Last updated: 9/1/03
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Syllabus, IST 3720 eCommerce: Using the Web to Find and Service Customers

This Syllabus is subject to changes during the semester. The official announcements of any changes will be made on the course computer conference. It is your responsibility to keep up with any changes.

eCommerce, IST 3720, for Fall 2003 is a course with eight course meetings and substantial online work using the course web site for handouts, a computer conference for class discussions, and email for submitting and returning assignments. The major assignment is, working with a team, to establish an eCommerce web site for an imaginary online business.

Content and Overall Schedule.

1. Week 1. Overview
   1. There is an initial class meeting to demonstrate the course web site and computer conference and to go over the assignments and content of the course.
   2. The initial session will also cover what is meant by eCommerce, the advantages of using the web for business, and establish the requirements for an eCommerce web site.
   3. Students will also look at several eCommerce web sites.
2. Week 2. Creating Web Pages and Setting up Teams
   1. An overview of web server operation, HTML including form elements, and CGI programs including Active Server Pages (ASP).
   2. Establishing course teams and team officers, and registering an imaginary product and a business plan.
3. Weeks 3 through 5. Designing a business process and initial web pages
   1. Create a personal web page.
   2. Create an interactive web page.
   3. Upload web pages to the server using FTP
   4. Teams will design their business process; that is, decide how to accomplish each step in the chain of doing business over the web.
   5. Teams will create web pages describing their products. During the class meeting, simple graphics will be created.
   6. The details of ASP authoring will be presented.
4. Weeks 6 through 8. Establishing the initial web site.
   1. Teams will complete the initial development of their web sites, including accepting orders.
   2. Privacy and security issues will be presented and discussed in class.
   3. Web server logs and their analysis using Microsoft Access will be presented.
   4. The process of responding to customers will be presented.
5. Weeks 9 through 11. Responding to customers
   1. During this period, teams will develop their online system for responding to inquiries, orders and complaints from customers.
   2. Major alternatives to the online systems used in this class will be presented.
   3. Teams will review and critique the work of other teams.
6. Weeks 10 through 15. Final adjustments to web sites, preparation of team reports.
   1. Each team will review the comments of the other teams, review their web site, and make final improvements.
   2. Each team will prepare a report describing their business and product, their web site, the process of creating the web site, and the role played by each member.

Instructor and Office Hours

The Instructor is David Bowen / Department of Interdisciplinary Studies / Science and Technology Division.

Textbooks:

1. Patricia B. Seybold, Customers.com, Times Business/Random House, New York, NY. ISBN 0-8129-3037-1
2. Elizabeth Castro, HTML for the World Wide Web 5^th Edition, Peachpit Press, Berkeley CA. ISBN 0-321-13007-3 (paperback)
3. Bill Hatfield, Active Server Pages for Dummies, IDG Books, Foster City CA. ISBN 0-7645-06030X (paperback)

These will be available at the WSU Bookstore in the Center.

Grading

The course grade will be calculated as follows:

Grading Scale

The "-" range for a grade is the lower three points, and gets averaged at the middle. For example, A- is 90 to 92 and gets averaged as 91. The "+" for a grade is the top three points, and gets averaged at the middle. For example, B+ is 87 to 89 and gets averaged as 88. A grade of 100 is an A+. Note that the highest grade recognized by the University is A.

On-line Grade Reports

There will be a link on the course web site for on-line grade reports. These reports will let you look at your line in my grade book. If you want to have this available to you, for the on-line information form:

• Choose "yes" for the item on-line grade reports
• In the associated text box, enter a password for your grade reports.

To get an on-line grade report, you will enter your first and last names, and this password.

Course passwords

You will have several IDs and passwords for this course:

1. Your UserID and password for your Internet Service Provider
2. Your UserID and password for the computer conference
3. Your password for on-line grade reports, if enabled
4. Your UserID and password for uploading files to your personal web site
5. Your Team ID and password for uploading files to your team web site

It can a problem to keep all of these straight. Be aware that you can choose #2, #3 and #4 to match #1, if you want. Ask me for details.

Naming your homework files

In this course, you will turn some of your homework in as word-processing files. If two teams use the same file name, then the file that is turned in second will replace the file that is turned in first, and the work of the first team will be lost. Losing another team's work in this way will lose your team credit. Also, as the Instructor, I want the file name to tell me about the team and the assignment. Therefore, make up the names for your homework files with the following parts, in order:

• The first three letters of your team's name.
• One-letter assignment code as follows:
  • "i" for Initial Team Report
  • "p" for description of business process
  • "f" for Final Team Report
• "ef3" to indicate eCommerce, Fall 2003
• Normal extension for your word processor. (Note: Macs do not use file extensions, so Mac files would not have extensions.)

So for example, if my team name was "Terminators" and I use Microsoft Word, the file name for my team's Initial Team Report would be terief3.doc

When I grade the assignments, I will add a "g" to the end of the filename and return it.

Also, as backup file ID, include the following header lines at the beginning of each file:

1. Full team name
2. Full names of team members
3. Course (IST 3720) and course name (eCommerce)
4. Semester (Fall 2003)
5. Assignment (not just the code, write it out, e.g. "Initial Team Report"
6. Word processor and version number (this is in case I have trouble reading it).
   (In Windows, to find the name and version number of any program, including a word processor, open the program, click on its "Help" menu item, and then on the "About" item on the drop-down menu list.)

For example, for my team's Initial Team Report I would include the following lines at the beginning of the file:

Terminators
David Bowen, ... (other names)
IST 3720, eCommerce
Fall 2003
Initial Team Report
Microsoft Word 2000

The title and text would start after this header.

Overview of Assignments

• Personal web page containing a minimum of
  • two font colors
  • two font attributes (e.g. Normal, Bold, Underlined, Italics)
  • One picture
  • One link
• Report 1. Hand drawings for design of eCommerce web site, written description of content for each web page, and initial web form to collect information on an order. Should show all file names.
• Report 2. Initial team report
  • Team name, officers, members, product(s) and business plan. This information can be revised later, if desired. The team should have at least the following three officers:
  • CEO. Specific responsibilities are to prepare the reports, with the support of other team members.
  • Graphics guru. Responsible for identifying and locating or creating required graphics.
  • WebMaster. Responsible for functioning of team web site.
• Report 3. Description of business process. How orders will be collected and processed, how payment will be collected, and what follow-up will be carried out. This information can be revised later, if desired. Also, description of what each team member has done on the project, so far.
• Report 4. Final team report.
  • Final information contained in first two reports, whether or not it has been changed.
  • Specific and detailed descriptions of what each team member did for the team web site.
  • Tracing an actual order placed by a team member through the process, as a narrative. A chronological description of what the user does, what the user's web browser does, what the web server does, and what the ASP system does, as well as any other people and/or systems involved in the process.
  • How the consumer issues presented during the course (e.g. Privacy and Security) are dealt with on your web site.
  • How information and issues from the Seybold readings is reflected in the team web site.
  • Reviews of the other Team web sites
• Site Version 1. Initial eCommerce web site. Web pages should contain
  • Basic public information about company and product(s).
  • Schedule for availability of products.
• Site Version 2. Draft eCommerce web site with form for ordering product(s) (does not have to be working yet).
• Site Version 3. Final eCommerce web site.
• Conference postings. Aside from the course sessions, the course conference is the place for public discussion about assignments, readings, questions and anything else relating to the course. You should make a minimum of fifteen conference substantive postings during the semester. Substantive means:
  • Minimum of five lines on the screen (my screen).
  • Relevant to course or to course assignments, including technical issues about Internet connection and use of software.
  • Under an appropriate topic.
• Attendance at class sessions as evidenced by completion of attendance form on course web site.
• Weekly course progress reports using form on course web site.
• You should also check the course web site at least weekly.

Please note: being out of town is a valid reason for missing a class. It is not a valid reason for missing a weekly course progress report, conference postings, updating your personal web site, turning in a report or checking the course web site. All of these can be done using the Internet, and Internet access is widely available at public libraries, work sites and other public institutions.

Assignment Schedule (* marks days on which I may be late for office hours)

Texts are identified in the table below by the author's name, as follows:

• Castro: Elizabeth Castro, HTML for the World Wide Web, 5th Edition, Peachpit Press, Berkeley CA. 2003.
  (Numbers in reading schedule are page numbers)
• Hatfield: Bill Hatfield, Active Server Pages for Dummies, 2nd Edition, IDG Books, Foster City CA1999.
  (Numbers in reading schedule are page numbers)
• Seybold: Patricia B. Seybold, Customers.com, Times Business/Random House, New York, NY. 1998.
  (In the reading schedule, "CSF" means the section on that particular Critical Success Factor)

NOTE 1: "Restricted" Vs "Open" labs. eCommerce and Computers, the Internet, and Society both meet in Room 128 Macomb University Center on Tuesday evenings. If the other class is meeting that night (and you are not taking it), you are free to use the lab that night on a restricted basis -- sit in the back, no interruption of the other class.

NOTE 2: I will allow you to redo assignments and turn in missing work after the course is over. Such work will not appear in your regular grade, but it will be taken into account in a Change of Grade, and it will eventually appear on your official transcript. The University will allow me to file a Change of Grade up to one calendar year after the end of the semester in which you took the course. For this course, that is through the end of the Fall 2001 semester. I will not accept major assignments during the last month of this period. If you are redoing an assignment, the original assignment with my comments and grades must be turned in along with the redone assignment. If you plan to make up work after the course is over, course reports are still required, every week.

The above is a liberal policy for late work and makeup assignments. The downside is that I am also allowed to be late in grading the makeup work, especially during the summer and at the beginning and end of each semester. If my workload for grading makeup is heavy, it can take a semester or more for me get around to your work. I will usually tell you or email you when I have graded your work and turned in a Change of Grade form. It often takes the University a month or more to record that change. If either of these delays puts the Change of Grade beyond one year, that is still OK, if I can make the statement that you got the work in by the one-year deadline.

Also, after the course is over, staying informed and on track shifts from being my responsibility to being yours. I will still be available for discussions, questions, reminding you about where the coruse web site is, and what your course passwords are, but it becomes your responsibility for locating and contacting me. If exams or quizzes need to be made up, if there is more than one person who needs this, one of that group must accept the responsibility for contacting the others and scheduling a date that is acceptable to all (including me, of course).

Making up work of an eCommerce Team can be particularly difficult. Creating the eCommerce web site is a team effort because it requires integration of many different skills, and because there is so much work involved. If there is eCommerce Team work to be made up, and there is more than one person involved, that group will form a new Team. If only one person has to make up Team work, the requirements will not be adjusted; that person must do the work on her/his own.

Computer Conference assignments

• For IST 3720, during the semester make fifteen contributions to the course conference (postings or replies with a minimum of five lines). These contributions must be substantive, concerning the readings or other points from the conference. For example, "Gee, I thought that was right on" is not substantive -- it does not make a contribution. As an alternative, you can agree with another comment, and then explain it further, extend or go beyond it, or apply it in a new way.

  NOTE: This does NOT mean that you have to log on to the computer conference more than once a week. You can make multiple contributions during a single session.