Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 147-158). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2006. / Advisor: Charles R. McClure, Florida State University, College of Information. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed June 9, 2006). Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 261 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

O desenvolvimento comercial da internet possibilitou o surgimento de sistemas de informação que se apoiam no uso da world wide web como plataforma. Esses sistemas baseados na web (web-based systems) têm aplicações em diversas áreas e setores econômicos. No ramo educacional, eles têm sido aplicados como base para os processos de ensino e aprendizagem via computador (e-learning) e são, comumente, denominados de Ambientes Virtuais de Aprendizagem (AVA). Os AVAs podem ser utilizados tanto para o ensino exclusivamente a distância quanto como apoio ao ensino presencial. O presente trabalho tem como objeto de investigação justamente o emprego de ambientes virtuais como tecnologia de apoio ao ensino presencial tradicional dado em sala de aula em cursos de graduação do ensino superior. O crescente uso de AVAs para tal finalidade leva ao questionamento de quais são as dimensões e características de qualidade destes ambientes e como estas dimensões estão associadas com os seus efeitos, quais sejam, a satisfação, o uso e os benefícios percebidos pelos usuários de tais sistemas? Desta forma, o trabalho tem como objetivo identificar as dimensões de qualidade em AVAs, por meio do estabelecimento de um modelo teórico que evidencie quais são os atributos determinantes em relação à qualidade em ambientes virtuais de ensino e quais são os efeitos e os impactos individuais em torno dos usuários discentes. Para tanto, são realizadas duas pesquisas de campo. A primeira é descritiva-explicativa, de abordagem quantitativa, com o emprego de Modelagem de Equações Estruturais, como método de análise e delineamento da pesquisa. Esta pesquisa foi feita com discentes usuários de um ambiente virtual disponibilizado por uma IES e teve como objetivo a elaboração de um modelo de relações de qualidade em AVAs. A segunda pesquisa consiste em um estudo com abordagem essencialmente descritiva, que tem como objetivo classificar quais são as características de relevância nos AVAs, de acordo com o Modelo Kano de classificação de requisitos. Os principais resultados apontam que a qualidade da informação e a qualidade do sistema influenciam na satisfação e nos benefícios percebidos pelos usuários dos AVAs e que as características destas dimensões são consideradas mais significativas do que as funcionalidades disponíveis nos referidos sistemas. / The commercial development of the internet enabled the birth of information systems that rely on the use of the world wide web as a platform. These web-based systems have applications in various fields and economic sectors. In the education sector, they have been used as basis for computer teaching and learning processes (e-learning) and are commonly called Virtual Learning Environments (VLE). These VLEs can be used both for distance teaching exclusively and as support for students in traditional presential classes. This work investigates the virtual environments use as support technology for students in traditional classroom undergraduate courses in higher education. The growing use of VLEs for this purpose raises the following questions: what are the dimensions and quality characteristics of these environments and how are these dimensions associated with their effects, satisfaction, use, and net benefits perceived by users of such systems? Thus, the study aims to identify the VLEs quality dimensions, through the establishment of a theoretical model showing what the relevant VLE dimensions relating to education quality are and what the effects and individuals impacts are for user-learners. To this end, two researches were conducted. The first one was descriptive-explanatory, with a quantitative approach, using Structural Equation Modeling as analysis method and research design. This research was made with students that use a VLE and had the purpose to elaborate a VLE quality relationship model. The second study is essentially descriptive, and aims to classify which features are most relevant in VLEs, according to the Kano´s Model requirements classification. The main findings indicate that the information quality and system quality influence the satisfaction and net benefits perceived by VLEs users and characteristics of these dimensions are considered more important than the functionality features available in such systems.

Engagement of stakeholders in government website communication has emerged as an important strategy that can build trust, improve transparency and strengthen loyalty between governments and their citizens. This is because websites provide access to a broader spectrum, offer unlimited storage of information and rapid feedback. This main purpose of the study therefore was to find out how the Lesotho and South African national governments utilise their websites to engage stakeholder’s in websites communication for maintaining and building mutual relationships. The literature review for this study covered the role of public relations in government, different kinds of governments’ stakeholders and the importance of engaging stakeholders in website communication for relationship building and maintenance of such relationships. The methodology that was employed involved analysis of twenty websites which were selected using purposive sampling technique. Coding sheets were designed and used to collect data based on the three principles of dialogic communication namely: Ease of interface, Generation of return visits, Usefulness of information and the two models of communication which are One-way communication and Two-way communication. The results revealed limited efforts for stakeholder’s engagement in both Lesotho and South African government ministries and made recommendations on how this challenge can be addressed. The study concluded that the two countries can improve stakeholders’ participation and engagement in websites communication by aligning their websites with the three principles of dialogic communication and two models of communication.

The purpose of this study is to explore the representation of national political freedom on web interface design by using power distance, one of the culture dimensions identified by Geert Hofstede, as a measurement. This study also aims to determine if there are any differences between government-based websites and business-oriented websites in representing national political freedom. A pilot study was conducted to validate ten power distance indicators identified from previous research on cultural dimensions with the intent of establishing a measurement for determining a country's national political freedom on web content and interface design. The result showed that six out of ten proposed indicators are valid power distance indicators. The seventh indicator, symmetric layout, demonstrated that its Web representation correlates with national political freedom level. Consequently, the principal research applied these seven indicators in coding 312 websites selected from 39 countries and analyzed national political freedom represented on these websites with content analysis method. The result of two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated that large differences exist in web interface design, which in turn reflects the aforementioned national political freedom. The research showed that the mean effect of freedom level between free-country group, partly-free-country group and not-free-country group was statistically significant (p = .003). So was the mean effect of website type between government-based and business-oriented websites (p = .000). Furthermore, the interaction between the freedom level and website type was also significant (p = .041). Therefore, we conclude that web interface design represents a country's political freedom and government-based websites embody more of a nation's authority and supremacy than business-oriented websites do. It is expected that this study furthers our exploration in culture dimensions on web interface design and advances our knowledge in sociological and cultural studies of the web.

The Internet is a revolutionary technology that is bound to change every aspect of society and the educational system in particular. Following the rapid spread of the Internet, the new developments in the World Wide Web (WWW) technology have created a high level of interest and enthusiasm among many educators.

This project, WebAppDesigner, combines a "What You See Is What You Get" (WYSISYG) web page designer, database table designer, query tool, and an automatic deployment process into a single easy to use solution for small businesses and individuals.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Science in Information Technology in Education

A internet é, seguramente, a mídia que mais se expande no mundo, tendo importância crescente em todos os campos da atividade humana, seja profissional, educacional ou meramente recreativo. Essa importância é visível não apenas no grande número de pessoas que a usam em seu dia-a-dia (cerca de 33 milhões de pessoas no Brasil, 220 milhões nos Estados Unidos e mais de 1 bilhão de pessoas no mundo inteiro), nem somente pelo ritmo de crescimento nos primeiros anos da web comercial, mas principalmente pelo enorme leque de possibilidades de conteúdos e serviços disponíveis para os internautas. Dentre essas possibilidades estão os serviços de comércio eletrônico ou ecommerce, um dos mais importantes e com maior crescimento nos últimos anos, e o internet banking ou e-banking, responsável por profundas mudanças na relação dos usuários de serviços bancários com seus bancos, chegando ao ponto de correntistas não freqüentarem suas agências bancárias por anos seguidos, servindo-se apenas dos serviços online para resolver seus problemas diários e usando-se dos ATMs para saques financeiros. Esta dissertação tem o intuito de aprofundar o conhecimento da relação dos internautas com esses dois serviços, e-commerce e e-banking, analisando o fato de os dados disponíveis sobre o uso residencial da internet no Brasil indicarem que há queda no uso do segundo serviço, enquanto o primeiro continua em contínua ascensão. Esse conhecimento é importante, principalmente porque ambos são considerados similares pela literatura e, além disso, apresentavam curvas de crescimento similar até o final de 2003. Esse conhecimento passa também por entender o motivo que faz com que a intersecção dos grupos de usuários residenciais dos dois serviços seja em torno de 50% apenas, já que o internauta brasileiro, basicamente das classes A e B, tende a ser um consumidor de ambos os serviços off-line. / The internet is, for sure, the media with faster and higher growth in the world, with growing importance in all areas of human activities, from professional, educational or for entertainment. Such importance is visible not only because there are a huge number people with internet access for daily activities (around 33 million in Brazil, 220 million in the United States and 1 billion people around the world, nor because its very positive growth curve, but mainly due to its range of possibilities of contents and services available to the users. Among these possibilities are the e-commerce, one of the most important and with great growth during the recent years, and the e-banking, responsible for deep changes in the relation between banking services users and the banks, allowing some clients to stop visiting their physical agencies, using only the online channel to solve their daily problems and the ATMs to get some cash. This work intends to go deep in the knowledge of the relation among the internet users and the two services, namely e-commerce e e-banking, analyzing why the available at-home data about the Brazilian web use indicates that the second mentioned service loses audience, while the first one continues to grow in terms of visitors. Such knowledge is important, especially because both services are considered similar by the literature and, besides that, used to present a similar growth curve until de end of the year 2003. This knowledge also needs to understand why the intersection of the two groups of domestic users of both mentioned services is around 50% only, as the Brazilian internet user belongs to the richest A and B socio-economic classes, and because of this fact tends to be a consumer of both services off-line.

The purpose of this project is to design, develop and implement an e-commerce shopping cart system based on Microsoft.NET technology and to evaluate ASP.NET technology by developing a shopping cart system.