The TREAT laboratory: comparing an electronic commerce experiment at Curtin and Monash universities

The slow rate of acceptance of telecommunications applications - EDI in particular - can be attributed, at least in part, to a lack of understanding of the strategic benefits which can accrue from their effective utilization. This paper describes the design of an international laboratory called TREAT (Teaching Realistic EDI and Telecommunications), which is being developed to address this concern. It then compares the theoretical and practical learning experiences gained from implementing TREAT in a technically-oriented computer science department and a business-oriented information systems department. The results of this preliminary study provide indicative support that participants' responses to TREAT were influenced in some instances by their particular educational background - the computer science students were more interested in the mechanisms of the game, including the use of the EDI translation software, while the information systems students were primarily interested in the organizational structure of TREAT and how telecommunications can be used to support business activities.