Assignment 1 - Current Events (Outside research and in class presentation)
Assignment 2 - Research Paper - Internet Infrastructure (8-10 page research paper)
Assignment 3 - Opportunity Assessment Worksheet (In class activity)
Assignment 4 - The EC Marketplace - Research (2-3 page research paper)
Assignment 5 - Search Engine Optimization, Web Statistics, and Market Responses (outside research and in class presentation)
Assignment 6 - Competitive Assessments and Competitor Challenges (Outside research and in class presentation)
Assignment 7 - Strategic Issues -- Company Stock or Wealth Distribution (In class activity)
Assignment 8 - Risk Reduction Worksheet (outside research and in class presentation)
Assignment 9 - Online Buying (Outside and inside class presentation)
Assignment 10 - Research and report on Current Electronic Commerce Technology (Outside research and presentation)
Assignment 11 - Case Studies in Electronic Commerce (In class activity)
ASSIGNMENT 1: PRESENT A CURRENT E-COMMERCE EVENT
E-commerce and the Internet are changing the way the world does business. Those changes are ongoing. In this assignment the student will present 3-5 current events relating to electronic commerce. The student should be watching for important events that impact the e-commerce marketplace and as those events unfold, study them, prepare some thoughts about them, and at the beginning of a class time (at least 3-5 times during the semester) you should present to the rest of the class your findings and why they are important. Another criteria of this assignment is that it has to be current - say in the last few days. Your presentation should be about 3 minutes.
ASSIGNMENT 2: WRITE A RESEARCH PAPER - Internet Infrastructure
This research paper should be 3-5 pages (double spaced, 12 point, regular page layout and readability) and should cover the topic of bandwidth. Please follow APA guidelines when writing this paper. The reason for this paper is to gain fundamental knowledge and understanding of electronic commerce infrastructure. The paper will be due at the time of the midterm exam.
ASSIGNMENT 3: Opportunity Assessment - Worksheet
In this assignment a group of students (2-4) will conduct an opportunity assessment on an idea for an electronic commerce company or internal business expansion. If you don't have an idea, come up with one (brainstorm it) and then go through the worksheet. Take the time to be thorough in your assessments. Also, answer all the questions as objectively as you can. If you need to do some preliminary research to find out answers to some of the questions, do some research. Be resourceful in your research and in your answers to questions. If you don't know an answer to something, keep working and looking to find it. Time permitting we will present these assessments in class (otherwise a completed opportunity assessment worksheet will be turned into the instructor).
ASSIGNMENT 4: The Internet Marketplace - Research
In this assignment the student will research and find answers to the following questions about the Internet Marketplace. This research will be typed and turned in as a 2 page executive summary. Please document sources of the information used in the summary (urls, textbooks, etc.).
- Q: What is the size of the Internet (in terms of numbers of users)?
- Q: How fast is the Internet growing by population and Web site growth?
- Q: What are the demographics (ages, gender, education, household income, etc) of online users?
- Q: How many people are using the Internet internationally?
- Q: What are some of the online marketing techniques being used? Which are successful?
- Q: How about some sales forecasts? What industries are expected to do well online? How fast will online sales grow?
- Q: What about access profiles of Internet users? How many use dial-up? DSL? Cable? Wireless? T-1? Other? How will that change over the coming 3-5 years?
- Q: What kind of marketing is effectively being used online? E-mail? Search Engines? Word of Mouth Marketing? Links? Promotion?
- Q: What online market segments are doing well? Finance? Travel? Computer hardware? Software development? Web development? Training and education?
- Q: What changes in Internet trends are coming?
- Q: What are Internet users looking for (products and services) and what are they doing online (the most popular Internet applications)?
- Q: What do the terms B2B, B2C, mean? What does an application services provider (asp) do? What are some examples of B2B, B2C, and ASPs?
ASSIGNMENT 5:Online Marketing -- Search Engine Optimization, Web Statistics, and Market Responses
In this assignment the student will create a plan for Search Engine Optimization and search positioning in search engines (google, yahoo, etc). Use theming techniques presented in class and support your recommendations. Additionally, the student will evaluate web site statistics (if available) and make recommendations for creating "the preferred user experience". If no statistics are available then use the best thinking you can.
ASSIGNMENT 6: Competitive Assessment and Competitive Challenges
In this assignment a group of students (2-4) will select a Web site/industry and conduct a competitive analysis on the site. The group will present their finding to class. The group should pecifically address the following:
- The product(s) and or service(s) being offered
- The target consumers (include demographic profile)
- The size of the market
- The value you offer to customers
- How the company generates or will generate revenues
- The business model
- An overview and evaluation of the Web site(s).
- Pricing policy and strategy
- What new opportunities lie ahead for the company?
- Does the company have any sort of competitive advantage? What are they?
- Does the company enjoy an advanced position of any kind? What are they?
- Why do you expect customers will choose your site?
- Does the business use Web technology well? What specifically are they doing?
- How does your company use the Web to deliver more value to the customers than a traditional brick and mortar company or competitor can?
- Are there barriers to entry for competitors?
- List any threats to the company...
- Ghosting the competition (charted comparison of features, qualities, etc.)
- Common lising of features.
ASSIGNMENT 7:Strategic Issues -- Company Stock or Wealth Distribution.
In this assignment a group of students will determine the stock distribution for a startup opportunity and discuss the resources, sweat equity, and financial contributions of each member of the team. This activity is more successful when conducted by a team of people (preferably 4 or more). How it works is each team member contributes hypothetical resources such as relationships, equipment or infrastructure or facilities, financial, sweat equity such as technical skills, artistic skills, programming, and then negotiates stock based on those inputs or contributions. It is very interesting to see the dynamic of what people think their contributions are worth. In some groups, it becomes evident that certain groups or team members will never make it past this point while in other groups the dynamic works incredibly well together. This is a good test of the team members ability to work together.
ASSIGNMENT 8: Risk Reduction Worksheet
In this assignment the student will fill out the Risk Reduction Assessment Worksheet for an opportunity of your choice. Try to come up with a comprehensive list of risks or risk elements, initial risk level, planned risk reduction or solution, and the final risk level. Be creative and try to push the risks as close to zero as possible.
ASSIGNMENT 9: ONLINE BUYING - Activity and Presentation
In this assignment the student will buy 4 items over the Internet and write a paper describing in detail the experience. Additionally, students will be asked to present their experience to the class. Please try to buy things in different product or service categories such as a food (pizza), a hardware item (modem), a personal product (book, cd, etc.), and say clothing (shirt). As you buy, pay attention to the details of the transaction from both the consumer point of view as well as the suppliers point of view. There are a number of different issues or levels involved in "buying" online (see list below). Also, pay attention to the technology used in the EC system (PHP, ASP, CFM, JSP, Java, etc. If you have concerns about this assignment, please contact the instructor.
- Saw it online and called the 1-800 number.
- Made purchase decision online. Order offline.
- Shipping Issues. Who was it shipped by? What was your experience?
- Knew exactly what I wanted and shopped for the best price. Put in my credit card number, tracked it using the fedex tracking system, and had it within 24 hours.
- Return Policy. What is it?
ASSIGNMENT 10:Technical Development -- Research and Report on a current Electronic Commerce Technology
In this assignment 2-3 students (group mix must include a business student and a tech student) will do a report on a new EC technology from the EC technologies used in assignment 9. Topics will be brainstormed/listed in class and groups will pick topics from the list.
ASSIGNMENT 11: Case Studies in Elecronic Commerce
In this assignment the student will be presented to case studies in electronic commerce. The student will be given background information as well as problems the electronic commerce company is facing. The student will present and defend solutions to real world electronic commerce situations.
