As part of the assessment for the Business Web Innovation Module and in addition to this personal reflection blog, we were to complete 3 E-Activities and a report. I made the decision early on that rather than discuss these activities on a weekly basis or as I was doing them, that I'd wait until nearer the end of the Module. The blog is after all, a piece of writing which is accessible to others and can be viewed by the word wide web! Perhaps they should have been made private at the start, with lecturers invited to view? Perhaps the point is to get people thinking and wanting to read your views and opinions on things. I felt that if I were to blog about the e-activities early on that I may have offended some other students with my comments and this was not my intention. I also felt that as these activities were to be assessed that I could effectively be giving away some of my ideas, which I'm hoping are going to be unique. So here goes:E-ACTIVITY 1
This comprised of group work and was split into three tasks. Task 1 was Background Research gathering information on what collaborative writing tools are, their features along with advantages and disadvantages. A search was also undertaken into organisations who were using these applications by using a variety of reputable sources. This part was undertaken individually with the plan that we would come together to discuss our findings. At this stage I organised my notes and findings into a table which was used for the results. Task 2 was Using the Tools which involved exploring the different collaborative writing tools, choosing 3 to discuss. As we had already used Wiki Spaces in the lab we made the decision to explore and use another tool to provide further knowledge, experience and go outwith our comfort zones. We decided to use Zoho Writer on a recommendation from someone who used it, however we had difficulty in logging in. We then went on to use Writeboard, however as we were collaborating our ideas we discovered that we may have issues when enhancing the text. To embolden or underline you had to type the coding to instruct this which we decided could become quite time consuming especially for the references. The majority of the work had been done at this stage however we decided to change our tool and meet to complete Task 3 - Writing the Results. This is where my disappointment kicks in, our group consisted of 4 team members however only 2 turned up. This resulted in us being under pressure to complete the task ready for submission and didn't provide the opportunity to discuss openly our thoughts. We used Google Docs even though the decision wasn't made as a team but was based on the findings and table I had prepared earlier. We also had to e-mail Alexis and explain why our findings had been submitted by only two of the four members. I personally thought that some had put more work in that others with regards to the quality and content of our findings, however it would have been unfair to speak negatively of them as they had completed the task in the previous tool. Having ten years work experience I find the group work within the course to be unrealistic and difficult to manage. In a work environment you are more aware of the hierarchy, who is good at their job, who is good at specific tasks and who you can rely on for guidance and support. At university, as students you are all equals, so who should take charge? At the start of the group work I apologised in advance as I know that I can be seen to be taking over and like the dots on my 'i's and the crosses on my 't's! I like to feel accomplishment and proud to put my name on work which is submitted for assessment. Although content with the mark awarded for the activity, if I were to complete the task again I would be more inclined to speak to the team and make more suggestions for improvement regardless of whether or not I thought it would offend them.
E-ACTIVITY 2
This comprised of researching a companies use of social media and writing an A4 page summary report based on the findings with recommendations. Relevant company names were chosen randomly and I think I drew the short straw with City of Glasgow College. Personally I thought that I may have been able to write a better report had I been able to chose a company I could relate to and engage with. I appreciate how tedious it must be for the lecturer to assess reports on the same subject and actually feel that by having a company I was unfamiliar with forced me to research further than I may have done with a company I was familiar with.I started off with some Background Information and was pleasantly surprised to discover that City of Glasgow College was formed from three colleges in 2010 and offers over 2,600 courses. It is unique in the services it provides due to its training Airline Cabin and Ship Simulator. The website was pretty impressive too and although we had been asked to follow posts on 3 social media sites the college were linked to many more, such as YouTube, Flickr and Googleplus.
I chose to follow posts on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter and in order to compare and contrast the social networking sites fairly and provide a representative sample the posts were followed between 23rd February and 8th March. The report summarised key findings such as: the frequency of the reports, type of posts, categorising the posts and the advantages and disadvantages of using each site as well as comparing and contrasting their use of social media and making recommendations for improvements. To try and stand out I contacted the college to see how they would respond to posts on Facebook and although they didn't reply in time to be included within my report they have since been in contact and they were keen to read the report and recommendations I had made. It makes it all a bit more worthwhile to think that my findings could make a positive change to how they deal with Social Media in the future.
E-ACTIVITY 3
This comprised of identifying a SME and investigating how they are varying the promotion component of their marketing mix when delivering services through the Internet, with specific use of Web 2.0 applications. A summary of our findings were then to be posted on to our specific seminar group's discussion board on GCU learn. As well as this we had to actively contribute to the discussion board and comment on and discuss each others' postings.
Now I thought that choosing my own company would make it easier and highlighted these thoughts in the previous activity. In reality it made it harder! The focus was to present your findings in just 150 words and I felt that I could have written so much more. In fact I think I wrote about 166 words, oops should I be admitting that so publicly? I chose to write about 'Spoiled Brat' a company of which I am a regular customer. As an award winning and successful fashion business they have executed a marketing plan successful through the use of Social Media and a written blog: to maximise free advertising, build awareness and trust to a wide audience, offer personal selling with lots of interaction and communication between buyer and seller, offers regular sales promotions to quickly stimulate sales through promotional products and exploited public relations through credible features from third party magazines and newspaper adverts. Clear why I am not only an admirable customer of their brands but also an admirable student of their working ethos and practises! My aim was to be the first to publish my post to ensure that I was able to cover the key points of marketing through the Internet without being side-tracked by what others had written, and I succeeded. In my opinion I feel that I can sometimes doubt myself and question whether or not I'm doing things right so feel that if I go with my instincts and get things done within a reasonable time frame then I have time to rectify any issues which may arise. This theory has allowed me ample time to read each of the posts commenting on my original post, and thank each person for taking the time to read my post. It also gave me the opportunity to comment and discuss other members posts, agreeing or disagreeing with what they posted and contributed suggestions of further reading based on further research I had come across.
During this E-Activity, as with all activities, I thought it was important to be honest and blog on my thoughts and perceptions of the module and assessment methods. Perhaps I misinterpreted some tasks and the way in which it would be assessed however I have given 100% to the course and hope this is reflected in my results. I also felt that I showed courtesy and consideration to others when reading their posts and understand that they may have tackled the task differently with different opinions. I must also give credit to a fantastic book Turban et al, (2009), Introduction to Electronic Commerce, 2nd Edition, Pearson: London. This provided easy to understand definitions and references to case studies which made it easier to put the theory into a working environment. Many books, journals and articles were read to compile this blog however I always reverted back to this book for clarification!
If I had to undertake any of these tasks again I think that a disclaimer on the blog may have been worthwhile to state that the posts were based on my own personal opinions. I would also have made the blog private to ensure that I wasn't providing inspiration to others on the content. Time will tell when I get the results, I've taken a bit of a risk by producing a fun blog that I hope is light and easy to read when perhaps I should mave kept it more professional and structured, but I hope my hard work will be recognised!
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