CLASS ASSIGNMENT BENEFITS BUSINESS, STUDENTS AND COLLEGE

November 23, 2004

SALINA – It’s not often that a class assignment can help a local e-commerce business and bring in money for a department. But a semester project at Kansas State University at Salina is managing to do just that – in addition to giving valuable experience to the students.

Bill Genereux, assistant professor of Web development technology at K-State at Salina, approached Salina businessman David Rose, after seeing a story about his growing business offering to sell real estate on eBay, the online auction service. When Genereux approached him about being a guest speaker in class, Rose took it another step, giving students in the introductory Web class a chance to get hands-on experience working with e-commerce.

“Dave’s business, Midwest eServices, handles larger-ticket items,” Genereux said, “but sometimes people will ask him to auction off smaller things. He thought it might be a good fit for the students to learn about marketing and e-commerce, while also helping to sell the items his business would not normally handle.”

This semester, the K-State students in the class all were given comic books, mostly from the 1960s and ’70s. The assignment requires them to research their books to determine value, write up the product in a promotional way and create a Web page – an eBay auction description – for the item that includes more detailed information. With the assignment due by the end of the semester, the comic books should be auctioned in early December.

One added benefit of the partnership with Rose’s company is the financial reward, Genereux said. The comic books are donated to K-State, and the college is allowed to keep whatever revenue is generated by the auction sales. Besides any income, he added that the multiple facets of the assignment make for a good student experience.

“This project brings together a lot of elements of business and technology – from research and writing skills to marketing and understanding how to best design a Web page to sell a product,” Genereux said.