OLD DOMINION MAKES USA TODAY FRONT-PAGE NEWS
Old Dominion University's new e-commerce degree program was featured Wednesday in a front-page story in USA Today, reaching more than 14 million readers across the nation.
The article, "New Major: e-commerce," discussed the national trend of business schools offering undergraduate and graduate degrees in the field to satisfy the demand for employees with technology skills and business acumen. "In 10 years, everybody will have one," Old Dominion President James V. Koch said in the article. "It will be like computer science majors today."
The new program was also featured in a Feb. 21 Washington Times article, "University business schools cash in on popular e-commerce programs," in which J. Taylor Sims, dean of Old Dominion's College of Business and Public Administration is quoted.
"It's one of the hottest areas in terms of business academics on the horizon," Sims said in the story.
Beginning this fall, Old Dominion will introduce an e-commerce concentration in both its undergraduate and graduate programs. Also, a proposal is being forwarded to the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia to add new, free-standing degree programs in e-commerce, a process that takes approximately six months. The new degree programs should take effect in fall 2001.
Both the bachelor's of science and master's of science in e-commerce will provide students with extensive training and education in all facets of using technology to manage a business. Both programs consist of core technology courses, such as supply chain management, information systems and programming with C++, plus courses in major business components of e-commerce, including legal issues, data mining, marketing on the Internet and economics of e-commerce.
A unique aspect of the Old Dominion program will be the E-Commerce Computer Lab and Center, a site and support center for area industry to work with students and faculty to develop and test e-commerce infrastructure. Coupled with the university's Career Advantage Program, which guarantees undergraduates an internship in their field of study, students in the new degree programs will receive hands-on experience and a close-up look at the rapidly changing technology impacting Internet business.
View the USA Today article on the Web at http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20000223/1962464s.htm.