MENOMONIE, Wis.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The University of Wisconsin-Stout has expanded their relationship with Thomson Reuters to provide a new undergraduate major in digital marketing technology, which was approved recently by the UW System Board of Regents.
The new degree is a culmination of a partnership between UW-Stout and Thomson Reuters that includes the development of a Web Technology minor, as well as the establishment of the Thomson Reuters Web Development Program Fund at the Stout University Foundation. Thomson Reuters helped develop the curriculum and provided classroom instructors for the Web Technology minor, and will continue to do so for the new digital marketing technology major. Since 2013, UW-Stout has offered a minor in Web Technology, as well as a minor in Enterprise Technology Systems. The new degree is built on the curriculum in these minors.
“This is an excellent example of how UW-Stout responds to the needs of business and industry,” said Chancellor Bob Meyer. “We heard there was a need for graduates with digital marketing skills, and worked hard to a find a way to respond to that demand.”
The new major in digital marketing technology will be delivered online, making it available nationwide and internationally this fall. More information on the new major is available at http://www.uwstout.edu/programs/bsdmt/
Officials said the new program will draw from a number of academic disciplines on campus, including Information and Communications Technology, Business, Computer Science, Cross-Media Graphics Management and Management.
Graduates will be able to:
- Create original content for digital distribution that uses marketing research.
- Develop Web applications using industry standard markup, protocols and languages.
- Demonstrate and use data to support user interaction with digital content.
- Design and implement information and navigation plans using the principles of information architecture.
- Analyze, implement and evaluate communication systems and their usage.
- Employ and evaluate processes related to user analysis, design, development and implementation.
- Select, examine, implement and evaluate the use of enterprise systems and how they function toward achieving enterprise objectives.
- Distinguish among the functions of various digital communication channels and select solutions appropriate to the needs of the organization and users.
Thomson Reuters officials had told UW-Stout administrators that the company was having a hard time locating and hiring employees with Web technology skills, especially in the area of search engine optimization.
Craig Yolitz, a UW-Stout alumni and a vice president in the FindLaw business of Thomson Reuters, said the new major is important “because having the right-skilled talent is critical to our future.”
Kevin W. Tharp, associate professor of digital marketing technology, has been instrumental in developing the new major. He said a new field of expertise is emerging for professionals who are called “marketing technologists.”
“Marketing technologists are uniquely positioned as individuals who have a high level understanding of how technology serves to help the organization reach its goals,” Tharp said.
UW-Stout, Wisconsin’s Polytechnic University, has about 9,400 students in 48 undergraduate majors and 23 graduate majors, including one doctoral degree. UW-Stout, established in 1891, prides itself on the success of its students in the workplace, with a graduate employment rate at or above 97 percent for recent graduates. The university was awarded the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in 2001.
