Academic Resource Center
A New Content Plan for the ARC

During the past academic year, the AMA commissioned a survey of marketing academics to help the Academic Council and the Academic Resource Center (ARC) editor prioritize the acquisition of new content for the ARC. The online survey of 928 active marketing academics was executed April 8–May 1, 2006.

In my previous column, I discussed the low-awareness level of the ARC that the survey revealed, so I will only briefly review these numbers. Only 21% of participants stated that they were aware of the ARC. Awareness among AMA members was higher (44%), but still unimpressive. We have begun addressing this issue using various online and offline methods. This column will discuss the rest of the survey findings, especially the results that pertain to prioritizing the ARC’s content.

We found that respondents who were familiar with the ARC reported visiting the following pages most frequently: “syllabi,” “cases,” and “course materials” (all located in the “Teaching” section); and “calls for papers” (located in the “Research” section). In addition, we asked respondents what content they would like to see added to the ARC. The following represents a fairly comprehensive list of the content they requested:

• Teaching content: Case studies, class videos, teachable news stories, course-related hints and tips, PowerPoint slides, and syllabi.
  
  
• Research content: Reports from conferences on hot topics, background introductions to research topics, a working-paper archive, and tutorials on quantitative analysis techniques.
  
  
• Career content: Career advice and information on managing internship programs.

Such a wonderful wish list! Now the challenge is how to generate these materials. This is where you, our members, can help. At the 2006 AMA Summer Educators’ Conference in Chicago, the AMA Academic Council, the ARC editor (yours truly), and Jack Hollfelder of AMA's Publications division brainstormed about how to create materials to match these requests.

For the teaching content area, the consensus was that we could encourage the Academic Special Interest Groups (SIGs) to conduct "Syllabus Swap Meets." These conference (or virtual) sessions would allow SIG members to exchange syllabi on courses of interest to them. The Marketing Communication SIG held such a “Swap Meet” last summer during the "Integrated Marketing Communications" course. That session created a wealth of information for the ARC, generating pages on the most-used textbooks, assignments that work, instructors’ favorite cases to assign, and lists of readings. If you have attended similar exchanges or possess teaching materials that you are willing to share with colleagues, send your content to us, and we will post it online for others to use for free.

At the Summer Educators’ Conference, we also discussed research materials and kicked around ideas on creating "reports from conferences" about sessions identifying hot or interesting research areas. The SIGs have frequently invited such sessions at both the Winter and the Summer Educators’ Conferences. The audiences usually benefits tremendously from such sessions, but the content isn’t readily available to anyone else. If you are interested in reporting on a conference session you think others would find insightful or stimulating, please let us know.

Overall, this whole undertaking is intended to provide more value to you, our members. As the ARC’s editor, I encourage you to take a look at what this resource has to offer. Whether you are struggling to teach a concept in a class, developing a new research area, or considering a change in your career path, I think you will find visiting the ARC to be worthwhile.

-Charlie Hofacker, ARC Editor