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Review of the Creative Advertising Courses

(IF94/IX96) at QUT – draft final recommendations

Working Party Members

Associate Professor Terry Flew, Head of Postgraduate Studies, Creative Industries

Faculty (Chair)
Dr. Gayle Kerr, Senior Lecturer, School of Advertising, Marketing and Public
Relations, Faculty of Business
Professor Stephen Towers, Director of Academic Programs, Creative Industries
Faculty
Associate Professor Michael Docherty, Head of Communication Design, Creative
Industries Faculty.

Context

In 2004, QUT commenced offering a revised postgraduate program in Advertising,

which included a new study area in Creative Advertising. This involved a new
Graduate Certificate in Advertising (IF94) jointly taught by the Faculties of Business
and Creative Industries, and the option for students enrolling in the Graduate Diploma
or Masters courses of choosing a Study Area in Strategic Advertising or Creative
Advertising.

The area of Strategic Advertising would focus upon the key areas of consumer
behaviour, advertising management and planning, media strategy, and market and
audience research, while the area of Creative Advertising would focus upon
copywriting and art direction, creative concept development, production management,
and portfolio development.

In 2004, the two faculties agreed to discontinue the Graduate Diploma, and to
constitute two degrees: IF96 Master of Advertising (Strategic Advertising), and IX96
(Creative Advertising). While both Faculties offer required and elective units into
these respective degrees, administrative responsibility for IF96 resides with the
Faculty of Business, and IX96 with the Creative Industries Faculty.

In the course documentation that accompanied the initial approval of these programs
in 2003, it was noted that ‘these courses would be subject to review in 2005’. An
announcement of this review was circulated to academic staff in the Creative
Industries Faculty and the Faculty of Business in October 2005.

In 2006, as part of its overall review of postgraduate coursework degree offerings, the
Faculty of Business indicated that the Masters’ program in Strategic Advertising
would be incorporated within its generic BS93 Master of Business (Study Area)
portfolio from 2007. It was indicted that this would not impact upon the cross-faculty
nature of unit offerings within the existing course structure.
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Terms of Reference

The Working Party was established with the following Terms of Reference:

1. Determining whether the respective courses (IF94, IF96, IX96) have

demonstrated sufficient student demand to warrant their continuation;
2. Determining whether the distinction between Strategic Advertising and
Creative Advertising is sufficiently understood by prospective students, and by
the sector itself, so that both IF96 and IX96 meet distinctive needs in the
advertising industry;
3. Establishing the success of the new courses in meeting the demands of the
industry through student employment outcomes;
4. Determining how well the cross-Faculty administrative and content sharing
arrangements are working;
5. Identifying whether the courses draw sufficiently upon the range of expertise
and resources (human, technical, production) available in both Faculties;
6. Determining the degree of student satisfaction with the new courses, both in
an overall sense, and at the level of individual units;
7. Identifying future staffing needs and where courses are best administered into
the future.

In relation to these, it was seen as important that the Working Party identify
opportunities for improvement, and to develop recommendations that would
support such outcomes.

Review Process

With the establishment of a review process with Terms of Reference, and a Working
party to oversee the review, an email was sent by A/Prof Terry Flew calling for
submissions from within QUT on 24 October, 2005, with a deadline for responses by
18 November. Working party members met on 20 October, 2005 and December 6,
2005. One outcome of these meetings was the importance of employing n external
consultant to review the programs through qualitative research undertaken with
current students and with representatives of the advertising industry

Submissions

Two submissions were received from the call for submissions, and their
recommendations are summarised below:

Ms. Sandra Contreras, Lecturer in Creative Advertising, Media & Communications

discipline area, Creative Industries Faculty

• The IX96 course needs to be understood as having a clear internal structure and
logic. For a full-time student, this takes the forms of:
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1. Semester 1: development and application of strategies for creative thinking and

creative strategies;
2. Semester 2: understanding of the practicalities of application of creative
strategies in the production process;
3. Semester 3: management of a project that applies these skills to practical
outcomes, in terms of both production skills and audience targeting.
• Equipping graduates for industry outcomes would be enhanced by their ability to
demonstrate skills in film & video production and interactive multimedia;
• Networking with industry through both projects and meet-and-greet activities is
central to employment in this industry;
• The relationship between units is at present blurred, and needs clarification;
• There may be a case for new unit in Interactive Advertising;
• Media unis such as Media Audiences could be a required component of the course.

A/Prof. Terry Flew, in his capacity as the Head of Media and Communications,
responsible for initial development of the course programs

• Relations between the Creative Industries Faculty and the Faculty of Business
concerning joint course administration have worked smoothly. Attention needs to
be given to jointly delivered units such as AMN421 Contemporary Issues in
Advertising, particularly when the designated lecturer is unavailable to teach the
unit;
• The Creative Advertising courses have not been able to draw upon the full range
of available expertise in the CI Faculty, partly as a result of its location within a
largely non-production-based discipline (Media & Communication), but also due
to the tendency for production support in CIF to be ‘tribalised’ along historical
lines (e.g. camera people deal primarily with the FTV discipline);
• Pre-requisite structures within existing programs have proved to be an ongoing
source of problems for these students in accessing relevant skill sets, most clearly
in the area of short-form (30 second) video production;
• Student feedback indicates that the aims, objectives and assessment items in the
unit KVP401 Graphic Design have been confused, and have been changed within
the unit

Dr. Gayle Kerr has provided information on student satisfaction, enrolment trends and
graduate outcomes from the postgraduate courses offered in the Faculty of Business,
as well as new developments in other Australian universities offering comparable
courses, such as RMIT (see Attachment …).
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Findings from available QUT data

Enrolments data

2006
Data
Course Enrolment EFTSL
IF94 -
GradCertAdvtg 10 4.00
IF96 -
MAdv(StratAdv) 19 11.50
IX96 - MAdvtg 30 20.13
Grand Total 59 35.63

2005
Data
Course Enrolment EFTSL
IF94 -
GradCertAdvtg 10 6.50
IF95 -
GradDipAdvtg 1 0.38
IF96 - MAdvtg 28 20.81
IX96 - MAdvtg 30 17.13
Grand Total 69 44.81

2004
Data
Course Enrolment EFTSL
IF94 -
GradCertAdvtg 5 3.00
IF95 -
GradDipAdvtg 7 4.50
IF96 - MAdvtg 24 16.50
Grand Total 36 24.00

There is not as yet CEQ data for these courses, and no responses were received to the
2005 mid-CEQ survey. There is, however, SEU/T information for the following units:
• KCP360 Advertising Creative: Introduction 1/2004, 1/2005
• KCP361 Advertising Creative: Electronic and Print Media 2/2004
• KCP362: Advertising Creative: Copywriting and Art Direction 1/2005
• AMN421 Contemporary Issues in Advertising 1/2005
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Summary information on these units indicates the following:

Aspects that were well done Aspects that need improvement

KCP360 • Understanding of why unit is • Combination of teaching and learning
(1/2004. important to course overall methods in unit
1/2005) • Topics and content related to unit • Assessment tasks
expectations • Clear assessment criteria
• Understanding of assessment • Usefulness of available learning
requirements resources
• Responsiveness to prior feedback
KCP361 • Understanding of why unit is • Clear assessment criteria
(2/2004) important to course overall • Usefulness of available learning
• Combination of teaching and learning resources
methods in unit
• Responsiveness to prior feedback
KCP362 • Understanding of why unit is • Combination of teaching and learning
(1/2005) important to course overall methods in unit
• Assessment tasks
• Clear assessment criteria
• Usefulness of available learning
resources
AMN421 • Understanding of why unit is • Usefulness of available learning
(1/2005) important to course overall resources
• Topics and content related to unit
expectations
• Combination of teaching and learning
methods in unit
• Clear assessment criteria

Consultant’s Report

[attached report to come]

Recommendations

These are put as questions at this stage:

1. Should IX96 be re-named as a Master of Creative Advertising?

2. What is the future of IF94 Graduate Certificate in Advertising?
3. Should Creative Advertising as an area within CIF be relocated to the new
Comm Design/Visual Arts configuration?
4. Course design #1: clarifying relationship between Creative Advertising:
Introduction, Copywriting & Art Direction, and Graphic Design, in terms of
aims, objectives and graduate outcomes of course?
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5. Course design #2: what is the relationship we want between CIF required
units, FoB required units and the CIF elective sequence, in terms of industry
expectations?
6. What changes in required units in the Masters program are connected to these
findings?
7. Current Lecturer in Creative Advertising coming to end of three-year contract:
re-employ or re-advertise?
8. Set minimum entry requirements that are additional to minimum GPA > 4.5
e.g. baseline software proficiency?
9. Other?