Community-Sourcing a New Marketing Course: Collaboration in Social Media

Abstract

This paper shows the value of an online personal learning network or community in educational innovation. It shows how theories and best practices from service and product innovation, as well the theories of learning communities, were applied using social media to facilitate the grant proposal and course development processes for a new course in social media marketing. The innovation theory and practices discussed, and the example of their application in a higher-education environment, will help guide educators to (1) create learning networks and communities and to (2) use those communities to innovate in their curriculum and classrooms.

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“…One option is to create a learning objects website where instructors would share materials. Crowdsourcing via LinkedIn groups, Twitter hashtag (e.g., #smmedu), or dedicated blog, course materials, and course topic selection would also be valuable (Schirr, 2013). The authors have included a social media resource collection to assist faculty in their social media preparations (see Table 6).…”

“…To date, two articles within the marketing education literature have exclusively discussed strategies for developing and implementing a dedicated social marketing course (Faulds & Mangold, 2014; Schirr, 2013). Faulds and Mangold’s (2014) content development was drawn from practitioner advice solicited through interviews and instructor input (Faulds & Mangold, 2014).…”

“…Faulds and Mangold’s (2014) content development was drawn from practitioner advice solicited through interviews and instructor input (Faulds & Mangold, 2014). Schirr (2013) took a different approach and employed a crowd-sourcing model. Specifically, he drew on his “personal learning network” on Twitter and a blog which garnered input from professors, consultants, and industry professionals.…”

“…Specifically, he drew on his “personal learning network” on Twitter and a blog which garnered input from professors, consultants, and industry professionals. Instead of using a textbook to teach social media, course material for both dedicated social media courses was drawn from trade books, popular business press, academic articles, and blogs from social media experts (Faulds & Mangold, 2014; Schirr, 2013).…”

“…Notwithstanding these enhancements, there appears to be little consensus as to the extent to which the topic of social media should be included within a marketing curriculum, the pedagogical format, or types of instructional media and assessment that should be used. In truth, the newness and ever-evolving nature of the topic and related technologies have left educators scrambling to catch up with little direction or guidance as to how to develop social media-related courses and/or curriculums (Schirr, 2013).…”