The Commerce Course Project: Creating Educational Linkages with the Value Chain
Craig K. Tyran, James R. Coakley
Teaching the topic ofE-Commerce can be a challenge since it requires the students to integrate a number of knowledge and skill areas involving business and technology. One means of addressing this type of instructional challenge is to develop a project assignment that will provide students with an opportunity to integrate their existing knowledge and attain a higher level of learning, The objective ofthis manuscript is to introduce and discuss an integrative E-Commerce team project that we have developed and used for a capstone course for senior-level undergradnate college students studying information systems. The project approach uses Porter's value chain (Porter, 1980) as a conceptual framework and has been refined over a period ofthree years. Our experience in using the project with over 70 student project teams has found that the project offers an effective means of helping students to build on their existing knowledge and gain a better understanding of E-Commerce.
Craig K. Tyran is an assistant professor in the College of Business at Oregon State University. He received his PhD in Management Information Systems from the University of Arizona. Dr. Tyran's research interests include the organizational applications of collaborative technology, systems development and implementation, and the educational applications of information technology. His research has appeared in MIS Quarterly, Journal ofManagement Systems, Communications ofthe ACM, and other outlets, and he has presented his work at numerous national and international conferences.
James R. Coakley is an associate professor in the College of Business at Oregon State University. He received his PhD in accounting information systems from the University of Utah in 1982. Dr. Coakley's research interests include strategic alignment ofIT infrastructure, applications ofartificial neural networks, and the use of information technology to teach information technology. He has published in journals such as Expert Systems with Applications, International Journal of Intelligent Systems in Accounting. Finance and Management, Journal of Management Education, Journal of Systems Management and Management Accounting.
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