Fieldwork: Is it a Competitive or Complementary Tool in e-Learning for Tourism?

• Published in: Proceedings of the ... European conference on e-learning (Online) p. 461
• Main Author: Marciszewska, Barbara
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: Kidmore End Academic Conferences International Limited 01.10.2016
• Subjects: Active Learning; Blended Learning; Cultural Awareness; Cultural Background; Cultural Context; Distance learning; Educational Facilities Improvement; Educational Innovation; Educational Methods; Electronic Equipment; Electronic Learning; Field study; Independent Study; Instructional Materials; Interpersonal Competence; Knowledge Level; Learning Processes; Methods; Observation; Online instruction; Opportunities; Problem Based Learning; Problem Solving; Reading Materials; Teacher Role; Teaching; Teaching Methods; Tourism; World Problems
• ISSN: 2048-8637; 2048-8645

Market competition through quality in tourism is a challenge for the educational sector. Considering a role of customer-perceived quality and tourists' satisfaction for generating profits in the future, organisations have adopted quality strategies in providing their services. As a consequence, quality management becomes a crucial subject of study for students of tourism. A national perspective on educating for tourism is too narrow for a global tourism market. Cross-cultural aspects of service in tourism require cross-cultural understanding of the teaching philosophy. The service expectations of tourists depend on their national/cultural background. Also service deliverers (e.g. tour operators) have different concepts of service quality depending on their national and cultural environment. The process of education for tourism requires students to be able to understand this cross-cultural context by learning based on an experiment and their own experience. This creates a need for a specific pedagogical approach in many aspects of programme content and methods of its realisation. Fieldwork with students and professors from different countries combined with e-learning would be an innovative methodological approach to improvement of service for tourists. E-learning could be implemented as a complementary method in education as it can stimulate process innovations in education. The purpose of this study is to conceptualize fieldwork as problembased action-learning and formulate its objective; an evaluation of the educational process based on fieldwork will be identified as a starting point for future improvements in tourism education. Methods applied in this study include: a qualitative approach using critical analysis of literature, observation of teaching programmes for tourism in Poland and benchmarking leading to development of educational effects. Expected results: added value of a complementary use of elearning and fieldwork in education for the tourism sector will be identified, and educational intangible effects will be described.