Dr Suzanne Tan Ser Zian

Dr Suzanne Tan Ser Zian

  • Senior Lecturer
  • Programme Leader - Master of Marketing
Department of Marketing Strategy & Innovation

Biography

Prior to joining the education industry, Suzanne was working as an advertising executive in the service sector. In 2008, she was awarded the UTAR-Nottingham Scholarship for Postgraduate study to continue her postgraduate study at University of Nottingham, Ningbo (China). Upon her completion of study, she spent 5 years teaching advertising and marketing-related subjects at the School of Arts & Social Science, UTAR. During her 5 years of service, she was also appointed as the Head of Department (Advertising) for a term of 2 years. She later worked at Taylor’s University where she was appointed as the Programme Director for Advertising and Broadcasting programmes. She was actively involved in providing essential supports to facilitate school-related academic research activities as well as programme review exercises.

Her passion and enthusiasm in teaching is what uplifting her career in academia for more than 10 years. In 2018, she was awarded Bronze medal for AKRI national competition (category-transformative teaching alternative assessment award), and Gold recipient of SPARK Award for her innovative teaching methods. Suzanne believes that establishing a chemistry of trust between the students and lecturers is significant to promote a meaningful teaching-learning experience.

Her research interests lie in the area of consumer behaviour and new media effects. She has collaborated actively with researchers in several other disciplines (e.g., e-learning and positive youth). She has also presented papers at few international conferences and doctoral colloquiums, papers published on SCOPUS-indexed journal and conference proceedings. Reading and writing is what she does most during free time, other than travelling.

Academic & Professional Qualifications

  • PhD in Business (Marketing), Monash University, 2020
  • MA International Communication, University of Nottingham, 2009
  • Bachelor in Mass Communication (Hons) Advertising, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, 2007
  • Diploma in Mass Communication (Hons) Graphic Design, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, 2005

Teaching Areas

  • Marketing

Courses Taught

  • Research Method
  • Publicity & Media Writing
  • Integrated Marketing Communication

Notable Publications

2020 -

Hassim, N., Tan, S. Z., and Jayasainan, S. Y. . The influence of peer engagement on voting among Malaysian youths through social networking sites, SEARCH Journal of Media and Communication Research, 12(3), p.125-144. Online ISSN: 2672-7080.

2018 -

Tan, S. Z., Hassim, N., Jayasainan, S. Y., and Gan, C. K. . Effects of Task-technology Fit and Learning Styles on continuance intention to use e-learning app. 17th European Conference of E-learning (ECEL) , Athens 1-2 November 2018, p. 539-546.

2018 -

Tan, S. Z., Low, K. H., Watabe, M., Tjitono, F., and Lin, Y. . Cutting through the advertising clutter: The influence of ad-context familiarity on attention and external search behavior. AMA Winter Marketing Educators’ Conference Proceedings , New Orleans, 23-25 February 2018, p. E23-E29.

2015 -

Tan, S. Z., Inderjit, K., and Priscilla, M., and Kok, M. . An exploratory study of Community of Inquiry (Col) constructs towards collaborative and reflective learning in the Edublogs, INTED Proceedings, Madrid, 2-4 MARCH 2015. ISBN:978-84-606-5763-7.

2015 -

Lee, M.N., Tan, S. Z., and Woo, S. . Happiness and meaningful engagement through teaching and learning english workshop: A UNHCR community-based project. Proceedings of USM International Conference on Social Science , Universiti Sains Malaysia, 27-28 August 2015, p. 58-65.

2015 -

Lee, M.N., Gan, P. L., and Tan, S. Z. . Globalization through community-based projects: Enhancing civic attitudes and competence skills through community-based projects, International Journal of Social Science and Humanity, 5(12), pp. 1003-1008. ISSN:2010-3646.

2014 -

Lee, M., Gan, P. L., and Tan, S. Z. . Globalization through community-based projects: Enhancing civic attitudes and competence skills through community-based projects, 4th International Conference on Humanities, Society and Culture, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. ISBN:2010-3646

2014 -

Lee, M., Tan, S. Z., and Gan, P. L. . The relationship between youth’s civic attitudes and competence skills, International Conference on Social Science and Management, Kyoto, Japan, 7-9 May 2014. ISBN:978-986-89536-9-7.

2012 -

Inderjit, K., Lee, M.N., and Tan, S.Z. . Acceptance of blog: The engagement of students towards positive learning in higher learning institution, The Proceedings of the 11th European Conference on e-Learning, University of Groningen, Netherlands, 26-27 OCT , p. 634-637.

Achievements & Accolades

2018 -
Awarded Gold Award for Taylor’s University SPARK award for Excellence in Teaching,
2018 -
Awarded Bronze Medal for International University Carnival on E-learning (IUCEL) Poster Presentation, 2018
2018 -
Awarded Best Poster Presentation at ECEL Conference at University of Groningen, 2018
2018 -
Awarded Bronze Award for the transformative teaching alternative assessment award at AKRI competition,
2017 -
Awarded Bronze Award for Taylor’s University SPARK award for Excellence in Teaching,
2015 -
Awarded Best Paper (Early Stage) at Monash University 9th Doctoral Colloquium,
2011 -
UTAR Outstanding Teaching Performance, -2012
2008 -
Awarded UTAR-Nottingham Scholarship for Postgraduate study,

Professional Associations

  1. Member of American Marketing Association (AMA), since December 2017