Addressing the Educational Challenges of Experiential Learning in Teaching of Internet Marketing at Thompson Rivers University - Paper

Oct 15, 2026

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Explores how higher-education internet marketing courses can better connect theory with hands-on capability, arguing that conventional written case studies often lack realism and fail to generate sufficient student motivation. Describes a modified live case study implemented at Thompson Rivers University, where students act as project sponsors and complete authentic tasks including website content development, online advertising creation and operation, performance monitoring, and problem solving. Summarizes the approach and provides recommendations for instructors considering similar experiential learning design.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages11

Reading Time28 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Experiential Learning Methods

Introducing a Live Case Study to Internet Marketing Students

Addressing the Educational Challenges of Experiential Learning in Teaching of Internet Marketing at Thompson Rivers University By Andrew Idzikowski􀀍 One of many educational challenges in higher education is to combine theory with the practical knowledge that students need to have learned upon graduation. Most business schools in North America address this issue by using case studies. In the business area of internet marketing, learning by analyzing case studies does not create the excitement in students that many teachers would hope for. Unless the learning objectives are directly linked to the students’personal career objectives, the success of the traditional case study approach is slowly decreasing. To break from a typical case study approach, this Author has introduced a modified live case study to the students in the School of Business at Thompson Rivers University (TRU) in Canada. Instead of collaborating with external businesses sponsors, the students became project sponsors themselves. The entire experience required the marketing students to obtain the knowledge needed to fully understand many challenges of internet marketing. It included real activities such as developing content fora website, creating and running online advertising, monitoring website performance, and solving many challenging problems. This paper summarizes this live case study experience, which has been successfully implemented in the last two semesters at TRU. It provides recommendations that other instructors may consider before introducing a similar experience in their classrooms. Introduction The proliferation of Internet technologies into many facets of business activities has put a lot of pressure on higher education throughout the world. Today’s students are expected to obtain the traditional business knowledge of the past as well as to become technological leaders of the future. We can find many examples of successful university graduates becoming entrepreneurs in a relatively short time, for example Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, who have founded YouTube (Hopkins 2006) . Since the invention of the Internet, combining an increasing amount of theoretical knowledge with practical skills within a typical four-year bachelor degree business programs has created more challenges for educators. At the same time, a general 􀀍Lecturer, School of Business and Economic, Thompson Rivers University, Canada. [https://doi.org/10.30958/aje.1-2-3](https://doi.org/10.30958/aje.1-2-3) doi=10.30958/aje.1-2-3 expectation of instant business success upon graduation also has introduced another dimension to the entire business education. Some of these issues, for example, the impact of technology on society, have been explored on a global scale by Butler (2012) and Chmielecki (2013) . Combining two factors such as theory and practice became more challenging when applied to business areas such as internet marketing. This particular business activity is further driven by the ever-evolving Internet technology. Most business schools in North America address this issue by using case studies. Many authors argue that this approach to teaching in higher education meets the Kolb’s experiential model and can bean effective way to provide the students with the necessary practical learning experience. Other authors argue that traditional case studies themselves cannot replace learning without real live experience. The traditional case studies, also called theoretical case studies, don’t have enough of a practical component compared to learning by doing (McCarthy 2006) . This paper focuses on the implementation of a live case study by this Author for teaching internet marketing as it has been introduced in the School of Business and Economics at Thompson Rivers University. Experiential Learning Methods In the business area of Internet Marketing, learning by analyzing traditional case studies is a common pedagogical method. Linking theory with practice

FAQs

Why does the paper say traditional internet marketing case studies are less effective?

They may be impersonal and unrealistic, can reduce student excitement, and often lack enough practical component compared with learning by doing.

What is the main difference between traditional case studies and the live case study described?

In traditional cases students work from hypothetical scenarios, while the live case study has students work with a real company as a project sponsor, facing real problems and campaigns.

What real activities did the marketing students perform in the live case study?

They developed content for a website, created and ran online advertising, monitored website performance, and addressed challenging issues that arose during execution.

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by Mimi