COURSE PROJECTS AS VALUE CO-CREATION TOOLS: DEVELOPING UNIVERSITY COLLABORATION OPPORTUNITIES

ABSTRACT

As industry demands students with a greater technical skillset, experiential learning projects are more critical than ever in developing required technical expertise. Employing a value co-creation model at a midwestern university, the authors implemented a project to develop students’ digital marketing skills, secure certifications in digital marketing, and simultaneously benefit the university community by developing e-mail communications for graduate programs. Through a course-based project, the authors examine the influence of iterative project submissions and frequent feedback as a tool to enhance both student and university employee learning. Results show value co-creative projects with a university client offers benefits to both students and the broader university community. For students, multiple practice iterations with feedback from university stakeholders increased student confidence, knowledge, and competence. For university participants, reviewing iterative project submissions was beneficial in developing marketing skills and stimulating innovative solutions beyond the scope of the student projects. Challenges related to the study design and limitations are also discussed.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the MMA reviewers for valuable feedback that helped this paper to reach its final form.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).