MA IN TRAINING & EDUCATION

CENTRE FOR PROMOTING ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE

GRIFFITH COLLEGE, DUBLIN. NOV 2016

Title: An Investigation into the confidence levels of undergraduate Marketing Educators in embedding digital and

social media methods in their teaching.

Emma Olohan - 2825055

Research Question

• To investigate why Irish Undergraduate Marketing Educator’s, teach digital and social media methods to meet learning outcomes, however do not incorporate practical application.

Research Objectives (3)

K

• To establish Irish Undergraduate Marketing educator’s current level of knowledge in implementing digital and social media methods.

T

• To establish if any professional development and training has been undertaken to facilitate the teaching of social media and digital methods.

B• To identify the barriers that exist for educators in relation to

employing digital and social media in their teaching

Background:

• Digital Marketing and the fundamental elements of social media marketing can be seen across a number of Higher Education UG programmes in Ireland.

• These elements have been emerging in curriculum over the past decade.

• The evolution of technology over the past decade has altered personal and professional communication, including the way business and specifically marketing is conducted.

• This learning within an UG marketing programme is a crucial element of the marketing function within an evolving marketing landscape.

• It is a notable pre-requisite on entry level job specs for marketing positions across any sector

What is social media?

• The research study explores the perspectives of the marketing educators and programme leaders in Ireland with the intention of providing valuable insight into the confidence levels of marketing educators.

• The skillset to teach traditional marketing has changed. Monologue – Multilogue

• This shift in marketing and communication strategic changes between businesses and customers marks the Era of consumer-centric marketing - within academic field among traditional marketers since 1999.

• Social Media can be defined by the channels we use to share news, personal events, and information. How we achieve this human connection and relationship building is with the use of social media and digital mediums such as podcasts- forums- email – wiki’s- networking sites- online communication platforms.

Literature Review – Social Media Marketing as an Academic field

• Chelliah and Clarke (2011) –Educators need to be able to evaluate and integrate the use of that technology into the curriculum.

• Falls and Decker (2012) – No single subject has exploded into society and the business world the way social media and marketing has. Know-how among learners.

• Aberynethy & Padgett (2011) –Balance of theoretical and conceptual underpinnings and practical relevance - tensions amongst educators.

• Brunton (2015) – CPD needs to be recognised and fully integrated in the workload of academics.

• Buzzard (2011) – states that widespread diffusion of technologies such as twitter, Wikis, and facebook groups are in marketing modules in Higher Education.

• Ney (2015) – academics should consider how social media can help meet the learning objectives of the module rather than “tokenistic” use of technology.

Digital and Social Media in H.E. Marketing Education –Timeline marking green shoots of digital within curriculum

1999: Kotler on Marketing: How to create, win and dominate markets 2002: M Gladwell : TheTipping Point

2006: Dr R Cialdini: Influence

2008: Tadajewski & Jones: The history of Marketing Thought- The development of Marketing Education (3 volume-marketing gained eminence at Higher level for the past 115 years)

2016: Armstrong & Kotler: Introduction to Marketing: global edition

2009-2013-2016: Jobber & Ellis-Chadwick: Principles and Practice of Marketing

Authors provided comprehensive view of growth, development, structure of marketing industry, including trends & areas requiring further academic research

Literature Review

Market research

Advertising

Sales Promotion

Sales Management

Forms of Advertising and PR

Traditional Graduates

skillsets Social Media-Social Networking-Designing Online campaigns

E-commerce

Search Engine Optimisation

Connected Consumer Behaviour

Technical skills is research analytics & data

Today’s Graduates additional

skillsets

Kumar 2015 suggests..

Literature Review - Application of Social and Digital as pedagogical tools

• Skilbeck (2003) – the Institution needs to actively “plugged-in”.

Researcher identifies a key structural issue around Irish H.E. culture preparing for the digital revolution within course delivery and extended opportunities for learning.

• Peluchette & Rust (2005) – Emerging Instructional technologies - a central pedagogic issue for nearly 30 years.

• Pearson (2009) – Undergraduate learners are already practitioners. They do not understand the theoretical underpinning of the area. The role of these aspects used in class is to impart a critical understanding of the usage of these tools.

Literature Review - Application of Social and Digital as pedagogical tools

• Cole et al (2009) – Evolution of social media has affected society at large. From a H.E. perspective, how educators teach and in-turn how learners expect to absorb information in the marketing classroom has changed.

• Tuten & Marks ( 2012) – sampled 531 marketing educators in the UK. Educators use social media in personal lives- they did not use it for educational purposes. Educators reported drawbacks such as limited class time- diversity in modes- lack of functional experience..

Literature Review - Application of Social and Digital as pedagogical tools

• Sahlberg (2010) – Unlike 2nd level - Third level academics have never been formally trained. New approach in CPD in recent years..

• Harrigan and Hulbert (2011) – call for marketing academics to reflect and critique curriculums.

• Brocato et al (2015) – social media is widely used to enhance learning and development, requires structure.

Literature Review - Application of Social and Digital as pedagogical tools

• Moore (2014) – Crucial that technology within class is structured with clear objectives and tied to learning outcomes. Hence the Importance for educators to be confident in using these tools.

• Lin & Hseih (2001) (cited by Duffy & May 2015) – Digital tools are implemented in marketing education in an “ad-hoc” manner rather than a structured approach providing key transferable skills

• 2015 Ireland’s National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Education in H.E. – ‘Embracing the full potential of digital technologies poses a challenge to many of our basic structures, our assumptions, our policies and procedures, not least regarding our beliefs and attitudes about the role and nature of H.E Itself’....’as a result , it is key that the upskilling of educators should be at the forefront of training’.

Literature Review- The Social Paradigm Shift

• Insites Consulting (survey of EU & US firms: 2011) – 88% of businesses have social media initiatives. 42% of businesses have fully integrated social media into their business strategy

• Rapp et al (2013) – The general public has embraced social media, its connection opportunities and content. It follows that marketing educators should have proficiency and confidence in-class with these tools for the purpose of instruction.

• Solis (2011) – Social Media is an important communication strategy for business and public. Social platforms assist in social connections of people – organic and endemic.-Social paradigm shift.

• ‘Public’ back in Public Relations

Current Research - Teaching and Learning in Irish Higher Education: A Roadmap for Enhancement in a Digital World 2015-2017

The survey (http://www.teachingandlearning.ie/wp-content/ uploads/2013/09/Survey_51093715.pdf)was distributed through the National Forum’s contact network to those who teach in Universities, IoTs, Colleges of Education and Private Colleges. Over 750 respondents is a good reflection of the range of teaching staff in Irish higher education:

• 25% of respondents reported being less confident than their students when using technology.

• The most frequently cited obstacles were lack of training, or the lack of time to attend training.

• Uncertainties regarding the possibilities afforded by TEL, and a relatively low expectation that support would be provided when required.

• Teaching with technology seemed to be associated with an extra commitment in time and effort.

Key Recommendations

• Recommendation 1: Prioritise the strategic development of digital capacity in

institutional and national policy and quality frameworks in a way that supports

innovation for impact

• Recommendation 2: Strengthen and support collaboration within and between

institutions, and with different parts of the higher education sector; develop

shared policies and infrastructure that reflect the complexity of an increasingly

digital world

• Recommendation 3: Develop a consistent, seamless and coherent digital

experience for students in Irish higher education and actively engage with

students and teachers to develop their digital skills and knowledge

• Recommendation 4: Develop a strong evidence base for enhanced pedagogy

Research Methodology

Image source: https://www.ukessays.com/images/essays/the_research_onion.jpg

Research Methodology• An Interpretivist approach (Philosophy) with a Mixed Methodology

(approach) .

• According to Medherkar (2010)- superior high quality research.

• Mixed Methods research approach for gathering the data in the form of survey and 1 depth interview.

• Chose an Inductive approach – more consideration to social actors and their opinions.

• Exploratory study focused on BA in Marketing educators attitudes and views.

• Approach involved qualitative methods and judgement sampling

• Empirical research Nov 2015 – March 2016

• Literature review informed on information previously written

• Fieldwork began March 2016

• Study conducted from April – June 2016.

SampleBreakdown

NQF level 8 UG Marketing Educators

Judgement Sampling

Use of online software tool with open ended questions for comments

60 originally contacted

35 in final sample

Final response rate of 58%

60% from Leinster region: 40% from other main cities across Ireland.

Questionnaire had 10 questions and was shared via surveymonkey.com

Depth Interview

• Way of obtaining qualitative data

• Conducted with a BA Marketing programme leader

• The purpose - Uncover more complete answers

• Assisted exploratory research

Background• The aim of the research: To investigate why Irish Undergraduate Marketing

Educator’s, teach Digital and social media methods to meeting outcomes however do not incorporate practical application.

Question 1 of the survey asked how many years each lecturer had been teaching.

• Over 54% = teaching on the BA in Marketing programmes under five years. • 29% = teaching six to ten years• 17% = teaching more than 11 years.

Research Objective 1 – Analysis Q. 2,4,8,9

How confident the sample feels about their

(a) technical knowledge regarding social media and digital aspects, how confident they are in

(b) teaching digital aspects for academic instruction and finally how comfortable the sample is using social media and digital aspects as a

(c) pedagogical interactive tool.

1. To establish Irish Undergraduate Marketing educator’s current level of knowledge in implementing digital and social media methods.

Questions 2, 4, 8 and 9 link to the first research objective, which was to establish the current level of knowledge of Irish undergraduate marketing educators in implementing digital and social media methods.

Figure 2 - Current social media and digital aspects being taught in class

Figure 4 - Confidence levels of BA in Marketing educators in teaching social media anddigital aspects in class

Figure 8 - The impact of the workload surrounding the integration of social media and digitalaspects for delivery in class

Figure 9 - What would help you engage more in social media as a means of deliveringyour topics?

Findings:• Facebook was by far the preferred tool .

45% = using this channels in the classroom; 52% = feel slightly confident or not confident at all using social media and digital aspects61% = of the sample felt they only had average or no confidence using social media and digital aspects for academic instruction

• Supports (Tuten & Marks, 2012, p. 205) study which found “although many marketing professors use social media on a personal basis, it is not widely utilized for educational purposes”

• This data supports the concerns that marketing academics are not “…. delivering marketing graduates with the skills to actually work in marketing” (Walker et al., 2009).

• It also raises concerns whether educators are confident in the academic underpinning of social media and digital aspects in their teaching, this is a rich area for further study.

Conflictive response Q. 8, 9.• Responses are quite conflictive in that when it came to the comfort of

using social media and digital as a pedagogical tool.

• 54% claim to be ‘comfortable’ or ‘very comfortable’ so clearly the gap in confidence is in the area of teaching the social media and digital aspects for academic instruction

( i.e. the theoretical underpinning and process around how these apply in marketing practice and what their theoretical functions area).

Research Objective 2 – Analysis Q. 3, 5

2. To establish if any professional development and training has been undertaken to facilitate the teaching of social media and digital methods

Question 3, reflects the level of supportprovided for faculty development inadvancing instructional technology by theH.E. institutions.

Question 5, asks what resources wereavailable for teaching and using socialmedia and digital aspects on campus.

There is definitely room for further research, for example what support should be provided for faculty in advancing technology and curriculum development – what should it look like?

Figure 3 - Confidence levels of BA in Marketing educators in teaching social media and digital aspects in class

Figure 5 - How comfortable are you using social media and digital aspects as a pedagogical tool?

FindingsQ 3. The sample was split here quite evenly.

• 45% were satisfied with their support

• 55% were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied.

Q.5.

• 97% of universities and college campuses had WIFI

• 35% provide software

• 3% support third party site permissions.

IT support was only available in 58% of responses. The use of social media and digital aspects should have the support of a faculty IT department and

the lack of one in 42% of the sample, would support the general lack of confidence within the group.

The lack of social media policy and guidance will need to be addressed moving forward as ethics and legal issues surround the use of third party sites.

The lack of IT and Faculty support is a concern that is clearly echoed in the National Forum’s recent publication, the Roadmap for Digital Enhancement in H.E.

Research Objective 3 – Analysis Q. 6, 10a,10b,10c

The third and final research objective is

answered in question 6, 10a, 10b and 10c.

3. To identify the barriers that exist for educators in relation to employing digital and social media methods in their teaching.

Question 6: focuses on the workload of the sample

Question 10a, b and c. asks :

What needs/supports lecturers require for their teaching of social media and digital aspects in-class. What is needed to help engagement and delivery.What obstacles are affecting the teaching of social media and digital aspects in-class?

This question allowed the sample to input individual answers.

Figure 6 - Satisfaction with support in advancing instructional technology in H.E.

Figure 7 - Resources available when teaching and using social media and digital

aspects on campus

Q. 10.

Q.10a. What do you feel are your needs as a lecturer

to assist you in your teaching social media and

digital aspects in-class? Response Area

Response

% Responses

Training 50.0% 17

Technology 8.8% 3

Access 11.8% 4

Support 11.8% 4

Time 11.8% 4

Resources 0.0% 0

Privacy 0.0% 0

Other 5.9% 2

Q.10b. What do you feel would help you engage more in

social media as a means of delivering your topic? Response Area

Response

% Responses

Training 35.3% 12

Technology 14.7% 5

Access 5.9% 2

Support 2.9% 1

Time 17.6% 6

Resources 2.9% 1

Privacy 2.9% 1

Other 11.8% 4

Q.10c. Do you feel there are any issues or obstacles

affecting you in teaching social media and digital

aspects in-class. Please comment. Response Area

Response

% Responses

Training 32.4% 11

Technology 20.6% 7

Access 2.9% 1

Support 17.6% 6

Time 0.0% 0

Resources 8.8% 3

Privacy 2.9% 1

Other 8.8% 3

Research Questions 10a,10b,10c & Data Comparison

Research Questions 6, 10a,10b,10c FindingsQ 6: • 30% + = Workload impacts on their ability to deliver• Workload for academics has received considerable attention in

recent years and the divide between whether it continues to be a vocation or profession.

Q 10. • NQF level 8 marketing educators : Call for Training with over 50%

identifying this as a requirement for them in their teaching.• Technology, time, resources, and training were expressed as

supports required • Training being the greatest barrier that exists for educators in

relation to employing digital and social media methods in their teaching.

Research Questions 6, 10a,10b,10c Findings

• When asked to identify and comment obstacles or issues that affect their teaching of social media training was the highest response, followed by technology, support, resources, access, privacy, and other.

• The requirements and concerns for training are overwhelmingly identified across the entire survey responses, with technology coming second clearly identifying that despite educators not having high levels of confidence, there is obviously a openness for training and CPD.

Findings contd..• The comment option on the last question:

- 30 of the surveyed educators commented which clearly indicates a support for this research study and an eagerness to be heard.

• 4 Emerging themes identified:

1. Training,

2. Lack of resources,

3. Lack of knowledge at management level

4. Infrastructure

• Commentary identifies a repetitive pattern including:

Training, a course provided by experienced faculty, better technology infrastructure, necessary hardware and webcams, paid time for preparation, more training around digital, support workshops, regular training rather ad-hoc training, use of Industry speakers, continual professional engagement, time to experiment with different ideas and tools, specific training in these areas, how to measure results in these aspects.

Depth Interview: Programme Leader: (NQF level 8 stakeholder)• Expectations for Educator: 1. Encourage students to look at how and why social media and digital

aspects are being used in marketing practice2. To build awareness of the theoretical constructs employed in the usage, 3. Evaluate what if any are the tools for calculating the return on that use of

resources.

• Challenges: ‘if technology could be integrated correctly with clearly defined guidelines and policy on third party sites etc, it would be fantastic’.

• Barriers: Recognised hesitancy - lack of expertise, legal and ethical issues to consider, resources and time required in order to effectively stay updated in the plethora of mobile technologies.

• Q: How do we evaluate and integrate from a learning outcome perspective, these social media and digital aspects appropriately into module design at the rate of change and evolution that is happening?

A final suggestion from this programme leader was for a panel headed up by the programme leader and head of department, to enhance digital integration from a theoretical underpinning and pedagogical aspect could encourage methodological development.

Research Findings• 50% + educators appear to have a level of confidence in using social media and

digital aspects in class for a limited number of modalities.

• These are identified as Facebook, Twitter to a small degree and You-tube.

• Obstacles identified: ‘Overwhelming amount of social media apps and types of modalities available proving difficult to stay on top of’.

• There should be ‘a clear boundary divide between student and lecturer that could be “blurred” by use of social media’.

• The educators already know how to do it; however don’t confidently know the theoretical processes underpinning the marketing practice that is going on behind it.

• The literature review revealed there is a growing interest in digital enhancement across H.E. at both EU and the National Forum level.

- There is negligible investment and resources dedicated to digital and social media resources and training from an Irish HE perspective.

Further ResearchThe findings of this study answer the research question emphatically.

• There is a definite requirement for a training programme of policy on CPD. • NQF level 8 educators were clear regarding wanting the time and extra workload

resources to be considered at management level, that are required to stay on top of their subject area.

• There is a requirement for a clear educational purpose and understanding for the teaching of social media and digital aspects in the marketing classroom.

• Educators and Programme leaders will need to discuss their resources and develop a plan to meet the needs of specific modules that must have critical understanding to its digital content.

• The time required to successfully monitor: Is this a justifiable use of marketing educator’s time?

• Harrigan and Hulbert (2011, p.269) state “Academics need to ensure that practice does not get any further ahead or even further away from the marketing discipline that it already is” (Harrigan, 2011).

Further/ Current Research: Social Network Theory and

Educational Change

Edited by Alan J. Daly, foreword by Judith

Warren Little

Alan J. Daly is an assistant professor of education at

the University of California, San Diego.

Research Recommendations• Investment: Building digital confidence and developing associated new pedagogies

cannot be achieved without research, and investment of both time and money.• Collaboration: across HEI’s can help optimise scarce resources. Programme leaders

or heads of departments could potentially initiate a collaborative working group across HEI’s to assist in implementing such recommendations.

• Guidance: There has also been areas of concern identified around misuse and use of social media with no clear guidelines in place.

• CPD Critical: The researcher notes that faculty and HEI management are very quick to detail what is required of NQF level 8 marketing educators on module descriptors and marketing curricula but fail to support these resources and CPD initiatives.

• Formal Training: A postgraduate qualification could be developed in consultation with the marketing industry and or a CPD certificate which could be developed in continuously evolving module design, which would allow for more frequent adaption of emerging trends that become popular in the business world of marketing.

• Support Structures: this is further supported by the National Forums recent Digital Roadmap document on ‘Enhancing digital in H.E. 2015-2017’ which clearly outlines recommendations recognising the need for training resources and CPD investments to be made by HEI’s across Ireland. (academic, 2016)

Conclusions• The study set out to investigate the knowledge levels and confidence

levels of NQF level 8 marketing educators, in teaching and using social media and digital tools in class. The 3 key objectives of the research were to investigate Knowledge, Barriers & Training.

1. There A lack of confidence when it comes to the academic instruction

2. Need for training support and resources

3. Necessity for communication and collaboration

4. 50% + educators appear to have a level of confidence in using social media and digital aspects in class for a limited number of modalities-proving ‘difficult to stay on top of’

5. Consideration for required time and extra workload resources

6. Clear educational purpose

Thank you – Questions?

Find further discussion among the academic community @ ICEP 2017*

*pending submission approval