Cloud Computing Adoption at Higher Education Institutions in Developing Countries: A Qualitative Investigation of Main Enablers and Barriers

Abstract

Abstract-The extensive use of cloud computing is changing the way of dealing with information and communication technology. Cloud computing has created a new concept to deal with software services and hardware infrastructure. Some benefits are immediate; for instance, to allow students to share their information easily and to discover new experiences of the education system. However, despite the comprehensive literature, there is still limited studies related to the applied factors that influence the adoption of cloud technology at higher education institutions. Such limitations in the literature arise clearly in developing countries. This paper attempts to enhance the understanding of related factors affecting the adoption of cloud computing in the educational context of developing nations. A fieldwork study for collecting data has been conducted at higher education institutions in the kingdom of Jordan. This study applied an interpretive paradigm with a qualitative research method to investigate the main enablers of and barriers to cloud computing adoption at the universities in developing countries in general and in the case of Jordan in particular.

A Multi-Analytical Approach to Predict the Determinants of Cloud Computing Adoption in Higher Education Institutions

“…Studies on CC in educational institutions in developing nations are scarce [12], especially in Malaysia [13,14]. The successful adoption of any novel technology such as CC does not depend only on universities and cloud service providers' support but also on users' willingness and intention to adopt and utilize these services [12,15,16]. Therefore, the adoption of any new technology depends on the innovativeness of the decision-makers.…”

Use of Cloud Technologies in the Process of Professional and Linguistic Training of Law Students for the Development of Academic Performance

“…The so-called "cloud" technologies attracted our attention among many modern information technologies; they are considered as innovative (Masud & Huang, 2012) and having huge potential in the educational field (Stevenson & Hedberg, 2011). Researchers emphasize the existence of a number of benefits of cloud technologies in their application for educational purposes, namely the ability to access educational materials and information resources anywhere anytime (Shi, Yang, Yang & Wu, 2014), fundamentally new ways of organizing research and/or project activity (Odeh et al, 2017), cost savings for software acquisition, no need for specialized premises, no advertising content, anti-virus and anti-hacker security, openness to the educational environment for teachers and students (Demir-Yildiz & Tatik, 2019;Pozdnyakov, 2012), the ability to perform many types of educational work, control and evaluation online (online lessons, webinars, integrated practical classes, "cooperative" laboratory work, trainings, round tables, etc.) (Blue & Tirotta, 2011).…”

“…The hypothesis of our study is based on the assumption that the use of cloud technologies in the process of professional and linguistic training will contribute to the formation and development of critical thinking style in future lawyers, because cloud technology allows creating such a learning environment where future professionals master and/or practice such skills as information, organizational, communicative and productive literacy (Odeh, Garcia-Perez & Warwick, 2017;Willingham, 2019). In order to confirm the hypothesis and conduct a pedagogical experiment, two training courses were selected from the special subjects of Specialty 081 "Law" Fundamentals of Administrative Law" and Civil Law and two training courses from the general subjects (English for Specific Purposes and Business English).…”

Developing a Cloud-Based Mobile Learning Adoption Model to Promote Sustainable Education

“…The general challenges that are faced in the adoption of cloud computing remain the same irrespective of the sector. The literature review shows that there have been researches to determine the major factors and challenges in the success of cloud computing [10,[30][31][32][33][34]. These factors may be listed as cost-reduction, flexibility, virtualness, availability, collaboration, scalability, efficiency, redundancy and reliability, data management, service management, governance, product-process control and monitoring, infrastructure, system reliability, information and visualization security, data security and concerns over data transmission across anticipated broadband speeds.…”