Pinterest and fashion forecasting: Engaging students in the learning process

The purpose of this activity was to incorporate an emerging social networking site, Pinterest, in the development of a new course, Retail Trend Analyst. Pinterest, launched in 2009, is used by 15% of the adults using the Internet. Further, it is widely used by college educated females (Ferenstein, 2012). The students in the new graduate course were primarily female, and most were college seniors enrolled in a graduate course. Because of these factors, there were two major objectives in teaching the course: (1) develop a course in fashion forecasting for students transitioning to the graduate program, and (2) incorporate technology they would enjoy but would easily incorporate the timeliness of their research on trends.