A course for universities and continuing education
Marketing a Message
in the Age of AI
This course helps organizations with a message reach the people they seek to serve, earn their trust, encourage participation and sustain their involvement in an age when many people turn first to an AI assistant. It is written for the many kinds of organizations with a message: wellness, personal development, conflict resolution, public health, humanitarian work, social and civic causes, philanthropy, and more.
- 15-week graduate course, 3 credits
- 6-week continuing-education course, 1.5 CEUs
- Complete teaching kit for instructors
A course built for organizations with a message
An organization with a message exists to help people understand, adopt or act on an idea. What it offers is taken up over time, not bought, and its standing rests on trust. Standard marketing courses assume the opposite: a product, a quick decision, success measured in sales.
This course starts from those differences. Students learn to diagnose what holds an organization back before anyone spends money, to see how search engines and AI assistants describe it, to separate its own voice from independent evidence, to remove dead ends and pressure from the routes to taking part, and to measure what actually matters.
Real organizations
Graduate teams work all term with a real partner organization. Continuing-education participants work on their own. Every assignment produces something the organization can use.
Ready to teach
Every session has a slide deck with full speaker notes: timing, key points, common misreadings, and how to run each exercise, in person or online.
Provided to instructors
The syllabi and a sample week are open to all. The full kit is sent at no cost to verified instructors, who register their course before teaching it and may then adapt the materials. The only cost to students is the book, which is available on Amazon as an ebook for just US$0.99.
Choose your format
This course helps organizations with a message reach the people they seek to serve, earn their trust, encourage participation and sustain their involvement in an age when many people turn first to an AI assistant. It is written for the many kinds of organizations with a message: wellness, personal development, conflict resolution, public health, humanitarian work, social and civic causes, philanthropy, and more.
Universities
15-week graduate course
- 3 semester credits (a 12-week quarter version is included)
- One 2.5-hour seminar a week
- Teams of 3–4 work all term with a real partner organization
- Seven assignments, ending with a 90-day plan presented to the partner
- For master’s programs in nonprofit management, public administration, strategic communication and marketing
Course approval packet
Catalog entry, curriculum map, credit hours, Special Topics route, ethics-board note
Everything for the graduate course: 15 slide decks with speaker notes, instructor guide, assignments with worked examples, rubrics, templates, partner agreement and recruitment letter, case pack and answer guide, reading list, and course modules ready to import into Canvas, Moodle, Blackboard or D2L. Sent by email after we check your details.
Continuing education
6-week course for practitioners
- 15 contact hours, 1.5 CEUs
- Six weekly 2.5-hour sessions, in person, online or self-paced
- Each participant works on their own organization, with a peer reviewer
- Three assignments, ending with a 30-day plan
- For continuing-education schools, professional associations and certificate programs
Everything for the continuing-education course: 15 slide decks with speaker notes, instructor guide, assignments with worked examples, rubrics, templates, case pack, reading list, and course modules ready to import into Canvas, Moodle, Blackboard or D2L. Sent by email after we check your details.
Sample week
Week 2 in full: the slide deck as PDF, the same deck in PowerPoint with speaker notes, and the assignment it prepares, with a worked example and the rubric. ZIP, about 5 MB. Free to share for evaluation.
What’s in the kit
For planning and approval
Two syllabi (15-week graduate, 6-week continuing education), a program description, and an approval packet with everything a curriculum committee asks for. A route for running the course next term under a Special Topics number.
For teaching
Fifteen slide decks, one per week: PDF for presenting, and PowerPoint with full speaker notes. An instructor guide covering preparation, sensitive material, and what to check before each term.
For students
Seven assignment sheets, each with a worked example, rubrics with scoring sheets, weekly reading-response questions, and a peer evaluation form. A reading list with links and access notes.
For fieldwork
Editable templates of the book’s working tools: AI Observation Sheet, Claim and Evidence Register, Pressure Audit, Test Log, Route Map, Audience Listening Brief and 90-day plan. A partner agreement, a recruitment letter, and a case pack for teams without a partner.
For your course site
The whole course, ready to import into Canvas, Moodle, Blackboard or D2L Brightspace: a module for each week with the reading, slides, discussion question and assignment, plus the syllabus, rubric and templates. Add your dates and submission links, and the course site is ready.
The course at a glance
The 15-week course follows the book’s seven parts, with one real partner organization all term and seven assignments that build on one another. The 6-week course covers one part a week: weeks 1–2 and 3–5 become week 1, and each later part takes one week.
Weeks
Part of the book
What students do
1–2
Before you optimize
Find the real constraint; map the journey offline
3–5
Foundations
Define the outcome; listen to the audience; write a claim strangers understand
6–8
Being found
Audit how search engines and AI assistants find, describe and cite the partner
9–10
Being believed
Separate the partner’s own voice from independent evidence; answer critics openly
11
Routes to participation
Walk every route as a stranger; mark dead ends and handoffs
12–13
Nurture
Read first-contact replies as a skeptic; audit a year of messages for pressure
14–15
Measurement and the long game
Read a live test on the right rung; present a 90-day plan to the partner
Marketing a Message
in the Age of AI
J.M. Bonthous · Sky7 Media
The required text
Marketing a Message in the Age of AI is the book the course is built on and named after. It sets out 47 principles, each a chapter, with three composite cases followed through the book and appendices of working tools. The course follows its order.
The book is published separately and is not covered by the course license. It is available on Amazon as an ebook for just US$0.99.
How to adopt the course
1
Read the syllabus for your format and download the sample week, then request the full kit, the syllabus and the Instructor Guide. Together they take about an hour.
2
Choose the format: 15 weeks for 3 semester credits, 12 weeks for a quarter, or 6 weeks for continuing education.
3
Take it through approval, using the approval packet, or offer it next term under an existing Special Topics number. Continuing-education programs can use the two-page program description.
4
Recruit partner organizations six to eight weeks before the term, with the recruitment letter and the partner agreement. (Not needed for the 6-week course.)
5
Register your course before it starts, if you did not when requesting the kit. Registration carries no fee and is the permission to teach with it.
6
Order the book for your students, or ask your library to.
Request the full kit
The full kit is sent by email to instructors and program staff, at no cost. We check each request first, usually within ten working days, and send the download link to the address you give.
Teaching with the kit requires permission. If you plan to teach the course, this request also registers it. Registering includes agreeing that your name, your institution or organization and the term may be listed on this page as users of the course. Registered instructors receive updates and corrections before each term.
You can also request it by email to info@sky7media.com with the same details, from your institutional address.
Where the course is taught
Programs that have registered the course, with their permission.
The first programs to register will be listed here.
Questions
What does it cost?
Nothing for instructors or institutions. The syllabi and a sample week are open to everyone; the full kit is sent at no cost once we have checked your details, and there is no fee for teaching it once your course is registered. Students buy the book.
Why do you check requests and list users?
So we know where the course is taught, can send each instructor updates and corrections before every term, and can tell programs considering the course who else uses it. That is why registering a course includes agreeing to be listed.
Can I change the materials?
Yes, once your course is registered: adapt the syllabus to your institution, cut or add weeks, rewrite the slides. Give credit: “Adapted from Marketing a Message in the Age of AI by J.M. Bonthous.” Please don’t post or pass on the kit; colleagues request their own copy.
Who can teach it?
Faculty or practitioners with experience in communications, fundraising, outreach or program work for an organization with a message. No technical background in search engine optimization or coding is needed. The approval packet sets out the qualifications and the preparation time.
Does it work online?
Yes. Both syllabi cover live online teaching, and the slides’ speaker notes give an online version of every in-class exercise. A self-paced version of the 6-week course is described in its syllabus.
Can I load it into our learning management system?
Yes. The kit includes the course as a Common Cartridge file, the standard import format for Canvas, Moodle, Blackboard and D2L Brightspace. Importing it creates a module for each week; you add your dates and submission links.
The AI material changes fast. How do I keep it current?
The Instructor Guide lists exactly what to check before each term. Corrections and updates are posted on this page and sent to every registered instructor.
Can I get help?
Questions and corrections are welcome at info@sky7media.com and are answered within ten working days. There is no live teaching support: the kit is designed so an instructor can teach the course without it.
Updates and corrections
Version 1, November 2026. First release. Corrections will be listed here with the date and the file affected. Before each term, check that you have the latest version of the kit.
© 2026 J.M. Bonthous / Sky7media. The syllabi, program description, approval packet and sample week may be shared freely for evaluation. The full kit is
sent to verified instructors; teaching with it requires registration. The book is published separately.
Contact: info@sky7media.com