Course context description

The pilot course used in my action research is a master’s level marketing course called Concept Factory. It is part of the creative problem-solving section within the master’s program on marketing management at the University of Vaasa, De-partment of Marketing. The aim of the creative problem-solving section is to en-gage the student in an experiential learning process where she aims to resolve

some authentic real-life marketing problems (Opinto-opas [Study guide] 2007–

2008). The student may choose between different paths to do this. Concept Facto-ry is one of those paths – it is a practical marketing course where students work in teams to tackle different kinds of real-life marketing problems, mainly in the con-text of early phases of service and product development, and construct solutions for the companies. During the action research period (2007–2013) this focus has remained unchanged.

Even though the Concept Factory as a name was launched in 2007, the idea of experiential multidisciplinary course in the context of fuzzy front end had been tested already over a decade earlier in the department. There had been two exten-sive international and multidisciplinary projects where designers and marketers worked together. The first one focused on furniture design and the second on travelling experiences across the sea between Finland and Sweden. The projects were financed externally, there were several partners and a lot of effort was put on these projects. After these projects the idea continued in a form of an integrat-ed marketing course, where students workintegrat-ed together with companies in market-ing projects. However, the management of the marketmarket-ing department wanted to place more emphasis on systematic development of the teaching in this challeng-ing context. Thus an internally financed project was set to develop the experien-tial learning environment called Concept Factory. This is when I as teacher-researcher started working on the project.

The learning outcomes of the Concept Factory have been developed during the action research project. They are two levels, general and specific. The general learning outcomes are specified as follows: after completing the course the stu-dents are able 1) in teams to plan and conduct a user-centered development pro-ject to serve as the basis of managerial decisions, 2) to act flexibly and profes-sionally with different parties in development projects, 3) to choose and creatively apply relevant theoretical and empirical frameworks, methods, data and tools to conduct the project, 4) to discuss the development of the case company in a pro-fessional manner based on their project, 5) to evaluate the project work and 6) to assess their own professional growth. (Opinto-opas [Study guide] 2011–2012).

The specific learning outcomes for each course have been specified according to different client projects. The courses have had different marketing focuses, such as new service development, brand building, integrated marketing communica-tion, product testing and user-centered product development. The special focus has been in applying marketing knowledge through problem-solving, creativity, teamwork and communication. Teaching and learning activities have been speci-fied based on the client projects. Thus different teaching methods, coaching

ap-proaches and learning activities have been used. There has been an emphasis to use cross-functional teams or even international teams to foster creativity and sense of fuzzy front end as a context.

During the overall action research study period, 184 students, out of which 122 marketing students, have participated the Concept Factory courses. They have produced altogether 51 group assignments for real-life clients. Due to the page constraints, each course and its’ context is described in more detail in Appendix 2. The summary of the courses is presented in Table 2.

Table 2. Summary of the pilot courses.

Year Topic Students attending the course

Clients Groups / out-come 2007 Several

client-based projects 23 marketing students from

3rd and 4th grade 12 clients 12 assignments (in pairs, one individually) 2008 Several client

based projects 21 marketing students, 3rd

and 4th grade 6 clients 6 groups (2–4

students/group) 2009 Small and

chal-lenging group 8 marketing students, only

4th or 5th grade 2 clients,

each 2 cases 4 groups, only 2 finished properly 2010a The Future Fair in

Umeå 27 students, 20 international students from UID, 7 Finnish marketing students

Festi-vals in Vaasa 34 students, 17 Swedish design students and 17

air museum 25 students, 14 marketing students and 11 students of communication or Finnish

The pedagogical basis for the Concept Factory is experiential learning (Kolb 1984), even though there are similarities with problem-based learning (Boud &

Feletti 1999) and inquiry-based learning (Hakkarainen, Lonka & Lipponen 2001).

The pedagogy emphasizes the students’ role as active learners and their responsi-bility for their own learning. The students’ theoretical background knowledge is linked to its real-life application. The teacher’s role is consultative, and the teach-ing and learnteach-ing activities have been designed to support and facilitate the process of completing the assignment. The students are credited according to their pro-jects; they could receive 4–15 Ects study points (European Credit Transfer Sys-tem) graded on a scale of 1–5/failure. The assessment criteria have been devel-oped over the years, as emphasized in Essay 5.

Even though several matters have changed each year, there are some aspects that have remained constant during the action research period. First of all, the focus has been on practical problem solving in real-life cases. Second, social collabora-tion in the form of projects and teamwork has been emphasized; the aim has been to work in cross-functional teams. Third, the concrete student experience has been emphasized by moving the course to different locations, mostly outside the uni-versity campus, or by asking the students to get involved in the case by visiting the client premises. The Western Finland Design Centre, Muova, has been an active partner in several projects in order to foster creativity, and for several years the weekly meetings were held in Muova. Fourth, the course has emphasized the coaching process from the very start, and the role of the teacher has been to serve as a facilitator, coach or mentor. Fifth, the teacher-researcher has been the same during the research period, although also other teachers have taken part to differ-ent courses.