What
People Are Saying About the Book
Prof.
Krishnamurthy,
I thought I would send you a note of feedback
on the NTT DoCoMo Case. If you recall,
you sent the teaching notes to me about three week ago. Well, my students were delighted with the
case assignment! It is rare, especially
at this point in the semester, when students voluntarily offer their great
feedback on such a case assignment.
They thought, as I did, that is was informative, challenging, yet easy
to read!!
I'm in the middle of reviewing your entire
textbook which, so far, I'm finding very compatible with my current
syllabus: your text devotes several
chapters to Internet basics and business models, before addressing
e-marketing.
I also like the fact that you have dedicated
full chapters to e-society, public policy and online community as these are
areas in which I have research and teaching interests. In many other texts, these areas given scant
attention and are poorly integrated other content.
Connie Porter
Department of Marketing
Georgia State University
(Source:
E-mail dated December 2, 2002)
[VERY DETAILED REVIEW of
krishnamurthy.swcollege.com BY Merlot.org- Source- E-mail from Cathy Owens
Shift]
Dear
Dr. Krishnamurthy:
Your learning module, "E-Commerce
Cases" was recently reviewed by the Business Discipline Review Board of
MERLOT, the Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online
Teaching. The MERLOT project is an
international initiative enabling faculty to integrate technology into higher
education.
MERLOT is supported by 23 systems and institutions
of higher education as well as the National Science Foundation. MERLOT is also endorsed by National Learning
Infrastructure Initiative of EDUCAUSE. Over 160 faculty from these institutions
have been performing the peer review of instructional technology, modeled after
the peer review processes for research and scholarship.
The peer review report written by the
MERLOT Business Editorial Board will be published on the MERLOT website
(www.merlot.org). The review is
presented below.
If you are satisfied with the review, the
report will be posted on the MERLOT website along with a pointer to your
material. You have the option of not
having the review posted. At your
request, letters will be sent to you and two others (for example, dean and department
chair) you designate acknowledging the quality of your work. Please advise us by January 22nd if you do
not want the review published.
Sincerely,
Cathy Owens Swift
MERLOT Editor - Business
Rating Overall - 4 (highest rating possible
= 5)
Description -
Overview: This site provides three case
studies under the Student Resources section.
The 3 cases provide detailed and current information on Amazon, Ebay and
NTT’s I-Mode Wireless Web Phone. Each
case study incorporates tables, graphs, and figures of financials, business
models and other illustrative data in support of the information provided. In addition, a hyperlinked full endnote
reference page provides sources for the data, and additional resources for
students. The entire site is designed to provide online support for an
Ecommerce Management Textbook, including text-specific resources and
activities, as well as additional general news and business source links.
Learning Goal(s): This site provides very
detailed and up-to-date case studies of three ebusinesses that would supplement
many courses and class applications.
However, there are no specific learning goals on the site. These must be provided by the instructor at
time of assignment.
Target Student Population(s): Upper-level
College or Graduate students. Any one
or all of these cases could be used to supplement in-class lecture and
discussion for many courses including
marketing, management, ecommerce or ebusiness. The cassescould also be used in
a
graduate business course as supplementary material for case study
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills: These
cases would be appropriate for either junior or senior level undergraduates, or
graduate students. The cases are in PDF
format, so Adobe Acrobat is required, and the site provides a link to download
if students don't currently have the software.
Type
of Material: This module is classified as a collection of material (cases,
executive summaries, and e-tasks).
Recommended Use(s): This material can be used
in a wide variety of settings such as in-class exercises, homework, written
case analyses, oral case analyses, class discussion, and individual/group
activities.
Technical Requirement(s): The technical
requirements needed are 1. Adobe
Acrobat and 2. a basic browser such as
Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, or Opera. As an optional technical requirement, students need the
capability to listen to .wav files if they wish to hear the author, Sandeep
Krishnamurthy, present an audio introduction of the website (and text) in his
own words.
Evaulation and Observation (highest rating
possible = 5) -
Category:
Content Quality
Rating:
4
Strength(s): The Amazon and Ebay cases are
ones that students will easily recognize, and therefore can relate to
directly. The NTT I-Mode will probably
not be so familiar to the students, but is also very applicable. All three are very current and relevant to
many topics in multiple courses.
One outstanding feature of this module is
the clarity of presentation. The
content is well-organized and demonstrates many applications of e-commerce
concepts.
Another strength is the variety of
activities that could be used in several situations. The online executive summaries can be used to introduce topics
prior to lecture. They can also be used as
required short readings. Case analyses
can be incorporated after a larger unit on several e-commerce topics. The e-tasks can be assigned in small
segments in-class as activities or out-of-class as homework assignments
throughout a semester long course.
Concern(s): - Because each e-task is
dependent on an associated websites, which are subject to changing at any given
time, instructors are advised to check each website prior to giving e-tasks as
assignments.
- The Amazon and Ebay cases include
discussion questions at the conclusion, however the NTT case does not. The NTT case is double-spaced in its format,
and thus prints out at 41 pages, but really doesn’t need to. All three are fairly lengthy, and figures,
tables are placed at the end of the documents, so students will probably find
it easier to print the cases and read from paper copy.
Category:
Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool
Rating:
4
Strength(s): A major strength of this module,
in terms of potential effectiveness as a teaching tool, is the level of detail
provided within the case studies. Each
case delves into various e-commerce issues that transcend beyond one business
discipline. The e-tasks are extremely
efficient exercises that help students apply e-commerce concepts to real
business situations. They promote a
higher level of involvement with the subject matter.
Concern(s): The instructor must identify
specific learning objectives at the time the assignment is made. Thus the professor must identify how or why
this assignment/resource integrates with the class discussion/topics.
Some of the cases are quite lengthy (e.g.,
the Amazon case is 45 pages) so the instructor may need several class periods
to dissect the entire case.
Category:
Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty
Rating:
5
Strength(s): There are many applications
for these cases in various classes. In
addition, other areas of this site provide links to National and International
news sites, links to company information sources, and job postings available
online. The site is quite easy to
navigate and is visually appealing.
Concern(s): The URL to link to this site is
the link to the textbook site itself.
Since the publisher’s site uses frames, it’s impossible to connect to
the resources that are available openly any other way. Additionally, the endnote sources are
hyperlinked in the PDF files, and this makes it rather difficult to read online
or from the computer. The figures,
tables, and graphs are placed at the end of the documents, and this discourages
many students from actually referring to them while reading, especially if
reading from the computer. Although the
executive summaries and "e-tasks" are organized according to Sandeep
Krishnamurthy's table of contents, this should not be a problem for the case
studies.
Other Issues and Comments: The title of
this module "Ecommerce Cases" does not fully reflect the amount of
material within the module. In addition
to three online cases, this module also includes chapter executive summaries
and "e-tasks."
Comments To Author: Please consider
incorporating the tables/charts within the text, instead of placing them in an
appendix. Aside from that, great website overall and I loved the material!
Criteria
used for the review can be viewed at-
http://www2.gasou.edu/cgb/MERLOT.htm.