BUAD 884: Marketing and Electronic Commerce, Spring 1998

Last updated, May 18, 1998
But the most current Ecommerce class is here!!

Contact Information

Class Webpage: http://www.udel.edu/alex/mecomm/
Instructor: Bob Kent
Phone: 831-1780
Email: kentr@be.udel.edu 		Instructor: Alex Brown
Phone: 831-4596
Email: alex@udel.edu

Course Description

This course is designed to familiarize students with the emergence and importance of electronic commerce. The course will give students a clear understanding of the field of electronic commerce as well as the skills to develop electronic commerce applications (on the web).

Course Schedule

The following course schedule is tentative and subject to change. Change should be anticipated given the nature of this course and the availability of guestspeakers. The session on Database Marketing Issues is likely to appear earlier in the semester.

Each session will also include issues relating to:

The remaining class sessions will be used for group project presentations.

Session Number Session Title Readings Tasks Guest Speakers
1 Emergence and Importance of Electronic Commerce HTML Intro. 1 Demystifying the Internet Buy Text NA
2 WWW as a Medium WWW as a medium, Why the Web, WWW Information & Text Chps. 1 & 3 HTML Intro. 2 Bye-Bye NA Tom Stevenson, CIO, WSFS
3 Virtual Value Chain Exploiting the Virtual value Chain HBR & Text Chp. 10 HTML Intro. 3 Resume Ass. Patty Kingery, Market Developer, Hewlett Packard
4 WWW Advertising Models/Community Development HTML Intro. 4 David Shepherd, General Manager, netWatchinc
5 Customer Service & Product Development Issues HTML Intro. 5 Customer Support, Intra/Extranets Design Tips 1 Text Chp. 11 Project Proposal, Resource Guide Ass. NA
6 Retailing and Payment Issues Retailing 1 & Retailing 2 Secure Electronic Transactions Text Chps. 5, 6 & 8 Design Tips 2 HTML Intro 6 NA NA
7 Promotional Issues Promotion 1, Promotion 2 & Promotion 3 HTML Intro. 7 Project Scope NA
8 Anatomy of a Virtual Business Spacecubes | Monorail This "Virtual" Company Is For Real Who's writing the Book on Web Business? NA NA
9 Anatomy of the Marketplace Who is online? CyberAtlas GVU's WWW User Surveys In Search of the Perfect Market, Economist BargainFinder Agent Price Watch Priceline.com A Framework for Global Electronic Commerce NA NA
10 Database Marketing Issues NA NA NA
11 SAP Information Center Achim Voermanek, SAP
12 A look at the future* NA NA Jeff Saylor, Worldwide Managing Principal, Network and Desktop Consulting, Unisys
Remaining Sessions Project Presentations NA NA NA
*Tentative title
**To be scheduled

Course readings

The class requires the text:
Kalakota, Ravi, and Andrew B. Whinston
Electronic Commerce: A Managers Guide
Addison-Wesley, 1997

Various readings will also be assigned prior to the classes. If there is an assigned reading for a session number, the reading must be completed before the session.

WWW Resources

General readings: Advertising Age - Articles and Opinions | News.com | Internet World | Web Marketing Today | HotWired | Fast Company
HTML Guides: A Beginner's Guide to HTML | The Bare Bones Guide to HTML | Web Site Garage
Graphics: CopyRight Free Graphics | Web Safe Colors Chart
WWW Counter:Web Counter

Course Assignments

Assignment 1: Develop a resume to be posted on WWW.
This assignment serves two purposes.
  1. It familiarizes you with writing web documents.
  2. It will augment your impending job search (full-time students).
This assignment should be completed by the third session of the semester. For additional information on writing your web document and hosting it on your own account you can use the following Web Publishing Resources.
If you are a part-time student, and do not wish to develop your web-resume, then you should create a phantom resume.
Resumes for assignment 1.
Your resume will be worth 10% of your course grade.

Assignment 2:Business Resource Page
Develop a business web-page that looks at information gathered from the web focusing on a particular type of business/interest/hobby. This assignment is designed to familiarize you with the effective use of search engines on the web. This is due by the fifth session of the class.

The resource page should include links to appropriate sites with a descriptive statement regarding the site as a resource. The guide must link to at least 10 resources. The resource guide can focus on a particular industry, product, hobby or country. The choice must be approved by Alex. Your page will be linked to the class Resource Guide
The business resource page will be worth 10% of the course grade.

Assignment 3: Group project
Students will form groups of four or five students. Groups must be established by the second week of class.

The group project will be to develop a corporate web-site. This will include:

  1. Needs assessment
  2. Identify target audience(s) and purposes the audience(s) will have in accessing the website.
  3. WWW mission statement
  4. Objectives for the web-site
  5. Assess the domain of information required
  6. Develop a working web-site
  7. Client presentation
This project will take the entire semester, and the classes will be structured around developing this project.

The following are due dates for the project:

  1. Company selection, session 5 (to be approved)
  2. Draft of WWW mission, objective statements and target audience analysis by session 7 (to be approved by me)
  3. A group meeting with me before session 9
The project content will be worth 40% of the course grade.
The project presentation will be worth 20% of the course grade and should be 45 minutes in duration.
Link to Final Projects

Assignment 4: Take-home final
You will be given a take-home final paper a week before classes finish. This paper will draw from all the material covered in the class and requires familiarity with all aspects of electonic commerce. The take-home final will be worth 20% of your course grade.
Link to Final Papers