Course Objectives

Although this course provides an understanding of the evolving Internet technologies, it primarily explores the business implications of these fascinating developments. It explores the tools, skills, and business and social implications of emergence of electronic commerce in the cyberspace. In addition to acquiring basic skills for navigating the Internet and creating personal and business electronic presence on the World Wide Web, the students reexamine fundamental processes of business as it is performed in the cyberspace in contrast to the marketplace. This helps the students evolve a perspective about the business in the next century and helps them understand changes as the cyberspace grows increasingly important in the global economy. Through guest speakers and hands-on use of Internet-based multimedia resources, the course exposes students to some of the resources and technologies enabling the emergence of the cyberspace. 

Experience with programming languages is not required, although a willingness to experiment with and explore this emerging technology in addition to the basic computer literacy is required. 

Behavioral Objectives

Upon completing this course the students should: 

1. have a general understanding of the Internet and related technologies 
2. be able to retrieve marketing and other research information from the Internet 
3. understand the current major obstacles for electronic commerce and its future 
4. understand the legal aspects of the Internet and related developments 
5. understand the potential influence of cyberspace on business in general and specific industries in particular 
6. understand the costs and benefits of electronic commerce 
7. understand current trends in the use of Internet for commerce and other purposes 
8. be able to manage the development of electronic commerce capabilities in a company 

Learning by discussion is both an effective and exciting pedagogical experience. This process requires the active involvement of all participants, in this case students and instructor, although the instructor's function is primarily that of a catalyst, facilitator and evaluator in a collaborative learning experience. It is therefore essential that everyone participates as fully as possible. The framework for this participation will include textbook assignments, supplemental readings, video tapes, and guest speakers, all designed to help to convey the main body of knowledge and to stimulate the desired critical thinking. The most effective learning will result from students' involvement in critical thinking through class presentation and discussion as well as through homework assignments. 

• No Book Initially!
• Other readings will be required; many are available on the Web and the rest will be provided as handouts.
• Access to the Internet, a personal email account, and the Netscape Browser will be required. Students can use computer laboratories at DePaul University or any other means to access the Internet. 
• Web Space will be provided by the instructor for class projects. A team web project will be required this quarter. Web development tools and space will be provided.

There is no midterm/final examination scheduled, however it is the instructors discretion to give a final or not. Additionally, there will be groups of teams formed to work collaboratively during the quarter. During the quarter, each student and collective group will be continuously evaluated both online and in the classroom to determine their progress and participation.

The following table will be used in converting your numeric grade into an official letter grade for the course:

Final course grades within two points of a boundary between grades will be modified with + or -. 

Careful and timely reading and study as well as completion of all written assignments by the expected dates is critical to success in this course. Text readings will precede coverage of the material in class to facilitate active participation in class discussions. 

In class, instructor will highlight specific areas only, answer questions on the covered material, and then ask questions. This will stimulate discussion. Do not expect full-coverage lectures. Make notes when reading the assignments. Students can then highlight material that is appropriate during class coverage. 

It will be difficult to complete the assignments effectively the night before a session. Space them over at least two nights and do the readings first. 

Students are encouraged to be "entrepreneurial" in their approach to the class, in their assignments, and in their class presentations and interactions. Students' observations or experiences, and how they might relate to the subject at hand, have the potential to enhance the class sessions. Please share those of value so that you may be a resource to all participants, including instructor. Students are also encouraged to employ the systems perspective and wear the "manager's hat" in relating to the issues so that we will be able to think about them critically from multiple dimensions.

Note: The following and several other pedagogical approaches were adopted from the Instructor's Manual that accompanies the third edition of Sprague, R.H., Jr. and McNurlin, B.C., Information Systems Management in Practice, Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1993.

This is a subjective evaluation of student's contribution in class and online unstructured discussion of the reading assignments, questions and guest lectures. The evaluation will consider the quality of the contribution as well as the frequency of participation. Completion of reading assignments and homework is essential to full participation. Of the 30% which is allotted, a grade will be prorated weekly as follows: 

As can be seen, students are expected to attend classes and participate Online. Not attending a class will have an influence on this portion of grade since participation is impossible if student is not in class.

Student's attendance at scheduled classes is expected and will be recorded. More than two unexcused absences will result in a failing grade. If students are absent, they are still expected to make arrangements to submit their written assignments when they are due, to obtain the following week's assignments and handout material (if any), and to complete the assignments and submit them by the assigned due date. One absence can adversely affect the participation level for multiple classes unless student plans ahead and/or recovers quickly.

Assignments will consist of: 

1. Readings from the Assigned Articles (see course schedule) 
2. Selected Supplemental readings (when assigned) 
3. Individual Presentation Assignments for each class: 
4. Team/individual Web Page development  
5. One Case Assignment; 
6. PGP Technology Assignment; 
7. Case Analysis write-up of real client web presence (option)  
8. The evaluation of existing websites as a critique of the studies learned during the quarter.  

All written assignments must be in typed form and are expected on their due date. Penalty for late submission is as follows: up to one day late - 50% grade reduction, after two days late or is discussed in the next class - 100% grade reduction.

Responses to the written assignments questions are graded on a three point scale (excellent, average, unacceptable). Lumped together, these will be normalized to account for articulated % of the grade. 

Students should prepare and hand in their assignments containing the header in the memorandum format: 

Students should use this format for all homework assignments. 

Assignments:

Academic Honesty

Academic dishonesty is a serious offense and will not be tolerated.  Any student found plagiarizing or otherwise cheating on assignments will receive a grade of "F" for the course and will be subject to disciplinary action under DePaul University regulations.  Please review the DePaul University Student Handbook. 

Class Schedule

Business Case Research Projects

Every student will work on one group project which will be assigned by the instructor. The project will consist of analyzing and furthering the online business of a selected real business. Project teams will be assigned a particular business (from a selected list of 3-5 sites), attempt to further their online business case and ultimately present a report of the business, the results of their efforts and any lessons learned.

The goal of these projects is to analyze either a company's experience with its use of electronic commerce or the potential of a company or a whole industry for using these technologies to achieve a competitive advantage. Some observers expect a major restructuring not only at the organizational level and not even just at the level of an industry, but across the whole society and globally. How are organizations and industries reacting and adjusting to this challenge? We can learn from individual cases and try to develop some generalizations.

Each team of five students should analyze an organization and evaluate its marketspace potential or strategy. How is the industry very likely going to be influenced by the establishment of the marketspace? How has or should the organization adjust? What is going to happen to the late movers? Any kind of organization is interesting from a small business to the Fortune 100 international corporation.

The final report may include the sections listed below (adopted from Mitra, A.K., Building a Corporate Internet Strategy: The IT Manager's Guide, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1996) but may have different structure depending on the nature of a project and the type of a company.

1. Characteristics of the current organizational environment
   • Operational environment
   • Functions and/or activities
   • Performance and interface requirements
2. Purpose to be served by the use of the electronic commerce (EC) technology
   • Potential organizational environment (describe scenarios at a high level--how will the EC technologies be used and for which business functions; include one or more of the following: competitive analysis, communication, financial transactions, marketing and promotion, sales and distribution, customer support, business and economic statistics, industry analysis, and so forth)
   • Internet services in the context of specific business functions (including users, mission, how, why)
3. Impact
   • Improvement to core processes
   • Support and commitment costs
4. Strategy recommendations
   • High growth
   • Low growth

Web site Development

The instructor will provide each team with their own production web space on a Corporate Web Server. Teams of students will get access, be provided with tools and develop a web site during the course of the quarter. The site will be critiqued, modified, grown and viewed publicly through out the course of the quarter.

Students will be given access to online tools, downloadable tools, web resources, books, articles, journals, and what ever else is available in order to help the development process. The graphical element, design, layout, look and feel, as well as business purpose will be evaluated relative to the confines of the course and time allocated.

Web site Critique

For the final class, the student groups will make a formal presentation of an in-depth review of a selected website.  The group will consider four or five websites for review by the fourth class and will be submitted to the Instructor for concurrence.  From the four websites, the students will select one site for a review based upon the studies during the quarter.  The readings, case studies, and class discussions will be the fundamental basis for developing the positive aspects and characteristics of the site.  Constructive recommendations will be formulated for improvement to the site (the students should be prepared to send the recommendations to the webmaster for future website enhancements).  The students will complete a 7-10 minute presentation in the final class outlining their findings and recommendations.  The format of the presentation will utilize the actual website for the class presentation.  A two page summary of the findings and recommendations will be submitted for the final class.

This page is maintained by Matthew R. Versaggi who can be reached at matt@versaggi.com. Special recognition is given to Sasa Dekleva who can be reached at sdekleva@condor.depaul.edu.