E-Learning during COVID-19 Outbreak: Cloud Computing Adoption in Indian Public Universities

Abstract

In the COVID-19 pandemic situation, the need to adopt cloud computing (CC) applications by education institutions, in general, and higher education (HE) institutions, in particular, has especially increased to engage students in an online mode and remotely carrying out research. The adoption of CC across various sectors, including HE, has been picking momentum in the developing countries in the last few years. In the Indian context, the CC adaptation in the HE sector (HES) remains a less thoroughly explored sector, and no comprehensive study is reported in the literature. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to overcome this research vacuum and examine the factors that impact the CC adoption (CCA) by HE institutions (HEIs) in India. The scope of the study is limited to public universities (PUs) in India. There are, in total, 465 Indian PUs and among these 304 PUs, (i.e., 65% PUs) are surveyed using questionnaire-based research. The study has put forth a novel integrated technology adoption framework consisting of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE), and Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) in the context of the HES. This integrated TAM-TOE-DOI framework is utilized in the study to analyze eleven hypotheses concerning factors of CCA that have been tested using structural equation modelling (SEM) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The findings reveal that competitive advantage (CA), technology compatibility (TC), technology readiness (TR), senior leadership support, security concerns, government support, and vendor support are the significant contributing factors of CCA by Indian PUs. The study contends that whereas the rest of the factors positively affect the PUs' intention towards CCA, security concerns are a significant reason for the reluctance of these universities against adopting CC. The findings demonstrated the application of an integrated TAM-TOE-DOI framework to assess determining factors of CCA in Indian PUs. Further, the study has given useful insights into the successful CCA by Indian PUs, which will facilitate eLearning and remote working during COVID-19 or similar outbreak.

Determinants of Blockchain Technology Adoption in Supply Chains by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in India

“…us, technology adoption will lead to the diffusion of technology and, hence, its acceptance and use by the masses. e available literature shows [29] that various theoretical technology adoption models and theories like eory of Reasoned Action (TRA), Technology, Organization, and Environment (TOE) Framework, Innovation Diffusion eory (IDT)/Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) eory, Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), etc. have been used by the researchers to understand the factors affecting the technology adoption.…”

The application of industry 4.0 technologies in pandemic management: Literature review and case study

“…These services are not without their advantages and disadvantages, while cloud computing generally enhances their security and mobility. COVID-19 outbreak [62] , patient management [63] , [64] , monitoring systems [65] , [66] are considered in this section.…”

Diagnostic Instrument of the Level of Competencies in Cloud Computing for Teachers in Education 4.0

“…CC is also being widely required in the educational field and with great force due to the Covid-19 pandemic contingency, since it allows improving organizational efficiency [20], increasing collaborative work favoring not only learning, but also research, giving students access to knowledge efficiently and at a lower cost, being able to provide a wide range of benefits by offering academic resources, high-performance computing services, a large amount of storage, research applications and various tools for use in favor of learning [21], for this reason, several institutions are migrating from the classic e-learning platforms to the tools offered by CC, providing a more unified user experience [14], offering quality education even in remote or distant areas that have inadequate and inefficient infrastructure [22].…”