Some of my most memorable college experiences were when my professors included guest lecturers to help teach a topic or share their personal experiences. These guest lecturers were usually locals and never had a national or worldwide influence amongst the digital marketing community.
Professors already know how hard it can be to convince an industry expert to come speak to their classroom. We also know first-hand how difficult it can be to get top-caliber industry experts to present on various topics.
To have someone who has worked at national online retail giants like Finish Line and Columbia Sportswear speak to your students is extremely valuable. Or, when you’re studying paid search advertising, to have John Gagnon of Bing step up and share his knowledge and insights is as close to a real-world experience your students can get.
If you are reading this, then you’re probably familiar with our Expert Sessions. This is one way we contribute to the classroom.
At the time of this writing we have 19 Expert Sessions from industry experts on topics such as:
- web analytics
- search engine optimization
- pay per click advertising
- international SEO
- landing page optimization
- social media optimization/marketing
- plus much more
We receive notes from professors all of the time letting us know how grateful they are for our Expert Session resources. In case you haven’t used one of our Expert Sessions yet, I thought I’d share a few ways current professors are using them.
How To Use Expert Sessions In Your Course
Quick research. You’ll want to pull up our Expert Session speaker page and run it by your syllabus. Maybe there are a few sections where you feel are lacking a bit of content, or there are topics that you personally find difficult to teach. Chances are, we have a lecture on that(assuming it’s digital marketing related). Once you find a couple that you want to use, add it to your syllabus.
Get to know the contents. Our Expert Sessions range in length from 20 minutes to 70 minutes. We provide a general outline for each session, important links to websites/tools discussed by the expert, a speaker bio, as well as an end-of-session quiz.
Take action. Some effective ways of teaching using our Expert Sessions is to plan a class period where your students watch the webinar and then take the quiz, plan for a discussion on the subject matter, or do a write-up on what they have learned and how they would apply the skills discussed. You could also assign them to watch the lecture outside of class.
Speaker Lineup
[content_band inner_container=”true” padding_top=”10px” padding_bottom=”10px” border=”all” bg_color=”#f4f4f4″] [column type=”one-third” fade_animation=”in” fade_animation_offset=”45px”]- Chris Dessi – Social Media
- Kate Morris – International SEO
- John Gagnon – Paid Search
- Duane Forrester – SEO
- Shane Snow – Content Marketing
- Owen Fuller – Inbound Marketing
- Debray Zahay – Online Brand Exposure
- Zach Olsen – Web Analytics
- Oli Gardner – Landing Page Optimization
- Scott Cowley – SEO, Social Media, & Content Marketing
- Perrin Carrel – Keyword Research
- Trevor Erikson – YouTube Marketing
- Benjamin Beck – SEO
- Gabe Villamizar – Social Media Optimization
- Matt Umbro – Remarketing
- Dennis Yu – Facebook Advertising
- Matt Umbro – #PPCCHAT
- Zach Olsen – Data Driven Decisions
- AJ Wilcox – LinkedIn B2B Advertising
The Goal
The goal has been, still is, and will continue to be, making it easier for you to teach digital marketing. It’s difficult enough just to keep yourself knowledgeable about the latest trends, changes in algorithms, new social media platforms, etc. I can only image how much more difficult it is to teach it and to keep your course evolving and up-to-date with the latest industry trends.
The Expert Session platform will make your life easier when it comes to finding true expert guest lecturers.
It’s a pleasure to work with so many excellent professors who understand this and get excited about adding industry expert lecture series to their courses. If there’s a particular topic for which you want an expert lecturer that isn’t currently in our lineup, please let us know and we’ll get you one!
