Time for a Marketing Curriculum Overhaul: Developing a Digital-First Approach

Abstract

Academic programs and educators face numerous challenges related to teaching digital marketing. Today, the world of marketing is digital and marketing programs have struggled to maintain pace with the changes influencing marketing practice. The authors describe the M-School program at Loyola Marymount University, a program developed to address this challenge by placing digital marketing at the center of the curriculum. Through experiential learning and project-based learning, M-School courses expose students to real-life challenges involving ways in which companies and organizations generate consumer awareness, demand, and value given the significant digital shifts taking place in technology and consumer behavior. The authors highlight the creation of a digital-first curriculum that is aligned with industry practice and helps students develop the skills needed to become future proof and real-world ready. Quantitative and qualitative assessment over a three-year period points to the success of the M-School program in preparing students for careers in marketing. Lessons for the development of marketing curricula include the role of new course development, the need to integrate digital within existing courses, the role of a project-based learning approach with measurable outcomes, and the potential for designing transdisciplinary courses to foster students’ creative, critical thinking, communication, and collaborative skills.