THE USE OF MAILING LISTS ON THE INTERNET AS A COLLABORATIVE LEARNING VEHICLE IN A MARKETING CLASS IN JAPAN

Discovery-oriented learning represents one of the most realistic approaches to teaching business and marketing skills. This paper outlines the case of an empirical study of marketing memo exercises (MME) by which MBA students find, analyze, report, and improve the marketing activities of companies. Specifically, in these exercises, students are required to discover successful forms of marketing which they believe are based on an effective marketing strategy and its implementation in the market and also to submit their memos to the class mailing list. In this memo students (1) put a heading to their writing as if they are magazine editors who want to appeal to their readers, (2) describe the details of the marketing activities on a factual basis, (3) analyze activities to explain why students thought it was successful marketing, and (4) suggest their own ideas to further improve its marketing as if they are the marketing manager or marketing director in charge. Having submitted the memo to the class mailing list, each student reads and evaluates all the memos and votes on the best three pieces of work with the reasons for their selection. The votes are sent to the instructor by e-mail. Then the instructor calculates the score and makes an announcement of the results in the classroom for further discussion. This series of exercises using mailing lists is to be conducted in five or six rounds during the semester in addition to the regular classroom sessions which deliver traditional theory-based lectures and case method pedagogy. The prime aim of the exercises is to make students have connoisseurship in seeing their own daily consumption activities and behavior from a marketer’s standpoint. The characteristics of marketing are not only academic, but rather practical and empirical, and the interactive learning environment among students and between students and instructor is important. Findings from this study have shown that the students regard MME as a beneficial complement to the theory-based lectures and/or case method classes, whereas the effectiveness is dependent on the instructor’s ability to facilitate interaction among the students and help them to be open to peer evaluation. Although the mailing list is not the latest tool compared with other communication means on the Internet such as blogs and SNS, for Japanese students, who are hooked on mobile phones, it is the most convenient tool to actively participate in the exercises and receive others’ memos irrespective of time and place. Also, the use of the mailing list makes the exercises simple, closed, controllable, and easy to handle for every marketing instructor.