Presentation to 2nd International Personal Learning Environment Conference, Southampton, July 2011

1. Fit for Purpose: placing the PLE at the centre of marketing education Lisa Harris and Paul Harrigan University of Southampton Presentation for 2nd International PLE Conference, Southampton, July 2011

2. Author Information Paul Harrigan @drpaulharrigan Lisa Harris @lisaharris Lecturer in Marketing Programme Director for the BSc in International Marketing Research on impact of technology on marketing curriculum Current research project investigating use of Web 2.0 (e.g. social networks, blogs, web analytics) technologies on customer relationships in marketing Teaches Digital Marketing at the University of Southampton Programme Director for the MSc in Digital Marketing. Qualified e-tutor for the University of Liverpool online MBA. Currently developing workshops encouraging the growth of digital presence for career or business development.

3. Background At Southampton our research focuses on: how developments in technology are driving new marketing theory and practice how marketing education should respond to these changes This paper evaluates how marketing education should develop both appropriate curriculum content and the supportive personal learning environments (PLEs) made possible by developments in technology.

4. 21st Century Careers (JISC, 2009) Competition for employment in a global knowledge economy Increased levels of self-employment and portfolio working Growth of multi-disciplinary teams focused on specific tasks whose members might be physically located anywhere in the world Life within a networked society Blurring of boundaries between ‘real’ and ‘virtual’, public and private Increasingly ubiquitous use of digital technologies.

5. The big picture the digital sector directly employs 2.5 million people in the UK the vast majority of graduate jobs require effective use of ICT as an integral aspect of professionalism and performance. The UK Government has indicated that student satisfaction will be taken as a critical measure of how higher education is performing. learners have high expectations and their experiences of technology-supported learning are largely determined by the level of staff e-learning skills.

7. “The active management of online activities such as collaboration, networking , reviewing, content creation and curation in order to “stand out from the crowd” in today’s job market”

8. “an ability to respond positively to change”www.lisaharrismarketing.com www.delicious.com/lisaharris1 www.twitter.com/lisaharris www.slideshare.net/lisaharris www.uk.linkedin.com/in/lisajaneharris

9. Classmates Friends Family Teachers Experts Coworkers Contacts Video Conferencing Evaluating Resources Locating Experts Microbloging Scholarly Works “Life-wide” and “life-long” learning Synchronous Communication Information Management Library/Texts Instant Messaging Mobile Texting Open CourseWare Subscriptions readers RSS Social Networks Blogs Wikis Social Bookmarking Podcasts Wendy Drexler (2008)

10. The PLE Spectrum PLEs can be conceptualised in terms of: 1) the technology choices available to individuals to help them manage their learning 2) the features of the study programme which help to formalise this approach 3) the technological infrastructure provided by the university as a whole (ie providing adequate wifi, secure web access etc) 4) the culture changes that are required for staff to operate effectively within this environment

11. Potential scope of the PLE

12. Southampton PLE Initiatives Undergraduate Digital Marketing module – development of online communities by student groups using blogs, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook (from 2008, assessed by oral presentation) Digital Presence Workshops for staff and students from 2009 Student blogs to support personal tutor/tutee relationship from 2009 Integration of PLE into Introduction to Marketing and Digital Marketing Communications modules from Sept 2010 Blog, Delicious, Netvibes

13. The PLE for marketing students Assessed blog posts: reflections on the learning process, reinforced with face to face meetings Continual assessment and feedback throughout module (online and offline) Students encouraged to find relevant online materials and report back to the group Live tweeting in class, with remote participants Encouragement to use online bookmarking and sharing tools

14. Challenges *Very* variable levels of digital skills amongst students Variable levels of staff ‘buy in’ Entrenched expectations of a ‘traditional’ learning experience. They were not used to: reading or critiquing each others’ work making their work publically available online ‘thinking across’ modules building up assignment work from the start of a module rather than at last minute.com

15. PLE Success stories Some students volunteered to present their work to the whole group For examples of students who have really embraced the approach, see Natasha’s blog and Maria’s blog. Summary video of student experiences through the whole programme: Http://www.tinyurl.com/mastervideo2

16. Thank you for participating! Any questions, comments, suggestions???