Imagine every class you have ever taught was in person and you had never taught online. You had no idea what to expect with blended learning let alone completely online teaching. You wanted to create an interactive learning environment for all your students but wasn’t sure which method to turn to. I think all of us felt at least a little of that in September 2020. I certainly did.
2020/21 academic year was certainly challenging, but it was also successful and exciting. I’ll never forget those precious moments of breakthrough with my students. I’ll always remember how the course teams pulled together in tough times.
The focus of this blog post will reflect on my experiences in teaching undergraduate marketing courses entirely online in the 2020 academic year. I wanted students to experience the actual doing of marketing, complementing theoretical concepts in an engaging way. Another motivation for teaching practical training is the fact that many of our students haven’t yet worked in a marketing role, something which many students are yet to experience until after graduation. To achieve this I trialled teaching practical training with a variety of pedagogical approaches for the first time online. This blog will reflect on the learnings I will take with me into teaching in 2021 academic year.
A diverse cohort
In my presentation, I explored the demographic characteristics from the cohort. As a practicing marketer, I understand the importance of knowing my audience. The data showed a significantly larger proportion of black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) students, also more students entering the degree below the age of 21 and an almost even split of male and female. I wanted to use a range of teaching methods that would support the learning of a virtual and diverse cohort.
In teaching online, would I lose the successful methods I created for teaching activities taking place in person?
In 2019/20 academic year, I built excellent rapport with students in level 4 courses. I had become a dab hand at flipped classroom and experimented with designing different learning spaces in modules where creativity in marketing featured. I felt like these methods were helping students retain knowledge. I was so happy to receive great feedback from students that my methods were indeed helping their understanding.
‘’Thanks to Emma, I left every seminar being convinced that I had learned a lot and that I would actually memorise the topics. This saved me a lot of time at home, because I barely had to read over my notes again, unlike other modules, where I had to read certain things multiple times to remember them” – Undergraduate marketing student.
I felt a real sense of reward and excitement, but towards the end of Term 2 news of Corona Virus affecting University teaching began circulating around classes. Over the summer, I was asked to teach on more courses in 2020 term and I dreamed of using my practical experience in more creative ways to inspire student learning.
I wanted to teach marketing students how to create content and measure it but how could I do it online? I wondered how I could sustain their attention in breakout rooms. Would students feel abandoned or bored and leave?
Pedagogical Approaches in 2020
Flipped Classroom
After the success I had in using Flipped classroom in 2019, this was my very first approach online. In person, I encouraged my students to physically enter the lecturer space and took control of the flip chart/screens. This really helped motivate my Thursday evening group.
In online teaching, I experimented with part student led tutorials and I allowed students time in the breakout rooms to take on the role of the marketing manager and discuss the set questions. I asked them make decisions together on marketing planning. As a group every breakout room came together and one student from the group presented as a marketing manager. Students enjoyed simulating a marketing team so much that they often completed the set questions and then created hashtags and big campaign ideas without my prompt. Where possible and appropriate to the learning outcomes, I facilitated this student led discussion at the end of sessions. This worked particularly well for the sessions on Red Bull marketing planning and BMW corporate social responsibility. I noticed that during these sessions, groups that adopted this approach had a clearer understanding of the tutorial task. To ensure that learning outcomes were understood by the whole group, I included a key takeaway slide at the very end of sessions, written informally and concisely.
Experiential Learning Theory (Kolb, 1984)
This year, I worked with the module leader of a Public Relations course to introducetechnical training in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and video to the portfolio in a second year Public Relations course. Adding these key marketing skills to the portfolio assessment allowed students to apply their newfound knowledge and ideas to the world around them.
I created three practical training workshops in omni channel strategy. These sessions simulated the launch a new e-commerce website of a London coffee shop. I embedded this theme throughout the sessions. I wanted to also create opportunities within the portfolio to be about learning skills, not purely focusing on the assessment itself. I wanted to help students apply their learning to make the assessment more relevant for their future careers, so using experiential learning as a pedagogical approach, allowed me to provide opportunities for students to gain key employability skills whilst understanding learning outcomes (Deeley, 2017).
Framework of Moral Education (Noddings)
This academic year, all student/tutor appointments took place online. I wanted to support students’ wellbeing, I was conscious of the challenges and anxieties of students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Embedding ‘education without boundaries’ into my approach; I carried out the four components of the Framework of Moral Education of Nel Noddings: modelling, dialogue, practice and confirmation. In student feedback appointments, I wanted to make meetings not only about course related questions, but also to ask students how they were feeling and explore their emotions and coping strategies.
Interestingly, Burke and Larmar explored framework of moral education in an online setting last year. The study found that putting an emphasis on caring relationships in online teaching to be the bedrock of the holistic growth of students. This method encouraged students to take ownership of their own learning (Burke and Larmar, 2020).
In my experience, students opened up and were more honest in aspects they didn’t understand. I found that students were more able to take on constructive feedback. This allowed meaningful conversations on how to immediately improve assignments.
Lessons learned
At times, I’ve felt pressured to include lots of activities in my tutorials, when dedicating time on the discussion around the reflection of the task has been really useful.
I feel proud to have made bolder choices in my teaching methods this year. I found that the most rewarding evidence of my impact was by being nominated for 3 awards by my students in the Student Led Teaching Awards (SLTA) held by Greenwich Students’ Union, and in particular being shortlisted for the Inspirational Teaching Award 2021.
Whether teaching online or offline, I will continue to bring my whole authentic self. In doing this, I will continue to encourage students to bring their whole selves to classes. Teaching online showed me that being real human and relatable is the best way to motivate students to participate.
Blog Author
Emma Gates
Teaching Fellow
Department of Systems Management and Strategy
Greenwich Business School
References
Burke, K. and Larmar, S., 2020. Acknowledging another face in the virtual crowd: Reimagining the online experience in higher education through an online pedagogy of care. Journal of Further and Higher Education, [online] 45(5), pp.601-615. Available at: <https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0309877X.2020.1804536> [Accessed 13 June 2021].
Deeley, S., 2017. Using technology to facilitate effective assessment for learning and feedback in higher education. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, [online] 43(3), pp.439-448. Available at: <https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02602938.2017.1356906?journalCode=caeh20> [Accessed 18 June 2021].
de Jong, W., 2006. From ‘doing’ to ‘knowing what you are doing’: Kolb’s learning theory in teaching documentary practice. Journal of Media Practice, [online] 7(2), pp.151-158. Available at: <https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1386/jmpr.7.2.151_3> [Accessed 23 June 2021].
Johnson, R., Edmundson-Bird, D. and Keegan, B., 2012. Making digital literacy a success in taught marketing courses. Enhancing Learning in the Social Sciences, [online] 4(2), pp.1-15. Available at: <https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.11120/elss.2012.04020002> [Accessed 14 June 2021].
Martínez-Jiménez, R. and Ruiz-Jiménez, M., 2020. Improving students’ satisfaction and learning performance using flipped classroom. The International Journal of Management Education, [online] 18(3), p.100422.Available at: <https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1472811719302022> [Accessed 10 May 2021].