Totally agree. I took Internet Marketing at university and it was more like a strategic planning type course. My teacher (who says that he's worked in the internet marketing industry before) actually warned us in the 1st class that it wasn't a true 'internet marketing' class. Hopefully since then they've actually put a better curriculum out... and are participating in this AdWords challenge!

He He,

that pre-supposes that there are people out there who actually know what they are doing when it comes to internet marketing.

As I keep saying with conversion rates stuck around 2% for the past 10 years and online advertising consistently failing 99.9% of the time  to deliver clicks, there's no such thing as an internet marketing expert.

(Even if there are online marketing experts, they are hardly likely to be working in a university.)

The other problem that universities face is that the web keeps changing on a daily basis.

In that sort of environment it would be impossible for a uni to develop a course syllabus that had any sort of current relevance.

The best sort of online university you could go to is probably sites like Gooruze where you can get real world advice from people who are actually in the trenches on a daily basis.

Well I think we were kind of hoping to learn even the basics, like how to optimise, do PPC, etc. I'm not sure how to work out a syllabus around that, but I'm sure teachers could arrange something more hands on! Although I do have to admit I did have fun making a made-up .com company! Maybe we could have done the strategic side, as well as say what we would do to promote or optimise our website. I don't know. =)

But yeah, I guess internet marketing experts aren't exactly going to work in university's. Apparently he was an Internet Marketing Consultant in his spare time. There are professionals who do teach at universities. One of my friend's did Law at Murdoch and she used to have a teacher who worked at a top law firm who told them how much he earned to read emails and per case during his normal job. :S

I agree - basics at the very least should be taught.  What is PPC, SEO, social marketing, email marketing, etc.  You could learn how to set up PPC accounts, how to write effective ad text, what is a landing page and what makes it effective, what's a conversion, etc.  Even with the ever changing landscape, there have remained a few constants that can be taught.  Plus, what other courses in business haven't had to change and adapt with the times - it's an inevitability.  However, like this article says as well as the two of you, it's getting the so-called "experts" to come on board and teach - there's certainly more money to be made in the field than teaching, and these people are busy enough without having to spend their free time teaching courses.

I met with a group of social marketing people this week, some of whom were still in college, and asked them how they were getting trained. Currently it seems to be DIY (how I learned) through conferences, trial and error, using social media, and staying tuned in to the online conversation. The colleges have a "Communication"  or "Advertising" major, but things still seem to be anchored totally to print and other traditional media. One SM marketer I spoke with said he did a Business major and simply did the rest DIY.

I'm even concerned that my thirteen-year-old son, who is the only one of my three in a traditional school (the others are still homeschooled) never has assignments that encourage online work of any kind. His classmates aren't even familiar with Google.

 

Marketing professionals, like myself, are often criticized for not evolving at the same pace as technology.  We are seen as forever making the same mistakes using the traditional media mix and not embracing the multitude of avenues open to us via the internet.  But in our defence it is hard to embrace the unknown.  It didn’t form part of my uni education and with few options out there I have decided to teach myself (better late than never!) and Gooruze is certainly helping with that, but I have to say it is not easy and can be challenging. 

In Australia we have seen the online advertising market soar (growth of 61.5% in 2006) and we are expecting a 40% growth year on year for the next 5 years.  It is predicted online advertising spend will exceed that of all other mediums.  Therefore, surely it would be remiss of us not to consider “online marketing” an essential part of today’s marketing curriculums?   We should be arming our graduates with the tools and confidence to grab online marketing by the horns, implement online strategies and educated their likely skeptical stakeholders.