Many organizations are constantly changing their web presence. Despite the frequency of these redesigns, there appears to be little evidence to explain what kinds of changes are incorporated into each updated version of a web presence. To understand how commercial organizations transform their web presence, we conduct a content analysis and a cluster analysis of press releases describing redesign initiatives in the late 1990s. Findings suggest that the majority of companies redesigned their web presence to expand information and change navigation protocols. Surprisingly, the addition of interactive features such as online ordering and community communication channels is present in only 20% of the redesign cases studied. According to the groups provided by the cluster analysis, most of the changes reported in these press releases are centered on improving the usability of the web presence. Based on this evidence we conclude that initial transformations to commercial websites were more driven by the need to effectively communicate new information than by the addition of e-commerce features.

There has been a proliferation of competing explanations regarding the inconsistent results reported by the e-collaboration literature since its inception. This study advances another possible explanation by investigating the range of multilevel issues that can be encountered in research on the use of synchronous or asynchronous group support systems. We introduce concepts of levels of analysis from the management literature and then examine all empirical studies of e-collaboration from seven information systems journals for the period 1999-2003. We identified a total of 54 studies of e-collaboration in these journals, and after excluding 18 nonconforming studies - those that were primarily conceptual, qualitative, or exploratory only-we analyzed the levels of analysis issues in the remaining 36 empirical studies. Based on our analysis and classification of these studies into six different clusters according to their levels of analysis, we found that a majority of these studies contain one or more problems of levels incongruence that cast doubts on the validity of their results. It is indeed possible that these methodological problems are in part responsible for the inconsistent results reported in this literature, especially since researchers' frequent decisions to analyze data at the individual level - even when the theory was formulated at the group level and when the research setting featured individuals working in groups -may very well have artificially inflated the authors' chances of finding statistically significant results. Based on our discussion of levels of analysis concepts, we hope to provide guidance to empirical researchers who study e-ollaboration.

A three-year field study of 17 courses, part of an undergraduate degree in information systems, compared the process and outcomes of three modes of delivery: totally online via asynchronous learning networks, traditional face-to-face courses, and sections using a mix of traditional and online activities. There were no significant differences in perceived learning by students associated with mode of delivery. Group collaboration and access to professors was perceived to be highest in mixed-mode sections, while convenience was rated highest in the distance sections. For online courses, there was generally a significant relationship between the hypothesized mediators (active participation, motivation, collaboration, access to the professor, and convenience) and perceived learning. Overall, the results of this study show that outcomes of online courses improved when professors structured them to support the growth of a learning community, by being available online to interact with students, and by using collaborative learning strategies.