Modified: May 08, 2005

Course Description

This seminar-based course overviews innovation concepts and practices in information technology (IT) and e-business. Case studies and IT application design topics involving tourism or hospitality companies will be discussed to facilitate the learning.

Prerequisites

Although no prerequisite is required, students are strongly advised to possess basic computer application skills and basic e-commerce business understanding.

Course Objectives

In particular, the student at the end of the semester should be able:

• To identify and understand the important concepts of innovation and application development in information technology and their influential variables, which contribute to the success or failure of tourism/hospitality e-businesses.
• To acquire hands-on problem-solving skills during the design stage for an IT-related project in the tourism/hospitality industries.
• To gain unique small team-learning experiences in understanding and developing an IT-related application for a tourism/hospitality company.

Course Implementation

The course will be taught in three different formats: (1) Lecture/guest-speech format – each week the instructor will discuss one main topic in a class or invite a guest speaker to talk about challenges relevant to tourism/hospitality e-Commerce issues, (2) Case-study format – students will work in small teams to discuss and present e-Commerce-related case analyses facilitated by the instructor, (3) Team-project format – Students will learn about how to develop a useful e-Commerce application for a sponsored or potential tourism/hospitality company. Students are expected to participate in any class discussions (including question and answer exchanges), case-study discussions and presentations, and team e-Commerce project work.

PDF syllabus is available upon request.