A Student-Driven Approach to Teaching E-commerce

Journal of Information Systems Education, Spring 2005 by McBride, Neil K

ABSTRACT

This paper describes an approach to teaching e-commerce at a masters level in a course that is entirely coursework assessed. The approach involves students giving weekly presentations of material they have researched based on fairly detailed subject guidance provided by the lecturer. The approach uses extreme programming as an analogy for the structuring of the content and the process through which learning takes place. The way in which subject material is presented to the students, and the learning cycle which takes place are described. Students develop presentation material in response to stories, which set the context and problems, and tasks which set the detailed areas for investigation. These presentations are done for peers and the tutor and are immediately commented on, leading to the revision of presentation material to appear in an assessed portfolio. The e-commerce syllabus is presented in the context of a commercial or government organization seeking to develop and implement an e-commerce strategy. The agile approach leads to the discovery of new ideas and frameworks by students, and to the development of skills in critically analyzing e-commerce concepts from industrial and academic sources. The paper discusses the student's role as an active developer and deliverer of material in a group environment and the role of the tutor in directing studies, providing support and counsel and assessing student deliverables. In interviews, students commented that the approach was challenging and somewhat daunting, but was a rewarding learning experience. Preconceptions as to what e-commerce involved were challenged through the student-driven research done for the presentations.

Keywords: E-Commerce Teaching, Agile Approach, Extreme Programming, Reflective Cycle of Learning

1. INTRODUCTION

The teaching of e-commerce and the underlying systems and technology is a challenging undertaking, not least due to the volatility of the subject area. Changes in business application and even the technology occur rapidly. Any survey of e-commerce applications will indicate that e-commerce changes sufficiently rapidly to require yearly revision of textbooks such as Turban et al (2005). The crash of the dot.com market (Howcroft, 2001) undermined some of the foundational premises on which e-commerce was taught. New concepts and e-commerce models which in one instance seemed sound and worthy of communication to students subsequently disintegrate and for all practical purposes disappear from the business environment. The concept of application service providers (ASPs), for example, which was predicted to create a $22 billion market by 2003, rapidly faded out as the nascent companies went out of business (Currie et al, 2004).

In addition to the volatility of the subject area, the paucity of theoretical foundations and long-lasting frameworks can reduce courses to a catalogue of current applications and interesting case studies of e-commerce successes which may not reflect the overall situation in the market and may be simplifications that lack depth in describing content or process. e-commerce courses may then provide superficial knowledge which does not equip students with the conceptual frameworks and critical skills to deal with changing technology and business opportunities.

This situation can be frustrating for the tutor who is developing material with short delivery timescales which may end up being superficial and reflecting short term fashions and untried technology. The planning and production of well-designed, robust course materials takes time, analogous to the time taken to develop a large information system. Constant re-writing of material places a burden on the teaching which detracts from developing delivery approaches, teaching the material and carrying out assessment.

Long course development timescales may not be practical for volatile courses in e-commerce and an alternative model which allows fast delivery is required. Such a model may be derived from agile methods in systems development which endeavor to provide quickly-developed systems which can be implemented in a short scale and respond to rapid environmental change.

These difficulties in delivering an e-commerce course may be compounded if the classes are small, as is often the case in MSc offerings in the UK. Lecturing styles which feed information to students in packages presented from the front of the class by the tutor may be inadequate for advanced students working in small groups. The lack of student involvement which is a property of lecture-based delivery does not encourage student learning. Lectures may be singularly inappropriate for teaching a volatile subject such as e-commerce. Student participation may require at the least case studies which are critically analyzed. Optimally, the students should be actively researching the area, critically appraising latest frameworks and technology, and learning by sharing their discoveries with their peers in a classroom situation.