Active Learning Model for Teaching B2B e-Marketplaces

Journal of Information Systems Education, Spring 2005 by Gricar, Joze, Pucihar, Andreja, Lenart, Gregor

Oracle Exchange is used as a hosted solution in Oracle's Austin Datacenter in the USA. There is no server administration or software installation needed by the faculty. Server administration and software upgrades are made by Oracle professionals. Faculty prepare written a user guide and also coaches students using Oracle Exchange e-marketplace in the computer lab. Since the web browser user interface is easy to use, there is no major difficulty in using the program. This enables students to focus on business processes that could be performed in the e-marketplace and not being concerned with the technology. Students develop a prototype e-solution in order to demonstrate a trading process on an e-marketplace for the selected organizations.

3.4 Prototype development and its presentation in companies

Oracle Exchange e-marketplace allows students to develop a prototype that provides a practical insight into specific trading scenarios. The organization's products or services (name, code, description) and basic trading conditions (price, quantity, and costs) are used to develop a realistic scenario. Students do not utilize the order fulfillment process.

Figure 1 presents an example of one such scenario designed and performed with e-marketplace. In this trading scenario, a supplier creates a catalogue, where buyers search for products and services. A buyer creates a buyer's auction where selected suppliers are invited to participate. Invited suppliers acknowledge auction participation. After the auction is opened, suppliers place bids. When the auction is closed, the buyer awards the supplier that placed the winning bid. This is followed by buyer's order creation and closed with the supplier's order confirmation.

Since e-marketplace services and trading mechanisms are not dependant on a particular technology, the use of Oracle Exchange e-marketplace enables students and organizations to explore almost any service that is available in a typical emarketplace. Students present the prototype solution to both organizations, preferably at a joint meeting of the representatives of both organizations. They collect written feedback about the prototype from the representatives. Most successful e-marketplace prototypes are promoted in a student bazaar session at the annual Bled eCommerce Conference (Pucihar et al., 2002; Pucihar et al., 2003; Pucihar et al., 2004) and the annual Merkur Day -Undergraduate and Graduate Students eCommerce Conference (Jordan 2003).

3.5 Assessing an organization's e-Commerce readiness

Students participate in an e-readiness assessment of the two organizations where the project will be run. Based on suggestions developed by the eBSN (European eBusiness Support Network) for SMEs, a questionnaire was developed and used in Slovenian organizations for the first time during the 2003-04 academic year. The questionnaire was piloted with selected organizations in fall of 2003, as a part of the student project. The final questionnaire contains questions about eBusiness indicators that are published in annual eBusiness W@tch reports.