USM professors receive the first runner-up at a marketing conference

Wed, 03/16/2022 – 3:41 p.m | From: Van Arnold

The professors dr. Wei Wang and Dr. Chris Croft of the University of Southern Mississippi recently received the first runner-up award for the Association of Collegiate Marketing Educators’ AxcessCapon Teaching Innovation Award at their annual conference in New Orleans earlier this month.

Her research presentation, “Innovating Teaching Practices in Marketing Education Through Collaborative Experiential Learning,” detailed her Fall 2021 interdisciplinary teaching research project between their respective Hospitality and Tourism Management and Sports Management classes.

Summary of the presentation:

Gaining real-world experience is critical in the classroom to help marketing students understand innovations in hospitality and tourism management and the standards of the sports management industry. This research project examined marketing students’ perceptions of how experiential learning activities are changing their perceptions of learning with cross-curricular instruction in the hospitality and tourism management and sports management classes.

Class training was divided into four phases of Kolb’s experiential learning theory (1) abstract conceptualization, (2) active experimentation, (3) concrete experience, and (4) reflective observation. Innovative teaching methods were incorporated by the trainers into five training sessions including project initiation, secondary main link, on-site arena visit, on-site hotel visit, and reflection discussion. Student learning was assessed through reflection papers, qualitative interviews and focus groups.

Summary information from educators and students supported the research project to foster innovation in curriculum development in hospitality and tourism management and sports management. The understanding of the importance of marketing in both courses was specific and shared at a high level. The collaborative project through experiential learning benefited the students to better understand their own and secondary major and better prepare for future career positions in their respective hotel and sports industries.