Thursday, December 28, 2017

BUS105 Team Project Instructions

Overview

Throughout the semester, student teams will produce a comprehensive analysis of a publicly traded company with a Pittsburgh presence (e.g., see this list). There are seven parts to the analysis, and over the semester, the team will complete the Team Project Site together. Each of the seven parts will be formatted as a blog PAGE (not POST) on the Team Project Site.
 
You need to use credible sources for your team project research. Please visit the research guide for this course. Consult our business librarian and Purdue OWL for APA-style citations and references. Use of citation tools such as Zotero is highly recommended.

For Team Assignment 01 (TA01), the team will discuss roles and policies specified in the TA01 assignment instructions document available in Moodle. The team will put all answers and the URL link to the Team Project Site in a Word document, and then submit the document through the TA01 submission link in Moodle for grading.

For Team Assignment 02 (TA02), each team will give a 10 minute presentation of the company they are researching. The presentation is meant to be a progress update rather than a finished product. It is also meant to be an opportunity for the team to solicit feedback for improving the project.

At the end of the semester, each team is required to give a 10-min formal presentation of the entire project in class (TA03), and turn in the completed Team Project Site (TA04). 

Guest Speaker Introduction


Each team is also responsible for introducing a guest speaker in class. This task is graded as part of TA04. Please see here for detailed instructions for this important task.

Business card templates and printing instructions are available on Chatham Business Insight here

Team Project Assignments
There are four graded assignments over the semester
Team Assignment 01 (TA01): Team Formation
Team Assignment 02 (TA02): Progress Presentation
Team Assignment 03 (TA03): Final Presentation
Team Assignment 04 (TA04): Final Team Project Site

Form Project Teams

You are encouraged to find team members and form teams on your own. The instructor can facilitate but the formation process usually works the best when initiated by the students. Students should form teams of 4-5 members. Please email the instructor names of your team members as soon as the team composition is finalized.

Create Team Project Site using Blogger (TA01)

As part of TA01, your team will set up a blank Team Project Site like this one.
To do so, you will first create a new Gmail account for the team, and then use this new account to create a Blogger site.
Instructions for creating a Blogger site is available here

Configure the layout of the Team Project Site

1. Create eight pages (IMPORTANT: you need PAGEs not POSTs)
  • Page 1: Company Overview 
  • Page 2: Leadership
  • Page 3: Marketing
  • Page 4: Finance
  • Page 5: Operations
  • Page 6: Corporate Social Responsibility
  • Page 7: SWOT and Recommendations
  • Page 8: References
2. Make these eight pages tabs across the top (like how the template is designed.) You can do so by "Adding a Gadget" on the Layout page of the Dashboard. See written instructions or video tutorial if needed.
  • "Add the Gadget" across the top, and then choose the "Pages" function.
  • Delete the Gadget's title (which is optional). The default title is "Pages." Delete it and save. 
3. Remove blog archive from the right-hand-side panel (by configuring the Layout on the blog Dashboard).

4. Create one POST (not PAGE) that serves as the homepage of your site. This POST should should briefly explain your team project's topic, and list the individual team members' names, with links to their Individual Assignment Sites.

Team Site (TA04) grading

Each of the eight PAGEs, and the home POST is worth 10% of the TA04 grade. Guest speaker introduction is also worth 10% of the TA04 grade.

Implement Google Analytics

The student team must implement Google Analytics on the Team Project Site in order to track and analyze web traffic. You will discuss insights gained from Google Analytics at your final team project presentation.
  1. Sign up for Google Analytics using the Gmail account you used for creating the Team Project site. 
  2. Enter you Team Project site's URL, when prompted for an URL during Google Analytics set-up.
  3. Copy the "tracking ID", not "tracing code" when set up is complete.
  4. Follow instructions available here to paste the tracking ID into your Team Project Site.
  5. To verify your Google Analytics has been implemented properly, please follow suggestions available in this help document.
Topic Choices

  1. J.C Penney
  2. Groupon 
  3. American Eagle Outfitters
  4. Abercrombie & Fitch 
  5. Sears
  6. Chico’s
  7. Guess
  8. GAP
  9. PNC
  10. Wesco
  11. GNC Holdings
  12. US Steel
  13. Alcoa
  14. EQT
  15. Kennametal
  16. Allegheny Technologies

Each team must research a different company as the team project topic. Topics are first come first serve. Please email the instructor as soon as possible to claim the topic.

Extra Credit

Each team can earn up to 15 extra credit points, if the team interviews a professional who works for the company you are researching, and incorporate the interview content into the Team Project. Please be sure to cite the interviewee as a source in APA style. You should cite it as an anonymous source unless you have permission to cite the person's real name. The interviewee must send an email to the instructor from his/her official company email address confirming that your team has interviewed him/her for this assignment.