Authentic Assessment of Experiential Learning in Sport Sales, p. 75-83

David Pierce
Jeffrey Petersen
Bradley Meadows

This study assessed the effect of an experiential, client-based sport sales course where 44 undergraduate sport management students at a Midwestern university completed a quasi-experimental nonequivalent control group research design. The 24 students in the experimental (enrolled) group completed an experiential, client-based sport sales course selling season tickets for an intercollegiate athletic department, and the control group consisted of 20 students with no sales experience. Three instruments were utilized, including a sport sales perception survey (Pierce & Petersen, 2010), background knowledge probe (Angelo & Cross, 1993), and authentic assessment (Mueller, 2005). The authentic assessment featured sport sales experts rating the students’ sales calls on the basis of seven factors. Two-way repeated measures ANOVA revealed that enrolled students significantly improved their scores on each background knowledge probe and their ability to open the sale and exude enthusiasm during sales calls; however, the students’ perceptions of sport sales did not change.