Click Here! An eCommerce Course
Office of Teaching and Learning
November 7, 2000

http://www.cll.wayne.edu/isp/drbowen/eCommOTL
Last updated: 11/7/00

Links:

• Fall 1999 eCommerce course web site
  • Duds team eCommerce web site (emailing disabled due to problems with WSU email servers)
• Fall 2000 eCommerce course web site
  • Team 1 interactive web page
  • Team 2 interactive web page
• The concession that wasn't
  • The web page that did it (live) - then choose link "President/Vice President" (back)
  • The web page that did it (canned)
• Demo of a web form and CGI program (link disabled)
  • The iHTML file that does it (downloads as a *.txt to escape being processed by the web server)

1. The Name
   1. eCommerce: Using the Web to Find and Service Customers
      1. No hyphen - Wired magazine style guide
   2. Finding - getting your site to turn up on Internet searches
   3. Servicing - taking orders, follow-up
   4. Not to mention - finding out who your customers are and watching them read your catalog
2. How it happened
   1. I was familiar with the technology used here from developing an Online Math Tutor and being CLL Webmaster. I also have my own (very small) business, and I also see some of what is going on inside Ford Motor Company
   2. "Someone should really do this"
   3. In Summer 1999 I realized that I and ISP could do this
   4. First offering Fall 1999
      1. Generic workshop title
      2. No disasters!
   5. Also teaching this during Fall 2000 also under a generic title
   6. Next...
      1. Approaching School of Business through TLTR contact about working together
      2. Have applied for a new course with a dedicated title
3. What happens when you order something over the Web?
   1. Fill out a form and click on a button to send the information to the web server
   2. Web server receives data, starts a CGI program to handle the data
      1. CGI = "Common Gateway Interface"
   3. CGI program processes data
      1. Can include (does include in this course):
         1. Storing information, e.g. to a database
         2. Sending email to user
      2. Must include writing a response page for the user
   4. Web server sends response page back to the user
   5. Course emphasizes that CGI processing is very open-ended. Can also be used for, e.g.:
      1. Making an Online Math Tutor
      2. Recording online proposals for TLTR
      3. Online student progress reports
      4. Computer chat and conferencing
      5. Online registration at WSU???
      6. CourseInfo
      7. Online vote reporting in real time
      8. etc., etc., etc.
   6. CGI can do so much because the processing can be anything desired. Unfortunately, as things stand today, this means writing a computer program
4. Students work in teams. Main activites:
   1. Write a mini business plan around the team's idea for an online business. I wanted the students to think about a business from a practical point of view. Very often the most intense part of the course. Main sections:
      1. Description of the business, the product, and any unique aspects of the product
      2. Description of strengths and weaknesses of major competitors
      3. Estimated revenue and growth rate, estimated expenses
   2. Develop a web site to present the company to customers. Products, warrantee and returns, etc. Structure to make life easy and fast for customers
   3. Write an order form and a CGI processing program to recieve and confirm orders. Use iHTML (InLine HTML), a proprietary scripting language that came with our web server (O'Reilly WebSite)
   4. Review web sites of other teams.
   5. Subtexts
      1. Getting a better feel for what it is like inside a business
      2. Getting a better feel for what programming is like
5. Results so far:
   1. In Fall 1999 only one team (duds) got a fully working order form. Started this work earlier this semester.
   2. Many problems with crashing the web server
      1. Installed a dedicated mail server to cope with problems arising from the sometimes very slow response of the WSU mail system.
      2. For those students without programming experience (i.e. almost all of them), it takes a long time to realize how exacting the computer is about typos. I am paying more attention to trapping errors before they crash the server.
   3. Teams have had trouble getting started with a very open assignment. Have started breaking it down into detailed steps.
   4. Have had to intervene in many teams. Still, there is a lot of work for most teams to do. Started to feel that I have to do a better job of pushing and pulling the teams.
6. The students:
   1. Carolyn Mills and Wiley Crawford from the Fall 1999 duds team
   2. Paul Mungar from Fall 2000 Team 1