UNIVERSITY OF ULSTER
COURSEWORK - (2014-2015)
20% OF TOTAL COURSEWORK.
Module Code: COM197
CRN: 84302
Module Title: Managing Web Platforms and Content
Release Date:
Submission Date:
Date returned:
Semester 2 Week 1 – Monday 26th January 2015
Semester 2 Week 12- Friday 24th April 2015
(no later than 12 noon)
Semester 2 Week 14 – Monday 11th May 2015
One member of each group should submit a printed copy of the blog to the School
Office (16G24) no later than 12 noon. A completed coursework submission sheet
(available from: http://scm.ulster.ac.uk/current.php) should accompany the hard copy
submission.
GROUP BLOG
This element of coursework will take the form of a peer assessed, group Blog. This is
a group piece of coursework, which is worth 20% of the total coursework marks for
this module. Members of each group will be allocated by the module co-ordinator,
and each member is expected to contribute to the assignment deliverables.
Management and coordination of the individual groups will be the responsibility of
the group members.
Requirements:
Blogs (or ‘weblogs’) are a form of website where content is arranged into categories
and most importantly arranged chronologically. Blogs can be viewed as a kind of
diary that is published onto the web.
Task 1.
Visit Wordpress (www.wordpress.com) and sign up for a new account. Create a new
Wordpress.com account using a meaningful username (for example –
“yoursurnameCOM197).
Please take the time to read the ‘terms and conditions’ for using Wordpress.com.
You will be held personally liable if you break these terms and conditions. Please
note this clause, in particular, that the content is not:
Obscene, libellous or defamatory, hateful or racially or ethnically
objectionable, and does not violate the privacy or publicity rights of any third
party.
Please note that you should not publish material about companies or their web sites
that is not available on the web.
At all times you should work within the University’s ‘acceptable use’ policies.
Once you have successfully signed up, you should complete some Wordpress.com
tutorials. Please take the time to learn about blogging and the best practices
associated with the process.
Task 2.
For this task you are going to put some content on your blog. You can add content in
two main ways with Wordpress.com; either as a separate page, or more commonly
as a ‘post’. You are going to add a new post to your blog. Take time to read about
adding posts using the on-line tutorials and the feature guides at Wordpress.com.
Please note that all the features you need are available for free. There will be no
need to pay for the features required on this module.
Carefully note how blog entries are typically posted, posting text and image data
together using the posting interface in Wordpress.com. Note also the use of tags,
categories, and the use of hyperlinks in the text and also associated with images.
Note also how postings are ordered by time, with the most recent available at the top
of the page.
For this entry to your new blog you will need to research the statistics available on
Internet usage in the UK. Search for recent reports on Internet usage and write a
short (200 words minimum) blog posting in your own words on what you have
found. Try to incorporate hyperlinks and images to convey what you have found.
Create some categories and tags and associate them with your blog posting.
Finally, once you have posted your first entry to your blog, email Dr. Adamson
and Dr. Corr with the blog web address. Please name your postings after the task
number associated with the assignment question.
Task 3.
Select an on-line retail environment for one product or product group. In the weeks
ahead you will be evaluating the current on-line practice of this retailer and
commenting on the underlying technological infrastructure supporting the operation.
Keep this in mind when selecting your on-line retail environment.
Please answer the questions below, writing about 200 words answering all three
questions in the posting to your blog.
E-Commerce Fundamentals
Q1. Examine the web site that you have chosen. Please provide a short description
of the web site in everyday language and insert screen shots of the web site.
Q2. Use some search engines or industry sources (e.g. trade magazines on-line,
Financial Times, etc.) to carry out desk research to find out specific quantitative
information about the size of the business behind the web site. Try to determine
figures for turnover, number of employees, and profit for recent years. Please do so
without directly contacting the company.
Q3. Take some time to research the business behind your site. Is the web the only
channel to market for this business? If so, please describe your understanding of
how this business came about. If the web is not the only channel, please describe the
other channels in detail. Try to ascertain the volume of business won by each
channel.
Task 4.
Please answer the questions below, writing about 200 words answering all three
questions in the posting to your blog.
E-Business Infrastructure.
Q4. Explore the Internet for information on the site you have chosen. Look especially
for data that helps to place your site in context for example, competitors, industry
averages, growth rates etc.
There are a variety of sites that may provide useful information here:
www.abce.org.uk
www.alexa.com
www.attentionmeter.com
www.compete.com
www.google.com/trends
www.google.co.uk/insights/search
www.quantcast.com
www.quarkbase.com
www.statbrain.com
www.statsaholic.com
www.trafficestimate.com
Describe your site in terms of the number of visitors etc., using data found from the
sites above or other sources. Check some of your site’s competitors and see if you
can get comparative data.
Q5. Explore the processes involved in purchasing from your chosen site. Describe
the different steps in these processes in terms of the technology that is being used,
from typing the web address into the browser to a product being delivered.
Q6. New channels to market for e-business are increasingly being used. Such
channels include mobile device access as well as digital television access. Consider
and describe the potential future impact of ONE of these channels for the e-business
you have chosen from the perspective of the business. What strategic choices (if
any) need to be made?
Task 5.
Please answer the questions below, writing about 200 words answering all three
questions in the posting to your blog.
E-Environment
Q7. Look in detail at the terms and conditions for purchasing from your site. Are they
reasonable? Comment on anything unusual or unreasonable that you find. What
about returning goods? Describe the kind of support provided by your site, for
example, does it provide customer call back or does it give terms for returning goods.
Do you think that it is better or worse than the competition? Explain your answer.
Q8. Examine the registration process for your site from the perspective of security. Is
your data encrypted? What does this mean?
Q9. Does the site use cookies? Find out what cookies are and explain how they are
used.
Task 6.
Please answer the question below, writing about 500 words answering the question
in the posting to your blog.
E-Business Strategy
Q10. Porter’s 5 forces analysis is a framework for industry analysis and business
strategy development. It was developed in 1979 by Michael E. Porter of Harvard
Business School. Strategy consultants occasionally use Porter’s 5 forces framework
when making a qualitative evaluation of a firm’s strategic position. It is usually only
used as a starting point or ‘check list’.
In 2001 Porter published, Porter, M., (2001) Strategy and the Internet, Harvard
Business Review, March, pp. 62-78, where the 5 forces model was updated to take
account of the impact of the Internet.
The impact of the Internet on these 5 forces may be summarised as:
The threat of substitute products and services;
The threat of the entry of new competitors (barriers to entry);
The intensity of competitive rivalry;
The bargaining power of customers/buyers;
The bargaining power of suppliers.
Consider the strategic impact on your web site in each of these ‘5 force’ areas and
write a little bit on each. So for your chosen company please write a short blog
posting looking at each of these five areas.
Task 7.
Please answer the question below, writing about 200 words in the posting to your
blog.
E-procurement
Q11. Carry out web research to find out what is meant by the term ‘Cloud
Computing’. Describe in your own words what is meant by this term. Explain the
impact of cloud computing on e-commerce. Ensure that you describe potential
benefits and problems.
Task 8.
Please answer the question below, writing about 200 words in the posting to your
blog.
E-Marketing
Q12. For your selected e-commerce site, assess the ease (or not) with which you
can find the site using a search engine. Type some of the company’s branded
products or key themes into a search engine. Discuss what is returned. Pay
particular attention to ‘paid for’ results. Check where competitors appear, interpret the
results, and make recommendations.
Task 9.
Please answer the question below, writing about 200 words in the posting to your
blog.
Customer Relationship Management
Q13. So far you have looked at different aspects of your chosen e-commerce site.
These have included basic business figures such as turnover, profit, etc., the position
of your business in relation to its competitors, and how easy it is to find your ecommerce business using key terms in different search engines. This week your task
is to construct a list of key phrases that describe your chosen e-commerce business.
The final shortlist should be no more than twelve key phrases.
Experiment with Google tools to see what they think are the best key phrases for the
e-commerce business (you will soon be deluged with too much information).
Your task is to cut down the deluge of key words to around twelve that perfectly
describe the web site and can be used as part of an Adwords campaign for your
chosen site. The problem is how to achieve this in a meaningful way. Try to identify
on-line tools that can help in your selection of the best twelve key phrases. For
example, you can use Google Insights for Search tool to find popular searches (when
you give it a key word or phrase, it will suggest top searches and rising searches
related to that word or phrase). Google offers many other tools.
A powerful and useful tool is the Google Keyword Tool. Enter your e-commerce site
address into this tool, remembering to select the ‘website content’ radio button. The
last column of the table that results from running this tool on your chosen
e-commerce web site is called ‘match type’ and has three options associated with it.
These are: ‘broad’, ‘phrase’, and ‘exact’. Use this tool with the different settings in the
‘match type’ column together with the Google help feature to learn more about this
column and what the options mean. Try out different options, including adding
optional keywords.
Whilst a posting of around 200 words is required, it is important that you take the time
to show screenshots of the tools (with their results) that you have used. The final
entry in your posting will be the list of twelve words with an explanation as to why you
have chosen them. Extra marks will be awarded to those who find new and useful
tools.
Task 10.
Please answer the question below, writing about 500 words in the posting to your
blog.
Social, Legal, and Ethical issues
Q14.
Discuss the social, legal, and ethical issues that the manager of a sell-side ecommerce web site needs to consider to avoid damaging relationships with users of
his or her site or which may leave the company facing prosecution.
Materials that have informed your decision making should be referenced in the
appropriate section. Sources should include textbooks, academic web sites,
manufacturers web sites, and academic literature (conferences and journals). All
sources should be referenced. Use appropriate referencing (guide to referencing for
help and support on referencing using Harvard APA method
http://wiki.ulster.ac.uk/display/SSS/Ulster+Business+School++Guide+to+referencing+in+the+Harvard+style ).
Please pay close attention to the assessment criteria and mark allocations at the end of
this document.
NOTE: In addition to the group submission of a Blog, individual members of the
group will also submit a peer assessment form, in order to indicate the perceived
percentage of contribution from each member of the group to the final poster
submission. The peer assessment forms will subsequently be used to provide a
weighting when marks are allocated to members of each group for the poster
component of the assignment.
University regulations require that late submission attracts a mark of zero. If you have
extenuating circumstances you should fill in an EC1 form according to your course
rules, forms are found on your course website – your course director can advise.
Plagiarism
The University’s definition of plagiarism makes explicit that copying from texts or
web or other sources and copying work from other students constitutes plagiarism. It
reads:
Plagiarism is the act of taking or copying someone else’s work, including another
student’s, and presenting it as if it were one’s own. Plagiarism is said to occur when
ideas, texts, theories, data, created artistic artefacts or other material are presented
without acknowledgement so that the person considering this work is given the
impression that what they have before them is the student’s own original work when it
is not. Plagiarism also occurs where a student’s own work is re-presented without
being properly referenced. Plagiarism is a form of cheating and is a disciplinary
offence.
Student declaration
The standard coursework submission sheet for the receipting of coursework includes
an explicit reference to the University’s definition of plagiarism as follows:
I declare that this is my own work and that any material I have referred to has been
accurately and consistently referenced. I have read the University’s policy on
plagiarism and understand the definition of plagiarism as given in the course
handbook. If it is shown that material has been plagiarised, or I have otherwise
attempted to obtain an unfair advantage for myself or others, I understand that I may
face sanctions in accordance with the policies and procedures of the University. A
mark of zero may be awarded and the reason for that mark will be recorded on my
file.
NOTE: This is a group assignment and all work submitted must be the work of the
group.
FEEDBACK
Assessment of Tutorial Blogs
Student’s name
Criterion
Mark overall
Weight
Demonstration of knowledge
and understanding
30
Critical evaluation of the
problem and solutions
40
Breadth and appropriateness of
research and references
30
Comments.