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Published paper-Impact of cloud computing. in higher education: amidst covid 19

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UtkalHistoricalResearchJournal, ISSN : 0976-2132 Vol.-34(XII), 83
IMPACT OF CLOUD COMPUTING IN HIGHER EDUCATION: AMIDST COVID-19
Madhumitha M, Student, Department of Commerce, Christ University, Hosur Road, near dairy
circle Bangalore, Karnataka-560029,
Harshitha Rajbabu, Student, Department of Commerce, Christ University, Hosur Road, near dairy
circle Bangalore, Karnataka-560029,
Dr Geetanjali Purswani, Assistant Professor, Department of Commerce, Christ University, School
of Commerce, Finance and Accountancy, Hosur Road, near dairy circle Bangalore, Karnataka-
560029,
Abstract
The purpose of this research article is to study the impact of cloud computing in higher
education and how the current pandemic situation of COVID 19 has resulted in the growth of cloud
usage in the chosen field. This paper is also entitled to study the benefits and challenges faced by the
student community while using cloud for the purpose of learning.
This research article is following the qualitative approach, and the data has been collected from the
students belonging to the Indian Higher educational institutions (HEI). A questionnaire survey was
distributed through google forms online for the purpose of data collection. The data collected was
through simple random sampling, and the same was analysed through exploratory factor analysis
using SPSS software. It was found that most of the students are willing to accept the cloud in their
learning and also there are various platforms which have made learning convenient and favourable to
the students. Despite the cloud and its advancements, students find it easy and beneficial while using
it in their academic learning.
The outcome of this research will enable the higher educational institutions across India, especially
the student community to know the benefits and challenges in effective use of cloud computing in
higher education. Even during this pandemic cloud platforms have come in handy to students to
continuously grow, learn and flourish. The study adds value by exhibiting what cloud technology can
do to the field of higher education and how effective it can be even during the times of a pandemic.
Keywords: Higher education, technology, cloud services, student community, Covid -19
Introduction
With the advent of technology in the past decade, every aspect of our life has changed,
technology has made life more convenient. The growth in technology has been tremendous and there
is no exception to the field of education as well. Today, students and teachers have access to
something beyond what in the previous years used to be taught only in the classrooms or learned
only from books(F.Fahmy, 2004). This has led to the transformation in the ways of learning and
teaching. They can access information from the internet anytime, anywhere. This is referred to as
Education 4.0, where everything is more advanced and digital, which has already captured
humongous interest from the public (Hussin, A. A.2018). People around are all willing to change and
move to higher technology but this course of change must happen in a way that is considerable and
auditable with all (Rose, 2014)
Another field that has seen the growth in usage in Cloud Computing is the education sector. Higher
education institutions have adopted innovation in technology in their infrastructure, their mode of
learning, teaching and the overall quality of education (Alkhawaja and Halim, 2019). Advancement
of Technology in the field of education has taken many forms, to mention a few- Massive Open
Online Courses (MOOCS), Virtual Learning Environments (VLES), Youtube and many other similar
platforms.(Elnajar, Sahly, Farkash and Faraj, 2019)
With technological advancements and new applications like BYJUS, White hat arising everyday
Cloud becomes vital for storage and access. It has become one of the recent trends globally that is
affecting Information Technology (Lahiri and L. Mosel, 2013). Cloud computing is an on -demand
availability of internet-based computing of computer systems mainly providing data storage. Cloud
computing is an upcoming trend in the field of education for an efficient system of e-learning
UtkalHistoricalResearchJournal, ISSN : 0976-2132 Vol.-34(XII), 84
(Hessen, S.H. 2015). It can enhance and make it simpler for teachers and students to work on
common platforms.
Covid-19, the pandemic has brought a lot of changes to the way the world functions. Education
system was no exception. With the lockdowns in place and the fear of contacting the disease,
educational institutions had to resort to using online modes of teaching (Daniel, J.2020). Cloud
learning and teaching gained huge appreciation and importance and its reliable technology is the
reason that led to the academic circle paying attention (Luo et al., 2018). Cloud based apps such as
Google, Zoom, Cisco, Microsoft made learning and teaching possible in the duration of lockdown
(Mishra, L., Guptan & Shree 2020)The platforms also became famous because of the convenience
they provided. These platforms took care of all the aspects of education starting from allowing a
common space for lectures, recording the sessions for future references, providing space for
exchange of ideas, and assignments, to recording the attendance
(Attaran, M., Attaran, S., & Celik, B. G. 2017)
The aim of this paper is to understand the perspective of students regarding the usage of cloud in the
field of education. It starts with checking the awareness among the students regarding the use of
cloud computing in education, it further dwells in identifying the benefits and the challenges
associated with usage of cloud computing in education. Finally, the paper looks into the impact of
covid 19 on the usage of cloud computing in education.
Review Of Literature
1. Higher Education
Alemu, Sintayehu (2018) talks about the different ideologies concerning higher education. Over the
years there are various methods adopted by the higher education institutions to improve the quality
of education. Modern higher education is defined as an organized tertiary learning, training activities
and institutions. These include conventional universities such as arts, humanities, and science
faculties and more specialized university institutions in agriculture, engineering, science, and
technology. The concept of higher education also includes such post-secondary institutions like
polytechnics and colleges of education. Under the umbrella of higher education come all forms of
professional institutions. (AssiéLumumba,2005).
2. Cloud Computing
According to NIST ( National Institute of Standards and Technology), "Cloud computing is a model
for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on- demand network access to a shared pool of configurable
computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly
provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. In other
words it is a collection of software, hardware and various other sources that can be accessed over the
internet and it is used to provide a solution when there is a request which in turn provides various
other services back to the person making the request (Sadeq & Bagish, 2014). Cloud computing
mainly has three models, called the service models. The models are:
1. Software as a Service (SaaS) also known as Software on demand Service.
2. Platform as a service (PaaS).
3. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).
According to (Mohd Noor et al., 2019) the model of cloud computing has five distinct
characteristics, they are
1. Broad network access
2. On demand self service
3. Measured Service
4. Resource pooling and multi tenancy
5. Rapid elasticity and scalability
These characteristics make the cloud computing model a unique one and makes it more on demand.
3. Cloud Services
Chia-Sui Wang stated in his paper how the cloud services have been encouraging and have risen to
be one among the promising technologies in the field of education. The common definition of cloud
UtkalHistoricalResearchJournal, ISSN : 0976-2132 Vol.-34(XII), 85
services is that the term cloud service refers to the widespread of services that are provided on
demand using the internet (Wang et al., 2017). Companies like Google provide customers free cloud
services such as Google Drive to store documents, Google Photos a storage space for photos, Google
Calendar, etc. (Ercana, 2018).To add on, the learning and understanding of cloud services had also
included a range of inside applications which ranged from video and picture sharing applications to
interactive applications and collaborative tools and more importantly an open access to e-libraries
(Ali et al., 2018). In relation to the association between the consumer and the provider, the cloud can
be differentiated to more than a single type of cloud namely, Software as a services(SaaS), Platform
as a Services(PaaS), Infrastructure as a Service(IaaS)(Alzahrani, 2015). Understanding these services
and inculcating them, has helped the education sector get on to the next level. For instance, the Cisco
Cloud service, an IaaS, provides a complete virtual computing infrastructure that is managed over
the internet and allows its customers to customize the way they want. The technology of Cloud
Computing is being executed on a wide scale of architecture, beneath different cloud services and
models of deployment and they can all exist together with various other technologies and software
approaches of design (Musungwini et al., 2016). It provides great benefits to the education sector by
allowing them to leverage cloud computing to use the computer power, storage , databases and other
services when there is a need. This prevents them from spending on buying and owning their own
centres and servers (S. K. Garg)
4. Teacher & Student Community
The creation and building of a professional community is situated in a theoretical framework on the
nature and intersection of teacher learning, learning in community and literature circle/book clubs
(Kooy 2006a, 2006b, 2012). Since the format of such social contexts for teachers is countercultural
to mainstream teacher practice, it requires an approach not as a technical task but as cultural
transformation (Nehring and Fitzsimons 2011, 513). The gap between procedural knowledge
(technical) and transformation (cultural shift) requires identifying and understanding the transitions
that make change possible (Lenning, O. T., & Ebbers, L. H.1999). It becomes important to establish
a relationship of a teacher and a student where teaching and learning takes place. (Horvath 2016)
5. Covid 19 & Education System
Covid 19, a pandemic that was caused in the late 2019, that changed the way of living. It is an
infectious disease caused by coronavirus (Asadi, Z., Abdekhoda, M., & Nadrian, H. 2019). This is a
respiratory infection that has led to the pandemic all over the world. Due to Covid 19, all the sectors
are adversely affected among which the education sector has seen a drastic change in the way of
teaching and learning. (Azorín, C.2020) The educational institutions all over the world are shut down
and everyone has adopted online learning as the new normal. This pandemic has caused everyone to
adopt new ways of learning and teaching. Platforms like Zoom, Cisco WebEx, Microsoft Teams,
Google meet have students connected. According to UNICEF, as on 30 September 2020,
approximately 1.077 billion learners are currently affected due to school closures in response to the
pandemic. According to UNICEF monitoring, 53 countries are currently implementing nationwide
closures and 27 are implementing local closures, impacting about 61.6 percent of the world's student
population. 72 countries' schools are currently open. It is a huge change and it takes immense
planning and organizing to move all the courses from offline to online in just a few days. (Bao,
2020). No one would have imagined this way of learning and teaching if one had mentioned it even
two years ago. (Christensen, R.1997). The entire education field saw something in the last few
months that no one has seen before. Technology stood out even at the time of pandemic and backed
up the whole education system. (E. Krelja Kurelović, S. Rako and J. Tomljanović)
6. Technology In Education
Technology is a handy tool which can be used in the process of manufacturing goods or providing
services to meet certain objectives. (Selwyn, N. 2012). Technology is now adopted by most of the
manufacturing and service industry among which the education sector is given importance too
(Masud 2012) Technology and Educational institutions now blend together to provide quality
education to students. Technological advancements in the education sector now include e -learning,
Artificial intelligence and machine learning, use of biometrics, cloud computing for education, 3D
UtkalHistoricalResearchJournal, ISSN : 0976-2132 Vol.-34(XII), 86
printing to mention a few. (Means B.& Olson, K. 1997)Technology has both pros and cons which
has adversely affected both the teachers and the students. In short technology has made teaching and
learning more convenient and effective as well.
Theoretical Framework
Cloud Computing the term comprises two parts and can be explained separately. Firstly, it uses
the internet web browser to get access to the resources for the various demands made by the users,
and the second part refers to the fact of pay and use facilities offered by the cloud (Saedi & Iahad,
2013). The first part also makes an indication on how the various users have the ease of no carrying
around devices as everything can be accessed anytime and anywhere on cloud.
Technology-Organization-Environment framework (TOE)
The framework that was proposed by DePietro et al.(1990), Technology-Organization-
Environment framework or the model (TOE) talks about the adoption and the use of various
innovations which can be social as well as technological and those that have been used by various
organizations. Cloud is one the emerging technologies that has seeped its way through in various
sectors such as health, military, food industry etc. The education sector has always been one of the
growing sectors and the cloud has finally stepped in, drastic growth can be seen after the pandemic
of covid-19, as education has evolved into e-learning.
Diffusion of Innovation (DOI)
The second theory which refers to the Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) developed and
formulated by Everett Rogers (1962) talks about how technology has spread far and through the
different cultures. It also explains the characteristics of innovation and helps answer questions such
as why, how and what new ideas and the various perceptions of different users of technology
(Baradaran Rohani & Che Hussin, 2015). The study here focuses on how technology has
transformed the system of education and largely higher education. Rogers also mentioned in his
theory that there are different attributes in innovation and these attributes help in the future decision
making of an organization as well as an individual. Innovation is a choice for the educational
institutions, and the majority of them have already adopted cloud computing.
Actor Network Theory(ANT)
This is a theory of sociology which was developed and formulated by Callon and Latour in
the year 1980. This theory stated the facts and recognized the technological innovation and its
different processes, this may be referred to a heterogenous network which is different for each
process. (Tatnall & Burgess, 2012). This network holds various elements that are not similar and
they are called actors or even called actants. The ANT theory also mentions that the actors can be
entities that are human as well as non-human and both have equal importance to the process of
networks. This ANT approach will help the study in identifying the technological aspects and its
different roles it plays in the education works and will determine the various actors/actants.
(Cresswell et al., 2010). The ANT framework provides a clear understanding in analysing the cloud
computing usage and adoption by the higher education institutions.
Problem statement
Cloud computing in the educational sector is emerging in the current era. Traditional way of
teaching has been replaced by the modern way of interacting with students using Cloud Computing.
Ever since the pandemic of Covid-19, everything has become digital and this seems to be the new
normal today. One of the upcoming digital technologies is the cloud. Cloud has been implemented in
various sectors like the health sector, the defence sector and so on. However, education is one sector
that always followed the traditional modes of learning and teaching, but today things have changed
and paved the way for digital learning. In Spite of the various benefits offered by cloud, the impact
of using cloud computing in the field of education has been relatively less. As per the literature
review many authors have studied how cloud computing has emerged, its pros and cons, and its
application. Cloud has become necessary for various purposes in the daily lives of an individual, but
not everyone is completely aware about it. In a developing country like India it becomes difficult to
make it mandatory for all the educational institutions to use Cloud computing as it is quite expensive.
UtkalHistoricalResearchJournal, ISSN : 0976-2132 Vol.-34(XII), 87
But this pandemic has shown that when the need arises it overpowers any cost. Many institutions
have identified this need and have started to use cloud-based apps for their day to day operations.
Cloud usage has been successful in various other sectors and the education sector can be too, if
implemented as it offers flexible learning and teaching. The study aims at providing a better outlook
on how cloud can be used in education sector and how beneficial it can be to the student and teacher
community.
Research objectives
The background of the study, its problem and what its based on gets to the main question of this
research
1. To assess the level of awareness about cloud computing in education for students.
2. To study the students perception on the benefits and challenges of using cloud computing in
education
3. To identify if covid has impacted the .need of cloud computing in education
Methodology
The research methodology is the plan we have in our hands before a long trek in the huge
jungles. In simple words, its the blueprint that helps in identifying the way up to success.
The major variables in this study to focus are Higher Education which is the independent variable,
the student community which is the dependent variable and the mediating variable will be the cloud
technology and the various services it provides. This study is an empirical research. The sampling
methods used in the study is a simple random sampling through snowball technique where the
questionnaires have been sent across various higher educational institutions in the Southern Part of
India. The data collected is primary data, directly collected from the student community through
questionnaires. The reason behind primary data collection was to receive specific information form
the targeted audience itself .The questionnaires helped in obtaining the respondents honest opinions
and their perspectives towards this new technology that has been coming through. The approach of
the study is a qualitative approach. The statistical tool used in the study is the SPSS software and the
Exploratory Factor Analysis is used to analyse the factors affecting benefits and challenges. The
reason behind using the SPSS statistical software is because the data is qualitative data and the best
software to use in case of the qualitative data is SPSS software. Apart from this, a des criptive study
has been done to assess the awareness, acceptance level and how covid has increased the use of
cloud computing during this pandemic for the purpose of this study.. The scope of the study has been
limited to the higher education institutions across India and the reason being is ample amount of
studies have taken place about the different foreign nationals. This study focuses on knowing which
stage India is in using the cloud computing technology in the education sector. The reason behind
following this particular technique was that the use of snowball technique is the only way the data
can be collected from various corners of the country and therefore it has been distributed randomly.
The research methodology has connected with the studys problem statement and objective by
trying to find how effective cloud can be in the field of education even during the times of
pandemic.
Analysis And Interpretation
The questionnaire used for collecting the data for the purpose of this study is titled "The
impact of cloud computing in higher education among students across different universities in south
India". It is divided in four (4) parts. The first part represents the demographic information such as
age, qualification of students while the second part presents the assessment in level of awareness
about cloud computing among students and their willingness to accept it. The third part emphasizes
the various challenges and benefits by implementing cloud in their learning and the fourth part
presents how this pandemic has affected cloud-based learning among students.
The study targeted a sample of 404 students from various universities across south India. From the
responses we can see that 59.5% are female and the remaining 40.3% are male.
UtkalHistoricalResearchJournal, ISSN : 0976-2132 Vol.-34(XII), 88
The questionnaire was validated and tested for reliability using Pearson's Correlation. A Cronbach
alpha reliability coefficient (α) of 0.775 was obtained, an indication that the instrument was reliable
for data collection.
The paper is based on three research questions to be answered through the usage of questionnaires.
In this section, all the questions will be raised (in italics) and solutions will be presented.
Objective 1: To assess the level of awareness about cloud computing in education for students.
VARIABLE
SUB VARIABLES
FREQUENCY
Gender
Male
165
Female
239
total
404
Currently pursuing
UG
204
PG
183
PHD
9
Other
8
Total
404
Table 1: Demographic variables
Table 1 depicts the demographic profile of the respondents where 165 are male and 239 are female.
204 respondents are currently pursuing UG, 183 are pursuing post-graduation, 9 are pursuing PHD.
Figure 1: Awareness among students regarding Cloud Computing
Figure1 depicts the awareness among students regarding Cloud Computing. It is seen that
67.1% of the respondents are aware how cloud computing works. About 57.5% of them consider the
Internet as a source of awareness about cloud computing. 83.8% of the respondents are using cloud
services for various purposes like storage of academic documents and collaboration with peers.
62.4% respondents have an idea about the usage of Cloud Computing in education.
UtkalHistoricalResearchJournal, ISSN : 0976-2132 Vol.-34(XII), 89
Correlation Between Gender And Awareness About Cloud Computing
H0: There is no correlation between the gender and awareness level of cloud computing in education
H1: There is correlation between the gender and awareness level of cloud computing in education.
The test results showed that 32.12% of the male students and 41.84% female students are not aware
about cloud computing in education. Whereas the remaining 67.87% of male and 58.15% of female
students are aware of how cloud computing in education works. By this we can conclude that the
majority that is 62.12% of students are aware about how cloud computing is used for the purpose of
learning.
According to spearman's correlation we found that the significant value is 0.048 i.e. less than 0.05
hence the conclusion can be made that there exists correlation between gender and awareness about
cloud computing in education.
Correlation Between Students Education Level And Awareness About Cloud Computing
H0: There is no correlation between the students education level and awareness level of cloud
computing in education
H1: There is correlation between the students education level and awareness level of cloud
computing in education.
The test results showed that 39.22% of undergraduates and 36.61% of post graduates are not aware
about how cloud computing is used in education for the purpose of learning whereas 60.78% of
undergraduates, 63.38% of post graduates, 77.77% of the PhD scholars are aware and willing to
accept the concept of cloud computing in their learning. Hence higher the education status better the
willingness to accept cloud computing in learning.
According to spearmans correlation the significant value is 0.048 i.e. less than 0.05 hence the
conclusion can be made that there exists correlation between educational status of students and
awareness level to accept cloud in their learning.
Objective 2: Students perception about the benefits and challenges of using cloud computing in
education
BENEFITS- N=404
FACTORS
Cronbach
alpha value
ROTATED
COMPONENT MATRIX
COMPONENT
1
2
3
Assurance and
Protection
0.919
Storage
0.83
No deletion of data
0.73
Cost effective
0.69
Easy access
0.63
No more outdated material
0.62
Economical and
flexible
0.931
No need of expensive
hardware
0.81
No need of expensive
software
0.81
No need of carrying around
devices
0.75
Safety
-
Data security
0.91
UtkalHistoricalResearchJournal, ISSN : 0976-2132 Vol.-34(XII), 90
Table 2: Benefits factor analysis
CHALLENGES N=404
FACTORS
Cronbach alpha
value
ROTATED COMPONENT
MATRIX
COMPONENT
1
2
3
Extensive
work
0.893
Comfortable with the
platform
0.89
Accessible anytime from any
device
0.89
Simultaneously work with
colleagues
0.89
Convenient compared to pen
drives
0.83
No limit in saving
0.67
Vulnerable
0.819
Reliability
0.83
Privacy and security
0.78
Long-term viability
0.77
Lack of perquisites
0.67
Complexity
0.75
Safe
Keeping
0.855
Safe and security
0.78
No risk and security problems
0.76
Table 3: Challenges factor analysis
Table 2 & 3 depicts the collection of the various benefits of cloud computing in education as
well as the challenges faced in cloud education. Through the factor analysis we found that nine
factors were categorized into three main factors based on their alpha value. The final benefit safety
had only one factor loading that is data security and hence can be removed. The reliability test was
also conducted to find the Cronbach value and as per the text, any value above 0.7 shows that the
data is reliable and valid. Therefore, the reliability test for the three factors we arrived after factor
analysis all showed that were reliable and valid data.
The questionnaire also required the respondents to rate the varied challenges and the challenges
finally resulted in twelve statements. With the help of SPSS software, a factor analysis test was run
and three main factors were derived and the twelve initial factors were loaded into the three main
factors. Data reliability test was run and all the data shows the reliability of greater than 0.7, which
tells that the data is reliable, valid and good to go.
Objective 3: Did Covid 19 have any impact on the need of cloud computing in education?
UtkalHistoricalResearchJournal, ISSN : 0976-2132 Vol.-34(XII), 91
Cloud in education pre and post Covid- Call for aid
Figu
re 2:
Use
of
clou
d in
learn
ing
durin
g
Covi
d 19
T
here
is no sector that has not been affected by the pandemic and the education sector is one of the main
sectors that has seen a tremendous change since the pandemic. And from figure 3 it's clearly shown
that a major number of students agree that cloud has increased dramatically after the covid-19
pandemic. Without being physically present in school, they were left with no option but to go online,
and with going online, cloud is automatically integrated.
But again, this doesnt mean its a smooth transition, there are challenges ("Cloud Computing
Growth in
the
Education
Market",
2020)
Figure 3: Awareness of cloud-based apps pre Covid 19
From the pie chart above, it's seen how the majority of the respondents i.e., 84% of the
people were aware of cloud computing before the pandemic, but the pandemic situation increased its
usage post the pandemic. Prior to covid cloud and online learning was an option but amidst covid
and post covid it became a necessity (Choudary, 2020).
Figure 4: New cloud apps from the pandemic
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From the figure above it is seen the apps that emerged after the pandemic were zoom, google meet,
Microsoft teams, cisco WebEx, Coursera, etc. All these applications existed well before the covid-19
pandemic but students became well aware of them after the pandemic as online classes were
conducted through these platforms. According to (Iqbal, 2020) zoom increased in usage of about
67% from January to march. Zoom is being used at about 90,000 schools in over 20 countries across
the globe in the covid-19 outbreak. Microsoft teams in the education field have over 175 countries as
their tenants. The pandemic their growth has become massive, an increase of 379% (Kent, 2021).
Figure 5: if cloud apps has made learning easier in the pandemic
From the figure above, it clearly stated how the majority of the respondents agree that cloud
apps have made learning more easy and convenient. Close to 66% of the respondents have agreed
that cloud apps are helping them grow and stay connected. Online learning definitely has its
shortcomings and can never replace face-to-face learning and teaching. But with the help of
innovation and technology apps have made our learning and teaching life easier. Applications like
Zoom, Microsoft teams, WebEx and others have shown that education will carry on and will not
resume. These apps can help with collaboration, interaction, one place-cloud and so on (Tholfson,
2020). These make the life of students and teachers easier and more tech-driven.
Educational challenges solved by Cloud
With the pandemic of covid-19, that got the entire world shaking ,it had also given some
really good takeaways mainly to the educational sector. Educational institutions have started
adopting and using cloud technology as they have all accepted the new learning and teaching. The
new learning environment has adopted various innovative technologies and are keeping up with the
latest tools. The research conducted here has shown how tremendous the cloud technology is and the
various benefits it provides(Perry, 2018).The cloud system and its ability to meet the demand and to
make it the best fit to solve any kind of challenge faced by the education institutions is the biggest
thing we need today in the field of education. (Claral Mary.T & Leena Rose.P.J, 2019)
Limitations and Scope for future research
This study enhanced the bringing a conclusive outlook of cloud in higher education and gave
other insights on how beneficial cloud in education can be. The study lacked a few aspects, one
being limited access to data with respect to sample size. The opinion of all the stakeholders of the
educational sector were not covered under the study however for further research other stakeholders
can be considered. Another limitation would be the technical aspects of how cloud works have not
been covered. With respect to Data collection, it can be collected across the nation from various
educational institutions for the implementation of cloud in effective learning.
Discussion and Conclusion
The economic growth of any country is usually maintained and enhanced by education in
terms of quality and level. Cloud computing is an exciting development in today's education system.
It offers students and the educational institutions access to different applications and resources at
UtkalHistoricalResearchJournal, ISSN : 0976-2132 Vol.-34(XII), 93
minimal costs. The flexible aspect of cloud computing relieves students from high maintenance on
storing data, eliminating the factor of deletion of data, makes it more convenient to learn from
anywhere.
In this research an open ended question was raised about the current scenario on how to activate the
role of cloud computing in higher education. It was found that out of (N=404) only (N=110)
respondents have given their valuable suggestions. Further during the data cleaning process, few
respondents have not provided the apt solution and hence only those which were meaningful were
considered for the study . Most respondents suggested that access to high speed internet should be
provided to the students and the higher education institutions. Safety and security measures must be
taken with the data that is being used by the students.
Cloud must be implemented and encouraged in the educational sector for better learning and
technology driven education. Conducting workshops on how the cloud can be effective in learning
and reaching out to maximum institutions especially in the remote areas, this will blend the
education and technology in the best way possible. Through the results obtained in this survey, it
was found that students are willing to use Cloud technology in learning due to the various benefits it
offers. Modern education is changing as is an education in the classroom due to the advent of
technology. Students expect and require more services from their institutions. The future success of a
country depends on the development of the education given to its students. Cloud computing creates
a universal platform with simplified scalability. Therefore, it will be vital for students and
educational institutions who have not adopted cloud for the purpose of learning to shift to the cloud,
to experience better and convenient avenue to information and technological services, espec ially the
benefits and abilities, such as access to complex applications, minimal costs of cloud data storage,
scalability and flexibility of an e-learning platform that is cloud computing enabled.
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... Nowadays, many institutions, policy makers and administrators in the educational field want to adopt and integrate cloud based technology to support lifelong learning (Alajmi et al., 2018). Madhumitha et al. (2021) has reviewed various cloud systems used by schools and educational institutions to communicate and interact with students and educators. This is mainly due to the fact that cloud based computing systems are cost effective, easy to use and reliable. ...
... Through different cloud features, anyone can access data anytime and from anywhere across the globe using any other digital device such as a mobile phone. There are diversified systems and applications that allow schools, universities and other educational institutions to connect with students, educators and administrators (Madhumitha et al., 2021). So as ...
... to promote e-Learning as a modern educational model, it is very important to integrate cloud services within teaching and learning. Alajmi et al. (2018) and Madhumitha et al. (2021) stress on the need for efficient cloud systems and professional training be given prior to using cloud based technologies in e-Learning. Hence, there is (2019) and Alhelou et al. (2021), cloud platforms also allow multiple users to connect over different data sources at the same time and such platforms are user-friendly and just require a basic knowledge of ICT. ...
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