An Investigation of the Challenges Influencing Student's Use of Cloud Computing in Higher Education: Student's Perception

Abstract

The sudden emergence of Covid19 pandemic halted conventional classes and forced educational institutions to adopt the use of cloud computing as a solution for education continuity. Many challenges emerged from this accelerated change in education which affected both instructors and students that use cloud computing systems. Based on this, the study investigates the challenges that influence students use of cloud computing in higher educational institutes with a major focus on the context of the Covid19 pandemic. The research was centered around students’ opinion as they are some of the immediate users of cloud computing systems. A modified Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was used as a measurement model to find the impact Perceived Ease Of Access (PEOA) has on Perceived Usefulness (PU), Perceived Cost Of Usage (PCOU) has on Perceived Ease Of Use (PEOU) and Perceived Security Concerns (PSC) have on Perceived Ease Of Use (PEOU). A quantitative study was conducted in six universities and a total of 357 participants responded. The questionnaires were validated and then distributed completely online to ensure safety protocols. The findings of the study showed that only PSC and PEOA influenced student’s use of cloud computing and not PCOU. This means that security concerns and how difficult they find it to access the cloud platforms were the major challenges that influenced their use. Students may also not have incurred the actual cost of cloud computing applications since they were studying at home. The results are in line with other research in the literature and in addition to providing a Covid19 pandemic context. The outcomes of this study have a significant importance to online educators and cloud service providers who can use the findings to plan and adopt a cloud computing systems that will meet the needs of its users amidst pandemic.