EXPLORATION OF INSTITUTIONAL CHALLENGES FOR ADOPTING CLOUD COMPUTING IN E-LEARNING SYSTEMS

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International Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology (IJCIET)
Volume 10, Issue 05, May 2019, pp. 249-255. Article ID: IJCIET_10_05_026
Available online at http://www.iaeme.com/ijciet/issues.asp?JType=IJCIET&VType=10&IType=05
ISSN Print: 0976-6308 and ISSN Online: 0976-6316
© IAEME Publication
EXPLORATION OF INSTITUTIONAL
CHALLENGES FOR ADOPTING CLOUD
COMPUTING IN E-LEARNING SYSTEMS
Abbas Hussien Ali, Shalau Farhad Hussien and Yalmaz Najmaldin Taher
ABSTRACT
Cloud computing is a new on-demand delivery of software and hardware resources
to consumers over the internet. It has been proposed as a preferred solution for future
systems of education. Furthermore, using cloud computing grows rapidly on various
applications in different education fields such as E-learning. It has become a critical
point on any institutional deploying, creating a remote educations system and designing
of the perfect web-based learning environment. Cloud computing is distinguished by
providing large storage resources with cost savings and faster data transfer.
Nowadays, data of several social networks (photos, music, videos etc.) are stored in
their own purchased cloud. As a consequence of using these applications, cloud
computing is indirectly used is our life. Therefore, cloud computing (or cloud
technology). In other words, the services that one can easily access these applications
in electronic devices is called cloud computing.
E-learning systems basically require many software and hardware resources to
implement education tasks effectively. Therefore, adopting available cloud-based
application can make the tasks more affordable. Cloud offers the opportunity to work
from anywhere and combines software, hardware and hosting services in a single
structure with a technology that collects solutions for organizations. To achieve this
goal, it facilitates the operation by enabling customers to reach the same data
simultaneously. This article, thus, investigates barriers to implement cloud e-learning
adoption in Iraqi education institutions.
Keywords: Cloud computing, E-learning, cloud technology
Cite this Article: Abbas Hussien Ali, Shalau Farhad Hussien and Yalmaz Najmaldin
Taher, Exploration of Institutional Challenges for Adopting Cloud Computing in E-
Learning Systems, International Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology, 10(5),
2019, pp. 249-255.
http://www.iaeme.com/IJCIET/issues.asp?JType=IJCIET&VType=10&IType=05
1. INTRODUCTION
Cloud computing is an emerging service delivery method in Information Technology (IT). It
enables the on-demand request of IT requirements including greater computation power and

Exploration of Institutional Challenges for Adopting Cloud Computing in E-Learning Systems
more software services. A cloud computing model means centralizing all software and data
hosted on a virtual server or a pool of virtual servers and accessing the servers through the
Internet. These operations can be performed without the need for any item of local hardware
equipment such as memory, processor power etc. Thus, it allows the use of light-weight client
computers in the end user side to access resources [2]. Cloud computing can provide many
benefits for organizations. The cloud releases them from installing IT infrastructure and enables
organizations to rent resources and pay for the services that they may need [1].
In some times, the user has only a device with a minimal operating system (OS) and a web
browser that enable to access the computing resources from anywhere via the internet
connection. Thus, in this case, cloud service can be more flexible. Additionally, the resources
may be allocated according to the organization’s requirements. For example, the needs of small
new organizations are differed from the old, established one; making them cloud computing
cost efficiency. For this purpose, many organizations prefer using cloud computing services
[6]. Nevertheless, from such selections, several issues arise such as the main challenges that
face in adopting cloud computing e-learning. Therefore, this study investigates on the
administration and technical obstacles to taking cloud computing in e-learning in the Iraqi
education system.
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. Necessary information on Cloud
computing is introduced in Section 2. Cloud E-learning features are presented in Section 3. The
most critical institutional challenges are discussed in Section 4. Finally, the conclusion of this
study is provided in Section 5.
2. CLOUD COMPUTING
In the literature, there are several ways to describe essential elements and implementation of
cloud computing. Therefore, the present section is dedicated to providing a brief introduction
to cloud computing in terms of technologies, service models and deployments.
2.1. Definition and Technologies
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) defined cloud computing as
follows [8]: It is a model that enables ubiquitous, convenient on-demand network access and
offers to share of computing resources (services, applications, storages, servers and networks)
that can be easily configured within service provider interaction or management effort [7]. It
is proposed in 2010 to be as the fifth generation of the IT world architectures. Table 1 1ists the
chronological architectures according to their development.
Architecture Development Era
Mainframes 1970
Client-Server 1980
Web 1990
Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) 2000
Cloud 2010
With the emergence of cloud computing, some developments appeared in hardware,
distributed computing and Internet services. More specifically, in hardware developments, the
world has seen designing virtualization and multi-core processor. Whereas, Web 2.0 services
and SOA were proposed as Internet technologies. Lastly, different distributed computing
systems were revealed such as clusters grids and systems management technologies. Figure 1
illustrates correlation technologies that can be safely developed and interacted in the existing
cloud computing models. In the same figure, one can see that several technologies have not

received enough interest in their development at start-up time. However, years later, more
attention has been paid by academia and industry companies to formalize their properties and
standardization procedure [2].
Figure 1 The NIST cloud computing definitions [2]
2.2. Service Models
Back to the definition NIST, Software Process Improvement (SPI) models in cloud computing
are classified as: Software as a Service, Platform as a Service and Infrastructure as a Service.
Here, we briefly introduce the main properties of each model as follows:
Software as a Service (SaaS): This model enables of using applications that can be run on
the provider infrastructure. The applications can be accessed from any device (anytime and
anywhere), for example, a web browser for accessing emails. It is worth mentioning that within
SaaS, there are limited possibilities to configure applications’ settings. Therefore, the user (the
user) does not have control over infrastructures such as operating system network, bandwidth
or storage space.
Platform as a Service (PaaS): In this model, the user has an ability to run applications
into the cloud infrastructure written by a programming language that can be supported by the
cloud service provider. Here, no authority can be applied by the user to configure the cloud
infrastructure such as network bandwidth, storage space or operating systems. Furthermore, for
the application-hosting environment, the customer is not able to control the underlying
applications and configuration settings.
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): Often provides the ability to using processing power
storage space network bandwidth and other substantial computing resources. The user has full
capabilities to manage and run the operating system and applications. Additionally, the user is
authorized to have control over the storage space, underline applications and operating system
[7].
2.3. Deployment Models
As shown in Figure 1, one of the key elements of cloud computing is implementing deployment
models which include Private, Public, community and hybrid cloud models. The models can
briefly be described as follows:
The Private cloud: It is the cloud computing infrastructure that is restricted to use by a
group of consumers or by an organization. Here, the cloud can be either owned and run by
them or managed by a third party. Furthermore, it can exist in or out of user’ places (building).

The Community cloud: In this model, the cloud computing infrastructure can be used by
a specific community of users or even organizations that have the same concerns such as tasks
requirements and policy. This model can be owned, operated and managed by one or more of
the community organizations or by a third party (combination of organizations). Similar to
Private cloud, Community model can exist in or out users’ places.
The Public Cloud: This model infrastructure is opened and can be used by everyone. It
can be owned, administrated and run by any company, academic institution or government
organization. This type of cloud exists in the cloud provider building.
The Hybrid cloud: It is a cloud computing infrastructure that collects two or more of cloud
deployment models (i.e. private public or community). In this type, the cloud can keep
component models as a separate unit, but connect them by a technology enabling data and
application portability [7].
3. CLOUD E-LEARNING:
Nowadays. IT systems can provide different interactive tools such as video conferencing and
television channels etc. These tools are used to create learning systems can provide education
services for any group of students on a 24/7 basis. In the literature, this type of learning is called
an e-learning system. These systems have possibilities to be updated with developing any new
ideas and tools to provide more professional education process [5]. However, it is worth
mentioning that e-learning systems cannot eliminate the role of the lecturer.
In the last decade, a new era of web technology started by developing tools such as blogs,
wikis and social networks. This web technology is known as web 2.0 and becomes like the
main technology of supporting content publishing. Using web 2.0, the users are capable of
publishing and sharing information as a new communication method making it as a new
learning environment. Consequently, a great opportunity of changing the nature of learning
and teaching, and providing interactive services among the participates (i.e. student and
teachers) [3]. Thereby, the main benefits of e-learning management system can be summarized
as follows:
Faster and flexible communication: Since it is empowered with web 2.0 applications, there
will be an improvement in the student-student and student-school interaction. In consequence,
all the students can instantly express their opportunities ideas without embarrassment [5].
Open Communication time: E-learning system is built for online use, which means
providing communication between student-student and student-teacher at any time outside of
the official working times on a 24/7 basis [6].
Easiness in communication: E-learning systems create a virtual environment that connects
users easily which motivate teamwork between learners to obtain productive discussions.
Accordingly, allowing people to achieve the nature of their work or business to enrol a
traditional teaching course [4].
Reliability: E-Learning contributes to reducing an administration load of the teacher by
providing tools that enable delivering lessons in electronic format documents. Furthermore, the
system can analyze the results, grades and tests, in consequence, reduces the workload at school
administration [8].
Modern interaction: E-learning system depends on modern information technology
presentation methods to ensure the quality and efficiency of the education process. Thereby,
providing the administration with observation tools to easily follow-up the educational process
[9].

4. INSTITUTIONAL CHALLENGES
In this section, we address six management and technical concerns for any intuition that may
face during cloud E-learning adopting as flow:
4.1. Education Management Rules
Moving from a traditional education system to the e-learning system based on cloud computing
will arise issues due to the system nature. So, when organizations implement cloud E-learning
system, they need to manage the regulation of teaching, learning and content management,
course exams, and students in the cloud environment. In consequence, new management
policies and regulation are critical for the adoption of this step [12].
4.2. Physical Location
Immigration to cloud computing will lead to outsourcing data to the cloud. In this case, the
physical location of data centers becomes an important element that can influence an
institutional deduction in adopting cloud computing. For example, there are no international
regulations, policies and standards for the outsourced data protection. Additionally, the cloud
providers will store the data in overseas countries without revealing their destinations to the
users [1].
It is worth mentioning that data location is one of the most common compliance concern
that faces the organizations. Implementing of in-house computing center enables the
organizations to construct their computing environment. Additionally, it allows them to know
precisely the places of storing the data and what safeguards can be used to protect it. On the
other hand, a specification of different cloud computing services is redundantly stored in
multiple physical locations. Besides, full details of information about the places of
organizations’ data are not disclosed or unavailable to the service end user [7].
4.3. Security
In the new information technology systems, physical security means the procedures that
implement to prevent reaching the information or the system by unauthorized access or any
other security events. Thereby, it is one of the critical issues for consumers that plan to
immigrate to the cloud [9]. As mentioned earlier, cloud computing in basically depends on the
data centers computing power, in consequence, passing the right argument through any device
(connected to the internet) to the service running at the data centers facilities and return results
fastly. Therefore, the security of information and applications become a significant concern
[6].
4.4. Bandwidth
Usually, Cloud E-learning is an education system that relies entirely on the bandwidth of the
internet services which means insufficient internet connection is a real obstacle to delivering
the education material to the students [11]. Therefore, to avoid losing data and consuming more
times, providing, a stable internet connection is essential for cloud E-learning [4].
4.5. Privacy
The privacy in e-learning based cloud systems refers to allowing authorized users to access
confidential data. Similar to traditional non-cloud services, however, vis the cloud, the data of
organizations is outsourced. In consequence, there will be a potential for mismanagement of
the data [7]. Additionally, using a cloud service, organizations have cannot fully control the
information stored on cloud-based servers [1].

4.6. Availability and Service Level Agreements
It is well known that in the nature of a cloud computing environment, the consumer has less
ability to control the services. In this point, the consumer requires to take precautions to prevent
losing important data (i.e. low-performance experience) [1]. Recently, the providers
experienced technical issues such as natural disasters security attacks and infrastructure failures
[13]. Therefore, as Service Level Agreements (SLAs), the user requires the service providers
to specify the levels of the services. Then, by definition, SLAs between the consumers and the
service providers is a crucial factor. More specifically, the users need to address the following
concerns: 1) how to measure the level of service; 2) report a violation; and 3) how to handling
them. By reviewing the Service Level Specification (SLS) (which is a part of the SLAs), one
can find that most of the main cloud service providers include the quality of service guarantees
in their SLAs. Finally, the providers of cloud services focus on the dependability of their
services availability by covering time durations (monthly or annually) such as the Amazon EC2
SLA system offers 99.99% annual service availability [10].
5. CONCLUSION
In this paper, we studied the most important administration (education management rules,
physical location and Security) and technical (bandwidth, privacy availability and SLAs)
challenges that will face any institutional organization that plans to adopt cloud service
providers. Finally, with this contribution, we tried to point out that, e-learning institutions based
on cloud computing infrastructure offer opportunities for Iraqi institutions to migrate from
high-cost information technology infrastructures to scalable and accessible cloud computing
solutions.
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EXPLORATION OF INSTITUTIONAL CHALLENGES FOR ADOPTING CLOUD COMPUTING IN E-LEARNING SYSTEMS

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