This blog post written by:
USDLA Board Member
Kenai Center High School, Teacher
Dr. Julia Cronin-Gilmore is the Program Director of the Master of Science in Marketing program and an associate professor in the College of Business at Bellevue University in Bellevue, Nebraska. Dr. Cronin-Gilmore was an awardee in the category of Excellence in Teaching/Training. Bellevue University and Dr. Cronin-Gilmore are developing programs and courses designed so that instructional strategies and techniques can be measured and changed to assist students in mastering the coursework.
Dr. Cronin-Gilmore is committed to supporting the needs of learners interested in excelling in the fast moving and constantly changing career of marketing. Her work demonstrates the use of current marketing research, pedagogical strategies and assessment strategies that align with current trends.
Bellevue University’s online learning platform and professional support for online pedagogy make it possible to offer students a variety of learning methods and gives teachers the ability to engage in a variety of instructional strategies and techniques.
Technologically, Dr. Cronin-Gilmore and the University are making sure all content is available via multiple devices (home computer, tablet, and phone) enabling students and instructors to interact in various ways. New practices for sharing information such as Slideshare, YouTube, Movie Maker, and more were used in the program design and also by students when creating assignments. Innovative design allows students to choose what technology best fits their projects and abilities.
A key component of the master’s program is a Marketing Ethics course, created by Dr. Cronin-Gilmore in response to industry feedback, and one of a very few in the nation. Existing textbooks give little attention to marketing ethics and/or they leave out highly relevant ethical issues which have come to the fore only in the last ten years. Dr. Cronin-Gilmore recognized the need for a case analysis approach – a critical pedagogy for effectively mastering ethical decision-making in a changing industry. Students use self-determined learning plus show important ownership of course content and learning. The results have been gratifying. Students are so much more engaged in the learning because they helped create it. This also engages discussion of various approaches to decision-making and values clarification — two key professional skills that students will use every day. The student-led discussion is typically the top question discussed each week because it is so important to them.
An early look at the data suggests that students in Dr. Cronin-Gilmore’s program are learning and progressing by being taught with innovating, engaging, and interactive methodologies.
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