Marketing

It is thrilling to see the world’s first class universities making a contribution to the open course movement. The Open Learning Initiative undertaken by the Harvard University Extension School now offers eight free courses. This cluster of courses – the first Harvard has put forward – covers a nice range of topics include Literature, Psychology and Computer Science. Meanwhile, Berkelely, Yale and Stanford are also following the trend to move their courses online and they are all FREE!

It is just the great news for those who are not looking for a degree and have strong independent learning skills. And we as students can also benefit a lot from those open course programs. But if we look at it the other way, isn’t this a trick that university uses to marketing itself. Nowadays, universities also want to make themselves more appealing to attract excellent students around the globe. And using the concepts learned in class, let’s examine how effective is this marketing strategy.

The products that universities offered are their service and classes. But the number is limited and exclusive for students who got accepted. By providing the open class, it helps its potential customers to gain more access to its products and let them become more reachable. Also, from the positive responses received and popularity gained all around the world, these universities increase the value to their products. By uploading the most popular courses online, they are making themselves more identifiable. How about the cost side? It is nearly zero. Isn’t that amazing? And everyone would agree that it is a clever move for those great “Companies”.

If anyone ever wanted to know what a Harvard class was like this might be your chance, and here is the Harvard’s course “Justice” by Michael J. Sandel.