McGill marketing class devoted to YouTube
Most professors exhaust themselves trying to get their students off of social media. Andy Nulman, however, has designed his entire class around being on it.
In what’s believed to be the first syllabus of its kind, McGill University’s marketing and society class uses YouTube’s Creator Playbook as its sole course book. And, in lieu of a final exam, students will be evaluated on their launch of a unique channel on the videosharing site.
The oversold class, which is the brainchild of Just for Laughs co-founder Nulman, portends a brave new world for post-secondary instruction — one in which free online resources and real-time knowledge are favoured over expensive, and often outdated, textbooks.
“With most business books, unless (they address) a big, new idea, they’re almost obsolete by the time they’re published,” said Nulman.
“At Just for Laughs, I really learned the power of YouTube — not necessarily as an entertainment platform, which it is, but as a marketing platform, and as a way to get a message across in a very direct manner.”
Nulman, who had previously lectured at McGill, took over the class this month after being assured he’d be able to do it his way. He ultimately divided the students into teams, each containing at least one person who excelled creatively, technically and administratively — and challenged them to develop their own video brand on YouTube.
He chose the site’s online manual as the class’s textbook largely because it’s regularly updated to reflect the evolving digital world.
The students’ final test will be taking their channels live.
“It’s not just me evaluating what they’re doing; it’s the world,” said Nulman. “Seeing those (view) numbers start to ratchet up is a mega-thrill — the same thrill that, hopefully, they’ll get when they launch a business or do marketing for a company. It’s all about hitting those targets and making money.”
Vanessa Pappas, head of audience development for YouTube, said Playbook is updated roughly every six weeks. And although it’s shown up in universities before, this is the first time she’s heard of the online guide being used as a course’s primary text.
If positive student response is any indication, it’s unlikely to be the last.