The Future of Education

The research in five EU countries (Bulgaria, Greece, Lithuania, Poland and the UK) under the Erasmus Joint European Master’s Degree in Search and Social Media Marketing project identified students’ needs and preferences in acquiring digital marketing knowledge and skills. Most of them expect from a joint degree a good blend of strategic knowledge and creativity combined with understanding of content development and search engine optimization. International experience, work on real-life company projects, innovative teaching and learning are considered as major advantages of the joint degree.

The pilot Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on the iversity.org platform provided students and a larger audience with the opportunity to test learning about digital and social media marketing in a new way. The course was developed with a focus on the buyer persona. It involves theoretical knowledge, the experience of the large company leaders as well as the implementation of the digital marketing by agencies and manufacturing SMEs in the five project countries. The MOOC attracted more than ten thousand participants from all over the world and proved the need of new approaches to teaching and learning. Students’ interest and positive feedback allow the development of professional MOOC focused more on digital marketing strategy design and measuring the return on investment..

Despite the success, the integration of a MOOC in a regular bachelor or master degree studies remains a challenge. Most of the universities in partner countries are not yet ready to accept MOOC as a separate course in the programmes and give credits for it.  MOOC is perceived rather as a tool than a full-fledged course. For the joint European programme curriculum in digital and social media marketing the barriers are even higher. MOOCs are innovative disruptors of the traditional learning. Building awareness on MOOC among European universities will allow them to integrate gradually the new way of teaching and learning and will help them avoid the negative consequences of the digital disruption.