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QUALITY EVALUATION OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT WEBSITES: THE CASE OF A PRIMARY EDUCATION ADMINISTRATION WEBSITE. Vasiliki Vrana, Technological Education Institute of Serres, Greece, [email protected] Costas Zafiropoulos, Technological Education Institute of Serres, Greece, [email protected] Ioannis Karavasilis, Administration of Primary Education of Serres, Greece, [email protected]

Abstract Electronic government allows a broad range of citizens to access governmental information and services, as well as to participate in the government decision-making process. The website of the primary education administration of Serres, Greece serves as a form of local egovernance. The purpose of its development is to enhance transparency in public administration, communication and participation to the administration and to offer up-to-date information on educational topics. The paper uses an on-line survey addressed to visitors of the website, in order to analyze user perceptions of the quality of the website. The research utilizes the eQual approach. The following three factors of the eQual are used: usability, information quality and service interaction. Better understanding of the users’ requirements can lead to the development of appropriate online services. The findings of the survey contribute to possible approaches for improving the quality of local e-governance services and tailoring of solutions. Keywords: eQual, primary education administration, local e-governance, website evaluation.

INTRODUCTION The use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have been pointed out as being some of the fundamental paths towards improving democracy and increasing people’s participation in the decision-making process (Garcia et al, 2005). Many countries have developed and introduced concepts of e-government (Golubeva and Merkuryeva, 2005). According to Barnes and Vidgen (2006, p. 767), “electronic government spans many sectors and facets of society and has the potential to transform its citizen’s perceptions of civil and political interactions. Through the web, expectations of the service levels that sites should provide have been raised considerably”. Government websites are the most important public face of the Internet (Norris, 2000). As the role of government is very complex and affects everyone’s life, the transition from government to e-government should be carefully planned (Tambouris et al, 2001). Today the experience of e-government leaders' shows that e-government program should be primarily based on consumers' research. In order to develop e-government vision and to plan electronic services development strategy more effectively the government needs to improve its understanding of the target market segments, their size and expectations. Consumers' studies help the government not only to estimate demand for electronic services, but also to define factors constraining electronic government take-up and to determine the most perspective ways of demand expansion (Golubeva and Merkuryeva, 2005). Gunter (2006, 366) claimed: “to get it right, government organisations – whether operating on national or local levels – need to know what citizens want”. The research utilizes the eQual approach to analyse user perceptions of the quality of a local governance website, the website of the primary education administration of Serres, Greece. The eQual approach was proposed by (Barnes and Vidgen, 2006) and it was used to analyse user perceptions of the quality of a national website provided by the UK Government. The eQual comes from the WebQual method, which was developed originally as an instrument for assessing user perceptions of the quality of e-commerce websites. The instrument has been under development since 1998 and has evolved via a process of iterative refinement and testing of validity and reliability in different domains. The essence of the method has focused on turning qualitative customer assessments into quantitative metrics for management decision-making (Barnes and Vidgen, 2001, 2002, 2006).

e-GOVERNMENT AND e-GOVERNANCE Development of electronic government is the global trend of public sector reforms of the last decade (Golubeva and Merkuryeva, 2005). During this period, governments across Europe have embarked on a massive project with the objective of getting as many public services electronically enabled as possible (Gunter, 2006). Initially, e-government was focused on improving and reengineering internal processes, but later on it also included the redesign of external relationships in order to improve public administration’s accessibility and quality of service provision (Homburg, 2004). E-government according to Misuraca (2006) refers to the use if ICTs as a “facilitator” through reshaping the role of Governments, providing tools to support public service reforms, enhance public administration management and public sector performance vis-à-vis the private sector and citizens. Gunter (2006, p. 362) highlighted “The aim of e-government is to make government services more accessible, most customer-focused, more relevant to citizens and more responsive to their needs. It is also regarded as playing a crucial role in promoting greater citizen involvement in civic and democratic matters. Egovernment is also designed to facilitate a more joined-up style of government. This means enhance communication links, harmonised organisational practices and partnerships between different layers of government, different government departments, central and local government bodies, and government bodies with other administrative and regulatory organisations”. Regarding the aims of e-government Schware and Deane (2003, p.10) include also “Increase and capture revenue more efficiently (e.g. taxes, fines and licence fees)”. Therefore, egovernment can embrace a wide range of services. Services for citizens, for example, might include registration to government services such as health care, education or employment benefits (Gunter, 2006), welfare, planning and leisure(Chandler, 1998), development of the personalized services, application of Customer Relationship Management methods and creation of the integrated government portals ( Golubeva and Merkuryeva, 2005). Access to adequate information infrastructure, and defining and putting in place proper legal and regulatory frameworks have been keys to making e-government both the instrument and the scenario for governance and public sector reform (Schware and Deane, 2003). The term egovernance is generally considered as a wider concept than e-Government, since it can bring about a change in how citizens relate to governments and to each other. It is also about moving beyond passive information-giving to active citizen involvement in the decision-making process. Misuraca (2006, p.210) defined e-Governance as: “the use of the electronic medium to facilitate an efficient, speedy and transparent process of disseminating information to the public and other agencies, and for performing government administration activities”. This functioning is about to bring simple, moral, accountable, responsive and transparent governance. (http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/APCITY/UNPAN010009.pdf). Development of e-Governance is not only a technical issue but also a political one. Countries should therefore understand the external and internal barriers to introducing ICTs in governance, and the needs and challenges for avoiding failures and implementing successful egovernance (Misuraca, 2006). To do this, countries need to define priorities within the framework of their national policy goals, vision and strategic objectives and evaluate ICTs applications as they draw on scarce available resources and add different value to and impact on the governance process (UN Road map to good governance and democracy www.unpan.org). The development of such a policy framework according to Misuraca (2005) cannot be done without considering the “local” component and the community development and how these integrate and use ICTs. The concept of e-Local Governance, that can be defined as “the application of ICTs to transform the business of government and to enable the broad inclusion of citizens in public management, public service delivery and democratic participation at the local level” (Misuraca, 2005).

THE WEBSITE OF THE ADMINISTRATION OF PRIMARY EDUCATION OF SERRES GREECE Decentralisation and locally-controlled administration are increasingly recognized as basic components of democratic governance and provide an enabling environment in which decisionmaking and service delivery can be brought closer to the people (Misuraca, 2006). The integration of Information and CommunicationTechnologies (ICT) in the governance processes

can greatly enhance the delivery of public services to all citizens and thus the overall objective of improving the performance of governance systems at all levels. Local, regional and national governments throughout the world are attempting to broaden service delivery and citizen involvement by providing effective e-Services. This reflects a growing acceptance that achieving excellence in customer service is just as critical for the public sector as it is in private companies (Asgarkhani, 2005). The website of the primary education administration of Serres, Greece serves as a form of local electronic governance. The purpose of its development is to enhance transparency in public administration, communication and participation to the administration, speed up procedures and increase their efficiency and reactivity. The website provides public access to up-to-date information on educational topics, statistics, legislation and laws. The interaction between the administration and the public is stimulated with various applications. People can ask questions via e-mail, are able to download many sorts of forms and documents, provides channels for citizen opinion polls, voting, and participating in government decision making, as it offers to citizens the opportunity to send articles with their opinions. There is also a forum for discussion and messages. The website is under consideration for financing by the E.U. program «Politeia, re-foundation of public administration», and it is selected for investigation due to its excellence. The website was lunched at 1/6/2005. 392560 (6/7/2007) visitors have been recorded in its two years operation, with an average range of 513,17 page views per day. Precisely there have been recorded 27799 page views in 2005, 177374 page views in 2006 and 198300 pages views until 6/7/2007. The busiest month is June 2007 were 39902 hits were recorded, the busiest day th is 12 June 2007 were 3451 hits were recorded and finally, the busiest hour is 09:00-09:59 in th 28 June 2007 with 876 hits (http://dipe.ser.sch.gr).

QUALITY OF WEBSITES Website evaluations have been fruitful in the past several years and included conceptual discussions on what should be evaluated and how to do it (Zhang & Dran, 2000). Academic research has also identified a number of criteria that customers use in evaluating websites. Except from information availability and content, these include ease of use or usability, privacy/security, graphic style and fulfillment (Zeithaml et al., 2002). Moreover, quality issues surrounding website design, in general, have been studied (Hope & Li, 2004; Parasuraman et al., 2004) and much has been written about the design of websites by the human engineering, business and user interface (Susser & Ariga, 2005). Nielsen (2004) and Palmer (2002) studied the usability and effectiveness of websites and provide guidelines for making web pages more usable. Bell & Tang (1998) and Liu & Arnett (2000, 2001) examined the effectiveness of websites in the context of e-commerce. Customer’s satisfaction is an important aspect to evaluate websites. Chen & Wells (1999) measured the customer’s attitudes towards the site, using five items and Theiwall (2000) evaluated websites using four different criteria. Huizing (2000) and Zhang & Dran (2000) examined the web quality dimensions. Misic & Johnson (1999) developed user-defined criteria and Olsina et al. (1999) used QEM the Website Quality Evaluation Method. Loiacono (2000) explicitly measured website quality using 36 items converged into 12 dimensions and these showed predictive validity for purchase intention. The dimensions included: (1) informational fit-to-task, (2) tailored communication, (3) ease of understanding, (4) intuitive operations, (5) response time, (6) visual appeal, (7) innovativeness, (8) emotional appeal, (9) trust, (10) online completeness, (11) relative advantage, and (12) consistent image. Later, Loiacono et al. (20002) proposed a hierarchical model of website quality containing 12 first-order factors which represent five second-order factors. She suggested that five distinct factors constitute consumer perceptions of website quality at a higher conceptual level. These higher-order dimensions identified within the WebQual scale included usefulness, entertainment, ease-of-use, response time, and trust. Four first-order factors (informational fit-totask, tailored communication, online completeness, and relative advantage) formed a secondorder dimension identified as usefulness. Another set of four first-order factors (visual appeal, innovativeness, emotional appeal, and consistent image) represented a second order factor: entertainment. Ease of understanding and intuitive operations loaded on the third second-order factor: ease-of-use. Lastly, response time and trust formed the fourth and fifth- second-order factors. Loiacono concluded that this five second-order factor model provided a good fit to the data.

Rust (2001, p.283) defined the concept of electronic services as “the provision of service over electronic networks”. Service quality delivery has a positive impact on desired attitudinal, behavioral, and financial outcomes (Cronin et al. 2000; Rust et al. 2000). In the context of electronic services, researchers have even argued that quality may be the most important determinant of long-term success (Fassnacht and Koese, 2006Santos 2003; Zeithaml et al. 2000, 2002). The empirical research conducted by Parasuraman et al. (1988) indicated that there are five principle dimensions of service quality: Tangibles, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance, and Empathy. Barnes et al. (2001) developed the WebQual for measuring service quality. Madu & Madu (2002) proposed a model for e-quality and Zeithaml et al. (2000) pointed out that perceived electronic Service Quality (e-SQ) could be represented by eleven dimensions. Reliability, Responsiveness, Access, Flexibility, Ease of Navigation, Efficiency, Assurance/Trust, Security/Privacy, Price Knowledge, Site Aesthetics, and Customization/ Personalization. Parasuraman et al. (2004) developed E-S-QUAL a multiple-Item Scale for Assessing Electronic Service Quality and D’Angelo & Little (1998) proposed also an evaluation method for Websites A review of the literature on website evaluation revealed the eQual, an instrument aimed at egovernment web services. The eQual was developed by Barnes and Vidgen (2006). The eQual is based on quality function deployment (QFD). According to Slabey(1999) it is a ‘‘structured and disciplined process that provides a means to identify and carry the voice of the customer through each stage of product and or service development and implementation’’. Barnes and Vidgen (2006) mentioned that the use of QFD starts by capturing the ‘voice of the customer’. That means that their needs are expressed. These then form the basis of an evaluation of the quality of the product or service.

METHODOLOGY In order to investigate and analyze user perceptions of the quality of the website, an on-line survey was conducted. Visitors of the website willing to participate to the survey were redirected to a tailor made website which was linked to the home page, replied to a questionnaire and data were recorded to a database. The survey was carried out in ten days period of time from 14/6/2007 until 24/6/2007 and there have been recorded 17456 hits in the website in that period of time. Finally, 249 questionnaires were completed. Although the response rate is low, it should be considered satisfactory because many researchers have pointed out that there exists a declining trend in response rates to online surveys (Sheehan, 2002; Sohn and Lee, 2005; Ozturan and Roney, 2004; Yung 1998; Vrana and Zafiropoulos, 2006). The research utilizes the eQual approach, to analyze user perceptions of the quality of the website. The following three factors of the eQual are used: usability, information quality and service interaction. Adjustments were made in order to avoid items which originate from commercial web sites evaluation and emphasize transactions fulfillment. In the context of eQual, website users were asked to rate target site against each of a range of qualities and to rate each of them on their importance. Users were asked to rate the site for each quality using a Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). Users were also asked to rate the importance of the quality to them, again using 1 (least important) to 7 (most important). As a starting point, the data was summarised according to the questionnaire subcategories. Then, the total score for each category was indexed against the maximum score (the importance ratings for questions multiplied by 7). Demographics, reasons for visiting the website and frequency of use were also recorded.

FINDINGS Table 1 summarizes the sample breakdown by demographics and usage of the website. Nearly 70% of the users were male users, while nearly 60% of the users were 30 to 50 years old. Most of the users keep visiting the website for a period of more than 3 months. Nearly 70% of the users visit the site very often, every day or 2-3 times a week. Table 2 presents the users’ reasons for visiting the website. Convenience and response to immediate and transparent information are the main reasons, invoked by nearly 70% of the

users. Table 3 describes the eQual questionnaire properly adjusted to be used in non commercial websites that is by avoiding items that emphasize transactions fulfillment or ordering of any goods. The final questionnaire consists of 19 items grouped in three factors: usability (first 8 items), information quality (next 7 items) and service interaction (next 4 items). Cronbach’s alphas are calculated as measure of reliability of these three factors. All alphas are greater than 0.75 so all the three factors are considered to constitute a reliable instrument (Table 3). Table 1: Sample breakdown by demographics and usage of the website. Demographics Sex Male users Female users Age 40 How long you are visiting the website up to 3 months 3-6 months 6-12 months 1-2 years more than 2 years How often you visit the website almost everyday 2-3 times a week once a week once a month whenever I am looking for some specific information

Percentages % 68.7 31.3 10.8 61.4 27.7 2.4 15.9 29.3 34.1 18.3 58.5 12.2 9.8 17.1 2.4

Table 2: Reasons for visiting the website. Reasons It helps you to avoid personal visits or phone calls with services of the primary education administration It provides timely updating on training issues. It provides participating administration through the knowledge of circulars, presidential decrees and laws. It provides open and transparent public administration (e.g. administrative decisions) It provides timely updating on educational developments all over the country. It opens new horizons (innovative actions e.g. European programs, website design and development , health education) It offers easy access to interesting websites (e.g. newspapers, Citizens Service Centers, libraries). It creates a sense of pride that you belong to this primary education administration.

Percentages % 73.5

69.9 67.5

66.3 66.3 54.2

39.8 37.3

Table 3: The eQual questionnaire. Items 1. I find the site easy to learn to operate 2. My interaction with the site is clear and understandable 3. I find the site easy to navigate 4. I find the site easy to use 5. The site has an attractive appearance 6. The design is appropriate to the type of site 7. The site conveys a sense of competency 8. The site creates a positive experience for me 9. Provides accurate information 10. Provides believable information 11. Provides timely information 12. Provides relevant information 13. Provides easy to understand information 14. Provides information at the right level of detail 15. Presents the information in an appropriate format 16. Has a good reputation

Usability (Cronbach’s alpha=0.905)

Information quality (Cronbach’s alpha =0.816)

Service interaction (Cronbach’s alpha =0.767)

17. Creates a sense of personalization 18. Conveys a sense of community 19. Makes it easy to communicate with Table 4 summarizes the weighted scores and eQual indices. It gives a detailed and total picture of the website quality characteristics. The items of eQual questionnaire are sorted in decreasing order so that the table should be more meaningful and easy to read. Scores are calculated by multiplying the rating by the importance of each quality (item). To produce some meaningful results the scores should be compared by the maximum performance scores that is the scores of a web site which could be rated with the maximum rating. Thus a second column is added to the table. Maximum scores are produced by multiplication of importance ratings by the highest rating that could be assigned to a quality according to the scaled used, this is number 7. Next by dividing scores by maximum scores the performance or eQual performance indices can be produced. Usability, information quality, service interaction factors and total scores are calculated as the means of the scores of the items-qualities within each factor. Performance indices for the factor and the total are calculated by dividing scores as in the case of the item-qualities. Table 4 shows that users consider the website to perform extremely well, since the total performance score is 88%. Although the performance indices of the three factors are very high, findings suggest that information quality is considered to be the highest merit of the site, with a performance index of 89.3%. Usability follows with an index of 87.1% and finally service interaction comes last with a performance index of 87%. Within information quality factor the items Provides believable information, Provides accurate information, Provides timely information, Provides easy to understand information are ranked higher that the factor average performance index while Provides information at the right level of detail, Presents the information in an appropriate format, and especially Provides relevant information are ranked lower. Within usability factor the items I find the site easy to use, I find the site easy to navigate, The site conveys a sense of competency and The site creates a positive experience for me, are ranked higher than the average performance index of the factor. The items My interaction with the site is clear and understandable, The design is appropriate to the type of site, The site has an attractive appearance are ranked lower. Within service interaction factor the items Makes it easy to communicate with and Has a good reputation are ranked higher than the factor average performance index while the items Conveys a sense of community and Creates a sense of personalization are ranked lower.

Table 4: Weighted scores and eQual indices. Items Scores (rating x importance)

Maximum scores (7 x importance)

10. Provides believable information 9. Provides accurate information 11. Provides timely information 13. Provides easy to understand information 14. Provides information at the right level of detail

42.2

44.9

Performance indices (Scores / Maximum scores)% 93.4

41.7 41.6 40.2

45.1 44.9 44.2

91.7 91.3 90.1

39.7

44.2

89.0

15. Presents the information in an appropriate format 12. Provides relevant information Information quality (mean of the above items) 4. I find the site easy to use 3. I find the site easy to navigate 7. The site conveys a sense of competency 8. The site creates a positive experience for me 1. I find the site easy to learn to operate 2. My interaction with the site is clear and understandable

38.3

43.5

87.6

35.5 39.8

42.9 44.2

80.2 89.3

40.5 39.5 38.9

44.1 43.7 43.9

90.8 89.5 88.3

37.7

42.3

87.6

38.4

43.4

87.1

38.0

43.8

85.4

6. The design is appropriate to the type of site 5. The site has an attractive appearance Usability (mean of the above items) 19. Makes it easy to communicate with 16. Has a good reputation 18. Conveys a sense of community 17. Creates a sense of personalization Service interaction (mean of the above items) Total (mean of all the above items)

37.1

43.2

84.0

35.2

42.4

82.4

38.1

43.3

87.1

40.2

43.6

91.6

37.5 36.7

41.0 42.4

90.4 86.2

33.0

40.5

80.1

36.9

41.8

87.0

38.5

43.3

88.0

Table 5 presents the correlations among performance indices and usage characteristics. Frequency of use is proved to be significantly correlated with usability, information quality and total performance. That frequency of use is correlated with the most highly ranked factors according to Table 4 and the total performance. The more frequently a user is visiting the website the highest the performance index is. Familiarity with the website enables users to appreciate its good features better. Alternatively the website seems to have an audience, consisted of frequent visitors who entrust provision of information to the website. Table 5: Correlations between eQual indexes and usage of the website. How long you are visiting How often you visit the a b the website website

Usability performance index

-.033

-.136(*)

Information quality performance .106 -.137(*) index Service interaction performance .088 -.102 index Total performance index .041 -.149(*) (*: p< 0.05) (a: 1= up to 3 months, 2=3-6 months, 3=6-12 months, 4=1-2 years, 5=more than 2 years) (b: 1=almost everyday, 2=2-3 times a week, 3=once a week, 4=once a month, 5=whenever I am looking for something specific, 6=I don’t visit the website often)

CONCLUSIONS Evaluation of websites can lead to better understanding and improvement of the quality of offered information through them. Public sector can benefit from the application of quality assessment techniques which are already used broadly for commercial websites in general. Evaluation techniques focus on the user perception of the quality of the website so an analysis of the users’ ratings could lead both to understanding their needs and to the improvement of the websites taking into consideration the users’ views. Analysis of the findings for the website of the administration of primary education of Serres, Greece, suggests that the administration has already made a pioneer effort in order to offer good reliable and up to date information to the users, a fact which is certainly acknowledged by them. Although local e-governance is currently making its first steps in Greece, it can offer some fine examples of adequate performance which responds and fulfil users’ needs for information.

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