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This paper presents a qualitative study of the experience of students of the shift from face-to-face learning to online learning during the COVID-19 lockdown in Norway. Detailed inputs were collected from 200 university students enrolled in a bachelor’s degree in information technology in Norway through an online survey. Their responses were categorized into three main themes: the teacher’s role, the life of a student, and digital learning. We found that, surprisingly, the students felt that the shift to digital learning had positive effects on their lives, such as the availability of more time for study, study flexibility through recorded lectures which could be reviewed repeatedly and anytime, and more time to pose questions. However, some students also pointed out negative effects such as more distractions, lack of structure, and a perceived invasion of privacy when required to turn on their cameras. The students valued the use of high-quality technical equipment as well as student engagement during online lectures, but also freedom of choice to participate.

Abstract. With the goal of shedding light on the impacts of user involvement in eGovernment environments, this study focuses on website quality and user satisfaction. To gain insights into the public sector, empirical data are collected through an online survey among public sector employees. The findings reveal that less than fifty percent of the organizations have conducted user testing of their website. However, most of them believe that they present a website of high quality. There is no clear relationship between the frequency of user testing on information quality and service quality, while user testing has a weak positive effect on system quality, perceived from an organizational point of view. Moreover, the findings reveal a positive relationship between the frequency of user testing conducted, and the extent to which the website users are perceived as being satisfied. This paper concludes that further investigation is needed in order to facilitate high quality interactions and great user experiences, and provide additional insights to the role of user testing in an eGovernment context.

PurposeThis paper investigates the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in information systems (ISs). The GDPR consists of 99 articles, and two articles are emphasised – namely Article 15, which deals with rights of access by the data subject, and Article 20, which deals with the right to data portability.Design/methodology/approach15 companies operating in the Norwegian consumer market were randomly selected. Each company received an inquiry pertaining to rights of access by the data subject (Article 15) and the right to data portability (Article 20). The research team carefully analysed the answers received and categorised the responses according to the two articles emphasised.FindingsThe findings show extensive variations among the companies in terms of response time, quality of feedback and how companies handle requests concerning rights of access by the data subject (Article 15) and the right to data portability (Article 20). Differences are also pertaining to the types of files, along with the content of these files. It should be noted, however, that most of the companies replied to the inquiry before the deadline. The findings show that companies comply better with Article 20 than Article 15. However, it appears that they do not differentiate between the two articles.Originality/valueThis study explores a research topic that is relatively new. It addresses a gap in the extant research by highlighting how the GDPR works in practice from a consumer's perspective. In addition, guidelines are offered to the consumers and companies affected by the GDPR.

PurposeThe objective of this paper is to investigate how webmasters within government bodies explain quality of websites. Despite the central position for advancing the communication, bridging usability tests and design, there are surprisingly few studies on how webmasters perceive, experience and explain website quality or design issues.Design/methodology/approachThe authors' unit of analysis is webmasters from Norwegian web‐award‐winning organizations. Eight webmasters from four types of websites were interviewed. The websites were purposefully sampled, using the strategy of maximal variation sampling to maximize difference between the four types of websites.FindingsThe findings reveal that issues concerning usability are found to be an important dimension of website quality. The authors' analysis of how webmasters explain website quality reveals substantial variance in explanation of website quality. Repeated keywords of website quality are mainly related to user‐friendliness, effective website usage, content‐related issues and accessibility (WAI‐principles).Research limitations/implicationsThis study includes webmasters from award‐winning websites. In upcoming research contributions, it would add to the richness of the study if webmasters from non‐award‐winning websites were included. Measurement of website quality and success is widely addressed within the research literature. This paper offers the opportunity to understand how practitioners (i.e. webmasters) facilitate for website quality, grounded in their perception and explanations of which quality aspects they found to be of importance.Practical implicationsThe website quality aspects identified in this paper can be used as insights for how to develop and improve the quality of websites with the public sector.Social implicationsThe overall digital enabled transformation of government appears to be guided by a rather heterogeneous set of quality standards. While a variance of quality standards might stimulate innovation in websites, it can also lead to a substantial difference in digital services provided to citizens. Thus, the authors' research stimulates the awareness of diversity of quality parameters and could have as an implication that national and international standards beyond accessibility standards are more explicitly shared and debated.Originality/valueThe aim of this paper is to provide insights into website practitioners' (i.e. webmasters') perception and explanation of quality aspects in websites. Webmasters are important contributors to the quality of available websites, and it is of particular benefit to learn about their suggestions. Most studies tackle perception of website quality from a user's point of view, while the added knowledge in this paper is the webmaster's explanation.

Abstract. This paper maps the criteria used for measuring website quality in a range of Scandinavian web awards. In order to categorize the evaluation criteria we have used the DeLone and McLean Model, and findings show that there is a heterogeneous pattern of methods and criteria used. System quality aspects are mainly assessed by usability criteria, while the rest of the criteria are evenly divided between information quality and service quality. The remaining evaluation criteria mapped, such as innovation and creativity, fall out of the model. Our analysis also reveals that the assessments are rarely grounded on standardized and objective measures, and that the actual user opinions are ignored in the evaluation process.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was implemented in the European Union and European Economic Area in May 2018. The GDPR aims to strengthen consumers’ rights to data privacy in the wake of technological developments like big data and artificial intelligence. This was a hot topic for stakeholders, such as lawyers, companies and consumers, prior to the GDPR’s implementation. This paper investigates to what extent consumers are concerned about information privacy issues following the implementation of the GDPR. We present findings from an online survey conducted during spring 2019 among 327 Norwegian consumers, as well as findings from a survey conducted immediately prior to the implementation of the GDPR in spring 2018. We draw the following conclusions: (1) consumers gained significant knowledge about their information privacy from the GDPR, but felt relatively little need to execute their enhanced rights; (2) about 50% of respondents believed themselves to have control over their data, while almost 40% stated that they had no control about their personal data; and (3) consumers largely trusted companies to manage their personal data. These insights are of interest to both academia and to industries that deal with personal data.