After careful deliberation, Student Ambassador Ufuoma made the choice to study Digital Marketing at TUS! She knew how important it was to get this choice right, but now, she knows that it was the best course for her. Read all about the programme in her first blog…
Why I made my choice…
They say choosing the right course of study for your Master’s degree is one of the biggest decisions you can make, well this was true for me. I knew that I would choose my university based on the programme, and as I study Digital Marketing, I had a few options. I had some previous experience working in some aspects of digital marketing, so I knew that the digital economy is one that is rapidly changing particularly with regards to marketing and advertising. I decided to do a degree instead of doing online certifications to become a digital marketer because I felt like a Master’s degree would be more practical, and detailed, as well as giving me the university experience. Most importantly, I came to understand that with the way the world is changing, having a Master’s degree in digital marketing would become extremely relevant and important for high job roles! When it came to selecting my school, I accessed all of my options. I had already previously chosen to study in Ireland so all I had to do was pick a school. My agent introduced me to the Digital Marketing course at TUS, and after close inspection, I knew that it was the right course for me.
TUS Clare Street campus (photo: Ufuoma)
My TUS experience so far…
My course started officially on October 4th, 2021 and is set to round up in September 2022. It has been such a great learning experience. One of the best things about this course at TUS is that there are no exams, just practical projects and assessments that are graded throughout the year. This is so great because these projects allow us to get to work with a real company where we have the chance to implement all of our learning to create effective digital marketing campaigns for the company! I’ll list some other characteristics about my course that I love below…
Working with a live company:
Like I said, we get to work with a live company preparing effective digital campaigns, social media strategies, video marketing ideas, social media law policies, SEO audit, website design and restructuring, Google Ads, Google Analytics and important marketing visualisations using data studio. We are kept up to date with where the company is now with their digital marketing efforts and we suggest solutions, strategies and campaigns. We currently work with a museum company in Ireland where the CEO & the Digital Lead come to talk with us about what they expect to see in the assessments and what they look forward to getting. We can ask them a variety of questions as well. This makes the course very interesting, and very useful as we create real campaigns that get us thinking creatively as we would in a real company environment.
The Digital Marketing class with a guest lecturer (photo: Ufuoma)
In-depth courses:
I love how the courses are so in-depth and how most importantly, they are up to date with current marketing trends and events. In our first semester we took three courses, which included, Digital Marketing Strategy (my favourite and highest score for last semester), Data Analytics & Web Interpretation, and finally, Social Media Law (which was the most enlightening course). This semester we are also doing three courses which include Social Media Marketing & Advertising, Managing Search Marketing , and Digital Technology & Design (my favourite). This is really good because these courses though small are in-depth and making it just 3 per semester helps to make us not overwhelmed with so much course load. Each of the courses are so practical and we have tutorials and practicals to actually put all topics to practise so we can see and measure results. Then you can also choose to either write a thesis or a digital consultancy project for your thesis, this way, you are not just doing a traditional thesis like undergraduate but more like a consultancy with a company to see what digital marketing solutions you can proffer for them and this works as a project.
Guest lecturers:
This has been my next favourite thing about this course, we have had the best digital marketers from different fields. This second semester, so far, we have had Niamh Power, the Merchant Success Program Lead from Shopify come to teach us about ecommerce optimization, the intelligent Fabiola Faria, an SEO Specialist from Avvio who spoke about SEO trends and SEO best practice. She also spoke about how the field of Artificial intelligence was changing the world of SEO and marketing patterns for businesses and consumers. And then we had my favourite, Mr. Keith Lawler, the Creative Director at Folk Wonderman Thompson, an advertising agency in Dublin and the brain behind most viral video marketing ideas for large companies in Ireland. He shared with us the creative processes behind video marketing and the power of storytelling and ideas. Having these talks from the guest lecturers made sure that we were up to date with industry trends and allowed us a unique platform to ask questions and engage with professionals in our field!
A visit from Niamh Power from Shopify (photo: Ufuoma)
Online certifications:
The Master’s program is structured in such a way that it integrates online certifications such as Google Analytics, Google Ads, Shopify and Facebook Associate Digital Marketing. The Facebook (now called Meta) exam certification is one that is completed in collaboration with Facebook itself and selected colleges in Ireland so that in doing the course, we are awarded a certification. The grade we receive in the exam makes up 30% of our social media course. This course usually costs money but it is included in our course. We also undertake a Shopify assessment where we have to create a Shopify website with any product of our choice, making the pages SEO friendly, which makes up another 30% of our Digital Technology & Design module. When we graduate, we have these practical certificates that we can add directly to our CVs, alongside practical experience implementing these skills!
Amazing lecturers:
I call my lecturers amazing because they are not only very knowledgeable about the digital marketing field or have lots of experience, but because they are patient, enthusiastic and approachable. They take their time when explaining and encourage us to always think creatively. This reflects in their class notes which are filled with practical tasks in between different points to ensure we are following along, and no one is left behind.
Blended class style:
Our classes are blended, some online and some on campus! This is great because it provides variety and flexibility to work online, but also gives us the opportunity to be on campus and meet with our classmates and lecturers. The online classes are through Zoom, with all of our materials and class notes posted onto a Moodle page so we have access to them later. All of my assignments are submitted online too.
Amazing school:
TUS main campus (photo: Ufuoma)
How can I explain such an experience without highlighting how TUS is a great school. There is so much learning support for students, as well as a very large library with access to many books, journals and databases. My campus has a very beautiful, calm atmosphere, very organised as well as an amazing cafeteria for students where we can buy breakfast and lunch cheap and get to taste traditional Irish food. This has helped in ensuring a smooth run of our course.
Conclusion:
My experience has truly been awesome as I am not just growing and learning but I am stretching myself and thinking critically. My class size is kept small and this helps us to really interact well with the teachers and with one another and to work with different teams in the class in a mature way. The class is also a global class, as I love to call it, as it is made up of Africans, Indians, Irish, Mexicans, Brazilians, Russians and British, it has been so amazing interacting with each of them bringing a new perspective to my knowledge about different countries.
I feel so confident that when I graduate, I will not only be armed with a Masters degree but I can say boldly that I am a Digital Marketing expert who knows her onions and all fields of digital marketing from ad campaigns to video marketing to email marketing, SEO and drafting digital strategies for a company.
Ufuoma is working towards a Master’s in Digital Marketing at TUS.