Beta-testing a new HubSpot Education Asset

[jgueron]

Hi all! 

I'm writing this post to see if anyone here in the community would be interested in a project that I'm working on. For some context, I started at HubSpot about 5 months ago. All new HubSpot employees are taken through a 2~ week training that requires them to think of a fake business and use HubSpot software to power all parts of that business - from its website, to marketing, to sales. If you're curious, here was my final project - a business that allowed smaller podcasters to create merchandise for their fans. 

As someone that didn't know about thing about tech (this is me when my phone isn't working), to someone who was able to build a fake business and track leads and conversions, this was a huge step for me. And so I thought, why not pull inspiration from HubSpot's New Hire Training program to create an in-class program for Education Partners? 

So, the result is:

• 18 powerpoint modules that start general and walk you through the philosophical elements of Inbound, before digging deeper into how to build a landing page, thank you page, track email success, etc. Cumulatively, this is about 29.5 hours of content (meaning powerpoint slides, activities, and readings)
• A syllabus and grading rubric for you
• A HUGE emphasis on the DO portion of "Learn and Do"

I presented this work to my colleagues earlier this month and here were my slides with more information on who would be the best target audience for something like this. 

I'm looking for a group of professors who wouldn't mind beta-testing this in their classroom. Would anyone be interested? What additional information would you like from me? Please feel free to use this thread to post questions! 

@lauramunozUD 

@MrsPTMorris 

@ekinsky 

@RandyEmerson 

@jasongeesey 

@BernardoV 

@PioProf 

@jpsanchez 

@DianneMcDermott 

@LaurenceMinsky 

[jgueron]

@pierluigi_rippa 

@DWJ 

@PeterFuermetz 

@KT85 

@JDonohue 

@Cdrehmer 

@Chaka 

@EdP 

@dcaaronson 

@CShiery 

Curious on getting your input on this as well! 

[jgueron]

I'm curious on your thoughts and ideas on this as well! 

@jfinn 

@lhauchec 

@eugene_tsaplin 

@eduardopilatti 

@tkvmai 

@AGarfield 

@reallyleila 

@rchanna 

@calderonsusan 

@DrGuilbault 

[jgueron]

I'm curious on your thoughts and ideas on this as well! 

@csepulveda 

@DrKirkwood 

@prosati 

@bsspies 

@sninmer 

[jgueron]

How could I forget, @awakin1 ?! 

[awakin1]

Hi @jgueron 

I've just has a quick look and wondered can 'teams' within the platform build this currently (if not fully functioning, at least a working model?)?  If so, yes, I could potentially use the worksheets in this semester for that and seek feedback.

I've got my materials created for lectures but may be able to use components of this in some seminars or flip elements but I'd need time to fully asssess it first.  Great job from my first sight of things.

[jgueron]

Hi John,

Maybe I'm not understanding - do you mean these types of teams? 

[awakin1]

Yes @jgueron,

It’s those teams - many thanks.

[jgueron]

Hi John,

The teams functionality works, and currently ANYONE can build out a business in HubSpot - this project in particular just allows for guidance and order. I'm having trouble understanding how the teams function has to do with the project, though. Maybe you can enlighten me? 

[awakin1]

Thanks @jgueron Julia,

It’s more to do with my exploring current assessment and potential future assessment alongside of access to the platform. Teams are great for ‘limiting’ what other groups can view in circumstances of deploying content for one website. Just hadn’t considered its use for multiple websites. I’m excited to hear more on Monday. Keep up the great work Julia!

[eugene_tsaplin]

This really looks awesome!  I’ll carefully check out the materials to see how it can fit our business courses.

[dcaaronson]

I am very interested in using all of the materials mentions.

Thanks for putting all of this together.

[jgueron]

Excellent! I'll hopefully get a few more responses and find a time for all of us to chat. Thanks as always! I hope you're enjoying the weather in LA! 

[MrsPTMorris]

@jgueron, after reading your proposal, without taking time to explore it fully, it looks amazing! Could I offer it to our Marketing Excellence Club as an experiment? I'd solicit feedback from them. I have a couple of student in mind that I think would probably embrace it.

Thanks! 

@MrsPTMorris 

[jgueron]

Yes! Willing and happy to chat with any clubs or students. 

[BernardoV]

Hi @jgueron this material looks quite usefull. 

I´ll use it on my next session and let you know how it went. 

Thank you so much for the material! 

[jpsanchez]

Love it! , 

Let´s do it! , i can pitch it in my different business schools. 

@jgueron  let´s chat about that. 

Waiting for your call 

KR

JP

;)))

PS ( great work!)

[DWJ]

So I don't teach a course that this would be beneficial to this BUT I do know a digital business course that my colleauge in Information Systems teaches and she's looking at developing another course and that might be of interest to her (I actually just added her to my Hubspot team so she could poke around and see what they have to offer). 

[lhauchec]

Thanks Julia for pulling it out!

I look across the material and it looks great, love the philosophy to get student hands-on Hubspot. I'm briefing them on their group project in 2 weeks, it would be really interesting to make them work on the platform, as you've done when entering HubSpot. For my part, I would be really interested in having content that explain to student how the platform actually work.

Looking forward to hear from you!

Léo 

[samit]

Hi Julia,

Thanks for the opportunity. This seems like an excellent project that will allow students to get some hands on skills onboard. I do teach a course on CRM so a project like this would be good fit. I teach that class in fall and since the activities for this fall already been set in motion I would be up for using it for Fall 2020. Would like to try the whole project system myself before I can commit. I do have a few questions:

1. Will this work in a fully online course? Will typical undergraduate business seniors need a lot of hand holding on this specially for the tech parts? The students are spread out over the country so I typically do not meet them face to face

2. Can student reach out to hubspot community or technical help if they need during the project?

3. Can students work on this project as teams or is this meant to be done individually?

4. How much will students need to pay to purchase a domain?

5. Out typical semester is 16 weeks long with actual class periods of 15 weeks. Can this be feasibly squeezed in that time frame?

6. Will be it feasible to use this project as a major part of the course (along with other assignments) or  given time commitment the course needs to be just about this project?

Thank you,

Samit 

[jgueron]

Hi Samit,

Thanks, so so much for these questions! 

1. Will this work in a fully online course?

Yes, absolutely. As long as you have a way of communicating with students and students have a way of communicating with each other. We arm you with powerpoints and worksheets.

Will typical undergraduate business seniors need a lot of hand holding on this specially for the tech parts?

The idea is that all modules have instructions. The most handholding is in the beginning, but once students get familiar with the software, there should be less and less.

The students are spread out over the country so I typically do not meet them face to face.

No problem there. They will be at an advantage if they skype or Zoom with each other to work on this, though. 

2. Can student reach out to hubspot community or technical help if they need during the project?

Yes, they can! 

3. Can students work on this project as teams or is this meant to be done individually?

Either works. There is some groupwork unrelated to the project, but that can also be adapted to individual work. 

4. How much will students need to pay to purchase a domain?

Typically, this depends on the type of GoDaddy Account they want. I bought a domain for around $13. If this were a group project, you can split the $13 or so as many ways as there are group members. 

5. Out typical semester is 16 weeks long with actual class periods of 15 weeks. Can this be feasibly squeezed in that time frame?

Yes, depending on how quickly your students pick this up. There are more than 16 modules, but each module is a different length. There isabout 30 hours worth of content, so as long as that can be expanded or contracted to meet your requirements, you should be fine.  

6. Will be it feasible to use this project as a major part of the course (along with other assignments) or  given time commitment the course needs to be just about this project?

I don't see this project being a minor part of a course, but a large component of it. I see if as either a major part, but I wouldn't advise it take up a course entirely. 

Thank you for all of the questions 

I have scheduled two webinars to explain this project: 

• October 7th, 2pm - 3pm Eastern Time
• October 9th, 10:30 - 11:00 am Eastern Time

Please let me know which you can attend.  For the purposes of making this Beta as successful as possible, I will have to limit those who participate in the Beta to those who were able to meet with me. If you cannot attend one of these sessions, please let me know so I can think of a solution to still make sure you can be involved. 

Thank you all! Please come with questions, comments, and feedback. 

[samit]

Julia, 

thanks for your response. I can attend Sept 7 or Sept 9. Please let me know. 

Samit

[DianneMcDermott]

I'm very excited to be part of this development.  My program is a 2 year AS program so I will be looking at putting pieces of this into one of three advanced marketing courses.  Our program has other related courses: Wordpress, Video, Graphic Design, Media, that keep the degree skills-based as we can. 

[jtoupo]

Dear @jgueron 

my alumni are fluent in English, and one of my challenges is to put them all hands-on hubspot software, maybe all this content can help me in the future.

I want, if you don't mind, to know more about the project.

Best regards and thanks for share this great job