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Future online entrepreneurs 'set up shop' in e-Business lab
December 17, 2004 | |||||
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KOKOMO, Ind.—Tomorrow's Amazon.com® might be growing in a small computer lab in Indiana University Kokomo's Main Building. In space shared with adjunct instructors, students are learning to develop and operate online retail businesses, as part of a prerequisite course for the e-business concentration of the B.S. in Business program. The lab opened this fall, under the direction of Associate Professor of Management Information Systems Mayur Desai, Ph.D. The e-business lab has two independent servers—a Windows 2003/IIS and an Apache-connected to two client stations where students craft their fictional e-business Web sites for Desai's course, Information Technology. From a third station connected to the Internet, students access additional resources for the assignment. “Security is one of the main reasons we had to have an independent e-business lab that is not connected to the IU network,” Desai explained. “Students have full control over all the computers in the e-business lab, giving them flexibility and learning opportunity.” Students came up with their own product and marketing ideas for their e-businesses, but each used “e-shopping cart” software from commersus.com. An “e-shopping cart” is a software program that tracks a customer's purchases on a Web site; tallies the bill and shipping costs; records billing and shipping addresses; and, working with payment service providers, directs the customer to the final click that confirms the sale. Not requiring the students to design a shopping cart from scratch is true to real-life business trends, Desai said. “The software is already designed with certain functions, and you customize it to fit your specific business needs.” The IU Kokomo School of Business launched the e-business concentration in 2002, with the goal of turning out graduates who can use information technology (IT) to improve business communication, operations, and outcomes, particularly in online environments. “Older business people are taking early retirement because they're not willing to get IT training,” Desai said. However, younger generations who grew up with computer games don't necessarily have an employment edge, he added. “Students may think they know a lot about computers. But, they're not always translating the skills learned in gaming and Internet surfing into learning new things. “Even if they can program software, many don't want to document how a program was created,” Desai said. “So, when a program doesn't work, there's no record to review for what went wrong.” There's also no subsequent learning from correcting the problem and finding people with answers, Desai added. Knowing whom to ask for help is important, agreed student lab assistant Jason Head. A computer information systems (CIS) major with a minor in business, Head said he often finds that message boards and Google® groups offer better tech support than a software's official tech support department. Half of the students enrolled in Desai's course are CIS majors; the remainder are business majors. The e-business concentration focuses on “the technical route first,” Desai said, teaching students the basic logic of computer languages and data storage before they consider business applications of technology. More than anything, the e-business curriculum teaches “learning how to learn,” Desai said. Faculty “can't develop individual courses for every software program that exists. You'd be in school forever,” he said. IU Kokomo anticipates expanding the e-business lab as the e-business program develops. “The School of Business purchased the hardware, and, at present, we are running the e-business lab with grants-in-aid money,” said Desai. “This start-up fund allows us to pay for IT support by a couple students who have some experience with Web server technology. A fully functional e-business lab with IT department support and faculty development will allow us to promote the program more easily.” Dean of the School of Business Niranjan Pati, Ph.D., said that the e-business classes will ultimately use SAP software, special Web-hosted applications already studied and used in other business curricula at IU Kokomo. “This will benefit our students immensely in the job market as two of our top area employers, namely, Delphi Electronics and Safety, and Daimler Chrysler use the SAP package,” said Pati. “The School of Business belongs to the SAP educational alliance, which provides access for our students and faculty to this expensive software suite. However, the e-business lab could not install SAP software currently because the lab is deliberately kept out of the campus network for safety purposes, he explained. The first students are expected to graduate in the e-business concentration in 2007. In the meantime, online buying, selling, and other financial transactions will continue to boom, predict Desai and Head. Consumers have become more comfortable paying for goods online, said Head. “They trust that that their credit card information will be handled securely.” He personally prefers the convenience of online banking, calling paper checks “a nuisance.” Buyers might still balk at buying higher priced items, such as real estate or cars, online, but the Internet does provide “a good marketing tool” for such purchases, Desai said. Online virtual tours of homes and 360-degree camera views of vehicles “give people options to consider,” said Desai. “It's a big paradigm shift not to have something you can touch before you buy. For more information on the IU Kokomo School of Business e-business concentration, call (765) 455-9465 or visit www.iuk.edu/business.
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