Exemplar of online communication

The Google online marketing challenge

Stewart Adam

Stewart Adam - School of Management and Marketing

In 2007, academics and Google commenced work on an experiential learning venture - the Google Online Marketing Challenge (GOMCHA) - that came to excite Marketing lecturers and their students around the world. I became involved at the beta testing stage and went on to use GOMCHA in the progressive assessment for the wholly online unit MMK737 Online Marketing, which was taught into seven Masters degrees offered by the Deakin Business School in 2008 and 2009.

The task

The progressive assessment involved teams of five students forming and appointing a team captain. Often, the team members in this wholly online unit were scattered across the globe and used many tools including DSO, Skype and Google Docs to communicate and bring their work together. The teams had to recruit a small or medium-sized enterprise, analyse their marketing strategy, and develop and implement a search marketing strategy using a $200 voucher provided by Google.

Assessment

GOMCHA was judged externally by a panel of global judges, and internally by the unit chair. Internally, the two assignments accounted for 50 per cent of the marks for the unit. Importantly, teams had to provide a reflection on what they had learned relative to their expectations, including the experience of working online. Each team had to set out the contribution level of members which ultimately determined individual marks.

Success

In 2008 four teams reached the Asia-Pacific finals, while in 2009 one team reached the top 15 in the world. The prizes mentioned in the video proved a stimulus to this experiential learning exercise.

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DSO group discussions (click link to enlarge picture)	FAQs (click link to enlarge picture)	Peer assessment form (click link to enlarge picture)	Feedback form (click link to enlarge picture)