Question #4: What are the main challenges you face when you teach E-Commerce and how do you deal with them?

Respondent 1: Finding up to date cases.

I use older cases and supplement them with close examination of websites.

Respondent 2: Two problems: 1) IS/IT majors what the technology without the management junk. 2) the other majors want the management without the reality of technology limitations. Solution: make them work together to produce a web-based business.

Respondent 3: Dont be on the bleeding edge with the technology.

You must have your students, including MBAs, have

some experience with the system design process using up-to-date tools, but make sure you have

bullet-proofed your exercises. For MBAs the point is not to make them superior web application

developers, but rather to give them enough experience with the application design and implementation process that they can speak the

language and be familiar with the issues.

Respondent 4:

Respondent 5:

Respondent 6: This is an evolving field. New technologies and new business efforts a constantly emerging. I have taught the subject 3 times, each with a new book (because the prior book was already outmoded).

Respondent 7: The "lessons learned" keep growing every day. It is an ever changing area (as are most areas of MIS) that also requires a good knowledge of other business disciplines in order to teach it effectively.

Respondent 8: My students want to dive right into design. No, that's not right. They want to dive right into building the site. I spenf a lot of the first week discussing project structure and management. Concept analysis, planning (including a business plan, a budget aschedule and a staffing model come first but are foreign to many of them. Fire, aim, ready!

Respondent 9: Balancing the technology aspects and the business aspects. As an accounting professor, I have designed a nontechnical class that emphasizes the importance of the various issues to accountants and the business model evaluation approach.

Respondent 10: Majority cases are failure stories and companies losing a lot of money. We focus on the reasons for failure and loss, and solutions for them.

Respondent 11: few pure plays are in the market, and even fewer will stay, which limits the example space.

Establish own business with a sold idea.

Respondent 12: Management students who really don't understand enough about business to be able to place e-commerce in context.

Respondent 13: --Keeping up. I know there are useful cases, examples, trends, resources, etc out there, but I do not have time to keep up. We need an "e-commerce for academics" resource. How do I deal with this? By following many sources and working long hours. Also by telling everyone I am not an e-commerce expert, especially with people introduce me as such.

Respondent 14: Keeping up with the changes. Satisfying demands for technical knowledge and the need to develop a good theoretical base.

Respondent 15: The prerequisite knowledge! It is difficult to teach how the technology affects business when the students have not internalized basic computer technology. It is difficult to discuss e-commerce strategy when students have no ideas as to the limitations of technology...or the possibilities.

Respondent 16: Some students are still stuck in the technology trap and are resistant to getting to grips with the real business issues. I flag to the students that if that is what they are looking for then they are on the wrong course

E Commerce is a vast area that requires examination of people, systems, technology and the dynamic between them. Use of collaborative and open-ended coursework

Helping student deal with international issues of standards, legislation, culture etc. Active challenge, exploration of cultural issues within the student body

Respondent 17: Getting non-technically oriented students to understand the rather severe constraints the technology imposes on potentially "bright ideas."

Respondent 18: Students' superficial view of its effects.

Respondent 19: it's easy to use c-2-c or b-2-c examples and harder to get them to get b-2-b examples

Respondent 20: Getting studentes to think in HTML and database based languages

Respondent 21: 1) getting students to think global (as opposed to international) - get them to 'surf' in a foreign language and evaluate what they see, also get students to read outside of the marketing paradigm (sociology, anthropology etc) to understand humans rather than markets.

Respondent 22: One of the main challenges is to make students aware of the possible ethical implications associated with the use of electronic technologies. A second challenge is to make them look at these technologies from a realistic point of view, and to remember that traditional methods are not going to disappear overnight

Respondent 23: Hype. People still believe that e-Commerce will mean you get rich overnight. Most people who think like this do not understand the concept of a business model, nor do they want to work that hard.

Respondent 24: too much IT and not enough business - most students will have IT professional to put the ideas into practice, they just need to know the language, and the capability alongside their business skills, so w keep the IT down - if they want to learn about PERL then go do a IT class

Respondent 25: To find litterature in a research field where there is still some anarchism and few models applied.

Respondent 26: It is surprising the number of students who have yet to purchase online, and are still unfamiliar with the potential of eCommerce. Without the ability to relate to what I am saying about eCommerce, the students may be missing out on the whole relevance and importance of it.

Respondent 27: The challenge is in relating the principles of business in a new context. Use of case histories (Amazon), case studies and examples to illustrate a new perspective.

Respondent 28: I briefly touch this in some of my classes but it is generally covered indepth in other classes. Basically, my biggest challenge is keeping current so that I can stay ahead of my students.

Respondent 29: Student seem to think the whole marketing model is becoming a E-com model and that simply is not true.

Respondent 30: Sorry, I would not teach it as a stand alone course.

Respondent 31: There are few business cases available that I would like to use (Harvard, Ivey etc) because they seem to date to the early boom. Somehow a 3 year old case seems old.

Respondent 32: I don't teach an E-commerce class -- just present it within Intro to Marketing and Marketing Research.

That said, the major challenge I see is keeping current. Textbooks are dated when they are published. You must keep up with business press and business contacts to keep e-commerce information current. I find bringing in guest speakers in the area helpful to provide the most current information.

Respondent 33:

Respondent 34: 1. Most students don't understand the technology and costs of different forms of connection, including the worldwide differences in telecomm tarifs.

2. Much of e-comm involves corporate database systems, ERP, logistics, banking & accounting. These are almost totally ignored in marketing coures.

3. Not enough undergraduate level cases on B2B aspects of e-comm.

Respondent 35: Lack of texbooks/academic publications. Although this is changing.

Respondent 36: n/a I only teach 1 chapter in principles & mkt. management. The trouble is I can't devote enough time. STudents also think they "already know all about e-commerce" at the undergraduate level at least

Respondent 37: The range of familiarity and expertise of students coming into these courses can be huge--from someone who's suspicious of the Internet and it's role in commerce to someone who works with IT every day. If you're creative and use a problem solving approach, the needs of both these groups can be met. Also, if there is a substantial enough advanced group, multiple courses become appropriate.

Respondent 38: To get beyond the technology.

To frame e-commerce within the traditional business and regulatory environment.

To think out of the box.

Respondent 39: convincing students that ecommerce is no different to commerce is the main challenge, which is achieved very quickly

Respondent 40:

Respondent 41: Trying to keep up with & learn about the relevant technologies. I'm not a techie, have no formal tech training. Everything I understand & can do I've learned on the fly by doing, reading, & getting lots of help from techie friends. My training & experience is business & I approach it e-commerce from a business perspective becasue that's what it's about. It's not about the technology. The tech is but a means to an end, but a means that has created new oportunites. I enjoy the technology,learning about it, & working with it. Better the business types understand the tech toys, better we can imagine how to apply them to serve business purposes.

Respondent 42: E-Commerce changes way too fast, and it is a challenge to catch it up.

Respondent 43: The main challenge I face at the moment is refraining from cynicism! However, I use my experiences, both good and bad, in e-Commerce to inform my students about the realities as a foil for the hype that still exists.

Respondent 44: 1. Currency - have students update class on current ways of using e-commerce.

2. Technology - ditto

3. Changing business models - communicate with cutting-edge firms

Respondent 45: n/a

Respondent 46:

Respondent 47: Finding time to provide the students with the level of eye candy they're accustomed and still cover the basics.

Respondent 48: Mixed levels of preparation--everything from people who design systems to people who don't know how to open a browser.

Respondent 49: Keeping up with changes in websites. Usefully for the websites, some correct their mistakes, but then must be removed from my Do-not-do-this or Why-does-not-anyone-like-this-site lists.

Respondent 50: The fact that by the time I teach some aspect of it, it may already be out of date.

Respondent 51: Reference materials must be read like history books.

The cost and time it takes to make the technology work for you

Respondent 52: Mistaking e-commerce to be synonymous to B2C (nothing beond). I emphasize its broader focus (commonly termed e-business)

Respondent 53: I try toi avoid teaching the stuff.

Respondent 54: Keeping up with the continuing changes.

Getting decent current data.

I deal with them by taking the whole thing up a level and going back to basic theories and principles that are being evidenced and referring the students to the current world around them for great examples of successes and failures.

Respondent 55:

Respondent 56: Continual change (always a half-new prep): The basic principles have not changed but examples, links, ... become irrelevant, and there is usually a new technology or application to explore.

Respondent 57: the focus on B2C and dot-coms. I redirect them toward the many incumbents doing great stuff.

Respondent 58: current lack of demand due to sharp market economic decline (i.e. job market almost as bad as in telecomm). Offering courses but keeping the stream alive.

Respondent 59: varied students' backgrounds and difficulty finding rich descriptions of both successes and failures. A lot of the case studies are lacking in useful detail.

Respondent 60: it changes almost daily -- I spend more time in prep because of this (not just the first prep, but every semester I teach it); until recently, there were not enough text books from which to choose -- I used trade books

Respondent 61: It is evolving so fast -- it represents alot of new preparation each quarter. I rely heavily on journals rather than texts. -- Although I am interested in your text.

Respondent 62: I only teach E-Commerce as a part of a basic marketing course. I that context, convincing students that there is more to E-Commerce than just web marketing.

Respondent 63: The rapid pace with which the industry changes. I read & can never keep up.

Respondent 64: Teaching IT and tech based E-commerce students that consumer behaviour and business strategy issues are relevant to their degree and their overly tech based view of human existence!