Title: Innovative pedagogy in sport marketing: the annual SPAD field trip

Authors: Ann Pegoraro, Benoit Seguin, Norm O'Reilly, Steven Harrington

Addresses: School of Commerce, Faculty of Management, Laurentian University, Sudbury Ontario, P3E 2C6, Canada. ' University of Ottawa, School of Human Kinetics, 125 University Street, Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6N5, Canada. ' School of Sports Administration, Faculty of Management, Laurentian University, Sudbury Ontario, P3E 2C6, Canada. ' School of Sports Administration, Faculty of Management, Laurentian University, Sudbury Ontario, P3E 2C6, Canada

Abstract: The issue of the relevancy of business education has been a topic of ongoing discussion since the late 1980s (Porter and McKibbon, 1988). At the time, business educators also began to recognise the value of experiential learning as a teaching method to increase the knowledge and skill development among graduates (Slavin, 1988). Beginning in 1982, the Sport Administration Program (SPAD) at Laurentian University adopted a 4th Year |Field Trip| course as the capstone to its applied programme. This experiential learning based course involved students working in teams on Client-Based Projects (CBPs). This paper presents four mini-cases of these field trips over the past 20 years to illustrate the considerable benefits realised by all stakeholders. Key conclusions are drawn to create a proposed model for a CBP-based capstone course for sports management, a model for use by both practitioners and researchers in the development of the future workers the industry desires.

Keywords: innovative pedagogy; experiential learning; client-based projects; CBPs; field trips; sport marketing; sport administration; sport management education; sport management courses; sport management curriculum; capstone courses.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSMM.2008.018651

International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, 2008 Vol.4 No.2/3, pp.255 - 276

Published online: 04 Jun 2008 *

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