Five Principles for Workable Client-Based Projects: Lessons from the Trenches

Abstract

Despite the wide-ranging benefits of using client-based projects (CBPs) in the classroom, such projects can be overwhelming for instructors, and many shy away from the considerable workload and time commitment often required by CBPs. This article is designed to help marketing educators overcome such apprehensions and provide them with concrete tools to simplify CBPs and make them easier to manage. The authors discuss five principles they have developed for creating and implementing workable client projects. Their principles come directly “from the trenches” of their own experiences in planning and managing client-based projects across multiple courses. They address, for example, ways to customize CBPs to fit within specific course and professor time constraints, tips to manage the client relationship and students’ expectations, and strategies to streamline the feedback process. They offer workbench-level insights and practices drawn from their own experiences that instructors can put into practice immediately.

Moving Beyond Consultation And Into Action With A Client Project

“…ELT emphasizes the central role that experience plays in the learning process (Kolb, 2005). While many experiential learning strategies exist (as noted above), live-case studies and client projects have been noted as significant learning strategies in terms of positive student perception and benefits to students (Barnett, et al, 2007;Karns, 2005;Kennedy, et al, 2001;Lopez, 2005).…”

“…The benefits of such projects are clear. Students develop critical thinking and interpersonal skills, apply theory to practice, develop a deeper understanding of concepts and become invested in the learning (Lopez, 2005;Kennedy et al, 2001). Smith and Van Dorn (2004) argue that one of the defining factors of reality-based learning is the development of widely applicable, transferable skills.…”

Service Learning Pitfalls: Problems You Didnt See Coming

“…Lopez and Lee (2005) give a summary of the many positive aspects of service learning. Some of the benefits include: facilitating active, experiential learning, fostering problem solving, critical thinking, communication and teamwork skills, adding realism to the classroom and increasing the motivation of the students due to the possibility of their work being implemented.…”

“…Lopez and Lee (2005) provide principles to help facilitate service learning courses when dealing with clients and client-based projects. They emphasize that selecting the client with care may be the most important action of all.…”

“…Ways that a client can contribute to the failure of a client-based project is by expecting too much from the student, becoming over or under involved, and by having a lack of serious respect for the project or what the student/teacher is trying to accomplish. Lopez and Lee (2005) feel that nonprofit organizations make "particularly good" clients because of the student exposure to alternative business philosophies and marketing methods, the ability to build money-managing skills when working with a small budget, the facilitation of reciprocal learning due to the volunteers having only novice skills or a lack of marketing training, and the chance for the student to work on a project that they may have a vested personal interest in. Lopez and Lee see students having a chance to teach as well as be taught.…”