Enhancing Student Performance in Collegiate Marketing Competitions: The ECHO Judges' Perspectives:

IntroductionThe entire industry of higher education in the United States has come under fire for inadequately preparing students to deal with the realities of a rapidly changing, knowledge-based economy and an increasingly competitive global marketplace, as detailed in a federal report issued by the Commission on the Future of Higher Education (Geissler, 2007). The primary area of concern is whether the knowledge and skills learned in college effectively translate to today's business world. Can today's marketing graduates hit the ground running? Marketing professors, especially, have been challenged by evolving database technology to handle "big data," the many digital and social media advances that directly affect modern marketing practices with growing demand for data-driven communications. Educators are well aware that potential employers demand much more than traditional classroom learning.Employers seek graduates who can put theory into practice in innovative and visionary ways from day one. Some educators contend that students possess a limited view of marketing that can only be overcome by enabling them to experience the various activities and elements of marketing through exercises, cases and other activities that relate marketing to the students' experiences (Ferrell & Gonzalez, 2004). Most educators agree that it is critical to reduce the gap between marketing theory and practice by incorporating more experiential components in the student's learning process. There is a great deal of research that supports the value of experiential learning; however, surprisingly, there is a dearth of research on the assessment and evaluation of these handson activities. In fact, only recently have any systematic efforts to assess experiential learning activities in a marketing education context been published (Jaskari, 2013; Tuten, 2009; West, 2010).The three-fold purpose of this study is to: (1) report the findings of a survey conducted to gather the perceptions and insight of business professionals who have served as judges for an international collegiate marketing competition, the Collegiate ECHO Challenge, in order to provide feedback to marketing educators who mentor student competition teams; (2) present grading rubrics (one rubric developed on the basis of the judges' perspectives) to help educators who incorporate collegiate competitions and/ or client-based projects and campaigns in their courses and are thus tasked with grading such assignments; and (3) enhance the overall quality of student marketing projects and campaigns created for collegiate competitions and client-based projects.We will begin by reviewing the literature on experiential learning, focusing primarily on client-based projects and collegiate competitions. This will be followed by a review of the assessment and grading literature as it pertains to marketing projects and competitions. Next, we will present the empirical research study findings of the Collegiate ECHO Challenge Judges' survey. Finally, we will provide grading and assessment rubrics that may be used by marketing and advertising educators who include client-based projects or collegiate competitions in their pedagogy.Literature ReviewExperiential Learning ActivitiesWith an increasingly competitive job market, marketing educators across the nation and throughout the world are continuously striving to help their students develop a sustainable competitive advantage upon graduation. Indeed, there are many ways to expose marketing students to real business and marketing trends, situations, problems and environments that will assist students in gaining real-world marketing experiences before they graduate from college. Some of these include, but are not limited to: 1) live case analyses; 2) clientbased projects and exercises; 3) marketing plan development; 4) marketing campaign development; 5) guest speakers; 6) facility tours; 7) business meeting participation; 8) marketing internships; 9) executive mentorships; and 10) collegiate marketing competitions. …