E-BUSINESS APPLICATIONS IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION

Jel¸ena Zaˇsˇcerinska

University of Latvia, Jurmalas Gatve 74/76, Riga, Latvia

Andreas Ahrens

Hochschule Wismar, University of Technology, Business and Design, Philipp-M¨uller-Straße 14, 23966 Wismar, Germany

Keywords:

e-Business applications, Engineering education, Needs analysis.

Abstract:

Contemporary engineers need to become more cognizant and more responsive to the emerging needs of the

market for engineering and technology services. Engineering education has the potential to contribute deci-

sively to the sustainable development of e-business applications or enterprise 2.0, which penetrate our society

more thoroughly with the availability of broadband services. However, the success of e-business applications

in engineering education requires needs analysis to be considered. Aim of the following paper is to analyze

the student engineers’ needs in e-business applications of Web 2.0 technologies within engineering education

on the pedagogical discourse. The meaning of the key concepts of e-business applications, engineering ed-

ucation and needs analysis is studied. The study shows a potential model for development, indicating how

the steps of the process are related following a logical chain: determining e-business applications → reveal-

ing e-business applications in engineering education → deﬁning needs analysis → empirical study within a

multicultural environment. The results reveal that needs analysis of e-business applications in engineering

education contributes to the incorporation of business-driven topics in the curriculum of engineering science.

1 INTRODUCTION

The primary target for software as a service is busi-

nesses (Vossen, 2009) considered as an overall at-

tribute necessary for innovation-friendly societies to

transform social capital into economic growth (Eu-

ropean Union, 2008). New business ideas such as

the payment service offered by RevolutionMoney, the

mail service offered by eSnailer, the ﬂight service of-

fered by Virgin Charter, or the personalized TV ser-

vice from Current.com are classical examples and

have found widespread acceptance in the community

(Vossen, 2009). E-business applications beneﬁt from

Web 2.0 where the increased data exchange within the

system is no longer a limiting parameter with the cur-

rent developments in the infrastructure. Aim of the

following paper is to analyze the student engineers’

needs in e-business applications of Web 2.0 technolo-

gies within engineering education on the pedagogi-

cal discourse. The meaning of the key concepts of

e-business applications and needs analysis is studied.

Moreover, the study demonstrates how the key con-

cepts are related to the idea of engineering education

and shows a potential model for development, indi-

cating how the steps of the process are related fol-

lowing a logical chain: determining e-business appli-

cations → revealing e-business applications in engi-

neering education → deﬁning needs analysis → em-

pirical study within a multicultural environment. The

remaining part of this paper is organized as follows:

The introductory state-of-the-art demonstrates the au-

thors’ position on the topic of the research. Section

3 introduces e-business applications. E-business ap-

plications in engineering education are studied in sec-

tion 4. The associated results of an empirical study

are presented in section 5. Finally, some concluding

remarks are provided in section 6 followed by a short

outlook on interesting topics for further work.

2 STATE-OF-THE-ART

The modern issues of global developmental trends

emphasize ”a prime importance in sustainable devel-

opment that is to meet the needs of the present with-

out compromising the ability of future generations to

Zaš

cerinska J. and Ahrens A. (2010).

E-BUSINESS APPLICATIONS IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION.

In Proceedings of the International Conference on e-Business, pages 41-46

DOI: 10.5220/0002891500410046

 SciTePress

meet their own needs” (Zimmermann, 2003). Thus,

sustainable personality, and, consequently, e-business

application user, is ”a person who sees relationships

and inter-relationships between nature, society and

the economy” (Rohweder, 2007). In other words, this

is a person who is able to develop the system of ex-

ternal and internal perspectives, and in turn the sys-

tem of external and internal perspectives becomes a

main condition for the sustainable e-business applica-

tion user to develop.

For instance, the concern of the European Union,

namely, to become ”the most competitive and dy-

namic knowledge-based economy in the world capa-

ble of sustainable economic growth with more and

better jobs and greater social cohesion” (European

Commission, 2004), demonstrates the signiﬁcance of

developing the system of external and internal per-

spectives for the developmentof humans, institutions,

society and mankind. Thus, the life necessity to de-

velop the system of two perspectives, namely, exter-

nal and internal, determines the research methodol-

ogy of e-business applications in engineering educa-

tion, as highlighted in Figure 1.

However, in real life sustainable e-business appli-

cation user is often realized from one of the perspec-

tives: from the internal perspective accentuating cog-

nition (Vossen, 2009) and from the external perspec-

tive accentuating social interaction and ﬁnding a bal-

ance between the external and internal perspectives

(Surikova, 2007).

The methodological foundation of the present re-

search on use of e-business applications of Web 2.0

in engineering education is formed by the System-

Constructivist Theory based on Parson’s system the-

ory where any activity is considered as a system,

Luhmann’s theory which emphasizes communication

as a system, the theory of symbolic interactional-

ism and the theory of subjectivism. The System-

Constructivist Theory introduced by (Luhman, 1988,

pp. 1–14) and (Parson, 1976) emphasizes that human

being’s point of view depends on the subjective as-

pect: everyone has his/her own system of external and

internal perspectives (Figure1) that is a complex open

system (Rudzinska, 2008) and experience plays the

central role in a construction process (Maslo, 2007).

3 E-BUSINESS APPLICATIONS

The paradigm change, namely, the move towards col-

laborative business - from person to people and from

systems to service (Jones, 2008), puts the emphasis

on the use of e-business applications of Web 2.0 tech-

nologies. Typical e-business applications of Web 2.0

techniques and technologies include corporate blogs,

wikis, feeds and podcasts (Vossen, 2009).

Blogs are seen by Vossen (Vossen, 2009) as a

common way to stay in touch with customers, to in-

form about new products and to receive immediate

feedback; they can also be used internally in order

to discuss speciﬁc topics among the staff of an enter-

prise, in particular if people are geographically dis-

tributed. Blogs allow a moderated interaction be-

tween participants, be it customers or colleagues, and

a simple and efﬁcient distribution of announcements,

experiences, opinions, reports, or evaluations. How-

ever, bloggers need to keep in mind that blogs are

typically crawled by search engines, so that company

internals written into a blog might reach the outside

world and be presented as search results. Also, a blog

is useless without regular updates, a reasonable num-

ber of readers, continuous moderation, and good con-

tent. It is also a good idea for a company to treat in-

dependent bloggers just like regular journalists, since

they might have a considerable readership.

In order to stay up-to-date with a company blog,

but also with other information an enterprise might

publish, there are essentially two approaches: pull

and push. The active or pull way is to read the in-

formation at my own liberty and pace; in the passive

or push approach, the information will be delivered

to me automatically. Indeed, blog entries and other

sources can be subscribed via feeds that are based on

protocols such as RSS or Atom (Johnson, 2006), and

they can be read usinga feed readersuch as Bloglines,

Google Reader, Newsgator, or NewsAlloy (or simply

in the browser). A podcast is determined by Vossen

(Vossen, 2009) as a particular form of feed consisting

of audio or video material. Wikis allow collabora-

tive work on a common set of documents by many

authors, and have been discovered as a new way of

performing knowledge management in a learning or-

ganization. If staff members can be motivated to par-

ticipate in the development of a wiki, this can be con-

sidered as a good example of making implicit knowl-

edge explicit, thereby attacking the core problem of

knowledge management.

A social network can also act as a means of con-

necting employees of distinct expertise across depart-

ments and company branches and help them build

proﬁles in an easy way, and it can do so in a much

cheaper and more ﬂexible way than traditional knowl-

edge management systems. Once a proﬁle has been

set up and published within the network, others can

search for people with particular knowledge or exper-

tise and connect to them. If the social network is to be

run outside an enterprise, providers like Ning allow

an easy setup of a self-regulated and self-managed

ICE-B 2010 - International Conference on e-Business

• conscious

• learning

• unconscious

•

object generalization

External Perspectives

asaLifeNecessity

synthesis

thesystemof

interacting

phenomena

synthesis

Internal Perspectives

asaLifeNecessity

• foreign language

• thought generalization

• fromabstract

toconcrete

• systematic

• acquisition

• mother tongue

• fromconcreteto

abstract

• non-systematic

Figure 1: Developing the system of external and internal perspectives as a life necessity.

community. Vossen (Vossen, 2009) summarizes that

a broad usage of Web 2.0 techniques and tools within

an enterprise, paired with an increased exploitation of

services offered over the Web and with leaving more

room for the individual and its preferences, has led

to the term ”enterprise 2.0.” In other words, enter-

prises as well as software vendors are exploiting it

by integrating Web 2.0 features into their software,

processes, and work environments. Hence, e-business

applications of Web 2.0 technologies, namely, corpo-

rate blogs, wikis, feeds and podcasts, are seen as an

integral part of engineering education.

4 E-BUSINESS APPLICATIONS IN

ENGINEERING EDUCATION

The change in engineer entering the service area,

namely, not working permanently at a large-scale en-

terprise but accepting project-related orders of large-

scale enterprises by free engineers’ ofﬁce (Bassus

and Wolfgramm, 2009) reveals the signiﬁcance of e-

business applications of Web 2.0 technologies to be

integrated into the processes and environments of en-

gineering education.

A proper integration of e-business applications

into engineering education is provided by needs

analysis. However, the emphasis of the System-

Constructivist Theory on the subjective aspect of hu-

man being’s point of view and experience that plays

the central role in a construction process does not al-

low analyzing the student engineer needs objectively:

human beings do not always realize their experience

and their wants (Maslo, 2007).

In accordance with the research methodology,

namely, developing the system of the external and in-

ternal perspectives, needs analysis is revealed to be

of three levels, namely, individual, organizational and

professional needs, in engineering education. More-

over, needs analysis includes four domains, namely,

student’s needs, wants, lacks and expectations, to an-

alyze (Karapetjana, 2008). Thus, needs analysis has

the potential to contribute decisively to the sustain-

able incorporation of e-business applications of Web

2.0 technologies or enterprise 2.0 into engineering ed-

ucation.

5 EMPIRICAL RESULTS

The target population of the present empirical study

involves 22 participants of Fifth Baltic Summer

School Technical Informatics and Information Tech-

nology at the Institute of Computer Science of the

Tartu University, August 7-22, 2009, Tartu, Estonia

and 40 students at the Department of Electrical Engi-

neering and Computer Science of the Faculty of Engi-

neering of Wismar University, University of Technol-

ogy, Business and Design. All 22 participants of Fifth

Baltic Summer School Technical Informatics and In-

formation Technology have got Bachelor or Master

Degree in different ﬁelds of Computer Sciences and

working experience in different ﬁelds. The Interna-

tional Summer School offers special courses to sup-

port the internationalization of education and the co-

operation among the universities of the Baltic Sea Re-

gion. The aims of the Baltic Summer Schools Tech-

nical Informatics and Information Technology are de-

termined as preparation for international Master and

Ph.D. programs in Germany, further specialization

in computer science and information technology and

learning in a simulated environment. The Summer

School Technical Informatics and Information Tech-

E-BUSINESS APPLICATIONS IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION

nology contains a special module on Web 2.0 where

e-business applications are an integral part.

Finally, 40 students at the Department of Elec-

trical Engineering and Computer Science at the Fac-

ulty of Engineering of Wismar University, University

of Technology, Business and Design were taken into

considerationat the beginningof the seventh semester

in the fourth year of their bachelor studies. The stu-

dents have not got any or few work experience. The

seventh semester of the Bachelor’s program for Elec-

trical Engineering and Computer Science at the Fac-

ulty of Engineering of Wismar University does not

contain a specialmoduleon Web 2.0 where e-business

applications are an integral part.

Analysis of the use of Web 2.0 is based on needs

analysis as a basis for designing (Surikova, 2007) the

following questionnaire:

- Question 1: Do you know the word Web 2.0?

- Question 2: Do you know the basic idea of Web

2.0?

- Question 3: Have you already used Web 2.0,

namely, Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, etc?

- Question 4: Do you think Web 2.0 requires a lot of

profound knowledge, namely, math, physics, etc?

- Question 5: Do you think Web 2.0 is useful for

your individual needs?

- Question 6: Do you think Web 2.0 is useful for

your organizational use?

- Question 7: Do you think Web 2.0 is useful for

your professional use?

The evaluation scale of ﬁve levels for each question

is given where ”1” means ”disagree” and low level of

experience in use of e-business applications of Web

2.0 technologies and ”5” points out ”agree” and high

level of use of Web 2.0. The participants’ use of Web

2.0 was evaluated by the participants themselves on

the ﬁrst day of the Baltic Summer School, namely,

August 7, 2009, and by the student engineers them-

selves at the beginning of the seventh semester in the

fourth year of bachelor studies, namely, September

2009.

The analysis of the survey (Figure 2) reveals the

following: the use of Web 2.0 by the Baltic Sum-

mer School (BaSoTi) participants is heterogeneous

and the participants consider Web 2.0 to be most use-

ful for their individual needs. The analysis of the sur-

vey (Figure 3) in September 2009 emphasizes that the

university students’ use of Web 2.0 is heterogeneous

as well as the students don’t know the possibilities of-

fered by Web 2.0 properly. Then, the comparison of

the survey results of the BaSoTi participants and the

university students reveals the following:

1 2 3 4 5

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

overall mark →

pdf →

Question 1

Question 2

Question 3

Question 4

Question 5

Question 6

Question 7

Figure 2: PDF (probability density function) of the BaSoTi

participants’ evaluation on August 7th, 2009.

1 2 3 4 5

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

overall mark →

pdf →

Question 1

Question 2

Question 3

Question 4

Question 5

Question 6

Question 7

Figure 3: PDF (probability density function) of the univer-

sity students’ evaluation in September 2009.

- Question 1: The word Web 2.0 to a wider ex-

tent is known by the BaSoTi participants thereby

developing the internal perspective that can be

explained by a higher level of their education,

namely, obtained Bachelor or Master Degree in

different ﬁelds of Computer Sciences.

- Question 2: The basic idea of Web 2.0 to a higher

degree is obtained by the BaSoTi participants as

well thereby developing the internal perspective,

that can be also revealed by a higher level of their

education, namely, obtained Bachelor or Master

Degree in different ﬁelds of Computer Sciences,

and their participation in international projects,

for example, Baltic Summer School Technical In-

formatics and Information Technology.

- Question 3: A widerexperiencein use of Web 2.0,

namely, Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, is stressed

by the BaSoTi participants that can be meant by

the fact that the BaSoTi participants mostly come

from the Baltic states where English is an interna-

ICE-B 2010 - International Conference on e-Business

tional means of communication whereas the uni-

versity students use German that is already an in-

ternational language thereby ﬁnding a balance be-

tween the external and internal perspectives.

- Question 4: Both groups, namely, the BaSoTi par-

ticipants and the university students, consider that

Web 2.0 does not require a lot of profound knowl-

edge in math and physics, thereby developing the

internal perspective that emphasizes the role of

both groups as users and not as Web 2.0 designers.

- Question 5: The use of Web 2.0 for the individ-

ual needs is emphasized by the BaSoTi partici-

pants thereby developing the internal perspective

that can be meant by the educational peculiarities,

namely, the use of Web 2.0 in educational systems

of the Baltic States.

- Question 6: The use of Web 2.0 for the orga-

nizational purposes is considered by the BaSoTi

as well as university students, thereby ﬁnding the

balance between the externaland internal perspec-

tives explained by the increased use of Web 2.0 in

the educational system.

- Question 7: The use of Web 2.0 for the profes-

sional use is outlined by the BaSoTi participants

thereby developing the system of the external and

internal perspectives that can be also revealed by

a higher level of their education, namely, obtained

Bachelor or Master Degree in different ﬁelds of

Computer Sciences, and their participation in in-

ternational projects, for example, Baltic Sum-

mer School Technical Informatics and Informa-

tion Technology.

Hence, the use of Web 2.0 and, consequently, e-

business applications by the BaSoTi participants is

provided by the knowledge the participants obtained

in Bachelor or Master studies in different ﬁelds of

Computer Sciences and by their working experience

in different ﬁelds thereby putting the emphasis on de-

veloping the internal perspective while the use of Web

2.0 by the university students is regarded as ﬁnding

the balance between the external and internal perspec-

tives.

Due to the educational differences, namely, Web

2.0 module volume and content, between the Baltic

Summer Schools Technical Informatics and Informa-

tion Technology and the Bachelor’s program for Elec-

trical Engineering and Computer Science at the Fac-

ulty of Engineering of Wismar University in the sev-

enth semester, Survey 2 of use of e-business applica-

tions of Web 2.0 technologies by only the Baltic Sum-

mer School participantswas carried out on August 11,

2009.

Between Survey 1 and 2 of the participants’

1 2 3 4 5

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

overall mark →

pdf →

Question 1

Question 2

Question 3

Question 4

Question 5

Question 6

Question 7

Figure 4: PDF (probability density function) of the second

BaSoTi participants’ evaluation on August 11th, 2009.

experience in use of e-business applications teach-

ing/learningactivity involved courses in TechnicalIn-

formatics and Information Technology (German and

English), preconference tutorials for introduction into

advanced research topics, attendance of conference

Advanced Topics in Telecommunication, tutorials and

practical tasks, language training for talk and presen-

tation (optional in English or German), leisure activ-

ities and social contacts, practical work at IT Com-

pany. Then, the analysis of the second survey (Fig-

ure 4) reveals that the participants’ experience in use

of e-business applications has become homogeneous

and the participants have put the emphasis on use of

Web 2.0 where e-business applications are an integral

part for professional needs.

After having implemented a variety of methods

and forms of teaching/learning activity (Zaˇsˇcerinska,

2009) the result summary of two surveys of the partic-

ipants’ experience within the Baltic Summer School

2009 demonstrates the positive changes in compari-

son with Survey 1: the level of the participants’ expe-

rience in terms of use of Web 2.0 has been enriched,

the level of the participants’ experience in terms of

knowledge of basic idea of Web 2.0 has been im-

proved, the level of the participants’ experience in

creased, thereby developing the system of the external

and internal perspectives and the level of the partici-

pants’ experience in terms of use of Web 2.0 for orga-

nizational and professional needs increased, thereby

developingthe system of the externaland internal per-

spectives. Thus, the results’ comparison of Survey 1

and Survey 2 of the participants’ experience in use

of e-business applications emphasizes the decrease of

the participants’ number who have obtained the low

and critical level of experience and the increase of the

participants’ number who have achieved the average

E-BUSINESS APPLICATIONS IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION

and optimal level of experiencerevealed by the signif-

icance in difference between the levels of the partici-

pants’ experience in use of e-business applications.

6 CONCLUSIONS

The results reveal that needs analysis of e-business

applications in engineering education contributes to

the incorporation of business-driven topics in the cur-

riculum of engineering science, thereby developing

the system of the external and internal perspectives.

The recommendation here is the role of teachers

as mentors for participants’ self-discovery and self-

realization; to motivate participants, to stimulate their

interests, to help them to develop their own structure

and style, as well as to help them to evaluate their

performance and be able to apply these ﬁndings to

improve (Maslo, 2007) their further use of e-business

applications in engineering education.

Further research on needs analysis of e-business

applications in engineering education is considered

to include needs analysis, the questionnaire develop-

ment, carrying out empirical studies and statistical

analysis.

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