Apprentices in the Workplace

Today's lesson plan: visit Buffalo Wild Wings.

Assigned reading: none, there is no textbook.

This is the teaching approach of Marc Adler, adjunct instructor in the Department of Communication. Adler sees the importance of real world experience and has shaped an entire class around providing his students just that.

Many newly graduated communication majors often find themselves lost in the competitive business of advertising. No matter what grades they earned in college, Adler believes that real world experience cannot be learned through any textbook.

"I was not really a book learner," Adler said. "I learned better by doing things. I avoided the traditional way of teaching a course like this, which other professors teach with a book. I feel that it's more important to teach students by making them do something that's going to help them learn, rather than trying to get them to remember terminology by reading a book and getting tested."

Adler, who is also the vice president of client services for Flynn and Friends, an advertising agency in Buffalo, teaches an undergraduate advertising course where students never have to buy or even lay eyes on a single textbook.

His Prin-tech Advertising course gives students the opportunity to work with actual businesses. Without the use of a textbook, students must rely on Adler's guidance and imagination to come up with realistic business solutions.

"I use real projects from real companies, and I turn the students in the class into advertising agents… who compete against each other for the business. This is what we do in the real world. We make a pitch to clients, hoping that we win the business," Adler said.

During this semester, students have the opportunity to work with Katz Americas, a beer coaster company looking to attract business with Buffalo Wild Wings. Students also get to work with Nadja Foods, a Buffalo-based online cookie company that is trying to increase its cookie sales.

Businesses were chosen based on the students' interests. Judges, who are representatives from each company, determine the winning group, but Adler determines the grade that each project receives.

"It's going to give [students] a sense of winning and losing," Adler said. "It's just a matter of how the competition sometimes can impact whether you're successful or not."

The students put together their presentations in teams specifically chosen by Adler.

"I look for people with different skills to be on a team together," Adler said. "I pick the teams, they don't. I base it on the skill set the student wants to work with. Every student has a particular title with particular responsibilities."

Creating and succeeding at a team goal is of utmost importance in these real world projects.

"They also have to understand marketing so they can show up every week and participate. [Also, they must] allow themselves the flexibility to go beyond the envelope," Adler said.

For students, this new idea of teamwork in the business world requires an adjustment from previous team projects in class.

"It's hard combining all the different ideas on a team and coming out with something that's understandable and whole," said Sergine Emmanuel, a junior economics major. "There's a lot of pressure that goes along with a successful presentation, but it's part of having a career. Classes like these prepare us for just about any career choice because it gives us experience."

Interactive courses like this are available in various UB departments.

"Several courses in our department are a bit unconventional and require students to make actual client pitches, conduct real-life campaigns and the like," said Thomas H. Feeley, associate professor and chair of the Department of Communication. "These experiences, combined with traditional courses that feature theories and models that explain human communication processes, give students both the theory and the application of theory in the workplace."

According to Feeley, these real life experiences through these types of courses can also provide students with networking skills and internships.

Each semester, Adler's course features different businesses selling different products, and his students have organized ad campaigns for World Wrestling Entertainment events, attracted audiences to the Buffalo Zoo, and promoted UB football.

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