This course is designed to be very practical. Rather than giving you the information first and then asking you to apply some of it, we have developed three stories which will make you think and act like marketers. We have tried to design the course in such a way that we guide you through the marketing content when you need it to solve the problems in these stories. We call this 'just-in-time' learning. The short training modules are visual representations of the concepts rather than plain texts.
In each module, there is a story is based on a real life example. There is a fitness centre that needs a rescue effort, a winery that needs support when introducing a new wine, and a brand new web-based art auction company where a marketing strategy needs to be developed from scratch.
In real life, the managers of these companies would look for help to achieve their marketing goals. One place where they could look for help is their local business club. We've tried to capture this by presenting knowledge in the context of a virtual business club.
Once the first part of the story is presented, go to the virtual business club to meet the mentors who can share their knowledge with you. You will be given a group task to complete in your virtual teams. How these teams work is explained below.
When the group work is submitted, your tutor will give feedback to each of the teams. You will also be able to read what really happened to the fitness centre, the winery and the art auction company. We then invite you to do a quiz individually to test your knowledge.
There is a lot to learn about marketing and we hope that this introduction will inspire you to look for more stories and knowledge. There are plenty of wonderful books, magazines and internet resources to help you become great marketers. At the end of your course page you will find some recommended resources, but don't let this limit your own searches!
This course is built on three stories and three tasks to be completed in small groups. We believe this is important, because in real life you would not do these things on your own. Marketing is both art and science, and you will become a better marketer if you have to discuss the approaches you think will work best in a particular case.
Learning through online group work helps you build essential skills for the world of work today. We think it is important that you:
We have divided the larger group of learners into smaller groups. For each task, we will appoint a different chair and presenter. We will upload this information on an additional web page before the start of each task.
Chair: Initiates the discussions and keeps the work on track
Presenter: Makes sure the deliverable - based on the team members' contributions - is submitted in the discussion forum on time. A few days before the deadline, the presenter should post a draft for further inputs by the team. This will ensure the deliverable is the product of a joint team effort.
In each group, you'll work as a team towards a solution to the task by using the discussion forums. You don't all need to be online at the same time. Post your contributions when you are online and others in your group will read them when they log on. As a group, you will have to complete the tasks before the deadlines so it is important that you contribute regularly and that you all move through this course at the same pace. This is the only way that we can make collaborative learning work.
Don't forget that we have an introductory session before we get down to do the 'real' work. We'd also like you all to do the icebreaker activity after introducing yourselves. It will help us a great deal in communicating within groups when we know a bit more about each other.
Enjoy!