Welcome to the “Real World”: The Faculty-Professional Team Teaching Approach:

AbstractThis paper outlines a team teaching partnership between a full time marketing faculty member and a full time professional in advertising. The purpose of the course design is to give students realistic feedback on assignments and projects so that they work for more than a grade and understand that once they are working in a full time career, a grade is relatively meaningless. This partnership highlights the benefits of experiential learning as well as the use of technology to facilitate partnerships. The faculty and students were in Texas, and the professional was in Atlanta and New York (as well as other places around the world during the semester). Results showed that students benefited from the course design in several ways, and recommendations are provided.IntroductionIncreasingly, universities are being asked by employers to better prepare students for the workplace (Finch, Nadeau & O'Reilly, 2013; Haley & Blakeman, 2008; Kelley & Budges, 2005; Lee & Ryan, 2005; Lowiy & Xie, 2008; Schlee & Harich, 2010). At a minimum, the job market demands that candidates have a college degree and that they be smart. Employers expect hard work, the ability to take criticism, problem solving and decision making skills (National Association of Colleges and Employers, 2014). While some of these skills are learned throughout their career, traditional lecture and testing formats may leave students at a disadvantage without direct application of the material. Furthermore, given time and resource constraints, some of this preparation happens in a vacuum, with only grades serving as an indicator of output quality. And while experiential learning is seen as being one of the most effective types of learning (Ban' & McNeilly, 2002; Wynd, 1989), the value of it could rest on the feedback given at the end of the experience, so that students can reflect on their successes and failures. So, at the end of the day, is the proj ect work that has been created by students in their coursework any good? Is it effective? Would it solve a company's problem? Will the project help prepare students for the "real world"?Bunging professionals into the classroom is not something new (Sensbach & Adler, 1986). Indeed, professionals have seived as guest speakers in many different classes in order to give students an idea of what a "day in the life" of a particular career looks like (Haley & Blakeman, 2008; Seitz, 1993). Professional involvement can be important in providing links from theory to practice and offering current examples for students (Linrud & Wilson, 2004). Some professionals have evaluated work on an ad hoc basis or participated more fully m class (Chilton, 2012) depending on the course type. In some ways, (Sensbach & Adler, 1986) professionals are used to develop writing, verbal and team skills that mimic the "frantic and demanding" world of the profession (p. 66).However, more rare is the formal partnership between a faculty member and an industry professional to team-teach a course, particularly when distance is a factor. White, Henley and Brabston (1998) identified several types of team teaching models: interactive, rotational and participant-observer. The faculty-professional approach outlined here most closely aligns with the interactive model, which "puts two or more teachers in front of the class at the same point in time. Its purpose is to have both teachers comment on all or most of the topics to be discussed together" (p. 13). Wliile both instructors are not physically there at the same time, this model uses technology like Adobe Connect and Skype so that student exposure to professionals is not limited to geography. Research has shown that using technology to engage firms in the classroom - as guest instructors - can be done effectively (Chilton, 2012).The purpose of this paper is to describe such a partnership for a marketing communications elective course; discuss the use of technology as an important component to the course; and discuss the effectiveness, challenges and concerns with the idea. …