Abstract:

The main purpose of this work is to inspire confidence among teaching staff and encourage the introduction of active methodologies with collaborative work among teachers and among students, in and out of the classroom.

The paper describes and analyses the experience and results of implementing the methodology of Project-Based Learning (PBL) in two subject within the same teaching module in the marketing degree course given at the School of Economic and Business Studies at the University of the Basque Country.

Implementing the method required a profound transformation in the teaching/learning processes for both teachers and students. However, the teachers involved were convinced that it would substantially improve academic and motivational results.

The process began with an attempt to identify any difficulties and problems –and thus challenges– that might arise in implementing a new methodology in the classroom based on active and collaborative learning – in this case, PBL. From the outset, it was considered sensible and rewarding to design a common project for the two subjects in the module. Although the two subjects –“Commercial Distribution (CD)” and “Product and Price Decisions (PPD)”– are independent, they together encompass decisions that have to be taken in a coordinated and consistent fashion in companies. In business practice, designing and managing marketing strategies requires taking into account multiple activities, given that they involve the development of new products, pricing, distribution and communication. It therefore seemed entirely appropriate to teach and learn these activities in a single project.

Following the design and group experience of implementing PBL in two consecutive academic years (2013-14 and 2014-15), the results of the implementation can now be presented. The design has proved to be realistic, given that it was possible to tackle quite faithfully and fully the programmed areas in the two years. Nonetheless, given the differences in the teaching contexts of the different groups in the subject, both in terms of the number of students and their linguistic profile, the experience of each group and teacher was different. At the end of the two implementations, reports were drawn up which allowed corrective measures to be detected and improvements to be introduced to the initial design in each edition.

This paper sets out the design, implementation and results of the entire process described above in the following sequence. The first section examines the concept of PBL (What is PBL and what does it involve?). The second section describes the context in which the implementations of the experience were developed (Who was involved and to what extent?) The third section, refers to implementation of the project itself (How was the experience implemented?). This section distinguishes between start-up, project monitoring, assessment activities and learning results. An assessment of the effect of the methodology on academic results and students' attitude is included. The paper ends with a section on the advantages and principal difficulties that have arisen during design and implementation of this experience of PBL, concluding with a final reflection on the lights and shadows of the project.

Keywords:

Collaborative learning, Project-Based Learning.