The purpose of this article is to examine “Cloud Computing”
in Community Colleges. The “Cloud” refers to storing electronic data remotely;
that is, on another entity’s servers. For example, UHCL has servers that store
data for its student population. The Cloud would allow UHCL to absolve itself
of data handling responsibilities to a third party. All data would still be
available to students, staff and faculty…it would just be hosted remotely. This
is important because it may be cost advantageous in the long-run for Community Colleges.
If it is financially advantageous, the cost savings would trickle down to not
only the student, but to taxpayers as well.
This article is proposition advancing as it offers recommendations
to community college administrators and others who seek to incorporate
cloud-based recommendations into their higher education curriculum.
Hypothesis 1: Usefulness
perceptions and ease-of-use perceptions will affect the student
usage of the cloud
computing tool.
Hypothesis 2: Usefulness
perceptions and ease-of-use perceptions will affect student
beliefs about future
utility of the cloud computing tool.
Hypothesis 3: Usefulness
perceptions and ease-of-use perceptions will affect student
intentions for future
use of cloud computing tools.
Hypothesis 4: Student
attitudes about technology will affect usefulness and ease of use.
Hypothesis 5: Situational
factors will affect usefulness and ease of use.
Hypothesis 6: Student
experiences with the cloud computing tool will affect usefulness and ease
of use.
One important finding is
the discrepancy between the actual usage during a given semester and the
intention to use the tools at some point in the future. It appears that
students in this setting form impressions about the technology based on their
immediate needs, rather than the anticipated future needs. The study found that
the ease-of-use perception was a much stronger predictor of adoption than the
usefulness perception. This indicates that students may acknowledge the utility
of a tool, but lack the motivation to use it if it is not user friendly.
What this means for
administrators that an extensive cost benefit analysis must be considered
before adopting such technologies. Within the costs, administrators must take
into account user perception of Cloud adoption as much as the cost savings
associated with it.
Tara S. Behrend*,
Eric N. Wiebe, Jennifer E. London and
Emily C. Johnson
Department of
Organizational Sciences & Communication, The George Washington University,
Washington DC 20052, USA;
Friday Institute for Educational Innovation,
North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA; Federal
Management Partners,
Inc., Alexandria, Virginia, USA
(Received 15 September
2009; final version received 21 April 2010)
Behaviour &
Information Technology
Vol. 30, No. 2, March–April
2011, 231–240