used these approaches in adding Internet Marketing content to classes in e-Commerce, ... experts in Internet technologies when they began updating the B2B.
Summary Brief Adding Internet Technology to the Classroom Patricia A. Knowles, Clemson University Roger Gomes, Clemson University Abstract This paper highlights a process of teaching a class utilizing e-technology that involves both traditional lectures and lab-based classes wherein students learn how to evaluate Websites, use data gleaned from the Internet, build their own Websites and how to build a Website for a hypothetical business or organization. In subsequent sections, we discuss the basis for structuring such a class that can be used by almost any faculty member. So far the authors have successfully used these approaches in adding Internet Marketing content to classes in e-Commerce, Business Marketing, Advertising, and Nonprofit Marketing. The approach discussed would also be effective other traditional classes such as Consumer Behavior, International Marketing, Services Marketing, and the like Introduction Integrating new topics and technology into the classroom is an on-going expectation in most Marketing departments in higher education (e.g., Ueltschy 2001) and, indeed, a recent special issue of the Journal of Marketing Education (April 2001) highlights the importance of integrating technology into Marketing Education. In addition to the value of technology when it comes to increasing the efficiency of knowledge transfer, and at the very least, the perception of up-to-date methodology, students rely on their professors for the overview, or cross-industry view, of how technology will be impacting their professional lives. While some students will themselves be experts in some aspects of the hardware, software or technology, few, if any, will be able to integrate their technical understanding with the basics of Marketing theory and strategy on their own. This situation thus essentially "demands an update of student training and academic literature on the electronic-age Marketing" (Hamill 1997). While it is well and good to suggest that departments and professors should "keep up" or should engage in "reskilling" (Ives and Jarvenpaa 1996) with new technologies, the very real fact is that many if not most professors feel that they are already working to their limits trying to meet other promotion and tenure expectations. With all that professors already have going on in their lives, what is a department to do if no one clearly fits the bill to teach a class in, say, Internet Marketing and the department does not have the funds to hire someone? This paper outlines a method that can be used to develop an e-component for an existing course as well as develop an entirely new class in Internet Marketing, using professors that begin the process with very minimal knowledge of building Websites although they should have experience surfing the Internet. All the department needs is for someone to volunteer to upgrade an existing course or to take on a new course.
Teaching with New Technology Initially, the authors incorporated Web technology into two very different courses. In one, interaction with the Internet was required as part of a business-to-business (13213) course. 'Me course was a long-standing component of the department's Marketing curriculum. It needed to be updated since more and more companies are including e-commerce elements in their supply chain strategy (e.g., Banharn 2000). In the second course, the authors' department realized that it needed to better prepare students to work with the Internet. Hence, an Internet-based course was built from the "ground up." The important point - and the major contribution of this paper - is that the professors for these courses were in no way considered experts in Internet technologies when they began updating the B2B course or developing the Internet course. Yet, by using existing models and previous research into the area, by the end the semester, both were not only very comfortable with the new technology but had published in the area and one had even become a co-Webmaster for the department Web site. The framework used to develop the courses was heavily based on modeling as defined by Gomes and Knowles (2000) in their paper describing how to reduce tension in teaching MBA students. They found that use of modeling techniques helped greatly when it came to reducing anxiety of their students. Based on Kazdin's (1989) conclusions, it appears that although the professor should know more than the students about a topic, s/he need not be a perfect example in order for students to learn through modeling. Indeed, it may help students to note how a professor solves problems relating to Websites and other e-technology so that they can themselves model such behavior when they encounter problems in working with and, perhaps, designing their own Websites. Incorporating Internet Technology into a B2B Course In the B2B course, the professor began incorporating Internet exercises into the course as a part of his reading in the field. As he came across an article he wished his students to study and/or use he thought how he could get them to do so via the Internet. For example, in 13213 Marketing there are successful and unsuccessful companies that are early and late technology adopters, just as there are in business-to-consumer (132C) Marketing. Moreover, some of this is apparent in their Web presence. Continuing the example, the professor developed an assignment that involved students looking up several sites (chosen by the professor) and comparing those sites to each other. While student exposure to a variety of sites was necessary, companies with excellent e-commerce were particularly important. In order to accomplish this, in one case - found in Bingham and Gomes (2001, pp. 85-87) - 49 Websites; were collected and included into the exercise. In the case, students are asked to evaluate a number of Websites as a way of introducing them to the topic of B2B Marketing research and information systems. Later, students are asked to re-evaluate the Websites from the point of view of B2B market segmentation (Bingham and Gomes 200 1, pp. 118-120). In a subsequent in-class discussion of the sites the talk is likely to be lively and varied given the wide variety of sites. The students quickly gain confidence in their ability to discriminate site effectiveness (at least from an industry outsider's perspective).
Other assignments require students to visit sites of several competitors as if they were prospective customers collecting information. Importantly, creating the exercise did not require a great deal of Internet expertise. Instead, it only required an understanding of ways customers interact with the Internet and a standard library research search database to uncover Internet capable market leaders. There are too many examples to go over individually, but the Second Edition of the Bingham and Gomes (2001) Business Marketing text contains 25-30 assignments developed in this manner and covering topics from every chapter. in addition to creating Internet-based assignments and cases, it is pretty easy to take a traditional case and add Web aspects to it. Developing an E-Commerce or Internet Marketing Course When it came to developing a course covering the topic areas of e-commerce and Internet Marketing, the first hurdle for a unsophisticated instructor is to manage the textbooks. There are several very good texts and other books available. Although good, informative texts, they necessarily cover material and topics not normally common to Marketing professors including "animated GIFs," bandwidth, click strearn data, Extensible Markup Language, and the like. Hence, the job for the professor developing the Internet course is not unlike the first time s/he prepared to teach any class for the first time except that it is necessary for the professor to make use of cutting edge technology wherever and whenever possible. There are several possible schedules for an Internet Marketing course. The first involves teaching the textbook material upfront - during the first half of the course followed by sections on Web site development and other Internet activities during the second half of the semester. One advantage to this format is that students first learn the content of the course and can then apply that content during the second half of the course. This schedule can be found taught at several universities including Christopher Newport University and Clemson University. A second schedule involves teaching the course content along with Web assignments including Web site design throughout the semester. In this schedule a professor might begin with lectures and alternate them with workshops and the like that teach Web site design and incorporate Webbased assignments. This schedule is also found at several universities, including North Carolina State University and Boise State University. There are a number of good support materials for the professor of an Internet Marketing or eCommerce course. One is Creating Web Sites: Projects by Cram and Hirschl (1998) and another is an excellent Web site for the Strauss and Frost (1999) text (http://equinox.unr.edu/homepage/jstrauss/prehall/syllabi.html ) where they include syllabi from nearly 50 professors. Thus, when it comes to developing a course, others in Marketing have thankfully, done much of the work. With a bit of Internet detective work, developing a first-time class Internet Marketing course need not be an overwhelmingly difficult task either for a department or an individual.
Another, important point in developing this course is that students will vary in terms of their readiness. Some have been developing Websites and surfing the Internet for years while others are very naive when it comes to anything concerning computers. Part of this is due to the fact that students with a wide variety of majors take marketing courses. Rather than being concerned with the varying levels of expertise with the subject matter, one possibility is to make use of student experts as resources to help teach the class. Conclusions It can be difficult for professors to take on new content and/or a new course. Our point is that it does not have to be something to avoid and that not feeling entirely comfortable with new technology need not stop anyone from tackling something new. When integrating new topics and technology into the classroom instructors simply have to keep in mind the simple fact that they do not have to "do it all." Searching on the Internet for course options, Websites and other support material is easily accomplished and can, at the least, enliven any existing course for which the instructor is responsible. Actually, anyone with knowledge of their Marketing area and the traditional means to research companies can easily create and adapt assignments to add real world Internet and Web site experiential learning experiences for their students. Once in process, many professors will immediately see many potential new research areas and ways to extend their own research streams to on-line commerce and communication. For both the students and their professors, the area presents far too much potential to be ignored. References Banham, Russ (2000), Journal of Accountancy, (July), 26-30. Bingham, F. and R. Gomes (2001), Business Marketing Management, Lincolnwood, IL: NTC Business Books. Cram, Carol M. and Meta C. Hirschl (1998), Creating Web Sites: Projects, Cambridge, MA: Course Technology. Gomes, Roger and Patricia A. Knowles, (2000) "A Trust-Building Strategy to Reduce Adversarial Tension and Increase Learning in Case Pedagogy," Marketing Education Review, 10 (2), 49-58. Hamill, Jim (1997), "The Internet and International Marketing," International Marketing Review, 14 (May-June), 300-324. Ives, Blake and Sirkka L. Jarvenpaa (1997), "Will the Internet Revolutionize Business Education and Research?" Sloan Management Review, 37 (Spring), 33-4 1. Kazdin, A. E. (1989), Behavior Modification In Applied Settings, Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.
Strauss, Judy and Raymond Frost (1999), E-Marketing, 2 d Edition. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Ueltschy, Linda C. (2001), "An Exploratory Study of Integrating Interactive Technology in the Marketing Curriculum," Journal of Marketing Education, 23 (April), 63-72.
