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I couldn’t resist sharing this fun sounding interactive game for marketing students. Guest post by Louis Havriliuc.
Have you ever wished you could give your students the chance to practice different e-marketing skills and techniques? It would be nice to offer them the opportunity to work on real company accounts and face real situations but unfortunately there aren’t that many companies that would leave the management of their online marketing presence in the hands of inexperienced students.
Now there is a solution to this dilemma. Simbound [2], a unified simulated e-marketing experience that offers no real risk for learners, wants to change online (digital) marketing learning. The platform includes a game component designed for e-marketing and digital advertising courses. The game features an interface that is similar to that of commercial solutions while results are being computed using algorithms that replicate those of search engines (to a lesser scale of course).
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E-marketing Professors can quickly check the status of their courses through a dedicated interface (click pic to enlarge)
Simbound is the first product of the business simulation genre that addresses the digital/online marketing subject in such a functional way. Aspiring e-marketers can use the serious game to enable and improve comprehension of a multitude of digital marketing skills including decision reasoning, cost/benefit analysis, budget administration, audience targeting, and much more. The application also allows performance tracking by professors that can get real-time feedback on what their students are working on and what the impact of their decisions are. The transition is easier from play to practicing in a professional setting than with other business simulations because here the practice environment is very similar to the working environment (same options, same processes, same metrics etc). Students complete the simulation with a developed analytical mindset that will allow them to better contemplate the consequences of their actions
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Students can monitor their decisions through an interface that is similar to that of industry ad serving platforms (click pic to enlarge)
The game is highly customizable as it allows uploading of different content scenarios – something which adds flexibility to the learning experience as it allows online marketing case studies for multiple industries and business types. This makes the platform relevant not only for marketing courses but also for other management/business university courses. The Search Engine Marketing module allows the creation of Paid Search Campaigns in a similar manner as with a real Search Engine Ad Serving Platform – taking learners through keyword research, budget setting and performance tracking of important metrics with the objective of improving them.
Down the road Simbound aims to create a simulation framework that will fit more e-marketing dimensions such as Social Media Marketing and E-mail Marketing as well as website management and analytics tools for the in-game website. The Simbound concept opens up new areas of future opportunity for a relevant marketing learning experience and holds potential to impact the whole internet marketing population demographic not just the education space so make sure you keep an eye out on this promising venture.
Visit the website to sign up for a demo [5] or connect to Simbound’s social feed here. [6]
Louis Havriliuc is the founder of Simbound and an experiential e-marketing learning advocate. Originally from Transylvania, Romania Louis is an ed tech experimenter and an entrepreneur managing 2 companies in the corporate data management space. Reach him via Twitter @simbound [7] or @louisdoruh [8].
Related Posts (if the above topic is of interest, you might want to check these out):
Introducing a Game-Based Curriculum in Higher Ed [9]
4 Ways to use Online Resources to Keep Advanced Students Engaged and Learning
The Gamification of Education and Cognitive, Social, and Emotional Learning Benefits
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About Kelly Walsh [13]
Kelly Walsh is Chief Information Officer at The College of Westchester [14], in White Plains, NY, where he also teaches. In 2009, Walsh founded EmergingEdTech.com. He frequently delivers presentations on a variety of related topics at schools and conferences across the U.S. Walsh is also an author, and online educator, regularly running Flipped Class Workshops [15] online. His eBook, the Flipped Classroom Workshop-in-a-Book is available here [16]. Walsh became the Community Administrator for the Flipped Learning Network [17] in June of 2016. In his "spare time" he also writes, records, and performs original music ... stop by kwalshmusic.com [18] and have a listen!
[Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are my own, or those of other writers, and not those of my employer. - K. Walsh]