Learn how a data-driven model of an educational program and online certification design starts with marketable skills research demanded for the growing field of Digital Marketing. This program connects learners with industry marketing certifications while publicly displaying their earned competencies through badges with skills tied to the Open Skills Network.
Digital marketing is the “curation, production, and implementation of all public-facing digital content for a company, brand, or individual”[1] and the field of digital marketing is growing every year.[2] Recent market data shows digital marketing specialists are the most in-demand in the marketing space.[3] In fact, “Half of the top 10 jobs posted on LinkedIn are in the digital or media space.”[4], and paid social media has risen in demand by 116.4%.[5] So, as an online learning provider, how can we leverage technology and future trends to educate workforce-ready digital marketing students?
In a truly meta-approach to designing a new Digital Marketing credential, we practice what we preach to create a new Master’s in Marketing within the College of Business by starting with an analysis of the digital marketing landscape to identify the in-demand specialized skills and soft skills for those selected marketing occupations. That allowed us to design a program from the beginning knowing the ultimate market-driven outcomes our learners would need to be successful in this growing field. This initial data-driven research from databases, such as Emsi/BurningGlass, O*Net, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), as well as our own dynamic institutional skills library, yielded a Skills Analysis Report offering a breakdown of the skills demanded by the market and the future trends of where that field was headed. This analysis also illustrated the current skills gap[6][7] of skills demanded by the market, but lacking in applicants, creating an opportunity gulf for our educational product designs to seize, giving our learners an advantage over their competition in the applicant pool. The report highlights future skills trends, noting which skills are declining, growing, or remaining stable, both nationally and globally. As skills are synthesized into competencies, and competencies are grouped into fully online, multimedia courses, the innovative assessment design of an asynchronous mix of objective assessments and performance assessments allows learners to prove they are adept before being granted competency, all while immersed in cutting edge marketing case studies, simulations, and experiential learning opportunities.
Part of this proof of competency through assessment ties student outcomes to industry marketing certifications, so learners ultimately exit the program with a Master’s in Marketing; Specializations in Digital Marketing; and external, industry certifications, all with skills on their learner record synchronized to the Open Skills Management Tool (OSMT), which allows whomever the learner/applicant selects to view the skills they’ve earned on their learner journey. These discrete, verb-driven skill statements can appear as digital badges to be displayed on online social networking sites, having already been vetted by the university.
This is a strong model of an emerging skills-denominated educational product design. With an ethical belief in business as a force for good, we’re able to transparently highlight learner/worker skills to “promote a more equitable, skills-driven labor market.”[8] As these skills are identified, earned, and credentialed, we can match these learners to eager career opportunities in the burgeoning, innovative field of digital marketing. The rich skill descriptors (RSDs) we identify, document, and track are then shared on the open skills management tool, to help other institutions and members of the open skills network grow their own skills libraries. These unique RSDs are a complex metadata package tying skill statements to occupations, competencies, certifications, standards, technologies, and more to be able to track and improve how our skills enrich our learners, products, institution, and labor market. In fact, our Digital Marketing Skills Collection is a library of skills directly tied to digital marketing, as well as expansive skills that support and augment a well-rounded, robust digital marketer to be shared with the Open Skills Network (OSN).
In conclusion, this session highlights an innovative start-to-finish approach to educational product design well-informed by market demand data to provide students with the skills and skill-transparency they need to successfully enter a ready workforce. Furthermore, our digital badging and open skills library is used to promote not only our bold learners, but also our bold strategy of an open skills network aligned to the labor market. As part of our interactive session design, we’ll take you through examples of the market demand our program addresses, the actual digital marketing learner experience, and highlight examples of our digital microcredentials, RSDs, and skills library. Please come prepared for a full Q&A afterward to learn how this process could apply to your own institutional challenges and innovations.
[1] Alabarton, Rosie. These Are the 9 Best Digital Marketing Jobs. Career Foundry. 23 Nov. 2021. https://careerfoundry.com/en/blog/digital-marketing/top-digital-marketin.... Accessed 16 May 2022.
[2] Carino, Jesus. Why Digital Marketing Is a Great Career in 2022. Acadium. 10 Mar. 2022. https://acadium.com/blog/why-digital-marketing-is-a-great-career-in-2021. Accessed 16 May 2022.
[3] Hutchinson, Andrew. New LinkedIn Data Shows the Top Digital Marketing Skills Currently in High Demand. SocialMediaToday. 8 Feb. 2022. https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/new-linkedin-data-shows-the-top-di.... Accessed 16 May 2022.
[4] Burt, Tequia. The Most Valuable Digital Marketing Skills to Have on Your LinkedIn Profile This Year. LinkedIn Marketing Blog. 4 Feb. 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/business/marketing/blog/trends-tips/the-most-va.... Accessed 16 May 2022.
[5] Tesseras, Lucy. Steep rise in demand for marketers with digital skills. Marketing Week. 5 Feb. 2021. https://www.marketingweek.com/steep-rise-demand-marketers-digital/. Accessed 16 May 2022.
[6] O'Brien, Clodagh. Which Countries Have the Most Demand for Digital Marketers?. Digital Marketing Institute. 2 Jan. 2022. https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/which-countries-have-the-most.... Accessed 16 May 2022.
[7] Yokoi, Tomoko. Filling Digital Marketing’s Skills Gap. Forbes. 18 Mar. 2022. https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomokoyokoi/2022/03/18/filling-digital-mark.... Accessed 16 May 2022.
[8] Open Skills Network. 2022. https://www.openskillsnetwork.org/. Accessed 16 May 2022.