Do you think graduates of online marketing degree programs have an advantage in the job market?  I’ve seen a number of internet marketing related degree programs pop up in the past few years – some better than others.  The newest one – and from what I can tell the one with the curriculum that appears to best prepare students for the real world – is the Online Marketing Program offered by the University of San Francisco .  Also, as an honorable mention, Full Sail University offers a degree in Internet marketing that seems to be fairly well designed.  I’m not endorsing any of these programs – just offering an opinion.

I think it’s time for career-minded internet marketers to distinguish themselves by their academic credentials from those who “just do internet marketing".  This is not to say that someone who studied traditional marketing in college isn’t prepared for a career in online marketing.  Let’s be clear – I don’t mean that at all.  However, I do believe establishing online marketing as a rigorous academic program that prepares students for real world conditions is a necessary step toward greater solidification of the legitimacy of our industry. The online marketing industry has matured passed the point where being "self-taught" is acceptable and on-the-job training is sufficient.  Every other business discipline has its own recognized academic major – accountants earn degrees in accounting, human resources professionals study human resource management, operation managers study business logistics.

Of course, some areas in Internet marketing simply aren’t mature enough or don’t warrant a full degree program.  For example, the masters degree in social media marketing offered by Birmingham City University makes me scratch my head… hard.  What this university is calling a degree program could simply be condensed to a semester long course. But if executed correctly,  I think it’s a start in the right direction toward achieving greater independence and recognition for our industry.

Not demanding our own sphere of academia after a certain period of time is dangerous.  It unnecessarily exposes the online marketing field to hacks and frauds which in turn gives us all a bad name.  This is already a huge problem in the field of search engine optimization and one beginning to emerge in social media marketing where anyone can just declare themselves an expert and potential clients can’t distinguish the the good from the bad.  Practicing web marketers should not resist the “schooling of online marketing” – this is what needs to happen and it will be better for us all in the long run.

I’m a big fan of education in all its glorious forms: traditional classroom learning, online education, and on-the-job-training.  Having completed graduate school in 2008, I needed a new set of educational goals.  More specifically, I wanted to learn a web programming language.

For the past three weeks, I have been taking a non-credit Ed2Go course entitled Introduction to PHP and MySQL offered through the University of Maryland Baltimore County Training Centers.  Ed2Go provides six week long online courses that cost between $95 – $120.  I must say, that I am thoroughly impressed with the presentation of the material and the quality of the instruction.  I am especially impressed with the knowledge and responsiveness of the course instructor.  Ed2Go classes have flexibility build into assignment deadlines to accommodate working adults.  Lastly, the intuitive e-learning platform means that you don’t have to “learn the platform”, instead you simply learn PHP.

Why did I sign up for an Ed2Go class?

I briefly considered enrolling in another Masters program (which I still may do in the future), however I couldn’t bear the thought of having to amass another pile of student loans obtaining a second graduate degree.  So, I asked myself what do I really want to get out of going back to school?.  The answer was simple: I want to learn about web programming. This is different than desiring to earn a degree in a subject, or wanting to do firsthand research in an academic environment, or all the other responses my heart could have given.

I had failed in the past at completing self-paced enrichment courses because they lacked deadlines, structure, and were low stakes – meaning I wouldn’t waste tuition money or receive a failing grade for not finishing them.  For me, options like MIT’s Opencourseware, although amazing in many ways, aren’t practical.

I have always had a healthy interest in software programming and application testing and despite not having much formal academic training, I have a “better than expected” knowledge of the methodologies of both.  As an undergraduate, I took a C programming course that provided me with an introduction to the data structures and program flow controls common in every programming language.  Soon afterwards, I began developing simple, yet effective procedural programs using Autoit 3.0 to streamline my tasks as an application integration tester.

Ed2Go and Career Changes

Ed2Go classes are great for professionals seeking to acquire new skills to help advance their careers or for lifetime learners desiring personal enrichment.  Although, they won’t help you transition into a new career like a certificate or degree program can, Ed2Go courses can certainly give you the opportunity to test the waters of a career change before spending thousands of dollars on tuition.

I’m still working my way through Introduction to PHP and MySQL but so far, so good.  I’m even considering signing up for Intermediate PHP and MySQL which starts in a few short weeks.