The marketing professor shares eight “Teaching Moments” from the 2019 Society for Marketing Advances Annual Conference in a Marketing Education Review article.
Prachi Gala, assistant professor of marketing in the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business, co-authored “Big Impact Teaching Moments in the Big Easy,” which appears in the journal Marketing Education Review.
The paper, co-authored with Charles E. Drehmer, DePaul University, and Kesha K. Coker, Ball State University, highlights eight peer-reviewed “Teaching Moments” presented during the 2019 Society of Marketing Advances (SMA) Annual Conference. The teaching techniques shared centered on branding, confirmation bias, student engagement, creativity, ethics, public relations, and interviewing skills.
Some of the Teaching Moments from the conference:
1. The Illusion of Immunity to Confirmation Bias
This is a brief in-class exercise to inform students of the presence and perils of confirmation bias. Students are shown one of the two prime images followed by an optical illusion that can be interpreted in two ways. Students’ initial interpretations of the optical illusion serve as a demonstration that people are biased to see what they expect to see.
2. Phone Friday
Phone Fridays flip the classroom, allowing students to be the instructor by showing off the latest app or marketing campaign on their smartphone.
3. #EthicsMatter: Reduce, Recognize, & Report
Instructors are tasked with implementing academic honesty and integrity policies that are created by the institution. Using a multi-method solution to discourage unethical behavior can help instructors keep up with the innovative ways students cheat.
4. Taking Role-Plays to the Next Level: Superhero Personas
This is a two to three-week assignment where student groups are asked to pick a “superhero” persona from a list and represent one of these characters utilizing a good argument and research. Students create a PR piece and role-play that shows the “superhero” in a positive light.
5. Teaching Students How to Nail the Interview
This teaching innovation is designed to cultivate a student’s ability to be proactive when they interview and effectively answer “What are your strengths and weaknesses?” before it is even asked.
For all of the Teaching Moments, view the article here.
Marketing Education Review is a resource to find innovative, evidence-based tools and techniques to improve classroom instruction and the student learning experience. Its focus is to promote innovative approaches to curriculum design, student learning and faculty development through pedagogical research that advanced the understanding of marketing education.
Gala joined Elon’s faculty in 2018 after earning her doctorate in business administration with a concentration in marketing from the University of Mississippi. Her research interests lie in marketing strategy and marketing-finance interface. Prior to her academic career, Gala worked as a business technology analyst and as a marketing strategist.