Using Market Segmentation to Develop a Large Section, Web-enhanced Survey Course

URL:

http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=61

Abstract:

Increasing enrollment and decreasing budgets have caused many public universities, such as San Fransisco State University (SFU), to offer mega-sections of courses to hundreds of students. Yet the needs of many students are at odds with the large enrollments, inflexible times, and inconvenient locations of these classes. Jason Cole and Bruce Robertson look at an alternative to traditional courses in this context—a hybrid online-offline course designed to accomodate a diverse student population. In designing their Web-enhanced Introductory Marketing course at SFU, the authors adopted a market-segmentation approach that identified the different needs of different student groups, which in this case included working and non-working students as well as native English speakers and students who learned English as a second language. After describing the methods they used to develop their course and illustrating its distinctive features, the authors provide an assessment of their redesign with regard to student performance and student satisfaction.