5 Types of Software

Integrating instructional software in a Principles of Marketing curriculum has given me the opportunity to investigate the five categories of software from Roblyer (2016).

Drill and Practice

Drill and practice software allows student to repeat tasks, procedures and even vocabulary until the skill or knowledge is internalized. It is a behaviorist approach to learning but it is useful for what Gagné and Bloom call “automacity or automatic recall of prerequisite skills” (as cited in Roblyer, 2016, p. 80).

Example: Kahoot https://getkahoot.com/how-it-works
For marketing classes, I have found Kahoot can provide a flash card activity in a game show format that quizzes student. While the company that created Kahoot recommends that the questions been done in a group creating a campfire environment, it can be used for individual students. I can easily load up vocabulary words and concepts in question format and add relevant pictures and screenshots.

Relative Advantage

Three of the benefits of this Drill and Practice software is “immediate feedback, increased motivation and that it can save the teacher time” (Roblyer, 2016, p. 80).  It does provide the student with individual feedback. I don’t have to grade basic vocabulary and concepts. In my class, I have seen students prefer this to other paper and pencil short classroom assessment techniques. The additional advantage of using Kahoot is introducing marketing students to a software that could be used during marketing event for gamification or as a motivator.

Tutorials

Tutorials provide step by step instructions with screenshots, audio and video. The ability to go through the process at your own pace and rewind make tutorials ideal for self-learning. Video tutorials have become popular with the flipped classroom learning strategy (Roblyer, 2016, p. 86).

Example: Survey Monkey https://www.surveymonkey.com/

Survey Monkey is survey software that regularly produces new tutorial videos and even has its own YouTube Channel. Three videos I have assigned to my students have been the following:

One Minute Demo to Start in Survey Monkey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xtd339Kj7EM

How to Create Ranking Questions in Survey Monkey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4KU0ytv5yI

How to Embed Video in Your Survey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwTwDtQnbYk

Relative Advantage

In marketing, professional continually use tutorial both corporate created and used created to learn how to use new software and social media. Using tutorials in the classroom is an opportunity for students to become familiar with a learning tool that they will use throughout their career. The relative advantages of tutorials is that the “learner can do these at their own pace, structure their own and the tutorials are available even if the teacher isn’t (Roblyer, 2016, p. 86).

Problem-Solving Software

Problem solving software may be difficult to describe for most content but you as a teacher will know it when you see it. For marketing much like mathematics (Roblyer, 2016, p. 97). there is a problem of visualization.

Example: bubbl.us https://bubbl.us/
I use bubbl.us which is a mind mapping tool. In marketing, students need to be able to create supply chains graphics, price point visuals and illustrate the marketing mix. bubbl.us provides a way to create a parent, child and branching visual that can easily be saved as a JPEG.

Relative Advantage

The advantages that bubbl.us provides is that it does provide a visualization. The graphics and colors are pleasant and create interest. It goes beyond declarative knowledge to allow students to understand concepts and sketch them out. Since every one of our students is a consumer, they often think that they are experts in marketing. Mind maps allow them to actually piece out the process and see how the different components of the marketing mix are related.

Simulations

A simulation is the creation of a “real or imaginary environment or system” (Rieber, 1996). Alessi and Trollip based on interactions divide simulations into “physical simulations, iterative simulation, procedural simulations and situational simulations  (as cited in Roblyer, 2016, p. 87 -88).

Example: MixPro http://web.stratxsimulations.com/simulation/a-marketing-mix-simulation-software/
MixPro is a proprietary simulation that has students take on the role of a junior brand manager. While it was designed for MBAs and for executive training I have used it for undergraduate students and for State FFA marketing plan classes.

Relative Advantage

MixPro is a situational simulation “where students are presented with problems and asked to react”(Roblyer, 2016, p. 88). For marketing students it does have the student role play in what is close to a real activity. The relative advantages are that “provides a safe environment, it compresses time and allows students access to a learning environment not possible in real life” (Roblyer, 2016, p. 89 – 90). Playing a business simulation gives students a systems view of an organization.

Instructional Games

According to Roblyer (2016) instructional games can “replace worksheets and exercises, be uses as a reward, teach non-cognitive skills and teach cooperative group skills” (p. 96). I find this to be a limited view of the potential for games to teach content and bridge the cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains proposed by Bloom (1956). For marketing games can be used for advertising, creativity and even ethics.

Example: McDonald’s Video Game http://www.mcvideogame.com/
McDonald’s Video Game is not for children. I would recommend it for grades 11 and 12 as well as undergraduate courses in marketing. In this instructional, students not only have the opportunity to play different roles in the food supply chain for McDonald’s but also to think about the environmental impact and how McDonald’s treats it workers.

Relative Advantage

The advantages for using this game is that the students are able to look at both a supply chain and how it fits into the marketing mix while in an “intrinsically motivating learning environment” (Rieber, 1996). Malone and Lepper consider these “intrinsically motivating characteristics to be challenge, curiosity, fantasy and control” (as cited in Roblyer, 2016, p. 80).  Students receive a richer look at conditions and issues with industry supply chains.

 

Image Credit: McDonald’s Videogame by Molleindustria – Some rights reserved CC 2006

References

Bloom, B.S. (Ed.). Engelhart, M.D., Furst, E.J., Hill, W.H., Krathwohl, D.R. (1956). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, Handbook I: The Cognitive Domain. New York: David McKay Co Inc

Kahoot. (n.d.) Retrieved from https://getkahoot.com/how-it-works

Molleindustria. (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.molleindustria.org/

Pedercini, P. (2006). McDonald’s Videogame. [Video game]. Italy: Molleindustria.

Rieber, L. (1996). Seriously considering play: Designing interactive learning environments based on the blending of microworlds, simulations, and games. Educational technology research and development, 44 (2), 43-58. http://lrieber.coe.uga.edu/play.html

Roblyer, M.D. (2016). Integrating Educational Technology Into Technology (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Slack. (n.d.) Retrieved from https://slack.com/

Stratx. (n.d.) MixPro. Retrieved from http://web.stratxsimulations.com/simulation/a-marketing-mix-simulation-software/

[Survey Monkey]. (2012, December 12).  How to Create Ranking Questions in Survey Monkey. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4KU0ytv5yI

[Survey Monkey]. (2013, March 13). How to Embed Video in Your Survey. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwTwDtQnbYk

[Survey Monkey]. (2011, December 5). One Minute Demo to Start in Survey Monkey. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xtd339Kj7EM