Experiences of CPD: The Media School Short Course Framework

Poster for Education Enhancement Conference, Bournemouth University May 2010 Explores the delivery of a CPD unit on Word of Mouth Communicatio

BU Award for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning

Development and implementation of learnng, teaching and assessment strategies which motivate and inspire student learning and achievemen

Communication Problem

On 25 May, the Data Protection Act 1998 will be replaced by the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation in the biggest overhaul of data protection legislation for more than 25 years. The change is expected to go ahead whatever happens with Brexit. But sometimes enforced change creates positive outcomes. The EU rules will require universities to be transparent about the data they hold on their students, and what they do with it, and, combined with the EU’s Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, will have a big impact on the ways in which universities communicate with their alumni. In future, alumni will explicitly need to give universities permission to send them marketing communications. Mass emailings will be a thing of the past. It is likely that universities will lose contact with more than 90 per cent of their alumni contacts on centrally held databases no matter how compelling the message or how repeated the call to action to keep in touch. However, rather than seeing this as a threat to alumni engagement, universities must use it as a prompt to up their game. They must think more carefully about the value of their alumni and the nature of communications that will inspire alumni engagement. They must make it clear that the alumni relationship is not predominantly about raising money and instead focus on how alumni engagement can benefit both current students’ experiences of university and the alumni themselves

Entitlement in HE: student and academic perspectives.

Is entitlement an inevitable characteristic of marketised higher education? If so what are its implications? This qualitative study amongst students and academics, finds evidence of feelings of entitlement amongst undergraduate students. Entitlement is conceived by students as expectations of access to human and physical resource. Perceived effort appears to be an important factor: students expect to see effort from academics; students’ own effort has variable influences on entitlement. Entitlement appears to relate entirely to the curriculum, disregarding extra-curricula opportunities. Both student and academic participants relate entitlement to increased tuition fees. Some academics see students’ expectations as a rational response to tuition fees; others reject this idea. This may have an impact on academics’ response to perceived entitlement. Academics view entitlement as a hindrance to learning, whereas some students take the opposite view. Expectations and effort are key themes: pedagogic strategies should facilitate discussion of expectations and demonstrate effort from academics

An analysis of word-of-mouth communication amongst students. Do UK students intend to behave differently from their overseas counterparts?

This paper examines students’ reports of speaking about their experiences of higher education in the UK. It specifically investigates differences and similarities between UK and overseas undergraduate students’ experiences of word-of-mouth. The study illuminates the comparatively high level of intentions of all students to speak positively about their HE experience. The study demonstrates strong disagreement amongst both UK and international students regarding intentions to speak negatively. That is, students say, often strongly, that they do not intend to speak negatively about their time at university. The study provides an empirically informed definition of word-of-mouth communication appropriate to the HE sector. It is hoped that the study can be replicated within Asian or Middle Eastern contexts to examine students’ intentions to emit word-of-mouth within non-UK institutions

Telling stories: opportunities for word-of-mouth communication.

Word-of-mouth is an important aspect of marketing communications and can be conceived as the story-telling of everyday life. This working paper suggests that marketing communicators’ understanding of word-of-mouth might usefully be enhanced by the consideration of the tools of the screenwriter, in particular the premise and the active question. The jeopardy of the premise and unresolved nature of the active questions the premise generates may contribute to the potency of word-of-mouth messages. This working paper provides an opportunity to commence this line of thinking and proposes initial exploratory research within the context of word-of-mouth communication within students’ experiences of higher education

Exploring Slacktivism; Does The Social Observability of Online Charity Participation Act as a Mediator of Future Behavioural Intentions?

This study investigates whether the social observability of online charitable participation influences future interactions with the same charity. The rise of ‘slacktivism’ contributes to the significance of this study. ‘Slactivism’ comprises low-risk, low-cost, online activities, used to raise awareness, produce change, or primarily grant satisfaction to the person engaged in the activity. Contrasting views exist about slacktivism and the effectiveness of online activities such as social-media campaigns; as to whether they yield committed supporters or are merely a method used to enhance the participants’ social self-image. This study is unique in that it links together ideas about slacktivism and impression management. The study revealed that consumers are wising up to charity campaigns on social-media, with many questioning their effectiveness. The perception of others is important although most consumers are reluctant to admit it about themselves: social pressure plays a large role in the participation of slacktivism

What makes consumers trust automotive electronic commerce?

This study explores the antecedents of consumers’ trust within automotive e-commerce. Only a handful of automotive brands currently operate e-commerce platforms; more are likely to join given the success of e-commerce in other retail sectors. Trust is essential for success. The study examines literature predominantly from the relationship marketing paradigm, whilst also drawing from information technology studies. A conceptual framework developed from the literature is used to guide data collection and analysis. Qualitative semi-structured interviews with prospective new-car buyers are conducted using a nonprobability, purposive sampling approach. Analysis of the findings supports the cognitive antecedents within the conceptual framework. Transparency and website intuitiveness are added to the revised conceptual framework. Furthermore, whilst the literature suggests the presence of affective antecedents of trust in all marketing relationships (Swan et al. 1999; Sekhon et al. 2014), the findings contradict this and reveal a lack of evidence for affective antecedents in this context