What I do
Me and my object - a Jazz magazine
In Class
I try to make the classroom experience a productive and engaging one for my students. Some of the things I do that others might not:
1. I start every class with music. It has a great effect on everyone’s energy and mood, especially for morning classes. And it gives a hard start to the class. When the music finishes the class starts, so settle in and get ready. And I thematically link it to the content of that day’s class – if it’s about women in advertising I might play “Sisters are doing it for themselves”.
2. I start the first class with new students by getting them to find an object that says something about them. Then they stand up and describe it and I photograph them. It works great for first semester classes. This gets them a bit more comfortable talking in class, it helps them get to know each other, and also provides material to help me remember their names.
3. From time to time I randomly select students to speak. I create a list in excel, project it on screen and then randomise the order in front of everyone. Whoever is top has to speak, provide their reflection etc. It works well to get the quieter ones to speak without them feeling they are being picked on. There’s also an element of a game to it. Will my name be top? The students love games.
Project and Leadership
This year I had the opportunity to be part of the launch of a new program – Advertising Account Management. This has been the basis of my leadership and Project activity.
It has been great setting a program up from scratch in a way that will both attract applicant students and provide them with
a solid springboard (can springboards be solid, or even should they?) to enter the workforce.
Being new I had the advantage of a lot of current industry knowledge and most important industry contacts. I used these
to help build the advisory board and structure the curriculum to meet industry’s needs. I helped find instructors for the program and mentored the new ones. I helped provide contacts with agencies for students to get internships.
So far so good. We have had great Student Satisfaction scores and are looking forward to the employment scores later this year. (The first year is just finishing their internships).
But we have a lot to improve. Some courses worked well, others didn’t. It seems we can push these students even harder next year. And they hunger for more practical application.
I was particularly pleased with a link I created with another program within the Media Studies School – Graphic Design and Advertising.
Many of the students in the Graphic Design program are hoping to become Art Directors in advertising agencies. That means they could be working alongside our students.
And that relationship is often a tricky one. Neither party has direct authority over the other, and although broad goals are similar – to produce a great ad that sells product – the narrow goals can be different. Account Managers are responsible for keeping the client happy. Art Directors for producing breakthrough work. And the two jobs are populated by very different types of people. Art Directors are very creative, ideas and image focussed. Account Managers can be a bit like this but
need to also think like business people.
A key task for our program was to prepare our students for this.
So having these other students on hand was a godsend. I worked with the coordinator (Catherine Pike) and the instructor (Glenn McArthur) to have a number of joint assignments where students from each program worked together to create ads.
It worked really well and was one of the highlights of the second semester for our students. They learned a lot, particularly about the different way of thinking their partners had. And we learned a lot about doing them. The main thing was keeping the classes separate so that the different goals and agendas of each were maintained and they didn’t get too cosy. However next year we may force that further and introduce some friction into the system. The two classes got on really well together so some of the tension they’ll get in an agency was missing.
I try to make the classroom experience a productive and engaging one for my students. Some of the things I do that others might not:
1. I start every class with music. It has a great effect on everyone’s energy and mood, especially for morning classes. And it gives a hard start to the class. When the music finishes the class starts, so settle in and get ready. And I thematically link it to the content of that day’s class – if it’s about women in advertising I might play “Sisters are doing it for themselves”.
2. I start the first class with new students by getting them to find an object that says something about them. Then they stand up and describe it and I photograph them. It works great for first semester classes. This gets them a bit more comfortable talking in class, it helps them get to know each other, and also provides material to help me remember their names.
3. From time to time I randomly select students to speak. I create a list in excel, project it on screen and then randomise the order in front of everyone. Whoever is top has to speak, provide their reflection etc. It works well to get the quieter ones to speak without them feeling they are being picked on. There’s also an element of a game to it. Will my name be top? The students love games.
Project and Leadership
This year I had the opportunity to be part of the launch of a new program – Advertising Account Management. This has been the basis of my leadership and Project activity.
It has been great setting a program up from scratch in a way that will both attract applicant students and provide them with
a solid springboard (can springboards be solid, or even should they?) to enter the workforce.
Being new I had the advantage of a lot of current industry knowledge and most important industry contacts. I used these
to help build the advisory board and structure the curriculum to meet industry’s needs. I helped find instructors for the program and mentored the new ones. I helped provide contacts with agencies for students to get internships.
So far so good. We have had great Student Satisfaction scores and are looking forward to the employment scores later this year. (The first year is just finishing their internships).
But we have a lot to improve. Some courses worked well, others didn’t. It seems we can push these students even harder next year. And they hunger for more practical application.
I was particularly pleased with a link I created with another program within the Media Studies School – Graphic Design and Advertising.
Many of the students in the Graphic Design program are hoping to become Art Directors in advertising agencies. That means they could be working alongside our students.
And that relationship is often a tricky one. Neither party has direct authority over the other, and although broad goals are similar – to produce a great ad that sells product – the narrow goals can be different. Account Managers are responsible for keeping the client happy. Art Directors for producing breakthrough work. And the two jobs are populated by very different types of people. Art Directors are very creative, ideas and image focussed. Account Managers can be a bit like this but
need to also think like business people.
A key task for our program was to prepare our students for this.
So having these other students on hand was a godsend. I worked with the coordinator (Catherine Pike) and the instructor (Glenn McArthur) to have a number of joint assignments where students from each program worked together to create ads.
It worked really well and was one of the highlights of the second semester for our students. They learned a lot, particularly about the different way of thinking their partners had. And we learned a lot about doing them. The main thing was keeping the classes separate so that the different goals and agendas of each were maintained and they didn’t get too cosy. However next year we may force that further and introduce some friction into the system. The two classes got on really well together so some of the tension they’ll get in an agency was missing.