FIT3009 e-Business systems - Semester 1, 2009

Unit leader

Lecturer(s) :

Additional communication information

New phone number is: 99032352

Teaching and learning approach will be based on the use of behaviourism and cognitivism theories. This is because the students are very much given a controlled environment with a pre-defined set of learning objectives which they must satisfy by demonstrating measurable outcomes through tutorials and assignments. The theory of cognitivism is suitable for this unit because the learners have their knowledge built by the lecturer who aims to convey his mental construct of the concepts of advanced business information systems to the learners. The message passed by the lecturer helps learners in understanding and internalizing the principles of the unit.

Tutorial allocation

On-campus students should register for tutorials/laboratories using Allocate+.

Communication, participation and feedback

Monash aims to provide a learning environment in which students receive a range of ongoing feedback throughout their studies. You will receive feedback on your work and progress in this unit. This may take the form of group feedback, individual feedback, peer feedback, self-comparison, verbal and written feedback, discussions (on line and in class) as well as more formal feedback related to assignment marks and grades. You are encouraged to draw on a variety of feedback to enhance your learning.

It is essential that you take action immediately if you realise that you have a problem that is affecting your study. Semesters are short, so we can help you best if you let us know as soon as problems arise. Regardless of whether the problem is related directly to your progress in the unit, if it is likely to interfere with your progress you should discuss it with your lecturer or a Community Service counsellor as soon as possible.

Unit Schedule

Week	Topic	References/Readings	Key dates
1	E-business overview	Turban (2008) text book
2	E-marketplaces	Turban (2008) text book
3	E-tailing	Turban (2008) text book
4	B2B e-commerce: private emarkets	Turban (2008) text book
5	B2B exchanges & directories	Turban (2008) text book
6	E-supply chains	Turban (2008) text book	Assignment 1 due
Mid semester break
7	E-government and C2C commerce	Turban (2008) text book
8	Legal & ethical issues in E-business	Turban (2008) text book
9	E-business strategy	Turban (2008) text book
10	Economics of E-business	Turban (2008) text book
11	Planning for e-commerce	Schneider (2007) text book	Assignment 2 due
12	Online community and e-society	Krishnamurthy (2003) text book
13	Exam revision	Turban (2008) text book

Prescribed text(s) and readings

a) Gary Schneider, Electronic commerce, Thomson Course Technology, 2007 or recent edition b) Turban, E., King, D., Lee, J. and Viehland, D., Electronic commerce: A Managerial perspective, Prentice Hall, Pearson Education International, Text books are available from the Monash University Book Shops. Availability from other suppliers cannot be assured. The Bookshop orders texts in specifically for this unit. You are advised to purchase your text book early.

Recommended text(s) and readings

a) Dave Chaffey, E-business and e-commerce management, Financial Times, Prentice Hall, 2002 or recent edition

b) Turban, E., King, D., Lee, J. and Viehland, D., Electronic commerce: A Managerial perspective, Prentice Hall, Pearson Education International,

Equipment and consumables required or provided

Students studying off-campus are required to have the minimum system configuration specified by the Faculty as a condition of accepting admission, and regular Internet access. On-campus students, and those studying at supported study locations may use the facilities available in the computing labs. Information about computer use for students is available from the ITS Student Resource Guide in the Monash University Handbook. You will need to allocate up to n hours per week for use of a computer, including time for newsgroups/discussion groups.

Study resources

Study resources we will provide for your study are:

• Weekly detailed lecture notes outlining the learning objectives, discussion of the content, required readings and  exercises;
• Weekly tutorial or laboratory tasks and exercises
• Sample exam paper;

Library access

The Monash University Library site contains details about borrowing rights and catalogue searching.  To learn more about the library and the various resources available, please go to http://www.lib.monash.edu.au.

The Educational Library and Media Resources (LMR) is also a very resourceful place to visit at http://www.education.monash.edu.au/library/

Monash University Studies Online (MUSO)

All unit and lecture materials are available through MUSO (Monash University Studies Online). Blackboard is the primary application used to deliver your unit resources. Some units will be piloted in Moodle. If your unit is piloted in Moodle, you will see a link from your Blackboard unit to Moodle (http://moodle.monash.edu.au) and can bookmark this link to access directly. In Moodle, from the Faculty of Information Technology category, click on the link for your unit.

You can access MUSO and Blackboard via the portal: http://my.monash.edu.au

Click on the Study and enrolment tab, then Blackboard under the MUSO learning systems.

In order for your Blackboard unit(s) to function correctly, your computer needs to be correctly configured.

For example:

• Blackboard supported browser
• Supported Java runtime environment

For more information, please visit: http://www.monash.edu.au/muso/support/students/downloadables-student.html

You can contact the MUSO Support by phone : (+61 3) 9903 1268

For further contact information including operational hours, please visit: http://www.monash.edu.au/muso/support/students/contact.html

Further information can be obtained from the MUSO support site: http://www.monash.edu.au/muso/support/index.html

Unit assessment policy

To pass a unit which includes an examination as part of the assessment a student must obtain:

• 40% or more in the unit's examination
  and
• 40% or more in the unit's total non-examination assessment
  and
• an overall unit mark of 50% or more

If a student does not achieve 40% or more in the unit examination or the unit non-examination total assessment, and the total mark for the unit is greater than 44% then a mark of 44-N will be recorded for the unit.

Assignment tasks

• Assignment Task

  Title : Assignment 1: Title: E-marketplaces: A comparison of success and failure

  Description :

  This assignment is designed to test students' understanding about e-marketplaces. It helps students to develop  an improved understanding about the factors for which some e-marketplaces survive while others run out of business. Students are required to research e-business litertaure

  Weighting : 20%

  Criteria for assessment :

  Assignment will be evaluated for the relevance and accuracy of analysis of information collected from exsiting literature and real life e-marketplaces that operate in industry settings

  Due date : April 8, 2009

• Assignment Task

  Title : Assignment 2: M-commerce adoption in developing countries

  Description :

  Due to a high mobile phone penetration in various countries, students are required to discuss whether or not m-commerce will be adopted more rapidly than B2C electronic commerce. In your discussion, you may consider one m-commerce application such as m-banking or m-payment and then use (but not limited to) the following points to guide their discussion: a)  Describing some barriers to B2C electronic commerce adoption, b) Discussing the value propositions for the stakeholders and the revenue model of the m-commerce application you are considering.

  Weighting : 20%

  Criteria for assessment :

  Useful criteria will be given on assignment documents

  Due date : May 18, 2009

Examinations

• Examination 1

  Weighting : 60%

  Length : 2 hours

  Type ( open/closed book ) : Closed book

  Remarks ( optional - leave blank for none ) :

  Exams paper consists of three parts: MCQ, Discussion questions and case study based analytical questions
  
  

Assignment submission

Assignments must be submitted by paper.  On-campus Students submit their assignments to the Office of the Clayton School of IT, Building 63 by the specified submission dates, with the appropriate cover sheet correctly filled out and attached.

Assignment coversheets

Assignment coversheets can be found  via the "Student assignment coversheets" ( http://infotech.monash.edu.au/resources/student/assignments/ ) page on the faculty website

Due dates and extensions

The due dates for the submission of assignments are given in the previous section. Please make every effort to submit work by the due dates. It is your responsibility to structure your study program around assignment deadlines, family, work and other commitments. Factors such as normal work pressures, vacations, etc. are seldom regarded as appropriate reasons for granting extensions. Students are advised to NOT assume that granting of an extension is a matter of course.

Late assignment

Assignments received after the due date will be subject to a penalty of 5% per day, including weekends. Assignments received later than one week (seven days) after the due date will not normally be accepted. In some cases, this period may be shorter if there is a need to discuss sample solutions.

This policy is strict because comments or guidance will be given on assignments as they are returned, and sample solutions may also be discussed, after assignment marking or with the returned assignment.

Return dates

Students can expect assignments to be returned within two weeks of the submission date or after receipt, whichever is later.

Assessment for the unit as a whole is in accordance with the provisions of the Monash University Education Policy at http://www.policy.monash.edu/policy-bank/academic/education/assessment/

We will aim to have assignment results made available to you within two weeks after assignment receipt.

Plagiarism, cheating and collusion

Plagiarism and cheating are regarded as very serious offences. In cases where cheating  has been confirmed, students have been severely penalised, from losing all marks for an assignment, to facing disciplinary action at the Faculty level. While we would wish that all our students adhere to sound ethical conduct and honesty, I will ask you to acquaint yourself with the University Plagiarism policy and procedure (http://www.policy.monash.edu/policy-bank/academic/education/conduct/plagiarism-procedures.html) which applies to students detected plagiarising.

In this University, cheating means seeking to obtain an unfair advantage in any examination or any other written or practical work to be submitted or completed by a student for assessment. It includes the use, or attempted use, of any means to gain an unfair advantage for any assessable work in the unit, where the means is contrary to the instructions for such work. 

When you submit an individual assessment item, such as a program, a report, an essay, assignment or other piece of work, under your name you are understood to be stating that this is your own work. If a submission is identical with, or similar to, someone else's work, an assumption of cheating may arise. If you are planning on working with another student, it is acceptable to undertake research together, and discuss problems, but it is not acceptable to jointly develop or share solutions unless this is specified by your lecturer. 

Intentionally providing students with your solutions to assignments is classified as "assisting to cheat" and students who do this may be subject to disciplinary action. You should take reasonable care that your solution is not accidentally or deliberately obtained by other students. For example, do not leave copies of your work in progress on the hard drives of shared computers, and do not show your work to other students. If you believe this may have happened, please be sure to contact your lecturer as soon as possible.

Cheating also includes taking into an examination any material contrary to the regulations, including any bilingual dictionary, whether or not with the intention of using it to obtain an advantage.

Plagiarism involves the false representation of another person's ideas, or findings, as your own by either copying material or paraphrasing without citing sources. It is both professional and ethical to reference clearly the ideas and information that you have used from another writer. If the source is not identified, then you have plagiarised work of the other author. Plagiarism is a form of dishonesty that is insulting to the reader and grossly unfair to your student colleagues.

Register of counselling about plagiarism

The university requires faculties to keep a simple and confidential register to record counselling to students about plagiarism (e.g. warnings). The register is accessible to Associate Deans Teaching (or nominees) and, where requested, students concerned have access to their own details in the register. The register is to serve as a record of counselling about the nature of plagiarism, not as a record of allegations; and no provision of appeals in relation to the register is necessary or applicable.

Non-discriminatory language

The Faculty of Information Technology is committed to the use of non-discriminatory language in all forms of communication. Discriminatory language is that which refers in abusive terms to gender, race, age, sexual orientation, citizenship or nationality, ethnic or language background, physical or mental ability, or political or religious views, or which stereotypes groups in an adverse manner. This is not meant to preclude or inhibit legitimate academic debate on any issue; however, the language used in such debate should be non-discriminatory and sensitive to these matters. It is important to avoid the use of discriminatory language in your communications and written work. The most common form of discriminatory language in academic work tends to be in the area of gender inclusiveness. You are, therefore, requested to check for this and to ensure your work and communications are non-discriminatory in all respects.

Students with disabilities

Students with disabilities that may disadvantage them in assessment should seek advice from one of the following before completing assessment tasks and examinations:

• Faculty of Information Technology Student Service staff, and / or
• your Unit Coordinator, or
• Disabilities Liaison Unit

Deferred assessment and special consideration

Deferred assessment (not to be confused with an extension for submission of an assignment) may be granted in cases of extenuating personal circumstances such as serious personal illness or bereavement. Information and forms for Special Consideration and deferred assessment applications are available at http://www.monash.edu.au/exams/special-consideration.html. Contact the Faculty's Student Services staff at your campus for further information and advice.