Teaching marketing technology for market relevance: course design, delivery, and student perceptions

As marketing practice becomes increasingly technology-enabled, marketing educators face growing pressure to ensure that courses remain relevant and equip students with the skills needed to prepare for contemporary marketing careers. Despite the central role of marketing technology (Martech) in modern organizations, undergraduate students often receive limited and fragmented exposure to the Martech landscape. This paper examines the intentional design, implementation, and assessment of an undergraduate Marketing Technology course developed to address this gap. The course was offered across three semesters and combined content related to understanding the Martech ecosystem and effectively developing a Martech stack. Throughout the semester, students are exposed to various categories of Martech and the tools and platforms that are used to assist with marketing activities and decision making. Using both quantitative and qualitative data collected across all three offerings, this study examines students’ perceptions of course relevance, confidence, career preparation, and overall value of the course. Findings indicate that upon course completion, students consistently reported perceiving the course as relevant and supportive of career readiness. Implications for marketing educators seeking to integrate marketing technology into undergraduate curricula are discussed.