Using Experiential Learning in Marketing Communication Course

Experiential and active learning has now become a usual learning method. Experiential learning is the process of making meaning from direct experience [10]. Active learning is a link between academic theory or concepts and experiential learning. As Revans (1940 in [5]) observed active learning has two components: learning garnered from authorities (academic theory, concepts) and learning from students questioning of their own experience. In the course of Marketing Communication we did involve these approaches in the form of theoretical lectures and practical workshops. The theoretical lectures were same for all students attending the course (cca 300 students). The workshops did differ. Students were able to choose in advance between practical workshops in the area of public relations (press conference), event management (organizing a conference), online advertising (Google Online Marketing Challenge), planning marketing communication (for Allianz insurance company) and marketing communication plan (for microbrewery in the small city). Aim of the research presented in this paper is to explore the students understanding and evaluation of results achieved by completing a course focused on experiential learning through live case studies in comparison with learning through mini-case studies with the support of multimedia class tools. The specific aims of the article are to verify the benefits of experiential learning to the students in the area of marketing communication and to find out which competencies were developed by used teaching approaches. Following methods had been used to fullfil the aims: observation, questionnaire, group discussion (for sets of competencies creation), non-parametrical statistical testing (Mann-Whitney test) and also analogy, induction, deduction, specification, abstraction, analysis and synthesis.