A social and behavioral science education should provide students with the skills they need to succeed academically, professionally, and as engaged citizens. One method of driving student success is to engage with them as true partners. The textbooks below offer examples where students’ voices are featured in pedagogical materials. These titles aim to put students at the forefront in a way that keeps their needs and opinions at the center of their own education.

The Digital Marketing Planner: Your Step-by-Step Guide by Annmarie Hanlon

From design to pedagogical features, students were involved throughout the development of The Digital Marketing Planner: Your Step-by-Step Guide. The title serves as a workbook that students can use to create their own digital marketing plans with key information, examples, and interactive activities.

Based on feedback from student focus groups, large-scale changes to the design and layout were incorporated. With student input, updates included a new checklist of activities and a complete redesign. For example, to encourage interactivity the cover mimics the look of a notebook.

This is a companion to Hanlon’s Digital Marketing, which also emphasizes student input and engagement. One example is its ‘Smartphone Sixty Seconds’ feature, in which students bring their own smartphones into the learning experience by completing quick activities in the classroom. The book also covers all aspects of digital marketing planning and the latest digital marketing models, giving students a roadmap for a digital marketing journey.

Intercultural Communication: A Contextual Approach by James W. Neuliep

In an interactive, student-focused approach, Intercultural Communication: A Contextual Approach engages students in conversations surrounding the experience of human interaction. It presents a model for examining communication within a variety of contexts, including cultural, micro-cultural, environmental, socio-relational, and perceptual.

A key feature of this edition (the eighth!) is the student profiles in ‘Student Voices Across Cultures’. Here, real students share their intercultural experiences, such as the examples below.

It also includes self-assessment tools students can use to learn about themselves, ethical consideration prompts, and boxed callouts to develop intercultural communication competencies.

Principles of Marketing for a Digital Age by Tracy L. Tuten

Student-led in its design and development, Principles of Marketing for a Digital Age by Tracy L. Tuten engages students by leading them through the work of digital marketing. Integrating digital and social media marketing, and with student involvement throughout its development, it contains robust infographics and relevant case studies (such as from Nutella, Google, or L’Oréal) based on popular interests.

The video below reviews how it was developed with students and for their needs, and highlights the ways they were fully incorporated in its development.

Tuten’s innovative student-centered approach was recognized when it was named a winner of the Textbook and Academic Authors Association’s Most Promising New Textbook Award in 2021, with the judge’s panel noting that the text “…is a wonderful introduction for an aspiring marketer that rightfully places the customers and their needs as the primary focal point for the inception of any marketing strategy.” Watch Tuten’s acceptance video on her win and why having students involved was so critical to its success.

You can read about other innovative approaches to pedagogy here.