Peer Review

Sociology of Leisure: Leisure and enterprise RLO

Material Detail page

Reviewed:: Jul 25, 2016 by Sociology

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Ratings

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:: This learning object is a part of a Sociology of Leisure course, and it specifically explores cases in which entrepreneurs have turned leisure into a business. The repository consists of 11 pages. The most substantive pages provide a concise overview of how people have turned leisure activities into a business, and then go on to examine three companies that have done this well: Sony, Nike and Disney. For each of the three companies, there is an informational page summarizing how the company turned a leisure activity into a successful business, and then a “discussion” page that provides discussion questions and reading guides. After the three cases are covered, a final overarching discussion page summarizes the information covered in the learning object; this page includes some additional questions and assignment ideas. Throughout all the pages, scholarly citations and links to additional resources are provided.
Type of Material:: Learning Object.
Recommended Uses:: Could be used as an out-of-class assignment for individual students or groups. Also could serve to stimulate in-class discussion on more contemporary examples.
Technical Requirements:: Safari was used but I also tested it in Firefox and Chrome. It worked well in all three browsers. There were no technical requirements.
Identify Major Learning Goals:: The objective of the site is explained on the repository’s first page: “The aim of this learning object is to discuss a number of examples of entrepreneurs who have turned leisure into a business. Users can work through this RLO and the connected one on enterprise as a beginner, and then deepen their knowledge by exploring some of the links on each page. Users can browse through each page, and then go back and explore topics of particular interest.”
Target Student Population:: Could be employed in introductory sociology or social science courses at high school or college levels.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:: Ability to navigate through presentation slides.

Content Quality

Rating:
Strengths:: The site does a good job linking to scholarly articles that support the information covered in the learning object.
Concerns:: Several of the citations listed in the object are a bit dated; however, the Sony discussion page feels current and relevant by posing the following question for users: “What would happen if we brought the argument up to date and looked at more modern technology like the iPod?”

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:
Strengths:: Students should find the concepts and cases interesting and applicable to current society. Could stimulate class discussion on how effective corporations have become in commercializing leisure and recreation pursuits today. Use of hypertext links provide more detailed commentary for student users.
Concerns:: Numerous spelling and sentence construction errors detract from learning object readability and flow.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:
Strengths:: Learning object is easily navigable. The external links open in a new tab. It's not a fancy layout, very basic site, but functional and informative.
Concerns:: Typos frequently disrupt reading flow.

Other Issues and Comments:: Learning object's major strength is in providing case study examples of commercialization of leisure, and thereby stimulating students to think deeper about the topic.
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