An innovative framework for higher education to evaluate learning gain: a case study based upon the discipline of marketing

The value for money of UK undergraduate degree courses is under increasingly critical scrutiny. Understanding the level of learning achieved by students on any particular course has therefore become of paramount importance as an indicator of teaching quality. The change to the learning that a student undertaking a course has acquired can be expressed as being their 'learning gain' and this paper applies a course level lens to investigate this using an innovative bottom-up approach which considers both the distance travelled by each student (explicit knowledge), and also their journey travelled (tacit understanding). Benchmarking learning gain data was collected from undergraduate marketing students, and gaps in perceived learning were identified. Changes to the teaching were implemented to address issues identified, and data was collected from the next cohort of students for comparison. Students reported significant improvements in learning after the changes in teaching had been implemented.