Professor in a Box - Principles in Marketing

Friday, October 14, 2011

 

Now that we have a college student in the family, I realize we should have taken advantage of more dual enrollment and college level classes in the last 2 years of high school! And for anyone with entrepreneurs in the making, I recommend looking into Professor  In A Box. While the focus is actually on the homeschooled highschooler, the courses offered- Financial Accounting and Principles in Marketing - are actually challenging college level courses taught by professors.

 

 

We have reviewed the Financial Accounting course before, but this time I reviewed the Principles in Marketing taught by Dr Julie Pirsch, Ph.D.  She is an assistant professor at the Villanova School of Business in Pennsylvania.

 

 The content is challenging and very good. I believe it to be thorough and know it definitely stretched and challenged me. It is not a fluff course that can be half listened to- I tried that for one lesson while I caught up on emails and I failed the quiz! I would not recommend this course for a young student, but rather a serious student who has an interest in marketing.

 

When you insert the disk and run it, immediately the screen indicates to review important information about the course- Professor's introduction and credentials, syllabus and objectives for the course. You can choose where you go and when and how often to review the material or take the quizzes. I don't seem to see a feature the forces the student to take the lesson over if a quiz is failed. Each chapter opens a new window and so the student can easily return to the chapters again. I could type out each chapter covered in the syllabus, but it is easier to simply let you see on the Professor in a Box website! 

 

If your student isn't very motivated to study or likely to just guess at the answers, you might want to check each test. The course is designed to be complete with just the disk and a computer, though! No parent involvement is necessary- unless you choose. There are online helps if necessary.

 

I reviewed the course myself( since my oldest daughter decided to go to college instead of take some more classes at home). I know her first semester is challenging enough without another course. My 13 year old would not have been ready for the material, yet, but does show potential to be a businessman, so he will be experiencing this course in the future. I really enjoyed the lessons. I did notice a couple issues. Sometimes the speaking doesn't sound as smooth and maybe could have been a little more polished in the recordings. A question on quiz 2 is actually not covered until the next chapter (I went looking and looking for the answer after I got it wrong and then found it when learning the next chapter) and I don't know what is supposed to happen when I push the "finish" button after the quizzes. Nothing seemed to happen when I did that!

 

With a purchase  price of $119.99 (includes shipping), I would generally put this in the "too pricy" category for our family. However, I plan on using this with all of my children still in school and actually feel it well worth the price.  My copy was free in exchange for my review through The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew. 

0 Comments