From boring - to engaging

I took a unit that is normally boring to both teach and learn. It's the 9 functions of Marketing. This unit was traditionally taught through Powerpoint presentation and lectures but it was an overwhelming amount of information and very boring for the students to learn. Then I altered this lesson to allow each group to create a poster on one function and each group would hang the posters and do a presentation to the class. This was a little more exciting but as each group would present - the other groups wouldn't really "learn" about ALL functions. This time- I used the "off-loading" concept, as well as ACTS. I created a problem (which was real) - which was to design a brochure for the "intro to marketing" class. The intro to marketing class is full of freshman so I challenged my class to create a brochure explaining the 9 functions in a format that the freshman would understand and appreciate. I paired the groups up into 2 and they had to look up the information in the textbook - learn the definition and then re-phrase it in a simple format. They then had to develop an example for each function. This was much more engaging and the students actually "retained" the information on ALL functions. They also learned a software skill of creating a brochure by using a template in Blackboard. Another great concept in design:)