Thread by @gauravsabnis

Sharing a happy tears inducing 2022 thing for me personally & professionally. I mostly teach undergrad courses. Only one grad course - Marketing Analytics. It's a 600 level elective that I encourage UG students interested in marketing careers to take if they have the flexibility.

I've taught it for 10 years. Usually out of a class of about 40 students, just 2-3 are undergrads. It doesn't involve any coding or complex stats but has a LOT of work in terms of interpreting data, scenario analyses, handling objections, etc. A LOT of work. Every week!

Undergrads can usually only take this course in their 8th & final semester, which is a very hectic time with graduation and also job hunt and moving out. An extremely demanding 600 level elective is understandably daunting. So even the 2-3 students I was happy to see take it.

This year, 12 out of 40 are UG! And with perfect attendance and submitting all homeworks and assignments on time and slaying it!

For most of them, this is their 4th or 5th Sabnis course! That they come back for more of me, that too in a tough 600 course?

Here's the kicker!

I'm proud of being a good teacher in general and most students like me as my ratings show.

But of all my students, for this lot to show up in such big numbers? These kids who got, what I genuinely think, was not my best teaching in the last 2.5 years for obvious reasons (zoom)?

Two years of teaching a grid of mostly dark rectangles on a small rectangle, not the 360 degree experience I usually give, was full of problems big and small. And I often wondered. Are they even listening? Do they even care? Should they even care? Unluckiest cohort in a century.

That a dozen of them didn't find my zoom teaching insufferable and pointless, but actually useful enough to show up in such big numbers. For a very demanding 600 level course. In their final graduating semester. Doing all the work diligently tho this grade is irrelevant for them.

I even gave enough cautionary warnings in the first couple of weeks as I always do - "there is no coding or complex stats but this is a LOT of work. A LOT of work! Drop it now instead of coming to me after spring break saying you're struggling."

All 12 are slaying it!

I was saying this very sentimotionally to one of them, someone who's been my advisee since freshman year. And she said - "you don't realize how much we all appreciated that you never forced or pressured us to turn cameras on, and never shamed us for keeping them off."

😢😢

Apparently these "policies" made me very popular!

It's not like I'm all Robin Williams as a teacher, lol. On certain things, I am very stern. And as you can see, I make them work a LOT through the semester. All my courses are heavy on work, easy on grading.

(This is a UG course syllabus btw, not the 600 level one)

While I had a great time at COEP in Pune, one thing I absolutely hated about my own undergrad education was that everything just came down to one exam on one day, common to EVERYONE in the university! Absolutely hated it! What if you have a bad day?

So I always spread it out.

Btw tomorrow's class in the same course is going to be all about the Oscars! 😊

I'll give a history of the importance of Oscars for branding & marketing. Then some students will make "in the news" presentations about Oscar ads. Then watch the Oscars Sunday & analyze the ads.

Heh, I remember some years ago, our UG program dean said she's moving the course to Fall sem.

I said no no, it has to be in spring.
She's like uh, why?
I said, literally THE 2 biggest events for American marketing strategy occur in spring sem!
She's like, ah, spring4ever then!

Very much a feature. I put a lot of thought, time, effort to make sure every course of mine is

- Fun!
- Packed with work, but useful work
- Always contemporary, not age old material
- Nothing below a B unless you're really really lazy & don't care

https://twitter.com/KidCharlemaine/status/1506591590793752581?t=5sNqiLWDB2XF1hwXCVRQUw&s=19

Average class sizes in US universities are typically bigger than in Indian clothes. Diffused grading is done in US even for classes with 200 students.

Difference is systemic. Indian education system is way too centralized & solo faculty have little say.

https://twitter.com/arpas/status/1506594284187033608?t=5sNqiLWDB2XF1hwXCVRQUw&s=19

In the US, I have the flexibility of running a college class any way I want. I could just give them one midterm, one final, that's it.

Or I could give them 8 different tasks. Or even 38 different tasks if I choose.

In India, everything starts with a centralized exam.

So even if my professors in COEP wanted to spread out the learning such that every lab assignment counts for 5% of the grade, they could not! Not allowed! They just had to train us to pass that one exam the university sets.

That's not education.

That's Hunger Games.

IITs and IIMs do offer this flexibility. And profs there do try to spread out the grade. Cos they aren't answerable to anyone else.

But most regular colleges and universities in India are more obsessed with what students wear than what they learn.

Exams are just jumla jugaads.

"Indian clothes"??

Autocorrect from "Indian schools" 🤭

My assignments for Superbowl & Oscars adsvare most definitely fun.

But They are not easy. Lots of work. I make em break ads down in ways more detail than "oh this ad was so funny". Nope. I want them to analyze the simple raw dry decisions behind the ad.

https://twitter.com/KidCharlemaine/status/1506591590793752581?t=5sNqiLWDB2XF1hwXCVRQUw&s=19

For example, this ad from last year's Superbowl.

Media & Twitter went "aww, Mila, Ashton, Shaggy, total 90skids stuff and funny"

I had students analyze cold hard facts behind Pepsi hiring those 3 celebs for that ad at that time.

Lot of work! But fun!

I tell my students over and over.

Just cos *YOU* find an ad funny or emotional doesn't automatically make the ad an avant garde short film.

No matter how much Cannes hacks & Mad Men writers make it seem like a form of art.

Ads aren't art, sorry.

Ads are money making tools.

Ads are made based on cold hard data, after multiple consultations among powerful suits and C-suite types. The "entertainment" element of ads is secondary, if not tertiary.

Every ad has at its core a spreadsheet. That's what I try to teach my students.

Just received this

"Hi professor, saw your early morning tweets. I also wanted to let you know that this tweet of yours from last year was forwarded a lot among us students. You really got it. Most other professors didn't get it at all!"

❤️❤️❤️❤️

https://twitter.com/gauravsabnis/status/1386700569826496517?t=CXWhTpRPzcX1wdgca2kyoA&s=19

This is one hill I've been totally willing to die on since the pandemic started and things switched to zoom. You can look up my tweets & also ask colleagues whom I've argued with about this.

Mandating students to turn on cameras in a zoom class is cruel and unethical.