class activity including guidelines for conducting the practice-orientated exercise and information on the assessment tasks leading up to this activity. The paper provides academics with an example of how to apply concepts to real life examples in the classroom and give students hands on experience and further shows how learning can be scaffolded through assessment. We found that students actively engaged in the experience and improved their learning outcomes through application of their previous research and the concepts discussed in class.