PAN-EUROPEAN DEVELOPMENT OF AN INTERNET-BASED LOGISTICS COURSE: THE PILOT GLOBAL
SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
Werner Delfmann Sascha Albers University of Cologne
ABSTRACT
Logistics education and the role of new media in teaching and learning increase in importance as globalization takes way. Globalization reflects the accelerating progress in information and communication technology and, from a logistical perspective, a shift in supply chain configurations. The following paper gives an example of how a group of European logistics professors set out to develop a pan-European course on logistics for university
education by using the opportunities and possibilities of new media, especially the Internet. The paper reveals valuable experiences from the development of this multinational course project, which is, however, still in progress, but does not and cannot yet report on experiences educators made while teaching the course.
INTRODUCTION
Globalization is a frequently stressed word, however it indicates a development which further enhances the importance of logistics on the one hand and the chances and use of information and communication technology on the other. With the rise of globalizing supply chains education in logistics becomes increasingly prominent. With the success of the Internet and related technology the field of its application is ever expanding and its potentials for higher
Within the European network “Community of European Management Schools” (CEMS), logistics professors have joined to develop the first truly pan-European course in the field of logistics, labeled “Global Supply Chain Management” (GSCM). This course will be made available to students and professors of all CEMS member universities as it is implemented with an Internet-based learning suite which was especially designed for university education, the ILIAS suite (Integrated Learning, Information, And cooperative work-System). The present paper gives a short illustration of CEMS and ILIAS before elaborating on the experience with the development of the course Global Supply Chain Management. We thereby focus on the development process of the course due to two reasons. The first is a practical one: as the work is still in progress and the course has not yet been taught in class, experiences with students are lacking. The second is that even in this state of development valuable experiences have been collected which are worth wile reporting for other educators pursuing a comparable project.
ILIAS AND CEMS: INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY IN EUROPEAN MANAGEMENT EDUCATION
The Community of European Management Schools (CEMS)
The Community of European Management Schools (CEMS) is a multilateral network of leading European management schools and about 50 multinational enterprises (see appendix 1 and http://www.cems.org). CEMS was founded in 1989 by the business schools ESADE (Barcelona), HEC (Jouy-en-Josas), Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi (Milan) and the Faculty of Economics, Business Administration, and Social Sciences of the University of Cologne. To date, 16 universities from 16 countries are members of CEMS as only one school per country is accepted to join the network. On average, 250 students graduate each year, obtaining an additional master’s degree in management, the “CEMS-Master”. In order to achieve this degree, students have to fulfill additional requirements in excess of their home degree. They
have to attend additional courses at their home schools, take a semester at one of the CEMS partner universities and an internship of at least 10 weeks abroad. In addition to these more traditional academic offerings, communication skills in at least two foreign languages are required and tested, one student consultancy project has to be worked out in a team and skill seminars are provided.
The CEMS graduate courses can be divided into three categories: (1) Joint Teaching Advanced Courses, (2) Commonly Defined Advanced Courses and (3) School Specific Courses.
Joint Teaching Advanced Courses are held as blocked seminars in English language on several consecutive days at a convenient location by several professors of different CEMS universities, but treat one specific topic. School Specific Courses reflect certain competencies and / or regional specialties of the CEMS school. Examples for this type of course are Fisheries Management at the Norwegian School of Economics, Strategic Management of Fashion Companies at Milan, Management of Family Enterprises at Barcelona or Economics of Air Transport at the University of Cologne. Commonly Defined Advanced Courses are coordinated with regard to contents and structure and agreed by all participating universities. They are taught similarly at all schools, thus reflecting the same requirements for all students. The so-called interfaculty groups ensure coordination by common working groups on a departmental level.
Within the CEMS network, the course Global Supply Chain Management - the focus of this paper - is the first CEMS course developed for web-based teaching and therefore also the first developed with the ILIAS tool. Therefore, the results and experience in developing and implementing this course are of significant relevance for subsequent projects within the CEMS
ILIAS – An Internet-based Teaching and Learning Environment
The basic technology for the Global Supply Chain Management course is the ILIAS software. ILIAS has been developed at the University of Cologne within the VIRTUS project (VIRTual University Systems, see http://www.virtus.uni-koeln.de). VIRTUS is a project at the Faculty of Economics, Business Administration and Social Sciences of the University of Cologne for the use of new media to support and improve teaching, learning and information processes at universities. The aim is to allow all participants a cost saving and easy production of learning material and time independent distance and cooperative learning via the Internet.
As the production of learning material is a cost-intensive process, the ILIAS development group directed its attention to ideas for the re-use and exchange of learning material. Therefore, some elements were implemented that prepare the system for compatibility to applications developed following the recommendations of different international description and
standardization processes, namely IMS (which originally stood for “Instructional Management Systems”, see http://www.imsproject.org/) and ARIADNE (Alliance of Remote Instructional Authoring and Distribution Networks for Europe, see http://ariadne.unil.ch/).
ILIAS has been constructed entirely according to the demands of groups typical for universities. The generic groups ILIAS deals with are learners, authors, administrators and guests. Every component allows for a treatment of information according to the special needs of these groups. The system group learner is the usual group for students who have access to all public learning material, news groups and discussion forums. Members of the system group author have the additional right to create courses. Administrators can use all administration tools. The system group guest has only restricted access to courses.
A technical note
From the technical point of view, ILIAS is a structured database application that allows hypermedia course production with the Internet technology in a client-server-architecture. By using PHP, all pages are created dynamically out of a MySQL database, transmitted by the Internet and displayed on the client’s browser window. For the use of ILIAS, learners and authors need nothing more than a usual personal computer, an Internet browser for HTML 3.2 and an Internet connection by modem or Ethernet. In order to create learning material, the ILIAS authoring environment offers templates for integrating text, pictures, graphics or multimedia files in a course. All items are uploaded on the server and stored in the database. According to the idea of an integrated system, even most of the administrative procedures can be done with ILIAS. This includes administration of users, learning materials, group rights, news system, forums, etc. The software needed to run ILIAS is open source software. Since the end of September 2000, ILIAS itself became open source software under the general public license (GPL).
The learner’s pe rspective
As soon as a learner enters the learning section of the system, his / her chosen
hypermedia courses will be presented on the personal desktop in ILIAS. Several features help the learner work through the course material.
FIGURE 1: THE ILIAS PERSONAL DESKTOP
An overview-function shows the structure of the course currently visited. Additionally, the domain from where the overview was called in is highlighted in order to facilitate orientation.
A being 'lost in cyberspace' can thus be avoided. The glossary-function allows to call for a dictionary either relating to the course at work or, in case the author took provision, relating to every hypermedia course in the system. Important for and a particular strength of the online learning process is the possibility to directly check the learning progress through online tests, e.g.
multiple choice tests. An access to the training elements linked to the respective course is provided through the ILIAS training area.
Of course, usual search and printing functions are included as well. The search function allows to locate words and expressions in any course or for persons in the system; the function
to print allows to print the entire course material plus the personally stored elements, such as personal notes and annotations which can be added by using the respective ILIAS function.
Finally, there is the possibility to subscribe to courses, i. e. to register in a learning group in order to receive actual information and messages of relevance to the particular course.
Learners can always form groups when working on learning-material.
The author’s perspective
On the starting page of the ILIAS authoring environment, an overview of the courses the author or the authoring group is actually working on is provided. As long as the course material is under construction, it is listed in this non-public section. The starting page for the specific hypermedia course contains some elements of navigation and any information pertaining to a course. Authors can, starting from this page, formulate and change metadata (descriptive data for the individual course components) of a hypermedia course, elaborate a structure and segments, compose a glossary and link it, make information available to all other relevant users.
FIGURE 2: THE ILIAS AUTHORING STARTING PAGE The structuring mode permits a distinct access to the structure of a course. It can be regarded as the central page for authors when developing new learning material. Here authors can create new chapters or sub-chapters of the course by a simple mouse-click and activate parts of the course material online in order to “publish” them, that is, to allow student access to the material.
FIGURE 3: THE STRUCTURING PAGE OF AN ILIAS COURSE Linked to this structuring page is the editor which allows to implement and modify the learning material. Whereas the structuring page allows to define where in the structure of the course specific material will be added, the editor permits to enter the contents. Authors are offered forms to compose prepared text-elements by simple copying and pasting. On this page, the body-elements (graphic arts, pictures, links, etc) can be put in as well. Every single element will be added to the database and is immediately controllable in its final form by means of a preview function.
THE COURSE GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
The basic decision to develop a CEMS Commonly Defined Advanced Course based on the ILIAS platform was taken in spring 1999 by the CEMS interfaculty group logistics. Werner Delfmann, professor of business policy and logistics at the University of Cologne, took over responsibility as coordinator of the project.
In the following sections, we will first depict the underlying philosophy the CEMS professors had when initiating the project, then roughly state the teaching methods involved and, at last, describe the course development process.
Basic Principles
The philosophy which guided the development of the pilot course is reflected by the following principles:
1. The course is designed as a truly advanced course and is integrated into the CEMS curriculum as a Commonly Defined Course.
2. Development and realization of the course in shared authorship.
3. Potentials and opportunities of new media are used.
4. The course material is provided in a comprehensible form for the student.
Advanced Course and Commonly Defined CEMS Course
Basic logistics knowledge is regarded as a prerequisite and should be subject of basic logistics courses at all CEMS universities. However, as schools lay emphasis on different aspects in the wide field of logistics, bibliographical references are provided for the students for all subjects of the GSCM course. The course consists of 15 chapters (see table 1) which are prepared by different authors from different schools, some schools preparing more than one chapter. Every chapter should be designed to comprise three content hours. Content hours means that the students need three hours to read through all the material, and thus need additional time to comprehend and thoroughly prepare the topics treated. In order to get the status of a CEMS
Commonly Defined Advanced Course, each university has to include 12 out of 15 chapters into the course. This selective approach was made due to different backgrounds and interests of the professors involved.
As the course is to be taught at all CEMS universities with the same course material, it is prepared in English. The course itself will mostly be taught in English as well, depending on the requirements of the respective school, professors and / or students’ preferences.
Development in Shared Authorship
The shared authorship principle denotes the mainly decentralized development,
implementation and updating process of the course. Every author is responsible for these tasks. A centralized implementation process was rejected, as a deeper understanding of the subjects treated was considered necessary in order to make use of the features offered by ILIAS.
Additionally, the electronic presentation of the course content enables the authors to continually improve and update their materials for the existing courses but allows the use of the Internet- based learning environment for the development of new courses as well, although these courses must not necessarily be designed as CEMS courses. Such an initiative at a partner school could not as easily be pursued if the implementational know-how concentrated with a central
implementation group.
Use the Features and Potentials Provided by Information and Communication Technology and ILIAS
Even in the early conceptual phase of the course development process the idea of using the features provided by ILIAS and the Internet was emphasized. The interfaculty group agreed to set the following minimum requirements for the course:
(b) integration of multiple choice tests in order to allow students to test their knowledge and depth of understanding by using the ILIAS feature multiple choice tests
(c) integration of small applets and simulations to illustrate certain aspects - where appropriate - by using the ILIAS feature applet integration
(d) integration of discussion groups and fores, especially for intercultural relevant and interesting topics by using the ILIAS feature discussion groups.
Provide Self-Explaining Course Material to Support Classroom Sessions
The student should be enabled to learn and prepare the material without assistance. The material provided in ILIAS can thus be compared to a textbook, enriched by interactive elements and special features which are due to the digital basis of the platform. The student should prepare these materials prior to going to class. This enables the teacher to discuss questions of special interest to him or to the students in detail. Thus, the online material does not serve as a substitute for classroom sessions.
Pedagogues and Teaching Methods
As indicated before, the CEMS course Global Supply Chain Management (GSCM) has been developed by professors of different nations, originating in different cultural and
educational settings. The different chapters were thus developed on the basis of different traditions of teaching and learning. However, as the course will mainly be taught by one teacher at his / her respective home school, the chapters will be adapted to local tradition and conditions.
The material developed allows to hold a usual lecture in all cases including class discussions on the topics treated or to related questions.
For most chapters, special case studies were developed. The case studies which were mainly prepared especially for the GSCM course, are accessible via the ILIAS system as well,
including supporting tools in some cases, enabling the students to filter information or links which guide students to information which might be of use for them.
In most chapters, teachers recommend certain assignments the students have to do before the classroom sessions or during the classroom sessions. Assignments before classroom sessions include more classical tasks, such as the preparation of a case, literature-based research about topics of relevance, etc. However, in excess of these assignments, the use of computer and Internet-based environment provides additional opportunities. These include the use of online discussion forums, which are of special interest and supposed to be of further benefit in the international setting the GSCM course is designed for. The inclusion of little programs, so-called applets, which is also only possible in the context described above, supports the students‘
learning process as well.
Furthermore, multiple choice tests are provided to allow the student to test his / her understanding of the material. The ILIAS environment allows to integrate multiple choice tests comfortably into the course. Students can select answers from the portfolio configured by the authors. The tests are directly checked by ILIAS. Whenever the students give wrong answers, links to the corresponding part(s) of the chapter lead directly to the relevant aspects for
answering the question. Among the members of the interfaculty group it was accepted to provide a multiple choice test after each chapter. However, these tests are not used for examination purposes.
THE PROJECT PLAN
The course development process can be differentiated into a contents and a technical
Contents
No. Chapter Author
1 The General Concept of Supply Chain Management in the Global Market
Werner Delfmann (Cologne)
2 Organizational Impacts of Supply Chain Management Tage Skjøtt-Larsen, Herbert Kotzab (Copenhagen)
3 Networking and Alliances: The Management of Partnerships Susanne Hertz (Stockholm)
4 Inbound Logistics and Sourcing Jaume Hugas (ESADE)
5 The Impact of SCM on Distribution Network Design Pierre Semal (Louvain)
6 Information Systems in SCM (incl. Transactional Systems) Werner Delfmann (Cologne), Laoucine Kerbache (HEC)
7 Efficient Consumer Response (ECR) Krzysztof Rutkowski (Warsaw) 8 The Impact of Internet Technology on Supply Chains Steef van de Velde (Rotterdam)
9 Reverse Logistics René de Koster (Rotterdam)
10 Third Party Logistics Zoltan Szegedi (Budapest)
11 International Transport Herbert Kotzab (Copenhagen)
12 Warehousing René de Koster (Rotterdam)
13 Supply Chain Controlling and Costing Alberto Grando (Milan), Kurt Jörnsten (Bergen)
14 Optimization Laoucine Kerbache (HEC)
15 SCM-Redesign (Dynamic Strategy of SCM) Aimo Inkiläinen (Helsinki)
TABLE 1: GSCM COURSE STRUCTURE AND AUTHOR ASSIGNMENT In subsequent meetings, outlines of the contents of each chapter were presented, including pedagogues and technical tools to be used. Finally, in summer 2000 each author presented a short version of his / her chapter to the other participants, although the material was neither fully formulated nor implemented in ILIAS. One of the last steps in contents
development was the peer review. In this phase, which ended in October 2000, each course chapter was reviewed by two other members of the group which critically reflected on the
respective chapter and gave feedback to the author/s. The last phase of the contents development will be a commonly held blocked seminar in September 2001. At this point, the contents of each chapter will be completely formulated and implemented into ILIAS. In the seminar all authors
come together with about 30 selected CEMS students. Here, every author will teach his / her own module in full length, where all other members of the interfaculty group participate as well.
Technical Aspects
On the technical dimension all authors had to be provided with username and password in order to be able to access the ILIAS system and to be given authoring rights to edit their
respective course chapter. As ILIAS was originally developed in German language, the learning and author environment as well as the online help had to be translated into English. The shared authorship principle required a training of the assigned authors to use the ILIAS environment as well. Therefore, two workshops were offered in Cologne. The first was held in mid July, the second in mid August 2000. Twelve schools sent representatives to these training sessions.
Although most features are easy to implement with the ILIAS editor, the applet integration and - development still needs dedicated experts who program the desired tools for the teachers. The Cologne Virtus team provides these experts who are currently developing the Beer Distribution Game which will be used in chapter 1.
The authors were familiarized early with the requirements of an Internet-based authoring environment. They were especially advised to define which elements they would like to integrate in their module as soon as possible. These elements were desired tables, graphics, and ideas about potentially suited interactive elements. They were considered to be especially urgent, as in most cases they would have to be developed from scratch by the Virtus programming team.
Authors were asked to specify adequately and precisely the interactive elements they wished to include in order to give the Virtus programmers the chance to develop the programs in time. This
animations and video sequences. Additionally, as external sources should be included as well, the precise URLs of the respective webpages had to be documented.
AN EXAMPLE: THE FIRST CHAPTER OF THE GSCM-COURSE The first chapter of the course might serve as an example for the use of teaching methods.
The chapter is called “The General Concept of Supply Chain Management in the Global Market“
and serves as conceptual and theoretical foundation for subsequent chapters (for a downloadable version without the interactive ILIAS features see http://www.uni-koeln.de/wiso-
fak/planung/download/arbb-102.pdf). In the beginning, the understanding of logistics and the supply chain management concept are illustrated and explained. Here, cultural and regional differences in the understandings of these terms are encountered. The chapter contains a cultural differentiation which serves as a basis for an online discussion prior to the classroom session. In the classroom session, the differentiation will be subject to discussion again, but here results and observations from the online discussion will be included as well. The online discussion forum is a feature of the ILIAS software and will be applied in other chapters, too.
In the second part of this chapter, which deals with the globalization process and its implications for logistics strategy, the bullwhip effect is explained. Here, an applet is used to illustrate the behavior of multi-echelon supply chains. In a first version of the program, students can modify parameters such as transportation and order lead times, transportation and inventory cost, inventory policies of all elements of the supply chain for then observing the effects their changes have on the model. Software developers of the Cologne Virtus team have already developed this version of the program.
In a second version, which will be available in winter 2001, students take over the management of one of the supply chain members. They are thus confronted with orders from
downstream members (their customers) and pass on their orders to their suppliers. After a randomly selected number of rounds, their behavior is analyzed and its impact graphically displayed. The use of the computer-based simulation thus allows students to actively test the behavior inherent in multi-echelon supply chains.
At the end of the chapter, a multiple choice test is provided for the students to check their understanding of the material.
GENERAL REFLECTIONS ON THE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS In general, it was perceived that four aspects give a special note to this ambitious project.
A rather large international group of professors, originating in several different educational systems, joined for the development of an online course, using a tool that was unknown to all but one participating parties. Furthermore, by the shared authorship principle, a rather heterarchical approach to the project was chosen.
In the following section we will therefore deal with the authors’ perceptions regarding the chosen approach and the ILIAS tool. Subsequently we will focus on four aspects which, from the coordinator’s point of view, were among the most difficult to cope with in the regular
discussions among the authoring group.
Authors’ Perceptions
The course has not yet been held, an evaluation based on teaching and learning
experience is therefore difficult to provide. A general survey is considered after the first schools will have offered the course. The technical features which are used mainly originate in the ILIAS suite. ILIAS has been in use at the University of Cologne for several years and students mainly
However, an assessment of the development process has been conducted. The participating authors were asked for their perception of the development process. Nine out of fourteen authors answered the questionnaire (see appendix 3) on time.
The answers to the general part of the questionnaire which inquired about the general computer skills of the participant, indicate a rather homogenous image of the respondents. All of them are experienced users of office applications, such as word processing, spreadsheets and presentation software. All of them are as well frequent users of Internet browsers. Statistics software was indicated by two participants as a frequently used software, data bases and programming software was marked once. Most participants were acquainted to mailinglists (6) and chat / newsgroups (4). Some also use FTP services (3). The majority of users is connected to the Internet via LAN and Ethernet, reflecting the standard at their universities. From the first part it may be concluded that the participants are experienced users of office software and are acquainted to the possibilities of online services as well.
The second part of the questionnaire inquired about the technical aspects of the ILIAS authoring tool and the efforts that were conducted to support the potential authors in their work.
The efforts of getting accustomed with ILIAS are rated rather high with three participants rating the highest possible mark and three the nearest alternative. However, the training workshops which were held in Cologne received good marks regarding efficiency and effectiveness. Three participants rated the highest possible mark, five the nearest alternative. The accessibility and transfer rate were rated quite well with two marks for the best possible alternative, three for the nearest alternative and two for the center alternative, in the middle of rather good and rather bad.
The answer to the question on how the authoring tool ILIAS in general would be rated are
divided. Two answers indicate the best possible rating, whereas five participants marked the center alternative and one tended to the rather bad side of the scale.
The principles and course of the development process itself was then subject to the third part of the questionnaire. The first question asked for an overall evaluation of the process regarding pace and schedule, the technical support provided by the Cologne coordination team, the coordinational efforts and the results as far as foreseeable up to now. The pace and schedule of the course development was mainly rated as rather good with one participant marking the best and five participants marking the second best alternative. Two participants marked the center alternative and one rating the schedule rather bad with marking the but-last alternative on the scale. Technical support was evaluated rather good with three participants marking the best possible alternative, three the next best and three the center alternative. Coordinational efforts were as well perceived as good, with one marking the best possible alternative, five the next best possibility, two the center box and only one tending to the rather bad side of the scale. The evaluation of the outcome indicates a rather indecisive picture. Four out of nine participants mark the center box, four tending to the next best alternative and one to the next worse
alternative on the scale. Here it may be concluded that some participants do not yet clearly know what to expect from the course, as they concentrate in the center box.
In the next question an evaluation of the strictness of guidance during the development process was inquired. Here a very slight tendency towards the wish for more direction can be stipulated with one participant marking the highest possible alternative on the scale to more direction, three tending to more direction by marking the next box and four marking the center
the evaluation of the shared authorship principle as a more decentralized development approach reflects this unclear picture. Here a stalemate can be observed as four participants wish a more centralized approach to the development process whereas further four recipients voted for a more decentralized approach. Four participants indicate that the technical support is sufficient, four would like some more assistance, reflecting the rather good but not excellent rating of the technical support in the first question of this section. The fifth question of this section inquired the tendency of the authors to develop a course according to the shared authorship principle again. Four would do so, whereas four indicated that they preferred another approach. This is in accordance with the above mentioned tied vote on the degree of centralization. The rest of the questions show a clear picture. Whereas most (7) respondents plan to develop further computer based training (CBT) courses, six respondents do not plan to use ILIAS again for their further development. This result can be linked to one of the aspects which also posed some problems on the coordinational side and will therefore be depicted in the following section. Most schools already have other CBT tools in place, thus requiring the training and mastering of a second CBT software for the participants of the GSCM pilot.
Two main conclusions emerge from this inquiry. The first relates to the technical side of the course development. Here, the efforts of getting people accustomed to the use of an authoring and learning environment can be said to be very high on both sides, the users and the technical coordination team. Taking into account that most of the skills will not further be employed for other courses (see answers to question 14) because of existing and established CBT programs at the respective universities, this effort is clearly too high on both sides. It is therefore
recommended to promote a central technical implementation of the course contents for further courses.
The second major conclusion relates to the contents development. The inquiry gives an ambiguous picture regarding the question of more or less strict direction during the development process (questions 9 and 10). Even though a very slight tendency towards more direction can be identified, the chosen degree of direction approach seems to reflect the average expectations of the participating authors.
COORDINATIONAL ASPECTS
The development of a pan-European course is a big challenge to all participants.
Although the process has not yet come to an end, some general problems can be derived from the project so far. The most striking are the following:
§ Regarding the contents: Consistency considerations
§ Regarding the formal contributions: Heterogeneity
§ Regarding the software: Different platforms
§ Regarding legal aspects: Copyright concerns
Consistency considerations
Due to the partly parallel development of the individual chapters, authors employed partly different approaches to individual subjects, or employed similar terms differently. These problems can be subsumed under the consistency aspect, which is to be regarded on a very detailed level.
The authoring group tried to cope with this aspect in two ways. On the one hand, all chapters are made available to all authors, even before they were implemented into the ILIAS environment. Thus, all authors have the chance to learn in detail about the contents of their colleagues. As several chapters show strong interdependencies (e.g. Third Party Logistics and
Heterogeneous contributions
As the authors come from different educational systems, their approach to teaching as well as the resources available to them can be judged as quite heterogeneous. It is therefore not surprising that the individual modules which were prepared show differences in their form and approach to the topic. Powerpoint slides with linking text are submitted as well as chapters consisting of explanatory floating text. However, the chapters are planned to be harmonized from this formal point of view as well, but in a longer time frame. For the start of the course the minimum requirements for all chapters are assured (see above).
Different platforms
When the decision to commonly define and develop a course was taken, it was clear that the course must be based on one single software. As many participating schools adopted
commercially available computer-based teaching (CBT) programs, it was clear that some would have to either change programs or work with both platforms. Mostly, the latter approach was pursued. However, during the development period criticism and questions concerning the ILIAS platform occurred occasionally, as the efforts to work with two different platforms at the same time are not negligible. This aspect was essentially of relevance for those schools where professors mainly work without assistance of further scientific staff.
In order to overcome these difficulties, the coordination team partially agreed to take over time-consuming implementation activities and deliver pre-structured ILIAS sections. By this approach, single professors were supported with the implementation work by simultaneously leaving enough opportunities for them to work with and practice using the ILIAS editor. This was found essential in order to provide the forthgoing actualization and adaptations of the course
Copyright concerns
In the final phase of the development process authors expressed concerns about the accessibility of the course material, indicating that professional service companies might use the results of their research exposed to the Internet. This concern is especially relevant for private schools or privately operating institutes of public universities which compete with these
companies. As the ILIAS environment requires username and password, only a limited number of people have access to the material. These users are furthermore known by name and address.
However, this cannot preclude interested parties from gaining access and copying the material exposed. It was therefore concluded not to implement highly relevant material into ILIAS and to additionally provide a visible copyright note at the beginning of each chapter.
STATUS AND OUTLOOK
The current status (June 2001) of this project can be roughly described as follows.
Thirteen out of fifteen chapters are finished with regards to the contents development, interactive elements and the assignments and case studies students will have to perform. Only three of these thirteen chapters still exist only in the form of slides, that is, main ideas are indicated as bullet points but still lack a comprehensive description, the remaining ten are completed. Some delays occurred for three chapters, as participating professors retired or quit their job. For all three of these chapters other IFG members took over responsibility, so that their treatise is ensured although their completion will be delayed.
The course Global Supply Chain Management will start in CEMS partner schools during winter 2001. In Cologne the course was held for the first time in the summer semester 2001 by
completed by then. In September 2001, the blocked seminar where all participating professors come together to teach their respective chapter to selected students and their colleagues will set the final mark for the initial development phase of this pan-European course. However, as research is progressing, adaptations will be made successively.
APPENDIX 1: CEMS ACADEMIC AND CORPORATE MEMBERS CEMS Academic Members: Budapest University of Economic Sciences and Public Administration (Budapest), Copenhagen Business School (Copenhagen), Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam (Rotterdam), ESADE (Barcelona), Groupe HEC (Jouy-en-Josas), Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration (Helsinki), London School of Economics (London), Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration (Bergen), Stockholm Schools of Economics (Stockholm), Università Luigi Bocconi (Milan), Université Catholique de Louvain (Louvain-la-Neuve), University of Economics Prague (Prague,), Universität St. Gallen (St.
Gallen), Universität zu Köln (Cologne), Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration (Vienna), Warsaw School of Economics (Warsaw)
CEMS Corporate Members:
ABB Financial Services, Accenture Consulting, Banca Commerciale Italiana, Banca Intesa, Bank Pekao, Beiersdorf, BP, Ceská Sporitelna, Cluster Consulting, Corporate Value Associates, Crédit Agricole Indosuez, Dresdner Bank, Dunaferr, Electrolux, Ericsson,
European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company EADS, Ford-Werke AG, GlaxoSmithkline, GN Great Nordik, Group Danone, Groupe BNP Paribas, Haniel, Hempel Group, Henkel, Hilti Corporation, ING Group, J.P. Morgan, Kone, KPMG , L´Oréal, LVMH , Mol RT , Nokia Corporation, Norsk Hydro, Novo Nordisk, Orlen SA, Österreichische Nationalbank, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Procter & Gamble, Randstad, Reuters, Ringier AG, Royal Dutch / Shell Group, Schindler Corporation, Schneider Electric, Siemens AG, Spectrum Strategy Consultants, Stora Enso Oyj, Sulzer Infra, Swiss Re, Tele Danmark, Tetra Pak,
ThyssenKrupp Industries GmbH , Trema, UBS , Whirlpool, Winterthur-Insurance, Zürich Financial Services,
(Source: http://www.cems.org/cems/uk/partners/corporate/index.html, 02/23/2001)
APPENDIX 2: AUTHOR DATA Author University and Address
de Koster, René Erasmus Universiteit Faculteit Bedrijfskunde Postbus 1738
3000 DR Rotterdam The Netherlands
Phone: +31 10-4082006; Fax: -2120549 rkoster@fac.fbk.eur.nl
Delfmann, Werner University of Cologne
Dept. of Business Policy and Logistics 50923 Cologne
Germany
Phone: +49 221 470-4317, Fax: -5007 spl@wiso.uni-koeln.de
Grando, Alberto Universita Luigi Bocconi Via Sarfatti 25
20136 Milan Italy
Phone: +39 2-58 36 68-02, Fax: -91 alberto.grando@sda.uni-bocconi.it Hertz, Susanne Stockholm School of Economics
Dept. of Business Administration P.O. Box 6501
S-113 83, Stockholm Sweden
Phone: +46 8-736 95 32, Fax: -33 43 22 dshe@hhs.se
Hugas, Jaume ESADE
Av. Pedralbes 60-62 08034 Barcelona Spain
Tel. 34 93-2806162, Fax –2048105 Hugas@esade.es
Inkiläinen, Aimo Helsinki School of Economics Runeberginkatu 14-16 00100 Helsinki Finland
Phone +358 9 431-38736, Fax -48669 inkilain@hkkk.fi
Jörnsten, Kurt Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration
Helleveien 30
5035 Bergen-Sandviken Norway
Phone: +47 55 95-95 52; Fax: -39 39 kurt.jornsten@nhh.no
Kerbache, Laoucine Ecole Des Hautes Etudes Commerciales (HEC) 1, Rue de la Libération
78350 Jouy-en-Josas France
Phone: +33 13967-7212; Fax: -9415 kerbache@hec.fr
Kotzab, Herbert Copenhagen Business School Dept. of Operations Management Solbjerg Plads 3
2000 Frederiksberg Denmark
Phone: +45 3815-2450, Fax: -2440 Hk.om@cbs.dk
Rutkowski, Krzysztof Warsaw School of Economics Al. Niepodleglosci 162 02-554 Warszawa Poland
Phone: +48 22-849-1251; Fax: -5312 krutki@sgh.waw.pl
Semal, Pierre Université Catholique de Louvain I.A.G.
Place de Doyens, 1 1348 Louvain-La-Neuve Belgium
Phone: +32 10 47 83-66; Fax: -24 semal@prod.ucl.ac.be
Skjøtt-Larsen, Tage Copenhagen Business School Dept. of Operations Management Solbjerg Plads 3
2000 Frederiksberg Denmark
Phone: +45 3815-3400, Fax: -2440 Tsl.om@cbs.dk
Szegedi, Zoltan Budapest University of Economic Sciences and Business Administration
Management Development Center Konyves Kalman krt. 48-52.
1087 Budapest Hungary
Tel./Fax: +36-1-2104249 ameropa1@elender.hu van de Velde, Steef Erasmus Universiteit
Faculteit Bedrijfskunde Postbus 1738
3000 DR Rotterdam The Netherlands
Tel. +31-(0)10 408-2025, Fax –9010 Svelde@fac.fbk.eur.nl
APPENDIX 3: QUESTIONNAIRE / RESULTS (N=9)
Dear Member of the CEMS IFG Logistics !
The following questions refer to your engagement in the development of the CEMS commonly defined advanced course „Global Supply Chain Management“. Please answer the questions by editing the document with your Word Application and send it back as email attachment until November, 15 (email: albers@wiso.uni-koeln.de).
Alternatively, you can fax the filled in questionnaire to +49 221 470-5007. The data will be treated confidentially and exclusively be used for an evaluation of the development process of our course we need for a report. Thank you for your cooperation !
I. General
1. Which kind of software applications do you use regularly ? X Type
9 Word Processing Software (e.g. Word) 9 Presentation Software (e.g. Powerpoint) 8 Spreadsheet Applications (e.g. Excel) 1 Data Base Applications (e.g. Access) 9 Internet Browsers (e.g. Netscape Navigator) 1 Programming / Compilers (e.g. Visual Basic) 2 Statistics Software (e.g. SPSS)
1 Other
2. Which online services do you use regularly besides WWW and email ? X Type
1 None
6 Mailinglists
3 FTP
4 Chat / Newsgroups Other
3. How do you connect to the internet ? (multiple answers allowed) X Type
4 Modem (Telecom) 1 ISDN Modem (Telecom) 6 LAN / Ethernet
Other II. Technical Aspects
4. On a scale from 1 (rather low) to 5 (rather high), how would you evaluate the effort of getting accustomed to and trained with ILIAS?
1 2 3 4 5
2 3 3
5. On a scale from 1 (rather low) to 5 (rather high), how would you consider the effectiveness and efficiency of the ILIAS author training workshop ?
1 2 3 4 5
5 3
6. On a scale from 1 (rather good) to 5 (rather bad), how would you rate the accessibility and transfer rate of ILIAS ?
1 2 3 4 5
2 3 2
7. On a scale from 1 (rather good) to 5 (rather bad), how would you rate the ILIAS platform as authoring tool for computer-based courses in general ?
1 2 3 4 5
2 5 1
III. Development Process
8. On a scale from 1 (rather good) to 5 (rather bad), how is your general impression of the GSCM course development process with regard to the following criteria?
1 2 3 4 5
Pace / schedule 1 5 2 1
Technical support 3 3 3
Coordination 1 5 2 1
Outcome / results (as far as foreseeable at present)
4 4 1
9. On a scale from 1 (more direction) to 5 (more freedom), would you prefer a stricter direction or would you prefer more freedom with regard to the coordination of the development process ?
1 2 3 4 5
1 3 4 1
10. With regard to the shared authorship principle as a more decentral development approach: do you think it is appropriate, or would you prefer a more central approach, e.g. with an editor controlling all contributions (centralized) ?
4 Centralized 4 Decentralized
11. Do you wish more technical support for the implementation of your chapters ?
4 Yes 4 No
12. Do you plan to develop further courses in shared authorship ?
4 Yes 4 No
13. Do you plan to develop further computer-based training courses ?
7 Yes 2 No
14. Do you plan to develop further web-based training courses with ILIAS?
Yes 6 No
IV. Further Remarks
15. Please feel free to indicate further remarks and suggestions:
