MSU students have to take certain classes to graduate, ones that meet very specific requirements. Deciding which class to enroll in can be a challenge, especially when so little information is provided.
Social Work 290, Surviving the Coming Zombie Apocalypse: Disasters, Catastrophes and Human Behavior has been advertising its coursework, and was honored in four categories at the Lansing area American Advertising Awards.
It’s offered at MSU during the summer semester and is taught by Glenn Stutzky. The class takes a new approach to learning.
“We’ve coined the term MOLIE: multimedia, online, learning, immersive, experience,” Stutzky said.
Stutzky said MOLIE pushes students to attend the class, which is not required by the university.
"MOLIE helps to strengthen the interest in the class by weaving a story and the class material together, so that students can completely immerse themselves into the class," he said.
Stutzky believes that it’s becoming important for classes to advertise their presence.
“I think that MSU is no longer just competing with brick and mortar universities. We have to compete with flexible, mobile and outright free,” Stutzky said.
Economics junior Allison Riley discovered SW290 from a roommate who saw a flier on campus about it.
Riley took the class because it met her social science requirement, however, she believes if it were offered during the school year she still would have taken it due to how interesting the flier was.
“I think that advertisements for classes is important," Riley said. "We often don’t know much about classes we are signing up for except what’s posted on Koofers or similar websites. I think if classes advertised more about what they are about, then you would attract a population of students who actually want to take the class and participate.”
Animal science senior Catherine Love heard about the class from some of her friends, and ended up Googling the class to discover details.
“If the class is fairly small, it can be hard for people to hear about it by word of mouth, so advertising is another option to get people to enroll in a class," Love said.
Graduate student Jason Luna first heard about SW290 a year or two before he actually enrolled in the class.
“I thought it sounded interesting, but at the time I was not intending to attend Michigan State University so I didn’t give it a second thought,” Luna said. “Fast forward some years later and I stumbled across the class description in an electives listing for my master of social work degree. I remembered it and signed up right away.”
“Even if there are no print or online advertisements created, word-of-mouth advertisements can be (an) effective form of advertising as well,” Luna said. “SW290, for example, uses many techniques to bring attention to itself. They did a zombie walk and even posed for photo ops.”
“I believe that advertising for special interest classes, such as the zombie class, are important regardless of the semester,” Luna noted. “Classes that are not assigned to a specific program for a requirement can oftentimes be overlooked and students miss out on great opportunities to learn and experience new things.”
