Collaboration Learning as a Tool Supporting Value Co-creation. Evaluating Students Learning through Concept Maps

Considering the advantages offered to learning procedure by concept mapping, it is of great use to combine them with those of collaborative learning. Collaborative concept mapping, as a pedagogical activity, has become a topic of interest for many researchers in the field of education. In order to enhance learning as a process by building knowledge structures of increasing complexity, developing collaborative concept maps could be a good strategy. Instructors through the use of concept mapping can see the level at which a concept is understood. Concept maps provide the opportunity, both for students and instructors, to see the current knowledge at the beginning of a course and then the knowledge created after some progression. They can promote and assess conceptual change in a higher education setting and therefore become an innovative tool in the evaluation of students’ learning. The present study was implemented during the “Principles of Marketing” course of the Technological Educational Institute of Central Macedonia, Greece. At the beginning of the semester, students were divided into groups of 5, they were given marketing as the central word and they were asked to create their concept maps. At the end of the semester, the concept map activity was repeated. The pre and post concept maps were analyzed using documented concept mapping scoring, revealing major differences. The use of concept maps motivated students to create their own marketing reality and then share it with their classmates. The attachments to every concept and their connections, created in class, were of great value