Background
I was nearing the completion of my eBusiness MBA at Laval Univesity (Quebec-city). Instead of going the traditional thesis route the program required us to apply our learning in a real business environment. The head of the department, noticing the experience I had in the online field, my passion for analytics and my presence on the honor roll, suggested I could develop a new online class on the topic of web analytics.The initial version was a classic approach aimed at undergraduate students, starting with "history of web analytics" and addressing the various aspects of analysis: traffic sources, on-site behavior, outcomes, etc. Although the University liked it, the "analytics is hard" debate was raging on - so I went on to study why so many organisations are failing at web analytics and few really achieve outstanding results. The concept of the Web Analytics Maturity Model emerged. Six key process areas were identified - things that must be present to achieve success. This became the basis for one of the first graduate level, full semester, business oriented, 360 degree view of online analytics. The term "Web" was later replaced with "Online", as highlighted by the course objectives.
MRK-6005: Analytiques web
3 credits - graduate Level - 100% online course, available in the following programs (in French):- MBA specialized in eBusiness
- MBA specialized in Marketing
- MBA specialized in Business Management
- Graduate microprogram in eBusiness
- Online marketing and new media (Graduate-level microprogam)
Licensing: I fully own the rights to this course and collaboration with other approved universities is welcomed.
Fees: Quebec residents ~275$, Canadian residents: ~650$, international students: ~1,500$
Course objectives
If analytics is the science of analysis, and analysis is the process of breaking a complex topic or substance into smaller parts to gain a better understanding of it (1) - online analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and transformation of various sources of data (qualitative & quantitative) into insight for the purposes of understanding and optimizing online business processes. Online analytics can be viewed as a subset of business intelligence: the skills, processes, technologies, applications and practices used to support decision making (2) - and business analysis: the discipline of identifying business needs and determining solutions to business problems... process improvement, organizational change or strategic planning and policy development. (3)Specific objectives
- Develop a data-driven approach to ebusiness and interactive marketing management
- Allow future managers to make decisions based on the most optimal and realistic solutions in a fast paced and continuously evolving environment
- Demonstrate how business performance measurement, user-centered design, effective communication, and an analytical approach to problem solving can be leveraged to better understand who are the online users, their goals, and how the business can and should fulfill those needs more effectively.
Learning approach
Each module introduces a new concept, ranging from introductory to more complex business situations, that can be readily applied in a real working environment thanks to the precious collaboration of business partners. Selected lectures, discussion forums, quizzes, weekly short assignments, live chat sessions and videos contributes to the learning environment. A final assignment, based on a real, live business environment, offers the greatest opportunity to put theory into practice.Topics
The course length is 15 weeks/modules:- Introduction: basic concepts of online analytics
- Technologies: logs, tags, cookies and other considerations
- Concepts: from business goals to online objectives, user-centered design, personas, persuasion architecture
- Developing analytical skills: the role of statistics in online analytics
- Developing analytical skills: base metrics, multiplicity and conversions
- Developing analytical skills: key performance indicators, dashboards and effective communication
- Developing analytical skills: optimization through a/b and multivariate testing
- The analysis process: leveraging problem solving and methodologies (SixSigma/Lean, Wireframes, BPMN)
- Analysis: marketing analysis & optimization
- Analysis: social media and mobile analytics
- Analysis: site optimization, workflows and competition
- Managing analytics: change management, developing the culture and adoption of analytics within political & ethical boundaries
- Business intelligence and business analysis
- Synthesis: course review, innovations and the future of online analytics
- Semester assignment delivery & grading
12 comments:
Keep going with your great work Stéphane. I guess everyone is impatient to see your english version of the class.
Congratulation Stephane! Please let us know when the english version will be available :)
I followed this course this semester and it was a real pleasure. I am in my first year of master degree so I didn't have lot of knowledge in web analytics. But the topics are relevant and really well organized so I learned step by step. The videos each week, the excellent lectures, the exchanges between students and the teacher in the forums, the weekly homeworks... Everything is made to increase our knowledge in web analytics by enjoying it! By the way, Stephane is an excellent teacher :-)
Thank you for those 4 months !
I also followed Stephane's course at the ULaval this semester and I would strongly recommend it to anybody interested in Web Analytics. He was able to take complicated subject and make it seem so easy. It really shows that he knows what he's talking about.
The way that he had his information divided was done in a very logical manner...it made my job way easier to follow this course at a distance.
Kudos for living up to the challenge!
Very enthusiastic, Stéphane is an expert in Web Analytics.
As a teacher, he has a passion for e-business that students can share
This course is essential for Sales and Marketing practitioner
I followed this class with Stephane about a year ago. Good stuff! Looking at this outline again, I find it to be very customer centric which is obviously what every (online) business should be. However, one of the problem I always struggle with is defining proper operational objectives. It's one thing to associate a strategic objective to a specific persona and to define KPIs that will measure the outcome(s) to be achieved, but what about operational objectives? How can we link general operational objectives to specific personas? Is it a good thing to have general impersonal operational objectives or should web managers only consider operations if they support strategic objectives?
The way I see it, there are 3 levels of objectives. 1) General business objectives. 2) Strategic objectives. 3) Operational objectives. In a perfect world, operational objectives should support strategic objectives that should allow general business objectives to be achieved.
Let's say, for example, that a business objective is to improve by 15% the the profit from the Web channel within 6 months from now.
Once I have defined this general objective, I can digg into qualitative and quantitative data in order to understand what's the best strategy for it to be achieved. Maybe I will end up with a strategic objective like : by summer 2011, keyword xyz will be in the top 3 results of Google which will generate 10% more sales for this product/service, and so on. Good.
Now, what about defining an operational objective which will support implicitely this strategic objective? For example: by summer 2011, my main domain authority will have increased by 5 % which will ???...
Here is where I always get confused. I'm sure it's not a bad thing to increase my main domain authority or even my specific product/service page authority in order to help me achieve my strategic goal. But how can I link one to another? Do I have to link them both?
I would love to hear your thoughts on that.
Best,
kinaze
JF Belisle: thanks! I'm just waiting for the ULaval admin to confirm the English availability.
Kamal: you'll hear about it! :)
Camille, S.Mallet and Alain: quoi dire de plus que "merci!" :)
Kinaze: this is a big question that could make a good post! Here's my thought process:
1) is the 15% even realist? Based on historical data I would confirm if it makes sense or not
2) operational objective: we don't have a complete picture but maybe you don't know? maybe you can not define such a tactical objective? maybe the best you can do is make an hypothesis and test to confirm if your action really contributes to the objective? And re-adjust quickly if it doesn't... Remember: most optimal and realistic solution in the current business context, as part of a continuous improvement process :)
I followed this course and it definitly was a great experience. Stephane bring the online course to a higher level. I decided to follow this course to improve my marketing competencies and add tools to my business activities. I have no regrets. It definitly hepled me. I helped me to get new ideas. Now, I will be able to effectively mesure the results.
If your are concerned about your business and would like to enhance your Web activities, this is a tool you need.
Fantastic class! Stephane has a great pedagogy. The class is very well structured and a excellent balance of theory and practice. I was able to apply many concepts in my actual job. I really enjoyed this class and highly recommend it. Thank you Stephane for sharing your knowledge of web analytic.
I'm a student at Laval University. I'm on my last year of MBA Marketing. The Web Anayltics course I had with Stephan Hamel was probably one of the most interesting and enriching I've had at Laval University.
I was brand new to the Web analytics subject and almost everything was a new learning for me.
The strucutre of the course was very good put together. The lectures and the weekly homeworks really help me to absorb the teaching material.
I admit that sometimes I had to look for others sources to completely understand some of the concepts. I guess that for me it would have been better to take an "in class" course (instead of the online version) because of the newness of most of the subjects.
I strongly recommend this course to all Marketing students because of the importance that the Web 2.0 and 3.0 have on business and marketing practices.
Pierre-André, Catherine, Alma: Wow! If you wanted to make me a XMas present - consider it done :)
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