Visual thinking and cooperative learning in higher education: HOW does its implementation affect marketing and management disciplines after COVID-19?

Students learn in different ways and in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the higher education faculty needs to reinvent the educational experience for students. Recognizing the characteristics of cooperative learning as an integral and sustainable part of the solution is a source of motivation for the incorporation of entrepreneurial competencies in university curricula. This article proposes that cooperative learning and visual thinking tools in higher education can have a positive influence on improving the acquisition of core competencies in marketing and business administration subjects. The proposed relationships were evaluated using PLS-SEM (symmetric) and fuzzy set (asymmetric) approaches on a sample of 820 students. The PLS-SEM results revealed that the highest levels of acquisition of basic group competencies are through Social Skills, Interaction and Positive Interdependence. The results of the fuzzy sets (fsQCA) reinforced the symmetrical findings and revealed that Group Reflection and adequacy of Assessment were necessary and sufficient prescriptions for competence acquisition.