Title: Scenario-Based Learning vs. Task-Based Learning in a College Business Course

Author Name: Holly Joseph

Selected Case (Published Article):

Mallin, M.L., Jones, D. E., & Cordell, J.L. (2010). The impact of learning context on intent to use    marketing and sales technology: A comparison of scenario-based and task-based approaches. Journal of Marketing Education, 32(2), 214-223. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0273475309360163

1. Introduction 

More and more, companies and educational institutions are questioning the effectiveness and returns on their training and teaching investments. Companies question whether the thousands if not millions of dollars spent on training is producing the performance improvements and resulting business impact expected (Bell et al., 2004). Colleges question whether what occurs in the classroom is effectively transferring into the career performance space.

At Georgia State University, for example, this question became the chosen focus of the university’s formal Quality Enhancement Plan (GSU, 2019). In 2017, the university launched a College to Career initiative that, among other things, encourages and supports faculty efforts to embed career competencies into students’ academic coursework. As a result, faculty at GSU and other institutions have continued to examine instructional approaches that facilitate learning and performance transfer.

For an unnamed university in the American Midwest, the approach examined was scenario-based learning. Specifically, researchers compared the effects of a scenario-based approach against the effects of a task-based approach on learners’ perceptions of, attitudes towards, and, ultimately, intent to use a specific career-related technology tool.

But what is scenario-based learning and how does it differ from a task-based learning approach?

 First, let’s the discuss task-based learning approach (TBL). Though the more traditional framework for TBL can be more complex (Willis & Willis), per the research described below, TBL focuses on the step-by-step procedures that students must complete in order to perform a skill (Mallin et al., 2004, p. 215). So, for sake of a technology training, a TBL activity might require students to follow explicit steps to create a client record in a customer database.

Scenario-based learning (SBL) uses interactive storylines that facilitate active learning (Massey University) by guiding students through authentic scenarios that help students learn “the associated concepts, procedures, and heuristics of expert performers” (Clark, 2009). The building blocks of scenarios are the situation (or set up) and decision points that are made up of good and bad choices that advance the scenario to its conclusion (Aldrich, 2020).

2. Overview of the Case

Mallin et al. (2004), researchers at the Midwest university, wanted to identify an approach to better prepare sales and marketing students to be competitive in the job market after graduation. The researchers wanted to be responsive to the demands of industry—namely a growing need of companies to get a return on sales training in the form of lower employee turnover, more sustainable customer relations, and greater employee job satisfaction.

The researchers wanted to incorporate a training on a salesforce automation (SFA) tool into the curriculum of an undergraduate sales course. Specifically, the researchers wanted to study technology-mediated learning and technology acceptance in a business student training environment using two different learning contexts” (Mallin et al., 2004, p. 215)—a task-based learning context and a scenario-based learning context.

The researchers posited that the learning context would impact students’ acceptance of and intent to use the SFA tool. More specifically, researchers hypothesized that the scenario-based learning approach would produce a greater positive relationship between students’ perceived usefulness of, attitude towards, and intent to use the SFA tool once on the job.

The research questions for the study were as follows: “Does the technology acceptance model support multiple learning contexts? More specifically, does perceived usefulness and attitude toward the technology adequately predict a marketing and sales student’s intent to use an SFA tool when the learning mode is task based and/or scenario based?” (Mallin et al., 2004, p. 217).

3. Solutions Implemented

To test their hypotheses, the researchers designed and delivered a training on the SFA tool (as part of the curriculum for an account and territory management professional sales class). The TBL training included a lecture and practice activities completing tasks in the SFA tool. The SBL training, on the other hand, “explained the who, what, why, when, and how of each sales cycle stage via storytelling so that the student could establish a learning context for understanding and adopting the technology” (Mallin et al., 2004, p. 218). (In any one course, only one treatment was delivered to avoid ethical or administrative issues with treating students in the same class differently.) At the end of the course, student participants (i.e., marketing and sales undergraduates) completed an end-of-term 7-page, Likert-type scaled survey, which measured students’ intent to use, perceived usefulness, confidence, knowledge, and attitude toward the SFA tool.

The researchers collected this survey data over 8 semesters (3.5 years) across 14 class sections—collecting a total of 252 completed surveys (representing an over 90% response rate). Of the surveys submitted, 109 were completed by participants who received the TBL treatment and 143 were completed by participants who received the SBL treatment.

Researchers ran linear regression models to test the effect of the independent variables (i.e., perceived usefulness and attitude) on the dependent variable (intent to use). Researchers also implemented various constraints to control for faculty differences and other variable factors.

4. Outcomes

The research study had three hypotheses (Millan et al., 2004, p. 218):

1. The technology acceptance model has a higher explanatory power when an SBL approach is used when compared to a TBL approach.
2. A positive relationship exists between perceived usefulness and intent to use the tool. The impact of perceived usefulness on intent to use is greater with the SBL approach.
3. A positive relationship exists between user attitude and intent to use the tool. The impact of user attitude on intent to use is greater with the SBL approach.

Of the three, the researchers found positive and significant support for Hypotheses 1 and 2. However, the researchers found mixed results with Hypothesis 3. There was positive and significant support for there being a positive relationship between attitude and intent to use; but there was not only not support that the impact would be greater with the SBL approach but, more so, the results showed that the impact was higher for students who received the TBL approach.

Researchers provide a possible explanation: college students might prefer the clear cut TBL approach, as their primary motivation is not using the tool but passing the class. Thus, they may have a more positive attitude towards an assignment that provides explicit step-by-step actions to complete and that does not require the (more stressful) higher-order thinking that scenario-based activities require.

5. Implications

As colleges and companies continue to seek the best training methods to prepare future employees for worthy performance on the job, there is an ongoing need to identify the models that foster not just knowledge retention and creation but also a sense of conviction, defined by Aldrich (2020) in his book Short Sims as “a flexible and robust understanding of why a specific approach to a problem works, and often why their past behaviors or beliefs were not sufficient or successful” (p. 2).

There appears to be a consensus that scenario-based learning helps to provide an effective model that delivers the following benefits, among other benefits:

1. It accelerates learning (Clark, 2009).
2. It promotes engagement. (Kolinski, 2022).
3. It promotes knowledge retention and skill application. (Hout, 2020).
4. It provides a safe learning environment in which to make and learn from mistakes (Aptara)

However, more learning is necessary to understand how to use SBL to deliver instruction in college that will have a long-term positive effect on students’ career experiences.

REFERENCE LIST (without standard indentation convention)

Aldrich, C. (2020). Short sims: A game changer. CRC Publishers.

Aptara. (2012). What is scenario-based learning and how does it help? Aptara. https://www.aptaracorp.com/2022/03/12/what-is-scenario-based-learning-and-how-does-it-help/

Bell, M., Martin, G., & Clark. E. (2004). Engaging in the future of e-learning: a scenarios-based approach. Education & Training 46(6/7), pp. 296-307. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/46571550_Engaging_in_the_future_of_e-learning_A_scenarios-based_approach

Clark, R. (2009). Accelerating expertise with scenario-based learning. T + D. https://www.clarktraining.com/content/articles/ScenarioBasedLearning.pdf

 Georgia State University. (2019). College to career: Career Readiness through Everyday Competencies Quality Enhancement Plan. https://sacscoc.gsu.edu/files/2019/02/QEP-CTC-Proposal-.pdf

Hout. N. (2020). The benefits of scenario-based learning in customer service training. E-Learning Industry. https://elearningindustry.com/scenario-based-learning-benefits-customer-service-training

Kolinski, H. (2022). Scenario-based learning 101: Beginner’s guide. https://www.ispringsolutions.com/blog/scenario-based-learning

Mallin, M.L., Jones, D. E., & Cordell, J.L. (2010). The impact of learning context on intent to use marketing and sales technology: A comparison of scenario-based and task-based approaches. Journal of Marketing Education, 32(2), 214-223. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0273475309360163

Massey University. Scenario-based learning. https://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/fms/AVC%20Academic/Teaching%20and%20Learning%20Cenrtres/Scenario-based-learning.pdf

Willis, D. & Willis J. Task-based learning. https://www2.vobs.at/ludescher/grammar/task_based_learning.htm

 

 

 

 

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