Cloud computing: A key enabler for higher education in Sultanate of Oman

Abstract

In Sultanate of Oman, higher education institutions have devoted significant human and fiscal investments in IT to support the priorities tied to teaching and learning. However, there are still issues in current high education systems associated with high cost and inefficiency in-terms of scalability, flexibility, availability, data recovery, accessibility and security due to the growing need for IT infrastructure including servers, storage and software. Higher education institutes have to spend more on hardware and software purchasing, maintenance, upgrading and licensing. Cloud computing emerged as an Internet based solution, whereby computing resources are provided to consumers and organizations as services on demand on pay per use bases. Cloud computing provides higher education information delivery, communication and collaboration. It enables the education organizations to scale their IT infrastructure while reducing the administrative burden. Cloud computing facilitates greater levels of provisioning and automation in cost effective manner. However, still there are some issues regarding to security, privacy and trust that acts as a barrier against full adoption of cloud computing in higher education. Throughout this paper we identify the cloud offerings, issues and strategy of implementation.

Ulasan Literatur: Faktor-Faktor yang Mempengaruhi Adopsi Mobile Cloud Computing pada Mahasiswa

“…Dengan penerapan cloud storage, institusi pendidikan tidak menghabiskan banyak biaya untuk pembelian perangkat keras dan perangkat lunak, perawatan, upgrade dan lisensi. [8] Terdapat hal yang menarik dari hasil literatur review terkait pengadopsian mobile cloud storage yaitu pertama, masih sedikitnya penelitian mengenai investigasi determinan dari adopsi layanan Mobile Cloud Computing pada sektor pendidikan [9]. Kedua, adanya keterbatasan bandwidth, computing dan penyimpanan pada mobile device yang berpengaruh pada layanan cloud storage [6].…”

The cloud computing systems’ adoption in the higher education sector in Oman in light of the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Although, the blended learning approach in higher education institutions in Oman was applied combining traditional classroom learning and online educational methods, that is still not adequate for periods of crises [4], which includes the case of COVID-19 pandemic. He argued that Cloud computing system is the right means to implement to advance and reform the educational activities to virtual online platform in similar circumstances.…”

Cloud Computing Adoption in Higher Education Institutions: A Systematic Review

“…These articles also offered scientific research (e-Science) [23], teaching and learning [28], knowledge-as-a-service [31], SaaS [26], and smart and intelligent classrooms [29]. Other kinds of articles offered an overview of CC in HEIs with numerous benefits, effects, challenges, or concerns [6], [20], [52]- [69] (20/70); and they were all classified as ''general'' articles. Despite the generality of some of these articles, they contained some specific elements, such as cloud-based e-learning systems [66], strategy and recommendations for effective adaption [64], CC infrastructure for universities [60], [62], or co-word analysis of CC in education [59].…”

“…As a result of the review and survey articles, specific specialty articles [23]- [51] (41.4%) are the largest searched category while the smallest one is the 'general' articles [6], [20], [52]- [69] (28.5%).…”