Penn State 2009 Google Online Marketing Challenge

As we end the Penn State 2009 Google Online Marketing Challenge (GOMCHA) course, for me, as an instructor, it was a wonderful experience.

We started (and ended) the course with 50 students (10 students over the course cap and 2 more students than the classroom could hold; those two students had to bring their own laptops). These students were from 5 different colleges and 13 different majors, with the most sizeable numbers from the College of Information Sciences and Technology, Smeal College of Business, and the College of Communication.

The students jumped right into the Challenge, forming teams, learning AdWords, experimenting with writing online ads, and the exploring the challenges of geo-targeting and budget management. These adventures came with the learning experiences that one gets from report writing and client interaction. I believe that the students learned a lot; I know that I did. The students in the course were just great!

We had several wonderful guest speakers, including Howie Jacobson (author for AdWords for Dummies), Dennis Yu (BlitzLocal), Ian Howells and Christian Wenzel (from Pepperjam), Michelle Sharp (from IMPAQT), and Mark Ruzomberka (from Traffic.com). These folks really provided some great and practical insights into keyword advertising. From me and on behalf of all the students, a big thanks to all the guest speakers.

The College of IST and Smeal College of Business each provided $500, which allowed us to do a couple of things. One is purchase t-shirts for each student and our guest speakers. Here is our t-shirt (logo designed by Simone Schuster).

We also had a Celebration Dinner at The Tavern (BTW, the folks at The Tavern did us great!), where we handed out 2009 Google Online Marketing Challenge Certificates and the IMPAQT Innovation Awards to the top three teams. IMPAQT sponsored these awards with a $1,000 gift. Here is one picture from our Celebration Dinner.

From me and on behalf of all the students, a big thanks to IST, Smeal, and IMPAQT for their generous support of the course!

A great asset for the teams and students was Daehee Park, who was course grader and unofficial team mentor and advisor. Daehee is just top notch!

Also, a thanks to The Schreyer Honors College for providing a grant for a undergraduate student to assist in redesigning the course material to focus on the multi-disciplinary aspects of keyword advertising. The support of the Honor's college will help make the course even better in 2010.

Finally, a big thanks to Google for sponsoring the Challenge, and to Lee Hunter and Jamie Murphy who got the whole world-wide thing rolling.