CLOUD COMPUTING IN EDUCATION

Table of Contents

Content Page

1.0 Abstract 3

2.0 Introduction 3

3.0 Cloud Computing Benefits in Education 5

Sector
4.0 Cloud Computing Challenges in Education 7
Sector
5.0 Data Protection and Security Solutions for 9
Education Sector
6.0 Conclusion 11

7.0 Reference 12

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Abstract

Cloud computing technology has becoming the hotspot in the IT world. The use of cloud
computing in education sector is rapidly expanding and becoming a more fundamental part of
the sophomoric experience. This expansion of the use of cloud applications comes with some
significant learning and espousal challenges to the end users along with the technical benefits
that allow greater accessibility and ease of use. Software as a Service (Saas), Platform as a
Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) are the three key models through which
cloud computing services are delivered to end-users. Even with its fast gaining popularity,
there are still a debate on cloud computing in education sector. In here I'll reveal and identify
the enabling factors as well as the limitations being faced as regards the adoption of cloud
computing in education sector.

Introduction

Cloud computing has been described as a new development in the field of information
technology. In 2009, National Institute of Standards and Technologies (NIST) developed an
official and formal definition of cloud computing which attained worldwide acceptance
within industries. Cloud computing is a model for enabling 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 efforts or service provider interaction. This cloud morel promotes
availability and is composed of five essential characteristics, three service models, and three
deployment models. Its also known as an emerging technology with a rapid growth in IT
industry by taking advantages of various concepts and sub-technologies such as
virtualization, processing power, storage, sharing, distributed networks and connectivity. This
is a result of the evolution and adoption of existing technologies and paradigms. It implies a
service-oriented architecture, reduced information technology overhead for the end-user,
great flexibility, reduced total cost of ownership, on-demand services, and many other things.
Virtual machine services offered by cloud utility providers led to the inception of the
ecosystem of cloud services as they enable customers to use computing resources based on
the effectual behavior of the application and computer resource used.

The main objective of cloud computing is to allow users to take advantage from all of these
3
technologies, without the need for profound knowledge or expertise in IT. Besides that, one

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of cloud computing target is to cut costs and helps users focus on their core business without
having to worry being impeding by IT blockade. Not only, cloud computing provides many
features such as data ubiquity and flexibility. At the same time, it also provides more options
to users because of the data storage and processing are primarily managed by the cloud
computing vendors. By saying so, with the power of cloud computing, todays higher
education can gain significant agility and have a cost-effective infrastructure which can bring
a revolution in the field of education.

Cloud computing offers educational institution the opportunity to concentrate more on

teaching and research activities rather than on complex IT implementation. The evolution of
cloud computing have encouraged number of educational institution migrated from
traditional system to online form. Furthermore, cloud computing providers also offer higher
educational institutions to substitute their data and information in "the cloud" for universities
with existing data centers, servers and application replacing these traditional campus
machines. What's more cloud computing is a network of computing resources located
anywhere which can be shared whether the user uses on-campus, off-campus or combination
of both depending on the institutions needs. In addition, cloud computing allows users to
experience greater degree of collaboration, communication and sharing of resources, and
creates a personalized learning environment or virtual communities of learning and teaching.

Despites with many advantages that can be contributed towards education sector in a country
by implementing cloud computing, there are also some limitations arising from the fact that
all data and applications are located somewhere on the Internet. This paper, will focus on
cloud computing benefits and challenges in education sector. Not only that, through this work
I will discuss and analyze and provide solutions to overcome on security and data protection
issue that being one of the biggest drawback in migrating to cloud.

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Cloud Computing Benefits in Education Sector

Today's cloud computing offers many benefits that beneficial for users in education field to
leverage and taking advantage on the new IT technology at an affordable cost. Its
undoubtedly continue to play an important role in education field in the modern world.
Following are the benefits:

Preparing teaching material for lecture

With the advancement of private and educational cloud, web in educational

applications such as LectureTools, Slideshare, Google Classroom and etc., allows the
lecturer to get their work done in their web browsers rather than storing and carrying
it in the hard drive. For example;

a) they can easily access the files from anywhere without to worry whether or not
they carry their hard drive with them,
b) additional software licenses will not become an issue to be worried about,
c) users can share their data easily because everything is store in cloud, and
d) things can be done smoothly without users need to face any software hassles.

Accessible for infrastructure and content (24/7 hours)

Academicians, students, researchers and other cloud users in the education institutions
can access the cloud from any place at any time and at the same time continue doing
their work without worrying to lose any data. This will assist them in completing their
tasks and meeting the deadline. For instant, student can do their assignments at home,
cafe, library and wherever they are as long as they have internet access. Besides that it
also enables the cloud users ease of access to the latest applications and online
resources as well as the ability to interact with others around the world in real time.
Moreover this can add to the availability of data for analysis and expand the
knowledge with less time, efforts and most importantly efficiently and effectively
when needed before through physical learning to locate the required data since all
process are automated and data are accessed online.

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 Cost reduction

Education sector can enjoy cloud computing without having to splurge their fortune
buying expensive machinery and equipment needed by the IT departments since the
services can be availed through the cloud technology. Additionally, they don't have to
purchase application and software licenses in order to get started. Furthermore, they
don't have to spend their money in maintenance and the money can be used or saved
for other important things.

Convenient

Hassle free. There will be no installation and upgrades of software and applications
needed from users end because everything will be handle by the service provider.
Besides that due to lots of competition among cloud computing service providers that
interested to venture into education sector, they endeavor to make their applications
and software easy to use and user friendly. Basically academicians, students and
researchers will prefer to have spend their time settling their work instead of having to
worry on IT complexity. Moreover, cloud computing applications will be beneficial
for those who wanted a quick access to their core materials and at the same time they
don't have to worry about backing up their material because everything will be shared
in cloud storage.

Dynamic scalability, improve collaboration and knowledge sharing

There will be no problem arises if the number of user increases or reduced.

Everything depending on the institutions requirements. Moreover with the number of
academicians, students and researchers using cloud in institutions, it will help in ideas
and knowledge sharing just at the click of a button. Everything is possible with the
help of SaaS as a platform in cloud computing. For example; with the help of
Microsoft Live@edu program that provides students, academicians, researchers and
other cloud users, primary email addresses and other applications that they can use to
collaborate and communicate online free of cost to education institutions because they
can easily get all the information in a community cloud. Besides that there are few
other services that available that can be used widely in education sector such as 6
Microsoft for Education that cater mainly to help students to gain time and learning in

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 an innovative way and at the same time helping teachers to develop their performance
and make it more dynamic, through the optimum exploitation of what can be
established by the technology in the field of education. This in a way will encourage
implementation in collaborative learning and from student point of view, they will
feel emotionally support by their lecturers and piers and saliently they will formulate
incentives to overcome laziness. Most important of all everyone will be keeping up-
to-date with latest issue happening in IT world.

Cloud Computing Challenges in Education Sector

Having endow with the golden sides of cloud computing and its potential for improving the
efficiency, cost and convenience for high institutions and educations sectors, but nothing is
blessed in every respect. Cloud computing has few limitation issues that been circulating and
have yet to be handled efficiently. There are;

Risk related to data protection, security and its integrity

There are some arguments on data protection and security in the cloud. One of it,
there is no guarantee that your sensitive data will only be stored on servers physically
located in your state and country. Besides that there are questions rises on data
security even when cloud platform vendors argue that their software is structured to
isolates all user data and setting information from each other. To be more specific,
there is a risk for your secret formula or research being stored on the same physical
server as data from your archenemy researchers. Because at the end of the day, there
is always the potential for human error. Furthermore, privacy is one of the most
important factors which have to be taken care before migrating to cloud computing.
Academicians, students, researchers and other cloud users need to be very cautious
before revealing their data and it should not lose the integrity of educational data.

Speed and lack of Internet connection can affect work methods

Even though cloud computing is an emerging technology but it's still in the initial
stage of research and implementation. In cloud computing, the applications and data
are stored in remote servers and the dependence of cloud on the internet is a drawback
as any problem with the internet would affect service availability. Due to that users 7

need to make sure their internet connection is fast, reliable and accessible anytime
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 they need to access cloud services. If not it will give adverse impact on the teaching
and learning in education sector.

Dissemination politics and intellectual property

Education sector has to follow all the rules and regulation of the state and country for
developing a cloud for education because some countries are very strict in cross
broader transfer of information. In fact, strict national data privacy could be a serious
barrier for cloud usage. For example, a database administrator can mistakenly
implement a security policy that affects all of the users of the service but actually
contravenes the policies or rules that some users need to abide by due to national or
sensitivity rules.

Lack of management/organization support

Regardless whether how good is the technology but if there is no or lack of support
from the management the migration from traditional to cloud computing technology
will be impossible. With a limited budget to accommodate the complexity of IT such
as upgrading the institutions existing systems or buying new servers, computing
resources, as well as hiring skilled IT management people, but still maintaining the
highest levels of security and privacy. However, not all management or organization
will agree on migrating to cloud computing from traditional system that use too for
many years. Their perception towards cloud computing still in a mist and unsure what
they can gain from it. Moreover with the issue on data security and privacy, it makes
the transition to cloud computing still became a debate in education sector.

Migrating to cloud

Since cloud computing is an emerging technology in IT world there will be no doubt

few problems will arises especially in cloud evolving software intensive systems.
Even with excellent integrated resources, solving lack of equipment and providing
unified maintenance work for universities, the data security is still a main concern in
migrating to cloud. Anything could happen while transferring data from terminal to
clouds. For example, virus or cyber attacks that could steal and destroying data during 8
the migration. When this happen the data that got destroyed, the loss will be

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 tremendously huge. Consequently, data confidentiality will be potentially become a
pitfall in cloud computing abetted teaching. Moreover, every single high institutions
have different network construction, undoubtedly there will be difficulties and
problems throughout the migration while integrating resources into cloud in the
existing network.

Data Protection and Security Solutions for Education Sector

Even with many limitations that preventing cloud computing taking over the whole education
sector just yet, but there are many solutions that can ensure the successful transition from
traditional system to cloud computing will be happening in the future. Leading cloud service
providers have recognized the importance of adjusting their computing services and cater
specifically to the needs of educational institutions. Baying saying so, there are many key
suggestions that can ensure the security and protection of sensitive data in the cloud. There
are;

De-identify of the data

De-identified data is refers to data from which all personally identifiable information
has been removed. This means it allow data to be used by others without the
possibility of individuals being identifies. Basically, it will protect the privacy of
individuals and especially in educational institutions. The main purpose for 'de-
identify' data is to protect the privacy or identity of the individuals linked with the
data. Besides that it will ensure that the spatial location of sensitive data or formula
are nor publicly available.

Firewalls

A firewall is a network security system, either hardware or software based, that helps
monitors and controls the incoming and outgoing network traffic based on
predetermined security. Basically it acts as a barrier between a trusted network and an
entrusted network. In other words it help to protect our computer from hackers who
might try to delete information, crash our computer or even steal our passwords or
credit card numbers. In a way, its only allowed traffic that classified and recognized
in the firewall policy and other traffic will be denied. 9

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 Encryption and decryption

Encryption is the translation of electronic data into another form, called ciphertext,
which cannot be easily implicit by anyone except authorized parties. The main
purpose of encryption is to protect the confidentiality of digital data stored on
computer systems or broadcasted via the Internet or other computer networks.
Modern encryption algorithms play an essential role in the security assurance of IT
systems and communications as they can provide not only privacy, but also the
following key components of security:

i. Authentication

ii. Integrity

iii. Non-repudiation

Decryption is the method of converting data that has been delivered unreadable
through encryption back to its unencrypted form. In decryption, the system extracts
and converts the distorted data and transforms it to texts and images that are easily
understandable not only by the reader but also by the system. Its either being achieved
manually or automatically or it may also be performed with a set of keys or
passwords.

Authorization identity management

Authorization is a process of verifying the rights and privileges of a person whether or

not to access a system and/or a combination of features within the system. The system
can use authorization to determine whether the person should have access to the
system even after he or she has been successfully authenticated to gain an access. Not
only that, authorization will also determine what level of access a person should be
granted. This will give full access control to the owner in this case is educational
institution for their confidential and sensitive data or formula.

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Conclusion

Cloud computing is an emerging computing paradigm that can become a vital role in
education sector in any state or country. It will provide tremendous value of information of
any size. The shift towards cloud computing would enable the educational institutions to
reduce operational cost and optimizing benefit of the new IT revolution. The cloud can
provide the essential computational facility on demand of the user without any extra expense
and at the same time creating a general platform for knowledge sharing among the cloud
community. This will definitely meet the gigantic demand for high speed processing of data
to ease the current 'information explosion'.

Despite of cloud computing limitations, there are many good aspects that we should keep in
mind that can help us overcome all the issues that keeping us from adopting this beneficial
technologies. Cloud computing can be considered as a new dawn to the education sector and
has the full potential to a make a 'revolution' in the field of education. It is our hope to see
academicians, students, researchers and other cloud users will be able to identify points of
leverage that can be used to improve the state of technology use by them and enable to meet
the educational experience and development of the rapid changes in technology especially in
using cloud applications.

In conclusion, cloud computing is the most beneficial technology that can bring new
evolution towards education sector and at the end of day its depends on the involvement,
support and acceptance from educational management or organization itself to embrace this
technology and see the great potential it will become.

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