Teaching the Online Marketing Research Course for MBA Students

Abstract

Learning in an online environment shares many aspects with the learning required in marketing research projects conducted by research agencies with client firms. However, learning-management-system platforms now provide powerful ways to enrich learning in the online environment through threaded discussions, access to video clips and lively interaction between students and instructors. In such ways, an asynchronous online marketing research course can allow the type of rich experience and reflection that are the hallmarks of valuable experiential-learning. The purpose of this article is to discuss the benefits and challenges of teaching a key course in the education of business students—the marketing research course—in an online environment. This article integrates theoretical frameworks of online education and discusses timely issues for those teaching an online marketing-research course to MBA students, such as the importance of imparting the scientific method, the role of the teacher as a facilitator, content for the course, and thoughts about future marketing research courses. Because most online MBA students are currently working in business, they have an opportunity for applying their learning at work in a very valuable way. Such opportunity can bring an energy and excitement for learning not matched in other contexts for the MBA.