Kai-Yu Wang, Professor and Chair of the Marketing, International Business and Strategy department at the Goodman School of Business, is the 2020 recipient of the Brock University Award for Distinguished Teaching.
PROF MAKES MARK WITH EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING By Tiffany Mayer
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ai-Yu Wang is certain that before 2011, his marketing Even better, many of them are willing to pay upwards of $400 for research students weren’t always interested in what he was students to carry out a two-week search engine marketing and social teaching them. media campaign, despite being asked to contribute only $100. At the But then a colleague mentioned integrating experiential end of the two weeks, students provide instructions to the business to learning into his classes and Wang’s world — and that of his students continue the online marketing strategy themselves. — changed. Wang’s tenacity in providing relevant learning experiences earned Wang, Chair of the Goodman School of Business Marketing, him the Brock University Award for Distinguished Teaching for International Business and Strategy department, connected his 2020. He’s the second business professor to win the award since its students with businesses from the community. Together, they would inception in 1998. tackle real-world challenges faced by those companies, and the results “I take teaching very seriously,” Wang said. “I enjoy teaching and would reinforce to students the concepts Wang taught while helping spending time with students, and I enjoy teaching all the subjects I organizations succeed at the same time. teach in the classroom.” Except it didn’t happen that way. For the first few years, students’ Still, Wang wasn’t sure his in-class approach measured up to others timelines for completing Wang’s service-learning projects competed who’d won previously. It did. with the pressures of other course work. Businesses had their own “Prof. Wang’s dossier demonstrated his extensive educational deadlines to meet, and the two sides never seemed to mesh. leadership with a focus on engaging community business partners “To be honest, I almost gave up,” Wang recalled. “They were so much and students for experiential opportunities related to real-world topics work to co-ordinate.” and projects,” wrote Madelyn Law, Associate Vice-Provost, Teaching Still, Wang persevered and hit his stride with experiential learning and Learning, in her announcement of Wang as the award recipient. when he started teaching Goodman’s Internet and Social Media “Also, his dedication to his own teaching and learning professional Marketing course in 2016. development to enhance student learning experiences was a major He treated the working relationship between businesses and strength of his application.” students as a partnership. Then he applied for a teaching and innovation As rewarding as the accolades are, so too are the job offers he sees grant, netting $2,700 to be divided between nine student teams. students get from some of the business partners they meet in his The students would create social media marketing proposals for classes. Ditto for the thank you notes students send him because of their business partners and get paid $300 to test it for two weeks. The the impact his teaching style has had on them. approach was so successful that four years later, Wang has upwards of “When I see these notes, I feel all the time I spent and the hard work 30 businesses reaching out to him each semester to work with his class. has paid off,” he said.
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