January 28, 2016
Helping Businesses Succeed Online
Written by: John Drake, PhD; Assistant Professor of MIS
For the past three years, our MIS students have been working with local businesses and organizations, helping them succeed with their online presence. In a web development class, students learn how to develop their own website and then learn how to analyze existing business websites and online presence. For the latter, students conduct a 7 week project where they analyze a business website in detail while learning the theory and practice of e-commerce. During this project, students spend 7 weeks listening to executive interviews, exploring marketing techniques, assessing online technologies, learning about user experience, and evaluating administrative practices of a company’s online presence. At the end of the project, students write a detailed report highlighting a prioritized list of improvements that is returned to the business owners.
This project has been a complete success. Students love it. Businesses love it. Some businesses loved the results so much, they offered students jobs on the spot to implement the recommended changes. Another organization asked a student to present his findings to their board of trustees.
We have had the privilege of working with many local businesses, including East Carolina Auto Dealership, King Tiger TKD Academy, The Wash House laundries, Brock Realty Group, Nease Personnel, The Hammock Source (Designed for Outdoors), the little bank, and Parker Boats. We have also helped various non-profits, social commerce, and public organizations such as the Pitt-Greenville Airport Authority, Center for Family Violence Prevention, Infectious Disease Clinical Research Program, Vidant Rehabilitation Center, Waveborn, and our own College of Business. We need more business sponsors for this spring’s class.
If you know a business or two that may be interested in a websites analysis, please send them this link https://ecu.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3jHVcgujJ7i45Sd. Each semester, we need 8 new organization websites to analyze, so your support is essential.
If you have any questions about the class or projects, please do not hesitate to send me an email at drakejo@ecu.edu.
http://professordrake.com