Episode 05: Dr. Kelly Price

Dr. Kelly Price is an award-winning faculty member in the College of Business and Technology and a two-time graduate of ETSU. In 2014, she helped launch our new M.S. program in Digital Marketing and continues to serve as one of the primary faculty for the program.

Podcast Transcript: 

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Dr. Kelly Price

And it It prepares them for the new jobs that are coming, the ones that aren't even really there yet, have been invented yet, right um, because those are happening all the time. And it prepares them for that working environment where they can take what they've learned with us, such as the analytics or whatever, and place it directly into their job, right then, right now. [Music]

Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle

Hi, I'm Kimberly McCorkle, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academics at East Tennessee State University. From the moment I arrived on this campus, I've been inspired by our faculty, their passion for what they do, their belief in the power of higher education, and the way that they are transforming the lives of their students. This podcast is dedicated to them, our incredible faculty at ETSU. Hear their stories as they tell us why I teach.

In this episode, we will talk with Dr. Kelly Price from the ETSU College of Business and Technology. Dr. Price is a two-time graduate of ETSU and helped lead the creation of our highly popular master's program in digital marketing. She's also a three-time recipient of the College of Business and Technology Excellence in Teaching Award. Enjoy the show.

Dr. Price, thank you for joining me today. Did you ever imagine when you were a student here at ETSU that you would return as a faculty member and lead one of our most popular graduate programs?

Dr. Kelly Price

It's so great to be here with you today, Dr. McCorkle. What an honor it is to get to sit and talk with you about something that I love so much. But to be totally honest, no. I was too busy as an undergraduate anyway with my classes, in my sorority. I was in Sigma Kappa while I was here, and my friends and all of that stuff. But ETSU was such a great place. It is such a great place to be for a student. So, to be honest, no, I didn't imagine I was going to be a faculty member. But I did know even back then in my youthful days that I had wonderful professors here, and they've stuck with me for years. Um, so I'm very lucky. I even just moved forward a little bit on that, the two professors that were my favorite, I got to work with them recently. One retired, but I'm still working with one, but I get to work alongside of two of my favorite professors I had as an undergraduate. So is that crazy? Yes, it's awesome.

Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle

 

I like to start my podcast out with the same question for every guest. Take me back to your first day of teaching at ETSU as a faculty member. Looking back on that day, what is one piece of advice that you would have given yourself?

Dr. Kelly Price

I think this is such a fascinating question because it really makes you reminisce and think and reflect about my first day. I haven't thought about my first day in a long time, but it's been what, 15 years or so now. So I'll use a golf analogy. Do you play golf?

Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle

No, I wish.

Dr. Kelly Price

You roller blade? Is that right? Yeah. I would totally break my neck if I did that.

Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle

But yeah I didn't know you should try it. I bet you'd be really good at it.

Dr. Kelly Price

But I'll use a golf analogy that you know golf is such a mental game, and you can go out and play, and you hit a certain shot on one day, and then you go back the next day, same shot, but it's a little bit different. The LIE may be different, the weather may be different. So you're standing in the same spot, but it's still a little bit of a different shot than it was yesterday. And when you're faced with that shot you either are going to play it safe or you're going to play the risky play, you know which one are you going to do. And no matter what though you're still playing by the rules. You still have rules that you got to go with. So I think the advice that I would have given myself would have been a piece of advice: that you still have to play by the rules, do what you're supposed to, play the lie you have though, and do the best you can in that position. And as my mom, who is a golfer as well, will say, just go for the flag. Go for the flag every time. And so that's how I would have probably said to myself, just just go for the flag. Go for the flag.

Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle

That's great.

Let's go back to the year 2014. That's when we launched our digital marketing program, and at the time there were not a lot of programs that were focused specifically on undergraduate digital marketing. So talk to us about how the program started, what the goals were, and also how it has evolved.

Dr. Kelly Price

Sure. Back in 2014, I was so lucky because our Dean at the time, her name was Linda Garo, and she had the vision and was just a real innovator, and she was a mentor to me. She kind of took me under her wing a little bit, and I learned a lot from her. And she asked me to direct it. Now little did I know 15 years later after she left and retired um that I would still you know be be moving on with this. But we had very little undergraduate or graduate Pro curriculum at all in our department. But we started to look around and ask, uh, the community members, practitioners in the industry: if you could hire a digital marketing professional, what would they need to know? And that's where it started.

And so our goals ended up being to provide a curriculum that was innovative and new. Um we wanted to prepare students for a fast-paced digital marketing environment because that's what it is, it's changing all the time, and provide um and produce actually dynamic and knowledgeable graduate. So it's evolved over time. We started out what takes a couple years to get a program off the ground, so we went through all that and in 2014 we launched in the fall. And over time we've added classes, we've removed classes. We have moved fairly recently, actually, to a seven-week format from full semesters to seven weeks, which has been wildly successful. So we're always continuing to re-evaluate our program. It's great.

Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle

Yeah tell us about how you converted your courses to a 7-week format. Sounds like that was challenging.

Dr. Kelly Price

It was it was. Um we started the program with full semesters, but we realized that our students, you know one of the things is they wanted to either go through the program as most efficiently they could or plus we're seeing that as a trend in higher education anyway of these abbreviated courses. And I've done a lot of research on it. I've made some presentations on it, and the research is just showing that students are finding a lot of satisfaction in these swe courses. They're not less rigorous, they're not less quality, but as an instructor as a teacher, I had to really think about, okay, I'm moving 14 weeks into seven. The big mistake that a lot of people will make is I'm going to take everything I had in 14 and squish it into seven and we are going to cover every last thing right. And that just can't happen. You have to really think about what's important and what you want to give them and scale it correctly yeah. It's been a benefit for us as faculty that we're able to also have time to do some research, but it's also beneficial for the students to be really focused in that seven-week course and then to be able to move on. And it does help them. Not everybody because the schedule's different, our program is flexible like that, but they have a little more control over how many courses they want to finish in a semester, plus one more last thing that's really good from an administrator standpoint is that our students don't have to start in August. There's another touch point about halfway through October that they can come in, and that's awesome, ’cause my my kid has soccer all the way through, you know, whenever I've got a heavy schedule at work, can I come in in October? Yes, you can do that. So it's been beneficial all around. I've heard some faculty reflect that it helps them improve their course when they redesign it that way. Absolutely, absolutely, it's made it more concise, more organized, and it's just been wonderful. Yeah, I love a seven format.

Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle

So many of us have our own social media accounts, we shop online, but in digital marketing, it seems that there is more focus on helping students not just use their social media, but a focus on how to elevate their brand strategically by using data and best practices. There's a big difference, right?

Dr. Kelly Price

Well, I'm sure, well, I mean, I've seen you on social media, and how you use it, um, and I think it's done really well to promote the university, but yeah, but as an individual consumer, it's a little bit different. And so yeah but social media we have a course on social media social media and the brand and I teach it it's a lot of fun but social media is just one tool in in the whole digital marketing toolbox that it's it's fun to understand the analytics. So now here's where my consumer behaviorist is going to come out because that's my background, my Ph.D. is in human ecology, and human ecology has to do with how humans react to their environments, whether it's man-made or manufactured or whatever physical, but we have to understand the how and the why of consumers. And so social like I said data is great, but we need to understand who is generating those numbers and why they are generating those numbers um so yeah there's a big difference and social media can be a pretty dark place sometimes but it's also very useful in a branding sense.

Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle

So teaching online became highly prevalent during the pandemic but your digital marketing program is taught 100% online and has been all of the courses you teach are online, so I would love to hear your thoughts about online teaching what are the best practices and how do you keep students engaged?

Dr. Kelly Price

I love this question because I'm the biggest cheerleader for online ed that has ever been. Now if you went back and talked to me several years ago ’cause see I talk taught on ground for years and when they said you know why don't you try online I was like no I can't I don't want to do that I my students and here we are and you know all this type of stuff yeah but took the leap of faith and did it and I absolutely love it. It's a challenge, but there's so much to it. You know I've heard a lot of the hesitancy of online education it's not as good it's not as rigorous but the research just doesn't say that. It says it's at least as good if not better, but it is a challenge, but you know you've got to be organized online and have clear objectives, things like that. But I tell you the one thing that has been probably the biggest reason that I love online education that you have to have is professor presence. It's not good enough to go into a class and build it and hit go and then just sit back see that's why a lot of people think well online educators um sit around in their pajamas all day. No, no, no, no, no., we don't do that. But yes, we interact on discussion boards, and I make a lot of audios so that the students can hear my voice, and that's important for every student they get in my class. Anyway, my students get personalized feedback, and I write on their assignments, "Oh this is really cool. Thanks so much. Dr. P.” You know, so they know that I've had my eyes on their papers. And so you've got to have that professional or the professor presence to make that interaction. It can happen online. I've seen it over and over. In fact, I know my students almost better online because I know their kids and their jobs and their whatever. And you even have people, students online, who will talk more to you than they ever would have in a physical room. Those boundaries are just gone. Yeah, that engagement that they have with the faculty member is heavy, and they will call you or talk to you at 10 o'clock at night. They will send you the email, so you got to be prepared for that.

Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle

As you said, online teaching is challenging and effortful, so what advice do you have for faculty who are new to the method this method of teaching?

Dr. Kelly Price

Yeah, and like I said a second ago it's um it was it was tough for me, and I know a lot of my even my own colleagues had a you know a tough time when we went to the pandemic and we had to switch, and they had to switch that class over spring break pretty much, and I just oh I I totally understand that, so I understand why that was tough. But yeah as far as moving forward, you got to have patience. You have to have patience with the students, and you have to have patience with yourself because you'll make mistakes I promise. I have uploaded the wrong syllabus to the wrong semester, and I mean, it's just a nightmare, and the dates are wrong, but you know, you fix it. And to really listen to that feedback that they give you. I had just recently a student give me some feedback, Dr Price I had of course they're anonymous but I had you for this class and and you made audio transcripts of everything why didn't you do it on this class and I was like I don't know but I'm really glad you said that it lets me know that it's worth it. So went back and did all of that. So, um, yeah, just a little patience will take you a long way.

Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle

That's great advice.

I want to go back to your digital marketing program. I would imagine that employers are looking for people with digital marketing expertise, especially now, as you can probably imagine, most any industry needs digital marketing, and the jobs are out there, and and it's a strong job market for our students right now. So yes um it it it's it's something that can be used anywhere. So what kind of students are you looking for to be part of this program?

Dr. Kelly Price

Well, we're looking for really any student who has the desire to learn more about digital marketing. As I said, we get students from all over the place, education, food, and sports, health care, because they all need them. But some of our students, and this is fascinating, are making huge jumps. Like I talked to a potential student the other day who's going to be in our program who was a middle school English teacher wow. And you know public added is tough right now, and she's just ready to, but she was doing her social media for her school. She said I really love this, and I'd really like to move forward and I've got the skill set. She could do this for education, you know, hire it or whatever. So we're accepting her into our program and we're excited about it. It's an attractive program very attractive yeah.

Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle

Tell us a bit more about what your program prepares students to do.

Dr. Kelly Price

Sure. At this time, most of our students, not all of them, but most of them, are professional working full-time workers, and so they have, as I said before, jobs and families and things like that, so they're trying to fit in education. So I'm so glad we get to offer a product like this from ETSU that is 100% online that is quote doable for them. They can fit it in. And it prepares them even as working professionals for whatever may come next. Some of them come back to update their skills. Some of them just sort of hold it in their back pocket until they're ready to use it all kinds of reasons. And it prepares them for the new jobs that are coming, the ones that aren't even really there yet, have been invented yet, right, because those are happening all the time. And it prepares them for that working environment, where they can take what they've learned with us, such as the analytics or whatever, and place it directly into their job right then, right now, and right now, yeah, yeah.

Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle

Do you have a Capstone course in your program?

Dr. Kelly Price

We do. It is taken at the very end of the program, and generally what happens is, um, my colleague Dr. Shemwell, we're such a good team, um, he's my partner in crime in this degree program, and he's been here a long time. He was one of the professors I mentioned that I had as an undergraduate he's been a mentor to me for years. But he's generally the one who oversees this and the student and and he will collaborate generally with something at their workplace. They're working on something that's practical and, quote, real-world, you know, as we say in academia, non-academic, and they're able to take that forward and use it.

Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle

What is your favorite course to teach?

Dr. Kelly Price

My students will 100% know the answer to this if they listen. Consumer Behavior. I come from a consumer background and with human ecology and consumer sciences and it's Consumer Behavior. The way I tell them is, is there another course in digital marketing or marketing that you could have without the consumer? Everybody goes oh no. I'm like, so I've got a really good argument for why everybody in the world needs to take Consumer Behavior. We are one it's relatable. A lot of my students will say, " Oh, that's what I've been doing, we're putting a name to what you do every day, that's why something like The Price is Right has been on for a hundred years, because everybody understands or has a relationship with price, it's consumerism. And consumerism will sometimes get a bad rap you know and but consumerism can be a wonderful thing as well but we have to understand the why yeah behind those numbers there is a person somewhere with motivations and attitudes and all those types of things of why they are buying something and those generate the analytics so me and my qualitative self and the quantitative colleagues I have we get to have some good debates on I say but why are they doing this you know I drive them just a little crazy but consumer behavior is just my passion I just love it it's great.

Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle

It sounds like such a fun course.

Dr. Kelly Price

Oh, it's fascinating, it's a little bit of psychology, it's the psychology side of marketing, really interesting, yes.

Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle

What led you to want to become a faculty member?

Dr. Kelly Price

That's so funny because I I didn't know I was going to be I remember this it's amazing it it's in my mind so vividly when I was in my graduate program here in the master's program in communication I was sitting in Warf pickle it was Dr Roberts and many people will remember him and his communication research course and I just remember sitting there going it just hit me I'm like I've got to go on I've got to go get my PhD it just hit me and I could go back to that room right now exactly where I sat W and remembering that plus I come from a family I know a lot of your other your other guests have said this as well but I come from family of Educators a lot of teachers we have five Ph.D.s in my family we're getting ready to produce another one um my brother is a graduate of ETSU in history and he went on my mom is an ELPA graduate my dad went here and my sister-in-law teaches here so we're all over the place Thanksgiving can get very interesting one of my uh Ph.D. uncles is an astrophysicist so I don't know if you would call it interesting or boring but when we get together it's it's something and we all have you know goofy t-shirts on and things like that awesome yeah so it was a little bit of Fate I think so I would say so.

Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle

The last question I have for every guest: what impact do you hope your students will make on the world?

Dr. Kelly Price

That is such a hopeful question isn't it? And we need that right now. My I've always said that my purpose as an educator is to help my students find theirs, find their purpose, and I truly believe that I am a facilitator to them that I can get them started. Here's some knowledge now run with it. I just hope that they will find and I can help them move on to find their purpose in this world and to be happy doing it. I'm not here to make their lives stressful, get in their way, stop them, any of those things. I'm here to make sure that you find your purpose and be happy and it just really comes down to that for me.

Provost Kimberly D. McCorkle

That's great, so inspiring. Thank you.

Thank you for listening to Why I Teach. For more information on Dr. Price or this podcast series visit the ETSU Provost website at etsu.edu/provost. You can follow me on Twitter at ETSU Provost, and if you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to like and subscribe to Why I Teach wherever you listen to your podcasts.

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