Hidden learning: Measuring student learning in the marketing capstone

Abstract

Purpose of the Study: To seek an understanding of the role that course-embedded repeat-testing can play in the assessment of learning for marketing students. Method/Design and Sample: A repeat-measure design—pretest/posttest—was employed across 132 marketing students in a senior capstone course at a Midwest university. Mediation analysis was used to analyze the data for direct and indirect effects. Relationships hypothesizing the effects of prior achievement on learning of marketing concepts were based on the Elaboration Likelihood model (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986). Results: The relationship between students’ prior achievement in marketing courses and measures of their learning are inconsistently mediated by their initial test scores. The direct relationship between prior achievement and student learning can be cancelled out due to indirect effects on the measure of learning. Comparing initial test and final test scores may result in suppressed measures of learning for top students. Higher levels of previous achievement have an exponentially increasing direct effect on learning. Value to Marketing Educators: Our results provide cautionary insight for marketing educators who assess learning via the pretest-posttest method. Final exam scores and final grades should not be relied upon as indicators of learning resulting from the course itself. We strongly recommend that efforts to assess learning in marketing capstone courses via pretest-posttest methods employ our mediating model to properly account for the effects of prior knowledge on course learning.