Student-Centered Learning Using Feature Films

Abstract

This Demonstration session will showcase the use of commercial films to enhance student engagement and learning. The session will detail a project that asks undergraduate students to analyze a film for its marketing and consumer behavior content. The innovation was first profiled in December 2012 in an Office of Media and Public Relations story "Marketing Students Head to the Movies to Learn about Consumer Behavior". Students completing this assignment learn to think comprehensively about consumer behavior and to explain the behavior that is depicted in a film. The goal of the innovation is for students to apply and synthesize knowledge in order to understand their own consumer decision-making behavior and how marketers can influence behavior. This project can be utilized variety of humanities and social science courses. For example, students discuss a variety of topics illustrated in a filmââ¬âisuch as interpersonal communication and persuasion strategies used by the film characters in "Love and Other Drugs" for a communications class; organization leadership demonstrated "Office Space" for an I/O psychology class; historical inaccuracies as presented in the film "Lincoln" for a history class. Alternatively, the instructor teaching a particular course can take a film and analyze it for use in class.