TOS REVIEW: Professor In A Box- Principles of Marketing

So why learn about marketing? It is important for those who are in business, either their own business, such as an entrepreneur, or working for a larger corporation. Each business provides a service or product that they need to get to the public’s attention. Marketing entails telling what a product/service is, why it is important to the consumer, and also how to get the idea or a visual out to the consumer. It works with consumer-to-business but also business-to-business.

The Principles of Marketing course can be used by any high school level student with basic reading and math skills.  This course can be used for preparation for the CLEP Marketing Exam. There are 28 lessons that can be worked through in a year (one lesson each week, 28 weeks), a typical September-December semester (2 lessons each week, 14 weeks), or perhaps a “summer school” course June-July (3 lessons each week, 9 weeks). Since my daughter is a freshman this year, I felt the year long route would be best.

Professor In A Box Courses are taught in a non-traditional format. Everything that is needed for the course is included on the DVD in the form of Flash lecture slides and a brief Key Concepts file for each chapter. There are also online resources. A Syllabus is included, as are Learning Objectives and Lesson Plans.

Take a look at the first chapter of Principles of Marketing to see if this is something that would work for your student.

The course is ‘taught’ by Julie Pirsch, Ph.D. As we watch the Flash lecture slides, we hear Dr. Pirsch’s voice, reading the slides as well of adding commentary. Her voice is very clear and precise. She knows what she is teaching and stays on task. I can imagine a professor standing at the front of a class, teaching.

This is a self-paced course. Each lesson consists of watching the Flash lectures for the chapter, studying the key concepts, utilizing the online resources for the lesson, and taking the chapter quiz. There are exams after chapter 5, 11 and 19. We have yet to take an exam. However, I did have a look at it. It is multiple choice. The quizzes are multiple choice/truth and false questions. And for the quizzes at least, you only need a 60% to “pass”.

Each chapter has Key Terms that are helpful to write down for reference. We haven’t come across any ‘homework’ problems yet (but we are not very far into this). It is primarily watch the lectures, write down (or study) the Key Terms, take the quizzes and that is the lesson. For students who are interested in marketing, this would probably be a breeze. For students that are not interested, this may be a bit harder. Another note, this is geared for high school and up. Although it can be done with any grade of high school, it seems to me that this is a course perhaps better suited for at least 10th grade and above.

Principles of Marketing is available for $119.99 at the website. Professor In A Box is so sure that those who purchase their courses will be satisfied that they offer a full money back guarantee. After working through the first three lessons and if the purchaser is not satisfied, Professor In A Box will give a full refund –even refund shipping!

Professor In A Box also offers courses in:
Accounting & Money Skills,
Financial Accounting,
and a Universal Financial Accounting Study Guide.

******************************************************************************************

Bottomline:
A good product that is thorough in its topic. It has everything that is needed for the course and by the time a student is done, they should be knowledgeable about marketing. The online resources were great. If you click on that link, choose Principles of Marketing, then the “Click here” below the image, you will be taken to the pdf of the online resources for this course. We particularly like how it includes real life companies

I couldn’t speed up the videos (or Flash lectures) and that was somewhat annoying. It is probably a good speed for others but slow for us and the inability to speed it up drove me crazy. Another thing, my dd is in 9th grade and she didn’t seem to enjoy this one as much as I hoped. I think that it has a lot to do with the subject area and not the presentation necessarily. Perhaps it would be better suited for her in a later grade.

This is not something we would have chosen for our homeschool on our own. But I would recommend it to homeschooling high schoolers that are interested in marketing (or starting their own business) and/or taking the CLEP exam. It would make a good elective course in high school if one is needed. It can be used for more than one student and more than just one time.

See how others liked this product by visiting the TOS Homeschool Crew blog.

***Disclaimer: I received this product from Professor in a Box via the TOS Homeschool Review Crew in exchange for an honest review. I was not required to write a positive review. No other compensation was given for this review. See Disclosure/Policies.***