IST430:  E-Commerce
Course Syllabus
Spring 2001, TR 5:00 pm – 6:15 pm, PH 200

Textbooks:  
The following textbook is required for the course:

Beginning E-Commerce with Visual Basic, ASP, SQL Server 7.0 and MTS, by Reynolds; Wrox; ISBN: 1-861003-98-6, 2000.

Recommended (first 3 weeks will come from this book)

E-Commerce Concepts, by Cram; Course Technology; ISBN: 0-619-01818-6, 2001.

Computer Requirements:
Supplemental materials can be found contained within the WebCT environment (http://webct.marshall.edu/).  I will be sending class announcements, updates, etc. using your WebCT account (will discuss during the first lecture).  Access to a WWW browser is required (Netscape 4.0 or higher or Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher) and Adobe Acrobat Reader (available for download through the class WebCT site). 

Course Description:
This course examines electronic commerce with group decision making and collaborative applications through the Internet. Develop applications that retrieve and store information in distributed databases.

Credit:
The course is three (3) credit hours. It includes classroom lectures, exams, and a semester-based programming project. Students will participate in a project that illustrates the implementation of concepts in general applications. 

Pre/co-requisites:
IST260 (Instrumentation II) or permission.

Desired Objectives/Outcomes:
By the end of this course, you should be able to:

• Discuss the design and management issues related to E-business.
• Discuss the challenging issues encountered by the E-business.
• Identify proper e-business strategy and design, and its incorporation into e-business architecture, and transformed action plan. 
• Identify the evolution of electronic commerce, the driving forces and the more likely scenarios of the future of world business
• Employ modern E-commerce development tools to develop a E-commerce web site 
• Possess necessary technical skills to assist real world business in migrating from a traditional business model into contemporary E-business model

Instruction method:
There will be 3 contact hours of classroom lecture per week. A semester long project covering the major topics is part of the course.  Students may work on their assignments in University computing facilities.   

Evaluation method:
Evaluation of student's performance will be based on the quality of your performance on the semester-based project, exams, and class and web-based participation.  

Grading Policy:
Final grades are based on performance in assignments, exams, and attendance as indicated below.  

Assessment of Projects:

The grading of all projects will take into account the following:

1.      Although the most important attribute of a project is correctness, grading will take into consideration such items as efficiency, documentation, etc.

2.      Programs must have proper inline documentation and must be properly indented. 20% will be deducted for poorly documented and/or poorly indented code.

3.      Code that contains errors will receive a grade of 0.

4.      Although interactions with other students are encouraged, you must compose your own answers, unless otherwise noted. 

Individuals who utilize other people’s code, thoughts, or ideas must provide appropriate references to said resources.  Failure to provide such documentation will result in a failing grade for the assignment, and may result in a failing grade for the course.

In determining the overall grade for a project, you can expect the following grades based on performance:

A – Excellent work that meets and/or exceeds all of the requirements for a given project, code works for multiple test samples, all code and associated files are well-documented, and the code is written efficiently.

B – Good work that meets all of the requirements of the assignment, but may have errors in documentation or coding, or contains code that may not work with all possible data samples.

C – Average work that meets all of the requirements of the assignment, but is missing one or more of the items in its entirety that is mentioned in terms of an A grade.

D – Below average work which fails to meet one or more of the requirements of the assignment.

F – Unacceptable work which fails to meet two or more requirements for an assignment, or has code that will not compile and execute.

Final letter grades are determined based on the following grading scale: 

The instructors reserve the right to change these values depending on the overall class performance and/or extenuating circumstances.   

Policy Statement:
Programming assignments:  The course includes a number of programming assignments. All assignments are due at midnight on the due date and must be submitted through the WebCT Assignment Dropbox. Late assignments will be penalized at the rate of 5% per day (including weekends).  

Exams: There are two exams: Mid-term (during the 7th week) and a Final exam (as scheduled). Exact dates and times of exams will be announced in class.  

Make-up Exams and Late Penalty:  Make‑up exams will not be given except under unusual circumstances and satisfactory written justification.  Any student who misses an exam due to an unexcused absence will receive a grade of zero for that exam with no opportunity for make-up or substitution.  University excused absences or those occurring with a good reason will be excused.  Make up exams must be taken within one week of the original scheduled date.  The decision whether to give a make up exam rests with the instructor.

Attendance Statement:
Class attendance is mandatory and is a required part of the course.  Those needing to miss class for a legitimate reason must contact me via telephone/voice mail or e-mail prior to the class meeting for it to be excused.  See grading policy.  

Withdrawal Policy:
The University withdrawal policy is followed in this course. The last day to drop an individual course for the Spring of 2001 is March 16, 2001.  

University Holidays:
The class is officially dismissed on the following dates:
            Spring Break:  March 20, 2001
                                    March 22, 2001

Topics and Methodology:
The following outline delineates the tentative class schedule with topics to be addressed during the course.  Please note this is a tentative schedule and it may change upon class progress:

For each topic discussed in the textbook, specific experience of other students and the instructor will be discussed to enhance the characteristics involved.  Programming projects for the course will be based on creating a fully-functional E-Commerce solution.  Additional material may also be covered in the class.

Every student is responsible for all materials presented in class, including lectures, notes, and handouts.  In case you are not present for a class, it is your responsibility to contact the instructor and receive information about the material presented in that class.  Class attendance is very important.  

Effort Required:
As a 400-level course, a considerable amount of development and research effort is required of the student.  For every one hour in class, the student is expected to put in an effort of at least 3 hours outside the class for studying and programming.  Upon background and preparedness, some students may have to put in additional effort.  

Communication:
The Bulletin Board facility of WebCT and private E-mail will be used to make any general announcements, last minute changes, etc.  It is mandatory that you monitor your WebCT course messages at least once a day.