INCREASING STUDENT ENGAGEMENT & CONTRIBUTIONS: INTRODUCING THE SEMESTER-LONG PARTICIPATION COMPETITION

Increasing student engagement is a challenge for faculty of all experience levels. This manuscript introduces the Participation Competition as a pathway for faculty to gamify the Marketing classroom and increase student engagement. Through incentivizing group-based in-class participation, faculty can help students practice soft skills, facilitate collaboration, and encourage class attendance and preparation using this semester-long activity. To demonstrate the efficacy of the Participation Competition, data was collected for one academic year at two universities leveraging the Zhoc, Webster, King, Li, and Chungh (2019) Higher Education Student Engagement Scale (HESES) for a total sample size of n = 396. The HESES scale measures student outcomes (i.e. academic learning, cognitive engagement, and peer engagement) and class outcomes (i.e. value-add). General student participation and engagement are also measured for both the control and treatment groups. The results revealed that student and class outcomes were higher when comparing a class in which the participation competition was enacted relative to a class not exposed to the participation competition. Additionally, students reported increased participation within the class and among their peers and higher perceptions of satisfaction and engagement. Evidence suggests that the Participation Competition is an advantageous and pragmatic tool for augmenting the Marketing classroom.