by Katarzyna Lesniewska & Tomasz Napierala, University of Lodz; Even Tjorve, Lillehammer University College

Abstract

The main goal of the paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of using competitions as an educational tool in tourism higher education. The authors focused on the 24HOURS contest as the case study. The 24HOURS contest was organized in Lodz in Poland on Friday 14th November by two universities: University of Lodz (Poland), and Lillehammer University College (Norway). Students’ teams participating in the contest took 24 hours to find a best strategy to develop MICE tourism in the metropolitan area of Lodz.

The authors employed three methods to evaluate the effectiveness investigated 24HOURS contest. Firstly, they used short questionnaire with all participants to asses organizational aspect of the contest. The questionnaire was conducted during the 24HOURS, just before the final decision of the jury of the contest. Secondly, individual in-depth interviews were used to better recognize and understand the participants’ opinion about the contest. Selected participants were asked about their social competencies, knowledge and organizational skills improved or developed through the participation in 24HOURS contest. Moreover, participants’ overall impression about 24HOURS was investigated. Thirdly, the authors used online questionnaire to evaluate the attitude of participants to the most significant social aspects of the 24HOURS contest: individual work, competition, and cooperation. Both individual in-depth interviews and online questionnaire were conducted few months after the contest. All used methods allowed the authors to depict learning outcomes achieved through the contest.

Keywords

Competition; Modern educational tool; Tourism higher education