Course Description:
Course designed to familiarize student with tools of communication essential to aspects of electronic business conducted via the Internet, e.g. e-commerce and e-marketing, essential to effective communication in eBusiness. Specific goals include an understanding of communication strategy, content, text and subtext, as well as an awareness of the attributes of communication in a nontraditional interpersonal and group communication virtual environment.

In this course you will work under a pseudonym of your choice to lessen biases of gender, race, ethnicity etc. In that context you will be involved in such activities as role playing in email communication, online brainstorming and group collaboration.

Statement:
This course runs through Terms I & II of summer session to provide students a more leisurely pace to complete the work. Students may determine to complete work within one term or at some point in between Terms I & II. You will be required to file a schedule of assignment completion for approval. Grades will be submitted at the completion of Term II. Please note: there are two assignments that require your working with other members of the class; consequently, these assignments will be less open-ended with regard to completion dates.
The selection number is #66918.

This course requires writing for every assignment. It is important that you note the requirements below in order to make submitting your work accessible for reading and grading.

Minimum word processor requirement:
     • Windows: Office 97, Office 2000, Office XP
     • MacIntosh: Office 98, Office 2001, Office X
     • OR any word processor that can save in Microsoft Office Format.

Because of the functioning of the WebCT software through which this course is offered, certain browsers do not support all functions, particularly the Chat and Discussion functions that are crucial to a number of the assignments. Note that it is not always the most up-to-date browser that works best.

Compatible web browsers:
Netscape 4.75 or 4.76 (Note that Netscape 6 & 7 have difficulty displaying the WebCT chat rooms.)
Internet Explorer 5 or higher.

Note that the embedded AOL browser is not suited for viewing WebCT. If you use AOL, you should plan on using it to establish your Internet connection and then run one of the other browsers simultaneously over that connection.

The College of Business Administration also publishes a helpful web page devoted to browser choice and adjusting the settings on your browser once you have chosen. Click here to connect to that page.

Also required in addition to a compatible browser are required browser plug-ins RealPlayer and Quicktime (Windows Media Player optional) because the content of this course requires viewing or listening to video and audio clips of films and interviews (for free downloads, see CBA web site). For this reason also a cable, DSL or LAN connection is recommended or at least a 56K telephone modem to alleviate the frustration of long download and loading time.

Text
Business Communication: A Framework for Success
by H. Dan O'Hair, James S. O'Rourke, and Mary John O'Hair
South-Western College Publishing, Thomson Learning™, 2001
ISBN: 0-324-01415-5
(http://ohair.swcollege.com)
Your text is a valuable resource. It is intended to assist your breadth and depth of thinking about communication in general and on the Internet in particular. You will not be tested on these readings. They are selected as a catalyst for thinking and a supplement to knowledge. Peruse the readings for your own edification. As graduate students, you are capable of separating the wheat from the chaff in all the readings. Moreover, many of the articles are also most useful as background or as a stimulus to thinking.
Please note that the links to the textbook website in the assignments contain several useful features:
* Links to other URLs with relevant information,
* Self-administered quizzes which help to test your knowledge and preconceived notions in a variety of relevant areas, e.g. a test on intercultural attitudes, (You can list your e-mail address and name as the taker and the recipient so you get the results…an edifying experience.)
* PowerPoint slides that summarize the major points in the chapter,
* Internet index of relevant sites on a given chapter topic.

This class is intended to assist you in enhancing your current skills and competencies in becoming an effective communicator in the world of eBusiness. To that end, we will explore both internal (within a company) communication and external (between the company and its customers or business-to-business) communication via the Intranet/Internet. You will be engaged in critiquing the work of leaders in the field, brainstorming with peers in online discussions, reviewing online e-commerce sites, and addressing the macro issues of ethics, cultural diversity, and gender.

You will also explore the challenges and opportunities of working in a world absent the value of face-to-face communication. (Even the use of teleconferencing is not a substitute; the technology is two-dimensional and the image is controlled by camera angles. The texture of smells, intonation, mood, ambience, power seating arrangements and the shared pot of coffee are not part of the world we are entering. We are alone with our terminal and our Starbucks mocha skinny latte frappaccino caramel and, oh yes, two-shots) Consequently, we will explore whether or not there should be concern for replacing those factors in some way and, if so, how we define or recognize attempts at substitution. By its very nature, technology is a cold environment. Yet film is technology and we leave the movies with tissues discreetly dabbing our eyes. We will explore how e-commerce is attempting to humanize the Internet and evaluate the results. Part of the fun is discovering how those subtextual encodings are affecting us and why. These many aspects comprise communication.

For two of the assignments, you will be assigned to work in teams. One exercise will be synchronous and one asynchronous. The purpose of teamwork is to provide you with additional opportunities to hone your online communication skills by exchanging ideas and solving problems. In addition, there are very few work environments when one is not called upon to work in teams at some point. This practice has many benefits if you subscribe to the notion that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. I do. In addition, the teamwork will help you to get to know your online classmates-to develop an impression of with whom you are working. That knowledge will be central as we move toward one of the final assignments.