Highlights 2015, der akademische Jahresrückblick: Teil 3 – IM2: the expert’s problem or reducing is sometimes better than making it complex.

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IM2 Movie NightSome of you might have noticed, that sometimes I redefine the structure of a lesson or the way I’m teaching. It is necessary, because the the students sitting now in the classroom, are different from those 10 years ago. Last summer term my audience in international marketing was an interesting mix of people coming from Germany, rest of Europe, Asia, South America and Arabian countries. Such a cultural diversity is a challenge and an opportunity at the same time. A challenge, because there are totally different (culture specific) ways of acquiring knowledge. An opportunity, because you have to rethink your own approaches. I spend more time with rethinking and reducing the tempo during the semester and the number of topics. Deeper and more intensive was the motto during the entire term. By the way, I didn’t change the main goals: 1) every student should be able to solve real life marketing problems, 2) no baby marketing, and 3) a theory is a good theory if applicable to real life situations.

Besides all the changes there is still continuity within the course. For the third time in a row – nearly at the end of the summer term – I gave the students a creative task: create smart phone movie (focusing more on the creative idea, not on the perfect quality of the video) to promote student party on a Sunday afternoon. That’s task covered the important aspects of consumer behavior: need recognition and creating a strong desire to overcome Sunday afternoon laziness. We had much fun during the presentation of the videos and of course a party afterwards.

Weird, but nearly half a year later I realized that I added lots of topics over the years leading to an overloaded course instead of focusing on the core marketing topics and developing a lean version. I spend more time with learning cycles, team sessions and team coaching. The students were performing better and better from checkpoint to checkpoint. Unfortunately I lost a few students on the way to the final exam. This is still an open issue, but I need a few challenges for the next summer term. Stay tuned.

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