CASE STUDYEast Carolina University

How East Carolina University Raised Business Course Grades by 15% with a More Personalized Approach

Robin Ashley, Marketing and Business Professor at East Carolina University, teaches high-enrollment courses like International Business and Marketing Management. When traditional group projects and LMS-based discussion boards stopped delivering results, Robin turned to Packback to improve learning outcomes, engagement, and grading efficiency.

Key Takeaways

15% increase in Marketing Management course grades

paper icon with A+

Full letter grade improvement in International Business

Situation

Robin was facing two major challenges across her courses: disengaged group projects and ineffective traditional discussion boards.
  • In International Business, discussion boards for 80+ students led to shallow participation and lackluster grades.
  • In Marketing Management, group projects caused conflict and uneven contributions, resulting in inconsistent outcomes.
  • Across both classes, grading was time-consuming, and many students struggled with applying core concepts or demonstrating strong writing skills.

Action

Robin integrated Packback into both courses to improve engagement and enable scalable, individualized instruction.
  • She first introduced Packback Questions in International Business to foster deeper engagement and hold students accountable for higher-quality participation.
  • Packback Deep Dives replaced traditional writing assignments, offering students real-time feedback while freeing Robin to focus on content and concept mastery.
  • In Marketing Management, Robin broke away from group projects and transitioned to individualized Deep Dives assignments and discussion-based check-ins on Packback. This personalized model encouraged ownership and reflection.

Result

Packback helped Robin transform her course structure and raise student performance in both content mastery and writing skills.
  • International Business students improved by a full letter grade, driven by consistent practice and timely feedback.
  • In Marketing Management, shifting to individualized projects with Packback produced a 15% increase in final grades.
  • Students became more confident writers and better critical thinkers, showing notable improvement in grammar, structure, and applied analysis.
  • With AI handling lower-order feedback, Robin could focus on personalized coaching and students could no longer hide behind group work.
RESULTS

Real Impact,

Real Voices

Packback is an extremely valuable tool to get students to interact with each other and the content and topics you are teaching. Students will communicate with each other in the digital format much more than they would in a classroom setting, which is reflected in their end grades. They’re able to discuss things that normally would not get talked about in a classroom and they become better students because of it.

Professor Robin Ashley East Carolina University
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