The use of Software as a Service by Students in Higher

Education Institutions
A Systematic Literature Review
Akinlolu Olumide Akande

Jean-Paul Van Belle

Department of Information Systems

University of Cape Town
Cape Town, South Africa
+27723135908
Akinlolu.Akande@uct.ac.za

Department of Information Systems

University of Cape Town
Cape Town, South Africa
+27216504256
Jean-Paul.Vanbelle@uct.ac.za

ABSTRACT
In this paper, we provide an overview of the concepts and
structure of cloud computing and then focus on Software as a
Service (SaaS) because it is the most common cloud computing
service model adopted by higher education institutions (HEIs)
[29]. SaaS is a service model of cloud computing that has the
potential to provide students with improved academic experience
by providing them with anytime anywhere access to learning,
communication and collaboration materials [28]. It has the
potential to turn around the delivery and support of educational
services [26]. In this paper, we review the literature on the use of
SaaS by students in HEIs. A total of ninety eight recent articles on
cloud computing/ SaaS in Higher Education were reviewed and
twenty six of the articles were found to be relevant to this paper.
This research used a systematic literature review by ensuring that
the search terms included all the concerned areas of using cloud
computing/ SaaS in HEIs. The contents of online electronic
databases including Google Scholar, Elsevier Science direct,
Springer Link and IEEE were searched for recent articles and a
content analysis of all the identified papers was conducted. The
aim was to identify the current state of students use of SaaS in
HEIs. To achieve this, the researchers conducted a systematic
review of the relevant papers. This paper also explains SaaS in
details and identified the benefits of SaaS as well as the perceived
obstacles to students use of SaaS in HEIs.

CCS Concepts
Networks ~ Cloud computing
Education

Applied computing ~

Keywords
Software as a Service; SaaS; students; higher education; higher
education institutions; academic environment; improve.

1. INTRODUCTION
The financial crisis, high cost of upgrading existing licensed
software, high cost of software licensing and the increase in the
number of students [26] [28] has led Higher education institutions
(HEIs) to look for cheaper alternatives to provide their students
with software and applications needed to create a conducive
academic environment [19].
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2971603.2971604

As a result, HEIs are increasingly adopting SaaS because it

provides mobility, scalability, interoperability, accessibility and
user satisfaction while using software and applications [17]. SaaS
creates the opportunity to improve educational services [26].
It is important to note that the use of SaaS does not automatically
translate to development of a conducive academic environment
but the activities performed with SaaS such as collaboration,
interaction, monitoring the progress of students, downloading as
well as uploading of academic materials etc. [21] will lead to an
improved academic environment and consequently improve the
performance of students.
For students to do well in their academic activities, effective
learning is important. Nowadays, information and communication
technologies (ICTs) are important tools that aid students effective
learning. Effective learning encourages reflection, allows
dialogue, promotes collaboration, applies the theory learned into
practice, creates a community of peers, allows creativity, and
motivates students [15]. SaaS has the potential to provide students
with all these features of effective learning and can therefore lead
to the creation of a conducive academic environment for students.
One of the most significant benefits of SaaS for students is the
improved access to software and applications since students can
now access software and applications via several devices
including their mobile phones. Students are now able to access,
share and synchronize learning materials that are stored in the
cloud at anytime from anywhere [6] [11] [15].
This research is intended to help HEIs understand the benefits and
limitations of SaaS and to provide them with knowledge on what
kind of SaaS offerings are available to assist students in their
everyday learning. This paper has the potential of motivating
students to be actively involved in the use of SaaS for academic
purposes. It also has the potential of encouraging HEIs to provide
students with resources needed to access SaaS. This paper has the
potential to change the way students in HEIs view SaaS as it sheds
light on the benefits of SaaS as well as its limitations. This will
assist students and HEIs in finding ways to maximize the benefits
and minimize the limitations to effectively use SaaS and create a
conducive learning environment.

2. CLOUD COMPUTING
Cloud Computing has found its way into HEIs and there is no
doubt that it is here to stay because of the positive impact it is
making in contributing to the improvement of academic
environments for students. Cloud Computing is provision of
computing resources like software, applications, hardware,
platforms and infrastructure to users on a pay as you go basis over

the internet [29]. There are four deployment models of cloud

computing. These are private cloud, public cloud, community
cloud and hybrid cloud.

GT Nexus, Marketo, Casengo, Trade Card, Rally Software, Sales

force and Callidus Cloud [23].

2.1 Private Cloud

A HEI refers to institutions of learning that offer education

beyond the secondary level [25]. This includes universities,
technikons, colleges, polytechnics etc. HEIs have connections
with government and business organizations [2] and play a vital
role in building the society [19]. In order to continuously
contribute towards the development of societies, HEIs have
consistently looked for ways to provide education to their students
at low costs. SaaS is one of the technologies currently being used
by HEIs to achieve these goals.

In a private cloud, a higher education institution (HEI) would own

the infrastructure and either manage it themselves or let a service
provider manage it for them. This kind of cloud deployment
model gives the HEI more control over their infrastructure and
data because the infrastructure is dedicated to them [29].

2.2 Public Cloud

In a public cloud, the infrastructure is made available by the
service provider to the general public and anyone who wishes to
make use of the infrastructure could contact the service provider
to subscribe. It could be an individual, organization, government,
HEI etc. The user has less control over the infrastructure and data
because the infrastructure is owned and managed by the service
provider [29].

2.3 Community Cloud

A community cloud on the other hand is a type of cloud in which
two or more organizations with the same goals have a shared
infrastructure. For example, all the HEIs in South Africa can
shared a dedicated infrastructure and it could be managed by the
HEIs for they can appoint a service provider to manage it for them
[29].

2.4 Hybrid Cloud

A hybrid cloud is a combination of two or more deployment
models. For example, a HEI may decide to use private cloud for
sensitive information like student details and records and use a
public cloud for less sensitive information like email
communications [29].

3. CLOUD COMPUTING SERVICE

MODELS
Cloud computing has three main service models which are
Software as Service (SaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and
Platform as a Service (PaaS). With SaaS, students would be able
to access software, applications and course materials from any
place at any time over any internet enables device including their
cell phones. IaaS will make computing resources such as storage,
processing and networks available to students over the internet.
PaaS will allow students to develop and deploy their own
applications giving them control over such applications [29].
Collaboration, storage of data, messaging, improvement of
processing power and library science repositories are among the
early uses of cloud computing in HEIs [13].
Among the different service models, SaaS is the most commonly
used model in HEIs [29]. As a result, the focus of this paper is on
SaaS and its usage by students in HEIs.

4. SOFTWARE AS A SERVICE
SaaS is a form of cloud service [3]. It is made up of systems that
can receive, process, and deliver software and applications over a
network. Examples include email systems, learning management
systems (LMS), customer relationship management (CRM)
systems and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems [4][8].
SaaS can provide students with software and applications for
writing documents, analyzing and collecting data, formatting and
organizing references, communication etc. [5]. Google docs,
dropbox and office 365 are popular SaaS offerings used by
students in HEIs [18]. Other SaaS offerings are Petrosoft, Onlive,

5. HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

5.1 Software as a Service in Higher Education

Institutions
Many HEIs have adopted SaaS because of its promises such as
cost reduction, scalability, flexibility, pay per use model,
accessibility etc. Software and applications available through
SaaS are being used by students in HEIs mainly for collaboration,
content delivery, communication and accessing learning materials
[13]. The economic advantages, speed, agility, flexibility as well
as infinite elasticity of SaaS which leads to improved educational
services [26] for students is one of the main reasons why HEIs are
increasingly adopting SaaS.

5.2 How students can benefit from Software

as a Service
SaaS makes it easy for students in HEIs to access software and
application from anywhere at any time without having to install
the software or applications on their computers. This will save
them time because the time needed for the installations and
maintenance of the software could be used for other academic
activities. Software such as Google docs, Drop box and YouTube
are available for free [14] [22] to students in HEIs to access study
materials such as lecture notes, video, articles, eBooks etc.
In cases where the software is not available for free, the pay as
you go pricing model of SaaS allows students to only pay for the
software whenever they use it. This assists the students in
maximizing the utilization of the software and saving on cost as
they only pay for what they use. Research has shown that SaaS
has the capability of helping the users save a lot on cost. The
University of Westminster in UK saved one million pounds in
purchase and maintenance costs by using Google docs and Google
apps (at no cost) for productivity and collaboration [4] [22].
Students can also save time needed for upgrades as the SaaS is
automatically upgraded by the service provider.
SaaS helps to improve the course delivery by making course
materials available to students and lecturers anytime, anywhere
[6] [11] [15]. It also ensures that students submit assignments on
time as it keeps records of the time the assignment was submitted
and allows the lecturer to identify late submissions and penalize
the students that did not submit at the stipulated time. Learning
management systems, library management systems and document
creation systems are other SaaS offerings that support learning
process [16]. SaaS allows students to easily share software and
other learning materials with students from their institutions as
well as students from other institutions. This improves
collaboration among students. Another very important benefit of
SaaS for students is backup and recovery. This is because the risk
of data loss is minimized should there be any problem with the
students device since the data is stored in the cloud [11] [12].

With SaaS, students are not restricted to be physically present in

the classroom for lectures. Institutions should avoid replacing face
to face interactions with the use of technologies [9]. They can
participate in live tutorials and discussion forums. They can also
download assignments and other course materials as well as view
their course grades at anytime from anywhere [23]. Figure 1 is
conceptual framework of the benefits of SaaS to students in
Higher Education (HE).
SaaS also facilitates the creation of personal learning environment
for students [2]. SaaS improves the accessibility of education to
students. Students can access, edit and share learning materials
through various devices such as computers, ipads, laptops or their
cell phones [10]. The quality of teaching and learning in academic
environments is also improved through the use of SaaS [2]. Figure
1 is a conceptual framework of the benefits of SaaS to students in
HEIs.
Can be accessed
via any internet
enabled
device
including
cell
phones

Students
can
submit
their
assignments and
check
their
grades

Students have 24
hours access to
software,
applications and
other
study
materials

Faster
provisioning
software
applications

Backup
recovery

can

advanced
research

Students
can
access
applications
from anywhere

Communication
is
improved
among students

Software free or
pay per use

No
installations
needed so students
can save time
needed
for
installations

Students
engage in

Benefits of Software as
Service to students in
Higher Education

No
upgrades
needed
as
upgrade
is
automatically
done
by
the
service provider

No
software
maintenance
needed as it is
done
by
the
service provider

of
and

SaaS. The free SaaS offerings also present students with

unsolicited advertising which can be a source of distraction for
students. As with other cloud computing offerings, security and
privacy issues such as loss of control over data, interruption to
services, and infringement of personal privacy are possible
obstacles to the use of SaaS [16] [20] [27] [28].
The availability of lectures in the form of video via SaaS is
believed to affect students attendance in class as students are
expected to avoid classes because they can watch the video at a
later stage via SaaS. Contrary to that believe is a surprising
finding by [9] who found that the availability of class videos does
not affect students attendance in lectures. Another perceived
obstacle that students may face is that some applications may not
run on the cloud. Managing of accounts could also be a problem
for students. For example, if a student loose his or her access
details like password, other students may have access to the
students account and may copy things like answers to assignments
which may lead to plagiarism. Students will also have limited
control over data as the data will be controlled by the service
provider. If the students feel uncomfortable with SaaS because of
lack of confidence, it may affect their ability to use SaaS
effectively. There may be possible interruption to cloud services
for several reasons such as problem with internet services, poor
bandwidth, upgrade interruption etc. This may affect students
negatively as they might have a deadline to submit an assignment.
There is also a possibility of infringement of personal privacy.
Another possible obstacle is that students may be unwilling to
learn new skills needed to effectively use SaaS. This would mean
that they are not able to use SaaS effectively to achieve their
academic goals. Figure 2 is a conceptual framework of the
Limitations of SaaS to students in HEIs.
Some
applications may
not run in the
cloud

Account management risks

Reliance
internet

Infringement
of personal
privacy

Assists students
in
learning
management

and

Data
protection
and security
risks

Unsolicited
advertising
Limitations of Software as
a Service to students in
Higher Education

Loss
of
control over
data
Students
can
participate in live
tutorials
and
discussion forums

Students can easily

share
study
materials
among
themselves and this
improves
collaboration

Students
may
lack
confidence
in Software
as a Service

Students
are
exposed to new
technologies
Students
may
be
unwilling to learn new
skills required by SaaS

Figure 1: Conceptual framework of the benefits of SaaS to students in

Higher Education

5.3 Perceived obstacles to students use of

Software as a Service
Students need to have internet connection in order to access SaaS.
The cost of internet connection could therefore be one of the
obstacles students would face to access a software or an
application via SaaS. Poor connection speed and bandwidth may
also affect students ability to access software and applications via

on

Possible interruption
to services
Poor
Bandwidth

Student
may
miss
classes
intentionally because of available
class videos

Figure 2: Conceptual framework of the Limitations of SaaS to students

in Higher Education

6. THE MOST COMMONLY USED

SOFTWARE AS A SERVICE OFFERING
BY STUDENTS IN HEIs
The most commonly used SaaS offering by students in HEIs is
Gmail which is used for communication [16]. This may be as a
result of the security and privacy issues with SaaS.

7. STUDENTS INVOLVEMENT THEORY

HEIs are beginning to realize the importance of students
involvement in all the activities on campus. As a result there is a
focus on how students can be fully involved and contribute to the
advancement and wellbeing of their institution [1].
Involvement is the amount of energy both physical and
psychological that a student spends on achieving academic
excellence [24]. Students need to be actively involved in their
surroundings to be able to learn and grow [7]. A student who is
highly involved is a student that spends considerable amount of
time on campus interacting with fellow students and faculty
members, is an active member of student organizations, and
spends time and energy on his or her studies [24]. The theory of
student involvement suggests that educators should focus more on
what the students do rather than on what the educators do as the
level of students motivation and the amount of time and energy
the student spends on the process of learning plays an important
role in the learning outcome [24].
SaaS plays a vital role in improving students involvement. With
SaaS, students are able to interact with one another using their cell
phones and other internet enabled devices such as ipads, laptops
and PDAs. Students are also able to share information that
contributes to the improvement of academic environments.
Interaction with faculty members is also improved through the use
of SaaS.
SaaS also improves students participation in student
organizations and students are able to participate in activities like
campaigning, voting, making suggestions, sharing information
and knowledge which contributes to effective student governance
and improved academic environment. Students also use SaaS for
social activities such as networking and events organizing. SaaS
therefore offers students the opportunity of enjoying a balanced
life on campus. This gives students a feeling of self-belonging and
gives them a positive experience and academic engagement,
intellectual achievement, motivation and good health [1].
Apart from being able to communicate effectively with fellow
students, faculty members and participating in student
organizations, SaaS also supports students in their studies.
Students are able to manage their time effectively using SaaS
applications. They are also able to view and submit their
assignments and other study materials. They are also able to view
the course grades timeously using SaaS.
Because SaaS offers all the avenues for students to be highly
involved on campus both academically and socially, we suggest
that HEIs should come up with ways such as organizing training
for students on how to effectively use SaaS so as to motivate
students and increase their confidence in SaaS. This will also
encourage them to use SaaS for activities that will contribute
towards making the academic environment more conducive for
learning and in turn lead to increased academic performance of
students. HEIs should also assess whether the students are
effectively using SaaS from time to time in order to ensure that
SaaS is being put to effective use because all of the benefits of

SaaS would not be realized if the students are not making use of it
effectively.

8. EFFECTS OF SOFTWARE AS A
SERVICE ON STUDENTS LEARNING
PERFORMANCE, COMMUNICATION,
COOPERATION AND SUSTAINABILITY
OF HIGHER EDUCATION
SaaS has the potential to influence student learning performance
positively. The anytime anywhere access to SaaS via any internet
enabled device can encourage students to develop a culture of
anytime anywhere learning which can positively affect their
learning performance. The fact that there is no need for
installation, upgrade and maintenance by students also mean that
students can spend more time on important academic activities.
This can also improve their learning performance significantly.
Communication and collaborations among students and faculties
would also be improved as materials can easily be shared from
anywhere at any time. This will also improve students learning
performance. Although SaaS has the potential to provide students
with several benefits and improve their learning performance,
students should bear in mind that SaaS also have limitations
which can affect their learning performance negatively. To avoid
negative impacts of SaaS on students learning performance and to
maximize the benefits of SaaS, it is important for students to find
ways to minimize the limitations. For example, poor bandwidth
and reliance on the internet could affect students learning
performance as access to SaaS would be disrupted by poor
bandwidth and poor internet access. This would also affect
communication and cooperation among students and faculties as
internet access and good bandwidth are essential for
communication and cooperation among students and faculties. In
this open education era, uninterrupted internet access and good
bandwidth are also important for the sustainability of higher
education as they contribute to improved access to educational
materials. They also help to improve communication and
collaborations among students and faculties of HEIs.
Unsolicited advertising may also affect students learning
performance as they may be tempted to spend time looking at the
contents of the advertisement and this may lead to loss of valuable
time needed to do academic work. Students may also miss classes
intentionally due to the availability of class videos through SaaS.
This may also have a negative effect on learning performance
because students who are not present in class may not have the
opportunity to ask important questions on the topic that was
thought in class as the class video is not live.
Data protection and security issue is another factor that may affect
students learning performance as there could be infringement of
personal privacy leading to unwanted access of another party to
the students personal data. This research found that some
students do not have confidence in SaaS due to the fear of losing
personal data to unwanted person. Some students are also
unwilling to use SaaS because of their lack of confidence with
ICTs due to lack of prior experience with ICTs.

9. CONCLUSION AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
This research found that SaaS is common amongst HEIs. The
researchers also found that students are willing to use SaaS but the
effective use of SaaS is affected by students background and
prior experience with technologies. Students who had access to

computers, internet, mobile phones and other ICTs were more

confident using SaaS and are able to complete their tasks faster
and more efficiently those students who did not have prior access
to ICTs and only had access at the university level. This review
also showed that students who use SaaS effectively perform well
in their academic activities and are among the top students in the
departments. The students that use SaaS effectively also
developed confidence and are able to participate in group
discussions both in the class room and online.
SaaS has found its way into HEIs and there is no doubt that it is
here to stay. SaaS plays an important role in improving students
access to learning materials. It also contributes to the creation of a
conducive academic environment for students. HEIs should
increase their adoption and implementation of SaaS so as to create
a conducive learning environment for students. There are many
benefits that students can derive from their use of SaaS. These
include improved access to software, applications, educational
materials, exposure to new technologies, backup and recovery etc.
Although there are so many benefits that students in HEIs can
derive from the use of SaaS, students need to be aware that there
are also limitations associated with the use of SaaS. Some of these
limitations include reliance on the internet, possible interruption
to service, security and privacy issues, new skills requirements
etc. In order to ensure that students use SaaS effectively, internet
should be available at all times both at home and on campus.
Students should also be trained on the new skills required to use
SaaS effectively so as to increase their confidence in SaaS.
Students also need to safeguard their access details to prevent
unwanted access to their data. Students should also avoid being
distracted by unsolicited advertisements when using SaaS as this
may take a lot of their time and prevent them from doing their
academic work. If students are trained on how to effectively use
SaaS and they follow the recommendations in this paper, they
would enjoy the benefits of SaaS and enjoy a conducive academic
environment.

10. FUTURE WORK

There is a need to build on the foundation laid by this paper. The
researchers would like to identify a set of guidelines that would
assist students in HEIs in their use of SaaS to ensure that they use
it effectively. It would also be necessary to develop a framework
that HEIs can use in their SaaS adoption and implementation so as
to be able to identify the right SaaS offering that would contribute
to the development of a conducive academic environment for
students. Furthermore, there is a need to extend this research to
other cloud computing service offerings such as Infrastructure as a
Service and Platform as a Service as they are also becoming
popular among HEIs.

11. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors would like to thank God for the grace to complete this
paper. This work is supported by the National Research
Foundation of South Africa (NRF). We would also like to thank
Chief Samuel Oladapo Akande, Mrs Florence Ajoke Akande and
Nozuko Aurelia April for their advice and support.

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