Spanish professors highly impressed with ECU
Thursday, 17 March 2011
ECU Staff with professors from the University of Castilla-La Mancha
Professors David Martín-Consuegra Navarro and Arturo Molina from the University of Castilla-La Mancha are amazed at the success of students in global competitions, such as winning the 2007 IAA Dentsu InterAd XI Global Student Competition in New York and emerging as Asia Pacific Regional Winner in the 2010 global Google Online Marketing Challenge.
On Tuesday, the visitors received an introduction to the university, the faculties of Education & Arts and Business & Law, the game design course in the School of Communications & Arts, the achievements of advertising students, and life on Mt Lawley campus. Participating in the Tuesday session were Associate Professor Helen Vella Bonavita (Associate Dean International, Faculty of Education & Arts), Athol Smith (Partnership Development Manager, ECU International), Dr Mark McMahon (Program Director, Creative Industries & Contemporary Arts), Diane Slade (Advertising and Creative Services Course Coordinator), and Cecilia Sacoto (International Coordinator).
On Wednesday, the Spanish professors were shown how the School of Communications & Arts had embedded the Google Online Marketing Challenge as an alternative assessment in the CMM2120/4120 Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) unit from the inception of the competition in 2008. Associate Professor Peter Ling shared his experience on promoting the Google Challenge in alignment with the university’s strategic areas of teaching and learning, engagement, service, and research and creativity.
Georg Widschwendter, the School’s Advertising and Public Relations student who led his team to be the Asia Pacific Regional Winner in 2010, shared his views on performing well in the competition and how the Challenge has changed his life in terms of working in online marketing at The Brand Agency. Georg had started the Challenge as a novice to AdWords but is now a ‘search engine guru’ and a Certified Google AdWords Professional while still at university. The Spanish professors also provided perspectives of their experience participating in the 2010 Challenge for the first time.
Attending the Wednesday Google Challenge session were also representatives from the School of Marketing, Tourism and Leisure (Dr Madeleine Ogilvie, Acting Head of School, and Dr Stephen Fanning, Marketing Postgraduate Coordinator), Brendan Hibbert (Central Institute of Technology, which is participating in the Challenge for the first time), and the IMC team (Adjunct Associate Professor Kevin Smith, the new unit coordinator, and Katrina Hibbs, the new Google Challenge Coordinator in the School of Communications & Arts).
The Spanish professors will also spend some time with IMC students participating in the 2011 Google Challenge. They are visiting Perth with the sole purpose of learning about the School’s experience with the Google Challenge plus developing opportunities for bilateral agreement and collaborative research. The visitors arrived on March 13 and return on March 19.
Picture shows from left to right Kevin Smith, Stephen Fanning, David Martín-Consuegra Navarro, Arturo Molina, Katrina Hibbs, Peter Ling (who is leaving ECU at the end of March), and Madeleine Ogilvie.