A Proposed Model for Education System Using

Cloud Computing

Engr. Ali Ahmed Huma Ali Ahmed

Computer Engineering Department Department of Computer Science
Bahria University, Karachi Campus Newports Institute of Communications & Economics
Karachi, Pakistan Karachi, Pakistan
[email protected] [email protected]

Abstract—Education is a need of everyone these days for Cloud computing provides reliable and scalable resources
economical growth. It plays a major role to build up a good and become more popular throughout the world by offering
society for future. For quality education, technology plays a vital several computing tracks for their resources. Mostly the
role. These days everyone try to get the benefits of technology in biggest organizations related to IT maintaining their
every field of life so as the teachers and students who have
management systems with the help of cloud computing.
become strongly attached with the technology through their
devices gadgets etc. Currently cloud computing is the most II. CLOUD COMPUTING
dynamic and reliable resource for information sharing as it
works in many areas like healthcare, business, communication Cloud computing is the biggest platform of services which
and many more. It also takes place in academia as it provides provides hosted services over the Internet. It provides on
better on demand services and many other huge and reliable demand services and it may be public, private or hybrid. It is
benefits. Many service providers provide different cloud based very easy to access the mobile devices and computers with the
applications so that the users can easily work on those cloud environment. It works with large scale computing paths
applications as per their requirements. Teachers and students
to provide better services for users [2]. Cloud computing is
can both work for academia with the help of cloud computing for
the challenges they faced in teaching or learning. In this research widely used in education due to its huge advantages. Free or
paper, we are going to propose a model with the help of cloud less costly cloud based services used on daily basis for support
computing for the teachers and students so that the teachers can of learning system, content creation, research discussions and
share the course materials over the cloud and students can get social interaction which is the most important part these days
the updates regarding their examinations, assignments and many in our daily lives. Some examples of cloud based services are
things by the help of this model. Also parents/guardians can YouTube, Twitter, Google Apps and last but not the least
check the study material, attendance record etc. of their children Drop box.
with the help of this model. So this research paper provides an The basic cloud computing services are stated below:
idea about how cloud computing can be used in the education
system to improve the challenges in teaching infrastructure. • Software as a service (SAAS) which delivers software
that provides remote accessibility for consumers over
Keywords—Education, Cloud computing, Technologies, the Internet
Institutions • Platform as a service (PAAS) which delivers the
computing tracks, mostly includes programming
I. INTRODUCTION languages, codes, operating systems, databases and
web services
Now a day’s educational institutions and universities are
mostly focusing on the novel teaching techniques tools by • Infrastructure as a service (IAAS) that is the most
using their own management models. The development of efficient and basic service model in cloud computing
education process is much faster and growing with the which provides physical and the virtual resources
upcoming technologies especially for education systems. The • Network as a service (NAAS) which is a categorized
existing technological systems do not use education as a key based service; it is able to provide the cloud service to
factor instead they target the advantages which can help the users to use the actual network transport data
teachers and students for education management models. connectivity service
Education is compulsory for everyone so we have to make it Cloud computing is also known as distributed computing.
easier with the help of upcoming technologies [1]. In this By sharing the administration of the educational system in the
research paper, we are going to discuss how cloud computing cloud, education collaboration would be able to concentrate
works in an innovative environment for smart education more on offering distinctive administrations to the
system and how we get things faster in the cloud computing understudies, personnel and the staff by providing a great
environment for academia. support so that they can progress in their field. To fill out the
huge gap exists between the education and the technology,

978-1-5386-8249-4/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE

institutions and universities embraces the idea of the Fig. 1 demonstrates the private cloud design for education
distributed computing. Throughout the years education system. Universities can construct their own private cloud by
process is consistently getting advanced, convenient and in using their available resources or else different colleges and
access for everybody along with the social improvement and universities can create a hybrid cloud called as educational
modernization. Review process for mode of teaching and cloud in which they can share the available resources with
learning is continuously in place for enhancement as well as to each other [5][6]. Private cloud makes utilization of the nearby
make them simple for the stakeholders. This brings to a point system while the educational cloud makes utilization of open
where the idea of e-learning evolved. Tackling of information system like public network to exploit the services available
and corresponding technology were being utilized the over the cloud. Both private and educational cloud which is
evolution of education [3]. Understudies could watch constructed for education has to indicate the services provided
instructional video; download learning materials or online by them.
correspondence with educators and different operations, which
B. Benefits of Cloud Computing for Faculty and Students
was something new in the conventional training scenario. In
the training process setup, understudies can learn whenever 1. Personalized Learning
they want, anyplace to get through the customary training of
the basic approach to attain knowledge, to better prepare Cloud computing manages open doors for more remarkable
understudies in the idea, featuring the individual student student preference in learning [7]. Utilizing an Internet-
learning. associated gadget, understudies can get to a wide range of
assets and software applications that suit their learning styles
A. Reason for Using Cloud in Education Environment and concerns.
Some of the advantages of using cloud in education system 2. Lessened Costs
are stated below:
Cloud based system provides costs reduction and faster
• Significant cost lessening
utilization of upcoming advancements to meet the educational
• Access to application from anyplace requirements [8].
• Support for training and learning
• Exposure of new technologies to the students 3. Accessibility
• Usage on individual devices By user perspective, availability of the utilities is the major
• Exposure to advance research and significant phase for utilizing the educational cloud. User
• Convenience in sharing of learning stuff demands 24/7 accessibility without any delay and latency issue
• Interaction becomes easier so that information can be accessed from anywhere whenever it
SAAS, PAAS and IAAS are the service models we mostly deemed necessary [8].
use in teaching and learning process. In our proposed model, 4. No Additional Infrastructure
we also use NAAS for monitoring the network transport over
Cloud computing makes colleges and universities to focus
the cloud so latency issues can be resolved over the cloud.
on their goals that can help them to provide more research
Teachers and students can interact easily by using the
opportunities for their students rather spending their time to
proposed model. The proposed model will be more secure as
worry about the infrastructure, manpower etc.
compared with the other models because we provide private
cloud for the management so it only allows authenticated 5. Convenience
users that will also help for the security of data. This facility is easy to use, straightforward and convenient
Previously, limited features were available for the education to work. Cloud computing provides user friendly environment
learning process so it was only limited for teachers and so the communication becomes faster [8][9].
students as shown in Fig. 1. In our proposed model, we added
features for the guardians so that they can also monitor the C. Cloud Computing Limitations
progress of their children [1][4]. Cloud computing provides a possibility for the improvement
of efficiency, cost and ease for the educational sector but it
Students Researchers Teachers
also have some limitations as well which are stated below
[10][11]:
1. Applications on Cloud
Private
Cloud At times due to downtime issue applications are not
Processors Infrastructure running properly over the cloud.
2. Risk of Data Protection
Software Data protection is the major concern while storing personal
Storage
information or data over the cloud. Unauthorized access or data
loss by service provider are the major associated risks.
Fig. 1. Existing Private Cloud for Education
 3. Organizational Support
Admission/Accounts and
Usually it is difficult to adopt such solutions because the Examination Departments
management of any organization do not agree easily to place
data over the cloud.
4. Politics Distribution, Intellectual Property Student
Record
The data stored on cloud rapidly copied on third party Cloud
interfaces and it is very difficult to monitor data over the cloud
Parents/Guardian Login
so service providers must concentrate on disclaimer clauses to
address this issue.
Student
5. Protection and Security of Data
Login
Cloud computing environment needs more protection for
the data to provide confidence to those people who are Class Updates/Lectures Updation of Exam
reluctant to place their data over the cloud. Attendance Record and Results and other Marks
Results
6. Development of Solutions
Development of solutions is not readily available to meet EDU Cloud
the requirements.
7. Lack of Confidence
Fee Lectures/Assignments
There is a lack of confidence in the people due to different Records Exam Plans/Study
issues involved in cloud computing. and Exam Materials
Schedules
8. Follow Standards Properly
Faculty
Existing standards for cloud computing are not followed
Login
properly so cloud computing standards need to be followed to
provide a convenient computing environment.
Fig. 2. Education System Model Using Cloud Computing
III. PROPOSED MODEL FOR EDUCATION SYSTEM USING
The proposed model has different phases as shown in Fig. 2.
CLOUD COMPUTING
The flow of the model describes that the main phase is
This proposed model is for education system by using cloud admission/accounts and examination departments where all
computing. Cloud computing technology provides reliable the data of students is available. This phase shows the
resources which can help in many platforms. Basically in this enrollment of students in different programs, the strength of
research paper we are only focusing on education. The major students in each program, fee status and exam plans for
users of education cloud include faculty, students, admin staff, students. In the proposed model, we use two clouds namely
admission, accounts and examination departments. In this student record cloud and EDU cloud which is education cloud.
model, we also make a platform for parents as well so they Student record cloud maintains profile of students, their
can see their children attendance records, fee vouchers, courses, attendance record and study plans. Students can login
upcoming quizzes, assignments, examination plan, and via login id and password provided by the cloud service
especially the results with the help of login id and password providers so they can connect with the education cloud to get
provided by the cloud service provider. Normally students their assignments, quizzes, results and attendance record as
cannot share their results and class schedules with their well as they can get their lectures from EDU cloud. On the
parents so now with the help of this model parents can easily other side, we also facilitate the faculty as well so they can
check their children records and required stuff with the help of also login with their provided login id and password to update
our proposed model. This model also provides facility for the their course profile, uploading lectures, study plans, schedule
faculty as well so they can upload the study material, student of upcoming quizzes, assignments, marks and a buzz of extra
attendance and other stuff over the cloud. Also they can classes if needed. Teachers can also maintain students
update their class schedules if there is a need of extra classes. attendance record so if any student does not meet the
In case of any delay due to Internet or unavailability of cloud, minimum attendance requirement as per the institutional
users can access only the last updated data. For further policies for appearing in the exams. Another major phase of
updation, they have to wait for the system restoration. While this model is to facilitate the parents as well because mostly
implementing this model, backup Internet connectivity must students cannot share their study status and results with their
be available to avoid any delays. Our proposed model parents. Parents/guardians phase provides the facility to check
provides a friendly environment for all the stakeholders. Fig. 2 the children profile like marks attendance, class schedules,
illustrates the said concept. exam plans and fee status. In case if the parents are not able to
check their children profile then they can seek help from the
guardians to check their children status. We wish that this
proposed model helps our society to make our education [7] Ishaq A. and Brohi M. N., “Cloud Computing in Education
system better. Sector with Security and Privacy Issue: A Proposed
Framework,” International Journal of Advances in Engineering
IV. EXPECTED RESULTS FOR THE PROPOSED MODEL & Technology vol. 8, no. 6, pp. 889-898, 2015.
[8] Yadav K., “Role of Cloud Computing in Education,”
1. Education learning process becomes easier with the help International Journal of Innovative Research in Computer and
of this model. Communication Engineering vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 3108-3112, 2014.
2. EDU cloud will be more helpful to check updates and [9] Kumar B. V. P, Kommareddy S. and Rani N. U., “Effective
study material easily. Ways Cloud Computing can Contribute to Education Success,”
3. Users will get their updated data over the cloud. Advanced Computing: An International Journal (ACIJ ) vol. 4,
4. Students will get their study material without any delay. no. 4, pp. 17-32, 2013.
5. Communication between teachers and students will [10] esds, “Importance of Cloud Computing In Education Sector,”
2016. [Online], Available:
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https://www.esds.co.in/blog/importance-of-cloud-computing-in-
6. Faculty will also upload their lectures, study material, education-sector/#sthash.9XtkqKo6.n4tUGI8A.dpbs. [Accessed:
lesson plans and maintain attendance record over the 30-November-2018].
cloud. [11] aspect, “The Benefits of Cloud Computing in Education are
7. Parents/guardians of students will also check their study Huge,” 2013. [Online], Available: https://blogs.aspect.com/the-
material, attendance record and upcoming activities with benefits-of-cloud-computing-in-education-are-huge. [Accessed:
the help of this model. 30-November-2018].
8. Students will not be able to hide their marks or attendance
record from their parents.
9. This model will play a vital role in our education system.

V. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

As we seen that now a day’s cloud computing provides
faster services by their infrastructure. Cloud computing
services are so helpful in different areas. It allows us to access
our required information whenever there is a need and also
provides sharing of the particular information with anyone. It
also helps us to make convenient environment where you can
use the resources available on cloud computing environment
in a very reliable manner. In this research paper we introduce
an education model for faculty, students and parents. The
proposed model provides a very user friendly environment for
the stakeholders. For future work, we will add more properties
and attributes in the hierarchy of this proposed model.
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