Improving MKTR for next year

Hi all,

I met some MKTR janta over the past week who shared their opinion on what can be done to make MKTR better for the class of 2011. Of course, it being my first prep, teaching your class was both a unique and a difficult experience. Would like to know what can be done to smooth things over for next year.

Some of the broader points that I do intend to incorporate:

1. Reduce course scope - reduce the number of topics covered and spend more time on each method. Something I do intend to do. Shall get rid of lec 10 altogether and spend that time on modeling and estimation.

2. Do away with the quizzes, have HW assignments instead based on excel datasets. For example, extracting broad descriptive summaries and cross-tabs for the beer and the ice cream datasets.

3. More cases/applied focus for each and every method/tool covered.
Now, am not a great guru on the case method. Personally, I prefer the data method - hands on immersion into data works best IMHO, especially for a course like MKTR.

Am also considering going easy on HBS style long cases and instead focussing on caselets - 1-2 page real business situations. Am sure I can come up with a dozen odd India based examples over the next 1 year.

4. Have project on much earlier on. Get phase I complete by week 2, phase II done by week 3 and then the other 2 weeks devoted to phase III.

Provide as much structure and guidance as feasible early on, not just for the project but also for the assignments and the exam.

5. Make blog more interactive (but how?). Would be great if your class occasionally drops in to give advice to the class of 2011.

6.Get software issues settled. Some things that I would like to see happen and shall push for at ASA is getting SPSS licenses from week 1 itself. Dunno how it will work, but will push for it for sure. Also, will make Stats I and II core courses pre-requisites for MKTR just so that folks coming in know revising stats would be helpful.

Well, that's about all I could think of and gather from people.

Pls feel free to add your own bit of advice about course content modification in the comments section. Thoughtful, actionable feedback would be much appreciated.

Sudhir