The TREAT Laboratory: Comparing an Electronic Commerce Experiment at Curtin and Monash Universities

The TREAT laboratory: comparing an electronic commerce experiment at Curtin and Monash universities Craig M Parker and Paula M C Swatman

The slow rate of acceptance of telecommunications applications-ED1 in particular-can be attributed, at least in part, to a lack of understanding of the strategic benefits which can accrue from their effective utilization. This paper describes the design of an international laboratory called TREAT (Teaching Realistic EDI and Telecommunications), which is being developed to address this concern. It then compares the theoretical and practical learning experiences gained from implementing TREAT in a technically-oriented computer science department and a business-oriented information systems department. The results of this preliminary study provide indicative support that participants’ responses to TREAT were influenced in some instances by their particular educational background-the computer science students were more interested in the mechanisms of the game, including the use of the EDI translation software, while the information systems students were primarily interested in the organizational structure of TREAT and how telecommunications can be used to support business activities.

Keywords: electronic information, EDI, TREAT

Businesses are increasingly becoming aware of the need to exchange computer-generated information across organizational boundaries, allowing firms to replace costly and inefficient paper-based processes (including postage) with global telecommunications networks, which enable the transmission of information between organizations or between distributed centres of a single organization14. Such activities are encouraged by the increasing publicity being given to the ‘information super-highway’ in the print and electronic media.

Department of Information Systems, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia (email: [email protected] [email protected])

The business community’s adoption of telecommunications applications, however, has been delayed by a general lack of understanding of the potential strategic benefits which can accrue from their effective utilization’35-8. Many organizations, indeed, appear to regard such technologies as providing only a faster mail service, rather than seeing that they can offer an infrastructure suitable for strategic initiatives such as business reengineering’. lo. The relatively slow rate of acceptance of telecommunications-based technologies and, in particular, of electronic data interchange (EDI), highlights the need for current and future business professionals to gain a wider education in this area.

This slower than anticipated uptake of telecommunications-based systems provided the basis for a research project which is investigating the possibility that education may be the most appropriate way to encourage a strategic, higher-level view of the usefulness of such systems. We are using a laboratory-based environment (which we call TREAT- Teaching Realistic ED1 and Telecommunications) in which participants can experience genuine international electronic commerce-but without the tinancial risks of an underlying physical exchange of goods.

The initial TREAT laboratory was developed at Curtin University in Western Australia, and formed the practical component of an optional subject offered to both undergraduate and graduate students in the Department of Computer Science. The international component was provided by students from the University of Maribor in Slovenia, who also participated in the game-giving the participants the opportunity to trade with genuinely external trading partners as well as providing a more realistic ‘feel’ to the international aspects of the educational environment. The Maribor students were undertaking

0140-3664/1995 Elsevier Science B.V.

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The TREAT laboratory: C M Parker and P M C Swatman

research in their university’s EDI-IOS Laboratory, established in June 1992”.

The principal investigators moved to the Depart- ment of Information Systems at Monash University in Victoria during the middle of the Australian 1994 academic year. This move offered the opportunity to work with students from a business background, rather than the more technically-oriented students involved in the original TREAT experiment. The relocation did, however, mean that it was not possible to develop an associated subject immedi- ately. The second TREAT laboratory was therefore run as a stand-alone experiment using volunteers, once again with the assistance of students from the University of Maribor.

This paper will discuss:

a the design of and justification for using a laboratory environment to support the objectives of the research project.

0 the theoretical and practical learning experiences gained from the TREAT experiments

l a comparison of the findings obtained by running TREAT in both a Computer Science and an Information Systems Department.

To demonstrate the usefulness of an educational approach to encouraging greater acceptance of ED1 and telecommunications-based systems, we recognized that it would be necessary to run laboratory sessions designed for commercial users of such systems. University students provide only a limited insight into the likely success of our educational approach in the real world. The comparison of technically- oriented students from a computer science background with more organizationally-oriented students from an information systems background, however, has shown that there are genuine differences between these participants’ expectations and responses to the TREAT environment, which provides a foundation for the development of a truly effective commercial learning environment.

DESIGN OF THE TREAT LABORATORY ENVIRONMENT

The primary goal in designing TREAT was to develop an effective pedagogic environment where students would be given the opportunity to learn, appreciate and experience the way in which telecommunications can be applied internationally. More specifically, TREAT was intended to provide students with a means to apply concepts learned from lectures, self- directed reading and other resources, by encouraging them to use telecommunications and ED1 facilities in a manner similar to business community usage.

The major research project of which these two experiments form the initial stage was designed to allow students to adopt ‘deep’ approaches to learning

the telecommunications curriculum*, thus providing both an effective university teaching environment and a more appropriate design for our ultimate commercial laboratory environment. A detailed explanation of the educational aims and theory which underpin this project can be found in Parker et a1.12.

We believe that such an approach is particularly appropriate in designing a laboratory which will eventually be used for training business users. Partici- pants trained in such a manner will be far more likely to apply their new concepts constructively, and to look for strategic uses of these technologies within their organizations when compared to more theoretical approaches such as lectures or seminars.

Choosing a laboratory-based approach

A laboratory-based trade community, in which students could adopt the role of trading organizations and engage in ‘international trade’, appeared to be the most promising method of encouraging students to adopt deep learning approaches, because it would:

l allow students to experiment with a real global telecommunications facility (the Internet) and with genuine commercial ED1 software packages

0 encourage students to make decisions about their business activities, and thus experience the benefits available from using telecommunications in a realistic commercial environment (in turn fostering a greater appreciation of the use of telecommunications technology than would be possible from a purely theoretical introduction)

l provide students with immediate feedback regarding the soundness of their application of knowledge within the laboratory environment

0 make the curriculum more interesting and relevant to students as a result of their active involvement with the subject matter (see Fletcher and Dobbins14 and Ramsden15).

This laboratory-based environment had parallels with the pioneering work carried out at Erasmus (Faculty of Business Administration) and McGill (Faculty of Management) Universities, which have used a simulation approach to teaching, with a significant degree of success, to enhance students’ understanding of their respective curricula’63 “. While both these authors describe their use of ED1 simulations, WrigleyI provides a very detailed and useful description of a

*Deep approaches to learning can be identified when students concentrate on extracting the underlying meaning of the curriculum, and on: l understanding the subject matter completely and fully (often

spending their free time exploring topics covered in class) l understanding concepts or hidden messages so that knowledge can

be based in new problem domains l relating previous knowledge (such as concepts learned from a

previous course of study) to new knowledge, thus building a framework of meaningful, inter-connected understanding’3.‘4

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simulation environment which has been used to teach information systems development skills and concepts. Although our own work concentrates on the areas of the strategic use of information systems, and on international trading partner relationships, we believe that there is considerable synergy between the work of all the authors writing in this field.

Design of TREAT TREAT implementation

The TREAT laboratory environment was made up of organizations which traded abstract* input materials and end-products with their respective suppliers and customers. An imaginary toaster manufacturing industry formed the trade environment of the laboratory and comprised the following types of organizations:

Our primary objective when implementing TREAT for the second time at Monash was to ensure that the two experiments were sufficiently similar that we could make comparisons between the two. In particular, we were interested in how effective the laboratory environment would be in improving the learning opportunities of computer science and information systems students.

a raw materials supplier two types of component suppliers using the raw materials manufacturers using the components from both types of component suppliers retailers purchasing the finished products from the manufacturers-and providing the variation in customer demand a warehouse which coordinated the transfer of goods between all the companies involved a bank which coordinated the EFTs between these same companies.

Pairs of students each adopted the role of a company competing within this industry and exchanged both ED1 and unstructured messages, where appropriate, via the Internet allowing them to procure goods in pseudo- production activities to generate sufficient end-products to meet customer demand. In addition, the firms were also responsible for setting prices based on various purchase prices and operational charges, and for ordering appropriate quantities of input materials and manufacturing appropriate quantities of end-products.

The manufacturing and component supplier organizations were operated by participants, while the remaining companies were run by the laboratory coordinator. This allocation allowed the trade environment (in terms of supply and demand) to be controlled and manipulated more readily than would have been possible had students adopted these roles-it also ensured that funds and goods were exchanged with minimal controversy.

Gricar” suggests that worldwide teaching initiatives with common goals should amalgamate via a global telecommunications network such as the Internet, so that a realistic international laboratory environment can be developed. This concept was further developed during our research project, when students from Maribor adopted the role of ‘foreign suppliers’ and

*The ‘abstract’ products existed only on paper or in the minds of the participants. Students did not trade with real products at any stage.

traded with participants from Curtin and Monash. Students from these institutions were thus encouraged to appreciate the importance of universal standards (in particular, of ED1 standards), and to experience the way in which telecommunications can support the goals of cost-effective and efficient international trade within a simplified, yet realistic, environment.

The move from Western Australia to Victoria, which occurred in the middle of the academic year, led to a number of differences between the implementations of TREAT at the two institutions. Although these differences forced us to make some changes to the implementation of the laboratory, they also gave us the opportunity to investigate alternatives to the design of TREAT.

Curtin students participating in the research project were all enrolled in the optional unit Telecommunica- tions-Based Applications (TBA), which consisted of lectures and practical sessions:

the TBA practical sessions were used as the basis for implementing the TREAT laboratory environment students attended weekly practical sessions of one hour’s duration TBA ran throughout a 13-week semester, and the practical work involved 12 weeks, with the real laboratory taking four weeks two groups of approximately ten Curtin students participated in the independent TREAT laboratories (that is, there were two quite independent games, each made up of ten students) each laboratory had enough students to form two of both types of local component suppliers and at least two toaster manufacturers from the point of view of demographics:

- approximately half the students were final year undergraduates without business experience (although one had had a few years’ work experience), while the remainder of the students were postgraduate participants with several years’ public or private sector experience against which to relate the telecommunications curriculum taught in TBA

- approximately half the students were part-time - approximately one quarter of the students

were female all the Curtin students had technical backgrounds rather than extensive business/management experi-



ence (even the part-time students from the public or private sectors were engaged in technical occupa- tions).

Monash students participating in the research project were not enrolled in any subject for this activity, with the result that there were no formal classroom sessions:

student volunteers were asked to attend two practical sessions of one hour’s duration from the four which were scheduled each week the entire Monash experiment occupied six weeks, of which the real laboratory took four weeks one group of six students participated in the TREAT laboratory at Monash the number of students meant that only two toaster manufacturers and one local component supplier could be formed from the point of view of demographics:

- four of the six participants were postgraduate students with a few year’s public or private sector experience against which to relate the telecommunications curriculum of TREAT, while the remainder of the students were final year undergraduates with limited or no work experience

- all students were full-time - two students were female and four were male all the Monash students had business/management backgrounds rather than extensive technical experience. In addition, one student had had experience with ED1 document mapping and another had had technical experience as a technical support officer on a Unix platform although being qualified as an accountant.

The differences between the Curtin and Monash class structures caused us to alter some aspects of the TREAT implementation at Monash:

l because the Curtin TREAT laboratory was part of a formal subject, we were able to require the students to complete unfinished work during their own time. This was not possible in the Monash experiment, due to its voluntary nature, so we had to extend the weekly duration of TREAT from one hour (as in the case of the Curtin experiment) to two hours to ensure participants could complete the activities

l the greater time difference between Melbourne and Kranj (10 hours, instead of 7, due to greater geographic distance and summer time changes) meant that we needed to depend more heavily upon non-interactive message exchanges during the Monash experiment. During the Curtin experiment, we were able to use more interactive messaging techniques because it was realistic to expect the Slovene participants to be present in their own laboratory simultaneously with our students

l the shorter time available for the Monash experi-

ment necessitated a reduction in the number and content of the introductory sessions offered to the Monash participants when compared to the Curtin students.

Such a disparate group of students could not, of course, form a representative sample-indeed, the small sample sizes and differing implementations at the two institutions made quantitative analysis impossible. Our intention when undertaking the two experiments was therefore not to compare two identical groups, but to generate qualitative, indicative knowledge concerning the appropriateness and effectiveness of TREAT when implemented in these two different tertiary environ- ments. We were, in fact, undertaking preliminary investigation into the differences which a technical or business-oriented background could be expected to furnish. We discuss the implications and findings resulting from these alterations in detail in the following sections of this paper.

COMPARISON OF THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL FINDINGS

TREAT participants were encouraged to express their ideas and put forward constructive suggestions for improving the effectiveness of the practical sessions- both verbally throughout the semester and by means of a questionnaire at the conclusion of the course. We found the participant feedback enormously useful - indeed, many of the enhancements to TREAT were based on the responses we received both during and after the running of the two separate TREAT laboratories.

A detailed analysis of the first experiment can be found in Parker et c~i.‘~, where we discuss the approaches taken to developing our laboratory environment and the learning experiences of both the students taking part in the experiment and the researchers designing the laboratory.

This paper concentrates on distinguishing the results of the Curtin and Monash TREAT experiments:

0 students from both technical and business-oriented backgrounds found a laboratory environment an effective means of gaining experience in electronic commerce

l the more business-oriented Monash students found the commercial details interesting and believeable, while the technically-oriented Curtin students were primarily interested in the mechanism of the laboratory environment itself.

Theoretical learning experiences

Classroom structure and the opportunities for student discussion We found that student discussions of their learning experiences were affected by the differing classroom


structures adopted during the Curtin and Monash TREAT experiments:

l the Curtin course was structured around the typical class contact approaches used by our Computer Science Department -lectures and laboratory sessions

l the Monash experiment had no formal classroom sessions, and relied on student volunteers to attend the scheduled practical sessions.

The particularly informal nature of the Monash experiment resulted in somewhat lower levels of discussion amongst participants than we had found with the Curtin experience - perhaps because:

0 the Curtin students participating in the same game attended the same class, while the Monash students from the same game tended to select different sessions based on their availability. The Monash students were thus unable to get together to conduct discussions and share their experiences

l the Monash students were volunteers, so that the assessable components of their course work were, understandably, given priority over the non-accre- dited TREAT activities such as informal classroom discussions.

Although we encouraged discussion amongst students in an informal way throughout all the TREAT laboratories, we feel that the effectiveness of student feedback could be enhanced still further by encouraging participants to engage in more structured discussions concerning their learning experiences. We therefore envisage a three-part class structure, composed of lectures, tutorials and laboratory sessions to give students greater opportunity for discussion of their learning experiences. The addition of tutorials to the classroom structure, in particular, will encourage students to explain their:

0 current organizational status and discuss their learning experiences - to reinforce their own understanding and share it with others

l future strategic plants and describe how (and why) the telecommunications and ED1 facilities will be used to achieve these-requiring students to articu- late their understanding of the concepts being taught

0 understanding of how their learning relates to the experiences and attitudes of the business community- in particular, drawing on the experiences of students with commercial backgrounds.

We found that the business-oriented Monash students were able to draw on their background in information systems to analyse the problems they faced and the solutions they developed to help them cope with these problems. As an example, Monash students discussed the integration of the ED1 translator with the spreadsheets they developed to assist in analysis of trade cycle data. The more technically-oriented Curtin students, by contrast, tended to concentrate on the problems


associated with the non-transparent file transport systems being used*, rather than considering the business issues involved in their electronic commerce.

Background and understanding of telecommunications and ED1 Since very few of the students in either experiment had previous experience with telecommunications or EDI, we decided to precede the laboratory activities with introductory sessions intended to:

a introduce ED1 by presenting sample document standards and explaining why they are important

a teach students how to use the telecommunications and ED1 facilities which were to be utilized during TREAT

l give students the opportunity to perform practice trade cycles so that they could gain familiarity with the tasks comprising TREAT.

To compare the two experiments, we wished to ensure that the number of ‘real’ trade cycles would be the same for both Curtin and Monash students. The time available for introductory sessions was not equal because:

l in the case of the Curtin experiment, which ran for an entire 13-week semester, we were able to offer students eight separate sessions in which they could gain this experience before starting the laboratory experiments in earnest

a in the case of the Monash experiment, however, the later commencement date of the laboratory, together with its voluntary nature (not all students were present at all sessions), meant that there was less time for participants to gain background experience of telecommunications and ED1 facilities, or to practise the laboratory trade cycles when compared to the Curtin students. Students therefore had only two weeks for the introductory sessions, although they were able to spend two hours each week in the laboratory compared with the Curtin students’ single hour each week.

The time constraint upon the Monash experiment affected the three components of the introductory material in varying ways. It did not affect the presenta- tion of sample ED1 documents, but did affect the other, more time-consuming aspects of the introduction. The section below discuss the varying effects of these time constraints in greater detail:

EDI discussion session The first introductory session during TREAT was an ED1 discussion which gave participants an overview of ED1 standards and their structure, implementation and use, including an explanation of ED1 standard subsets

*The technical details of how the system was implemented and how ED1 messages were moved from the PC platform which students actually used to the UNIX-based Internet computers can be found in Parker et al.12.



and the importance of implementation guidelines. We considered this introduction to be of particular importance to the teaching of applied telecommunications because ED1 is fundamental to many of the applications of this technology, including systems integration and, consequently, business process redesign (see Parker and Swatmani8). We believed that this introductory session would provide both Curtin and Monash students with the background knowledge upon which to relate their learning during TREAT.

The importance of the EDI discussion session was emphasized conclusively when 100% of the Curtin and Monash questionnaire respondents stated that this particular session enhanced their understanding of ED1 concepts and issues, enabling them to appreciate the role of ED1 and, consequently, that of telecommunications during TREAT. Our observations and informal discussions with the Monash students suggest that an active approach to introducing the ED1 concepts-that is, getting students to experiment with an ED1 translator and to analyse the messages which are generated- will enhance this session further.

Learning the telecommunications and EDIfacilities Having resolved the need to provide a background ‘briefing’ on ED1 standards and their implementation, we needed to give students practical experience in using telecommunications and ED1 as rapidly as possible.

The introductory sessions concerning the use of telecommunications and ED1 facilities during the Curtin study mostly comprised a:

l talk on the Internet and its related concepts, including the TCP/IP suite of protocols and Ethernet

l demonstration of various telecommunications facilities such as email, ftp, archie and telnet, followed by opportunities for students to experiment with these techniques

l demonstration of the ED1 translation software being used for TREAT to show how trading profiles and standard subsets for these trading partners are set up and how business documents are generated, exchanged via the Internet and received, again followed by opportunities for students to experiment in their own time.

This level of introduction was not possible during the Monash study, due to the time constraints already mentioned. We therefore concentrated on demon- strating the EDI translation software and providing the students with detailed instructions (not available to the Curtin students) on how to use the telecommunications and ED1 features required for operating their companies. This decision was prompted by the findings from our initial Curtin experiment, following which we hypothesized that the success of the introductory sessions could be further enhanced by giving participants documentation providing step-by-step instructions for the laboratory requirements.

Our observations suggest that neither Curtin nor

Monash students would have been able to use these facilities in an effective manner had they not first been introduced to the systems provided. While teaching users the principles of a new package belonging to a family with which they are already familiar (for example, a new word processing package) is relatively simple-the user need only gain an understanding of the differences involved-our students were faced with an entirely unfamiliar family of software. All commercial ED1 software requires a fairly thorough understanding of both the general principles of ED1 itself (covered by the introductory lecture on the nature of EDI) and of the mechanics involved in creating/modifying an ED1 document (covered by the introduction to the software package).

In addition to our general findings, the introductory approach used in the Monash study resulted in several findings specific to the business orientation of the students:

these students were not as interested in the technical aspects of the ED1 software-instead focusing more on the business issues associated with running their companies. This was in complete contrast to the Curtin students’ attitudes, and suggests that TREAT’s emphasis on technical vs. business issues should be modified on the basis of participants’ educational backgrounds the detailed documentation used by the Monash students appeared to reduce the number of problems they experienced in becoming familiar with the technical facilities, so that their questions tended to relate more to the running of their organizations than on ‘how to’ problems. This contrasted with our experience during the Curtin experiment, where the demands on .the instructor were far greater, with student questions related both to technical problems and to the running of their companies. Future TREAT laboratories will therefore include documentation and instructions on the use of the telecommunications and EDI facilities required for the game.

Practice trade cycles Following the practice in using the ED1 software, students in both the Curtin and Monash investigations were given the opportunity to practise the TREAT trade cycles locally before they were required to commence the game with the international players. This opportunity for experimentation was accompanied by detailed documentation describing the game as a whole, the companies to be operated by each pair of students and the tasks the students were required to perform. Our observations suggested that both groups of students needed this documentation and practice to be able to operate their companies in an effective manner.

The Curtin participants were given the opportunity to conduct practice trade cycles using all the software facilities to be used during the real game, prior to the



start of the experiment. The shorter time period available for the Monash experiment, however, limited the opportunity for students to practise some trade cycles using all the relevant software facilities. Students practised the entire trade cycle, rather than practising the use of all the software packages involved in the final laboratory version.

Our observations suggest that students benefit from being able to practise entire trade cycles using all the software packages because it increases their ability to carry out the real trade activities more effectively and confidently. We believed, however, that in view of the limited time available during the Monash experiment it was more important for the students to understand the principles of what they were trying to do, than to have experience of all the software packages necessary- but without being able to see the full picture. The time constraint meant that only one part of the full trade cycle experience could be practised (either the procedural elements, or the technical elements) and, given the detailed technical documentation available to the Monash students, we believed that the procedural details were more crucial in terms of ‘hands-on’ practice.

We found this assertion to be justified because the Curtin and Monash students experienced more difficulty in understanding the procurement processes of TREAT than in learning and using the software facilities. In fact, we believe the Monash approach could be a more effective way of introducing the trade cycles because the students will not be required to absorb too much material at one time (that is, they will not be required to learn both the use of all the software facilities and the operation of their organizations). Future trade cycle practice sessions will therefore allow participants to practise and learn the procedural aspects of TREAT using a minimal subset of the software packages before all the technical elements are incorpo- rated.

In summary, all the introductory sessions of TREAT were essential because they provided participants with the background skills and understanding necessary for operating the laboratory companies effectively. The Curtin experiment showed that having a longer time in which to introduce the concepts was very helpful. The approach adopted with the Monash students, however, in which the technical and procedural components of the experiment were introduced separately, suggests that there are a number of potentially effective methods of providing this introductory material. It does not appear that the differing educational backgrounds affected this aspect of the learning process- both the Curtin and Monash students needed to spend time on the background to both the technical and business aspects of the game.

Student interest levels The students from all three universities involved in the TREAT experiments (Curtin, Maribor and Monash) seemed to enjoy the game, and found it an innovative

and exciting way of learning about international electronic commerce. Apart from students’ comments to this effect, additional evidence is provided by:

the mere fact of Monash students volunteering to take part in the game, despite their many other commitments and pressures from coursework subjects the company meetings held by some students (outside practical session times) to discuss such topics as their firm’s purchase and production requirements, the prices of their end-products and the suppliers from whom to purchase each input material the spreadsheets which some Curtin and all Monash students developed to assist with and automate their decision-making and future planning the ten days of hard work put in by the Maribor students to develop two completely different application systems to process ED1 messages without human intervention the self-assigned titles of key company personnel, such as ‘Sales Director’, ‘Senior Executive’ or ‘Accounting Manager’ the fact that, although November 1st is a holiday in Slovenia, some students came to the laboratory to continue working on the game during the Curtin experiment the questionnaire responses from students, suggest- ing that 95% of them believed that TREAT enhanced their learning experiences concerning the telecommunications curriculum and was generally interesting the questionnaire responses, which showed that 82% of students felt that the practical sessions had a significant (or at least some) impact upon the quality of their understanding of the business applications of ED1 and telecommunications.

In terms of student enthusiasm, educational background appeared to play very little part, although there was some difference in terms of its manifestation. For example, the development of spreadsheets to assist in the analysis of their organizational data was far more prevalent amongst the Monash students. The Curtin students, however, spent a much greater time (indeed, more than was necessary) exploring the ED1 software to learn how it operated and how it was configured.

Practical learning experiences

Our practical and operational learning experiences resulting from the Curtin and Monash experiments were concerned primarily with the way in which the TREAT laboratory environment was designed. We anticipate that these experiences will offer possible guidelines and considerations for the operation of similar, more extensive iterations of TREAT in future experiments.



Non-interactive message exchanges TREAT was initially designed to be interactive, so that students were required to send and respond to ED1 and electronic messages during a single practical session. The interactive messaging scheme was adopted during the Curtin experiment because the seven hour time difference between Perth and Kranj meant it was feasible for the Curtin and Maribor students to be in their laboratories simultaneously. We also believed that this messaging technique would allow us to solve problems associated with TREAT in a timely manner, and to explore the feasibility of interactive messaging in an international environment.

The time delays encountered when students exchanged messages between Curtin and Maribor, however, imposed restrictions on our ability to optimize our use of such an interactive scheme in future laboratories, including the one implemented at Monash. In addition, the 10 hour time difference between Melbourne and Kranj meant that it was unreasonable to expect the students to be in their respective laboratories at the same time. This problem will only be exacerbated with the addition of other international players-we recently encountered a 15 hour time difference between Melbourne and a US university with which we were establishing an ED1 linkage.

We therefore decided to investigate other interchange techniques which do not rely on the immediacy of document transfers between international players. A non-interactive messaging technique was adopted during the Monash experiment, which required students at Monash to send messages in one session and retrieve the responses from Maribor in a sub- sequent session. This technique allowed us to avoid the problems of delayed messages and the time difference between the international players participating in the experiment.

Variable trade cycle lengths The design of TREAT’s trade cycles specified a list of activities which students were required to complete during a fixed, two-week period. This approach appeared to be effective because it ensured that participants knew exactly what was required of them and increased the likelihood that at least two international trade cycles could be completed during the two experiments.

We envisage that future games could be further enhanced by allowing the participants themselves to determine the length of the trade cycles. VerbaI and written responses from both Curtin and Monash students showed that there was a significant degree of dissatisfaction with some of their trading partners’ performance:

l some Curtin manufacturers did not ensure that the orders from the practice trade cycles were differ- entiated from the real orders once the game had started

0 some suppliers from both Curtin and Monash did not demonstrate adequate levels of commitment to their organizations, which meant that some orders from manufacturers were not filled correctly-in some cases, they were not filled at all.

Variable trade cycle lengths would require students to stipulate deadlines for all ED1 messages and to decide which party is liable for specific types of errors- which would then be documented in trade agreements. We believe that this approach will alleviate some of the causes of dissatisfaction among participants because violation of such agreements could form the basis for the termination of ineffective or undesirable trade relationships.

We would like to investigate the pedagogic feasibility of using variable length trade cycles because the technique appears to offer the opportunity to extend the learning available to incorporate a variety of strategic business techniques, including the provision of:

more realism-variable trading cycles would enable students to reduce their lead times using telecommunications and EDI, so that participants would be encouraged to use these technologies to gain competitive (and possibly even strategic) advantage the opportunity for students to decide for themselves whether invoices should be used during the trade process-in turn providing the possibility of incorporating strategic business approaches such as evaluated receipt settlement the advantage of smaller, more frequent shipments -providing the opportunity for students to investigate Just-in-Time inventory management techniques. It should be noted, however, that limitations would need to be specified on such details as appropriate speeds for freighting individual items the opportunity for students to see the associated benefits of EDI and telecommunications by requiring participants to use these technologies to reduce inventory levels and transport costs, as well as to develop trading partner relationships a more appropriate laboratory environment which addresses our pedagogic aims, because students would be encouraged to use the available ED1 and telecommunications facilities in a way which is similar to business community usage.

Practical session length and structure The Curtin experiment required students to spend one hour each week completing the activities associated with their trade cycles, while Monash students had two hours available for these activities each week. Results suggest that the one hour Curtin time period was not really adequate, although the two hours per week available to Monash students appeared to be sufficient. On the rare occasions when there were some tasks left uncompleted at the end of the two hours, we believe that the additional enthusiasm displayed by students undertaking TREAT as part of a formal subject would ensure completion in the students’ own time.


The decision to make use of a non-interactive approach (where students sent messages during one session and received replies in time for the second session in each week) appeared to be a successful way of ensuring that trade cycles flowed smoothly. The initial, one-hour interactive sessions used at Curtin were less successful, because the occasional technical difficulties encountered meant that the trade cycle activities simply did not get completed during the scheduled class time.

As the TREAT laboratory continues to expand internationally and players from more and more countries become involved, the time difference problem will become more apparent and the difficulty of scheduling class times will become even greater. Using the non-interactive approach adopted during the Monash experiment, with two separate class times on two different days (where these two days are one or more days apart), may alleviate this problem to a large extent, because international players can schedule their classes between these two days- thus ensuring that they can reply to messages before our students attend their second session.

The three operational aspects of the TREAT laboratory environment discussed above did not appear to be greatly influenced by the educational background of the participants. These aspects of the game (interactive vs. non-interactive exchange of messages, the length of trade cycles and the length of the practical sessions themselves) were affected more by the physical difficulties of running an international laboratory experiment than by the background of the participants. We anticipate that these factors will continue to be influenced by the facilities available in the laboratory, even after TREAT moves out of the university environment and becomes a commercial experiment.

Message types Students were required to use both ED1 and electronic (unstructured) messaging when exchanging information with their trading partners to complete the laboratory trade cycles. More specifically, EDI messages were used for standardized documents (including invoices, purchase orders and purchase order responses), and electronic messaging (email) was used for procurement, EFT and freight forwarding documents and for general communication purposes (including the advertisement of prices and following-up orders). We anticipated that this combination of messaging types would give students the opportunity to compare the two techniques.

Students initially found the email system more comfortable because the unstructured nature of the email messages was perceived as being easier to use and less complex. This attitude changed, however, when many students had difficulties with incorrect communication of information (for instance, incorrect cross- referencing of part numbers and part descriptions) which resulted in a few incorrect orders and production


schedules. Students’ overt complaints about these problems suggest that even inexperienced users are able to appreciate the importance of standards when applying telecommunications, because they can experience for themselves the problems caused by using unstructured electronic messaging for business purposes.

The significance of this finding was further emphasized when 75% of Curtin and 100% of Monash questionnaire respondents stated they believed that the number of ED1 messaging types should be increased. In fact, an intense focus on EDI messaging might prove to be important in future TREAT implementations, particularly when the trade environment involves an increasing number of international players. It appears that educational background plays little part in students’ perception of the importance of messages and message types.

One of the problems we faced from the very outset was the management of the game itself (in terms of monitoring messages, student performance and the flow of currency and goods within the artificial trading world we had created). The finding that message standardiza- tion was so important to participants has suggested a possible solution to this problem.

We believe that by standardizing the majority of business documents (including those used for procurement, EFT, freight forwarding, etc.), a laboratory control system could be developed which monitors and coordinates these key activities. Such a system could possibly automate many of the tasks which might be allocated to a laboratory controller, including the transfer of funds and the retrieval of statistics on the progress of the international game(s). In addition, this system could provide an excellent pedagogic tool to demonstrate to students the importance of standards.

International trade The students from both Curtin and Monash were given the opportunity to trade with the foreign suppliers from Maribor towards the end of the semester-after they had been familiarized with the trade cycle procedures during the introductory practical sessions. The student companies were responsible for deciding from whom they purchased the individual input materials and determining the criteria for making this decision. We made the choice more realistic by ensuring that the local and foreign suppliers, who were selling exactly the same materials, each had a comparative advantage for a subset of their end-products. We anticipated that the students would therefore be encouraged to select a supplier for each material on the basis of a price advantage so that they could experience the similarity of international trade with domestic trade.

This assumption seemed justified when we consider that four of the possible five Curtin student companies and all the Monash firms able to trade with the foreign suppliers from Maribor (in addition to the local suppliers) took the opportunity to engage in simple, yet realistic, international trade. Our observations suggest



that the decision of whether to trade locally and/or internationally was made purely on the basis of whose prices were lowest -and not on factors such as the time delays associated with the document exchanges between the Australian institutions and Maribor.

The decision to trade internationally, once again, did not appear to be influenced by the educational background of the students. This finding is encouraging, because it gives us confidence that commercial participants in TREAT will gain a similar appreciation of the potential for international trade which telecommunications provides - regardless of their original background or their more recent business experience.

Organizational complexity This facet of TREAT was the factor most noticeably affected by the educational background of the participants. Following our analysis of the responses of the Curtin students (who found the organizational complexity of the game somewhat daunting) we were particularly interested to compare the responses of a group of information systems students to this aspect of TREAT.

Our observations and written responses from students did, in fact, provide support for our belief that participants’ views regarding the complexity of the laboratory industry and its associated organizations depend upon their technical or business bias. This finding was shown most succinctly when the:

l Curtin students stated that the organizations they operated were too complex in terms of the number of products they were required to utilize, the calculation of prices to charge for their end- products and the need to determine how many products to produce. This response seemed to be consistent with these students’ preference for emphasis to be placed on the technical issues associated with the game (in particular, the ED1 software)

l Monash students believed generally that there were no problems with the organizational complexity of TREAT, and were not especially interested in the technical details associated with configuring the EDI translation software, creating partner ‘profiles’ (details of addresses, types of messages to be sent and the sub-sets of those messages in use), or the details of translating and transmitting ED1 and email messages to their trading partners.

Clearly, this finding requires further investigation-both in terms of the numbers of participants and their specific educational backgrounds. We need to ensure that the students’ attitudes were not unduly influenced by, for example, having studied a particular subject or group of subjects, or by the curriculum of one particular educational institution. We shall address this problem during the next phase of this research project, when we develop more formal laboratory experiments in which participants are selected on the basis of background and experience.

CONCLUSIONS

This fairly detailed description of the two TREAT experiments has shown that some factors were more affected by the educational background of participants than others.

In terms of the theoretical aspects of the laboratory, the factor that reflected the greatest difference was student interest-not in terms of the level of interest shown, but in the way in which that interest was manifested:

l the computer science students were most interested in how ED1 and telecommunications software worked. They spent large amounts of their own time gaining familiarity with some quite abstruse features of the software, and in improving their technical ED1 skills, whereas the Monash students were content to learn only those features of the package needed to play the game

l the information systems students, by contrast, showed far greater interest in the procedural aspects of the laboratory. They developed spreadsheets to assist in decision making and clearly saw the business attributes of the game having intrinsic importance, whereas the Curtin students generally spent only the time necessary on the business decisions.

The other theoretical aspects of TREAT (classroom structure and ED1 skills) appeared to be relatively unaffected by the educational background of the participants, being more strongly influenced by the implementation of the laboratory itself. We hope to include tutorial sessions in later implementations of TREAT, and expect to see a greater difference in students’ attitudes on the basis of educational background in response to this innovation.

In terms of the practical aspects of the laboratory, three factors appeared to be uninfluenced by participants’ educational backgrounds:

l length of trade cycles l interactive vs. non-interactive messaging exchanges l length and structure of the practical sessions.

These factors can be characterized as being ‘operational’ rather than organizational, and therefore affect participants regardless of background or attitudes.

Although we had anticipated that messages types and the decision of whether to trade with international or local partners would be influenced by participants’ backgrounds, it appears that these factors are independent of educational bias. Both groups of students believed that later implementations should include more ED1 messages, and both groups made the decision of whether to trade locally or internationally on the basis of cost alone.

Organizational complexity, as we had anticipated, was strongly influenced by participants’ background. The Curtin students felt that their organizations were


far too difficult and complex to operate, whereas the Monash students saw no problems with the organizational structure. One student, indeed, suggested modifi- cations which would have greatly increased the complexity of TREAT’s organizations.

These results suggest that our initial approach to designing TREAT was correct. The ultimate use of the laboratory will be in the business world, and the positive response from the business-oriented information systems students gives us confidence that more realistic organizational structures are preferable to a techno- centric approach to design. While we cannot state with confidence that students are appropriate substitutes for the business professionals who will ultimately be targeted by these experiments, it seems likely that business-oriented students will reflect their views more accurately than the more technically-oriented computer science students with whom we first ran the experiment. While the results of these first two iterations of TREAT can only be regarded as indicative, they do suggest that experiments conducted on a larger scale will support these initial findings.

The overriding hypotheses of the entire research project of which TREAT forms a part are that:

0 effective education programmes can greatly assist in overcoming the lack of acceptance of internationally-based telecommunications/ED1 by the business community

l an international, laboratory-based approach to electronic commerce, using commercial ED1 products, is a suitable educational environment for teaching applied telecommunications.

If these hypotheses are correct, then it is clearly important that the laboratory environment created be as realistic as possible to assist in overcoming potential users’ initial reluctance. The initial experiments under- taken at Curtin and Monash universities suggest that commercial users of ED1 will be attracted to a realistic laboratory environment and that they will gain major benefits from TREAT. The next phase of this research project will involve the development of two further


experimental versions of TREAT - one for a university environment, taking into account the variables identi- lied in these initial experiments (the educational background variable has been the focus of this paper), and a second version designed for the business world, which will build on the findings of the university experiments.

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The TREAT Laboratory: Comparing an Electronic Commerce Experiment at Curtin and Monash Universities

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