In every course, I focus on two skills: critical thinking and solving unstructured problems. Students work in real business settings and on projects for real clients, where the question isn't handed to them and there's no single right answer, so they learn to frame the problem, weigh the evidence, and defend a recommendation.
In my analytics courses, data is the throughline: students work hands-on in R and turn analysis into decisions a manager can act on. I also bring AI into the classroom deliberately, as a tutor built on the course itself and as a research tool students learn to question.
How firms turn questions into evidence: research design, survey methods, and data analysis in R, applied through a semester-long team project that ends in a client recommendation.
Students also have Brother Knowledge, an AI tutor built on the course materials.
The quantitative tools behind professional selling: forecasting sales, estimating market shares, sizing customer potential, and judging which sales strategies work. Students analyze sales data in R and make sales decisions from CRM data in a simulation game.
The strategy and analytics of customer relationships: acquisition, retention, and portfolio management, each paired with a data analysis technique in R. Teams complete a generative AI project for a local business or organization.
Decision models and metrics for predicting how marketing plans will perform and improving return on marketing investment. Students move from Excel to R and apply regression, logistic regression, discrete choice, and ordinal models to real marketing questions.
Student teams apply marketing concepts to real problems for real clients, from marketing plans for start-ups to market research, data analysis, digital and search engine marketing, web design, and social entrepreneurship. Clients included Purdue Marketing Advisory Board members, entrepreneurs at Purdue’s Foundry and Discovery Park, Purdue Research Park start-ups, Indiana businesses, and non-profits, with teams meeting weekly with the faculty supervisor.
The concepts, analyses, and activities that make up marketing management, with practice analyzing and solving marketing problems. Topics include customer behavior, segmentation, positioning, market research, product management, pricing, promotion, sales force management, and competitive analysis, laying the foundation for advanced marketing electives.