“IT’S ALL ABOUT THE RELATIONSHIP”: EXPLORING A SUCCESSFUL PUBLIC-PRIVATE TEACHING AND LEARNING PARTNERSHIP AT A CANADIAN UNIVERSITY

There is considerable interest today in public-private partnerships focused on the research enterprise within postsecondary institutions. However, there is much less emphasis on public-private partnerships designed to strengthen teaching and learning outcomes. Partly to address this knowledge-gap, Health Sciences faculty at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT), partnered with a leading-edge social marketing agency (ChangeMakers) to design and implement a fully online fourth-year course elective entitled Social Marketing for Public Health.

The ChangeMakers team included eight individuals with expertise in marketing, evaluation, business communications, creative development and social media. Curricular development and corporate training focused on planning and implementing programs designed to influence social change are both emerging areas of interest for the agency. In addition to contributing subject matter expertise and customized teaching resources (e.g., a series of in-depth case studies, directly linked to learning outcomes, and explicating the 10-steps in the strategic social marketing planning process), ChangeMakers developed 11 professionally-prepared teaching videos, specifically designed to enhance the case study course material. The videos focused on common challenges facing the social marketing team and the salient lessons learned.

The UOIT course professor contributed expertise in areas pertaining to public health, health promotion, chronic diseases prevention and management, curriculum design, pedagogical structure, student assessment and course evaluation. Additionally, UOIT faculty and a part-time teaching assistant served as the primary contact for students, together over-seeing all aspects of course implementation and administration. In late 2016, the course professor partnered with ChangeMakers, on the production of an additional teaching video addressing students’ request for information from “experts in the real world” on career opportunities in this emerging field.

This paper will not focus on the online course per se. Rather, authors explore key success factors underpinning the evolving public-private teaching partnership. Emphasis will be placed on exploring the relational aspects of the collaboration – that is, the core values, guiding principles, motivations and other value-added dimensions. Relationship-building strategies will be discussed, including nurturing mutual trust and respect for each other’s contributions. In this teaching collaboration, reputational benefits have emerged as a key success factor – especially those associated with knowledge dissemination strategies. Finally, the paper will showcase students’ work, including constructive feedback provided to ChangeMakers with the goal of providing input into social marketing campaigns focused on a postsecondary population.