The Google Online Marketing Challenge is an ongoing collaboration between Google and academics, in order to give students experiential learning. The Challenge gives student teams $US200 in AdWords, Google's flagship advertising product, to develop online marketing campaigns for actual businesses. The end result is an engaging in-class exercise that provides students and professors with an exciting and pedagogically rigorous competition. Results from surveys at the end of the Challenge reveal positive appraisals from the three -students, businesses and professors -main constituents, general agreement between students and instructors regarding learning outcomes, and a few points of difference between students and instructors. In addition to describing the Challenge and its outcomes, this paper reviews the post-participation questionnaires and subsequent datasets. The questionnaires and results are publicly available, and this paper invites educators to mine the datasets, share their results and offer suggestions for future iterations of the Challenge.

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The Google Online Marketing Challenge is perhaps the world's largest in-class competition for higher education students. Merging education with hands-on advertising, the Challenge exposes students to the increasingly important field of online marketing, engages students with local businesses and gives students the thrill of an international competition. Feedback from participating students, academics and businesses in the inaugural Challenge was overwhelmingly positive. Based on experience and feedback, Google plans an improved version in 2009. Global organisations such as CHRIE should consider a special division for hospitality and tourism students in the 2009 Challenge.

Purpose External partnerships are crucial to the functioning of a university education department. The purpose of this paper is to explore the underpinning characteristics of such partnerships. It examines different types of partnerships from those in initial teacher education, to continuing professional development to international. Evidence-based data are gathered from both external partners and university staff who deal with partnership. Softer skills and intellectual kingship are identified as the fundamental drivers of partnership and the subsequent implications for universities are examined. Design/methodology/approach In order to explore the nature of these partnerships, a qualitative approach was essential as the focus was in the motives and perspectives of the authors’ partners, the authors’ colleagues and the university as a corporate entity. To this end, questionnaires were designed for use with a broad range of teacher education partners. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted with university-based colleagues involved in a range of these partnership activities. Findings The institutional reputation on its own does not appear to be the main driver for partnership and as such, the partner bases their decisions and judgements upon the relationship and discussions with the link person they deal with. In turn, those key actors in the university education department also see the wider university as an inhibitor and constraint upon partnership but maintain their relationships by drawing on autonomous forms of professionalism. Thus, intellectual kinship, collegiality and common goals may be argued as key to generating successful external relationships. Practical implications It is important to note that a business relationship which relies on an individual is fragile; people move, become ill and change roles. Clear strategies are essential for succession planning across all such partnerships in an institution, if they are to avoid the potential financial and reputational repercussions arising from unplanned change. Originality/value This study highlights the significance of effective communication between the department establishing the partnership and those responsible for broader managerial and administrative systems in the institution, as well as the potential importance of shared values across departments in respect of supporting and maintaining international partnerships. Further, institutions should recognise the fundamental importance of the link person, in terms of the boundary-spanning nature of the role, the importance to that role of intellectual kinship and the potential this has for the development of new or expanded relationships.

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