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Information Communication Technology (ICT) Integration to Educational Curricula:
A New Direction for Africa, University Press of America, ISBN: 9780761865360.
Chapter Eight
Cloud Computing In Education – A Study of Trends, Challenges and an
Archetype for Effective Adoption in Nigerian Universities
Fagbola Temitayo Matthew
Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, Ekiti State
Department of Computer Science
Abstract
This study investigates the trends, benefits and challenges being encountered in the
adoption of cloud computing in Nigerian Universities. It implores the use of questionnaire to
generate the data. Microsoft excel was used to capture the data while frequency and percentage
distributions were used to analyze it. In all, 10, 800 copies of the questionnaire were administered
to 54 public universities across the 6 geo-political zones in Nigeria while 8756 copies were
returned which represents a respondent rate of 81.1%. The result of the analysis obtained reveals
that 92% of the total respondents are aware of cloud computing in education, 45 universities adopt
the use of cloud with the majority using SaaS deployed in the public cloud. The major benefit
obtained centers on cost effectiveness. However, the major constraining factors are data insecurity,
regulatory compliance concerns, lock-in and privacy concerns. This paper concludes by proposing
a cloud archetype that mitigates the challenges identified and offers improved agility, low cost
adoption, access and use of sophisticated educational ICT infrastructures and applications in
Nigerian universities.
Keywords: Cloud Computing, ICT, Cloud Adoption, Nigerian Universities, Archetype
1.0 Introduction
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are powerful enabling tools for
educational change and reform introducing new methods of teaching and conducting research as
well as provisioning of educational facilities for online learning, teaching and research
collaboration. It thus represents a potentially equalizing strategy for developing countries. The
great flexibility offered by ICT strongly facilitates the acquisition and use of available knowledge
to expand access to education, strengthen the quality of education and improve the quality of the
classroom teaching-learning processes via access to electronic active teaching and learning,
research, training and development resources on the global collaborative network of internetworks
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and use of ICT tools in education. It can be said to be the bedrock for successful scientific research
and development in education.
ICT is considered a critical tool in preparing and educating students with the required skills
for the global workplace. It educates students so that they can continually adapt to a work world
of continuous technological innovations (Neil and Associates, 2011). The ability to become
lifelong learners within a context of collaborative environment and the ability to work and learn
from experts and peers in a connected global community are major flexibilities offered by ICT
(Osaat and Nsereka, 2012). Iwasokun et al. (2012) stressed that ICT is a versatile tool for running
a smooth and efficient university system, giving support in areas such as lecture delivery, private
studies, information disseminations, program (conferences and seminars) planning and execution,
communication at different levels, crisis prevention and management.
Unfortunately, the recurring Global Economic Meltdown (GEM) and national financial
hiccups currently embattling the developing countries continue to pose a serious threat to the
survival of quality education as governmental institutions and University administrators helplessly
fight the provision of unlimited fundamental ICT facilities and support tools, services and
applications needed to facilitate effective teaching and Sustainable Educational Research and
Development (SERD) activities in Universities. Furthermore, developing countries generally face
challenges in terms human and financial resources needed to harness the potential of ICT
successfully and effectively in education (Neil and Associates, 2011).
As much as the adoption of ICT in education becomes imperative, cost of owning of the
required ICT infrastructures, licensing, standards requirement, cost of maintenance, electrical
power supply and physical security of these facilities come at a great financial expense. Gerald
and Eduan (2012) stressed that availability and accessibility to ICT infrastructures and services by
staff and students in Universities in most developing economies are limited or non-existent.
Inadequate funding of universities by the government at all levels, erratic power supply,
operational cost, high cost of equipment renewal, cost of maintenance and bandwidth, lack of
maintenance practice and lack of ICT budget by the Universities are the major factors responsible
for the failure of the survival of ICT in Universities.
Effective teaching-learning process, research and development activities have been
hampered as a result of these menaces. For example, when power is rarely supplied, the admirable
goals of transforming education with ICT and taking a paradigm shift in education is all a dream;
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having access to educational resources on demand, anytime, anyhow and anywhere is a story and
e-learning would not be sustained either (Abdulsalam and Fatima, 2011).
Sequel to these challenges, the adoption of cloud computing, a service-oriented alternative
to ICT provisioning and deployment, with the potential to yield low cost, improved efficiency and
availability become imperative in Universities. Mehmet and Serhat (2011) identified some of the
benefits offered by cloud computing in education to include on-demand access to online database
repositories, e-learning platforms, digital archive, portals, research applications and tools, file
storages, e-mails and other educational resources anywhere for faculty, administrators, staff,
students and other users in university.
Therefore, in this paper, the trends, benefits and challenges being encountered in the
adoption of cloud computing in Nigerian Universities is investigated. The trends assessment
investigates the present awareness and adoption level of cloud computing in Nigerian Universities.
The benefits assessment investigates the gains derived from the adoption of cloud computing in
Nigerian Universities. The challenges assessment investigates the problems and constraining
factors to the successful adoption and use of cloud computing in Nigerian Universities. It
concludes by proposing a cloud archetype that mitigates the cloud challenges currently
undermining the effective adoption and use of cloud computing in Nigerian Universities.
2.0 Literature Review and Conceptual Underpinnings
The conceptual, logical and architectural development over Networking, Internet and Grid
computing has given birth to the third (3rd) technological revolution after Personal Computer (PC)
and the internet known as cloud computing (Mehmet and Serhat, 2011). Cloud computing can be
described as a composite three-tier delivery, development and application platform (Anjali and
Pandey, 2013; Sclater, 2010). As a delivery platform, it uses an on-demand cloud-based
infrastructure to deploy an infrastructure or applications, for example, the Amazon Elastic Cloud.
The on-demand cloud-based development environment provides a general purpose programming
language (for example, Bungee Labs, Coghead, google sites) as a development platform. As an
application platform, it is used to develop and deploy end-user applications (for example,
Salesforce.com, NetSuite, Cisco-WebEx and google docs).
Olabiyisi et al. (2012) defined cloud computing as an elastic and scalable utility model that
offers flexible, ubiquitous, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing
resources (for example, servers, data centers, networks, applications and services) that can be
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rapidly provided and released with limited interaction of service provider or the management. It
provides shared infrastructure, self-service, dynamic and virtualized pay-per-use platforms which
put it on high demand. Cloud computing implies a level of dynamic, flexible resource sharing and
allocation of assets.
2.1 Service Models of Cloud Computing
Three (3) service models of cloud computing has been identified to include (Anjali and
Pandey, 2013; IITE, 2010):
i. Software as a Service (SaaS): The consumer is provided access to use the provider’s
applications running on a cloud infrastructure. The applications are accessible from
various client devices through either a thin client interface, such as a web browser (e.g.,
web-based email) or a program interface. The consumer does not manage or control
the underlying cloud infrastructure including network, servers, operating systems,
storage or even individual application capabilities with the possible exception of
limited user-specific application configuration settings.
ii. Platform as a Service (PaaS): The consumer is provided with the capability to deploy
onto the cloud infrastructure, consumer-created or acquired applications created using
programming languages, libraries, services, and tools supported by the provider. The
consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure including
network, servers, operating systems, or storage, but has control over the deployed
applications and possibly configuration settings for the application-hosting
environment.
iii. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): The consumer is provided with processing,
storage, networks and other fundamental computing resources where the consumer is
able to deploy and run arbitrary software, which can include operating systems and
applications. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud
infrastructure but has control over operating systems, storage and deployed
applications; and possibly limited control of select networking components.
Katz (2010) identified 9 important features of cloud computing in higher education with
respect to on-demand SaaS, PaaS and IaaS:
i. Increasing access to scarce IT expertise and talent.
ii. Scaling IT services and resources.
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iii. Promoting further IT standardization.
iv. Accelerating time to market through IT supply bottleneck reductions.
v. Channelling or countering the ad hoc consumerization of enterprise IT services.
vi. Facilitating the transparent matching of IT costs, demand and funding.
vii. Increasing interoperability between disjoint technologies within and between
institutions. Supporting a model of a 24 x 7 x 365 environment.
viii. Enabling the sourcing of cycles and storage powered by renewable energy.
ix. Driving down capital and total costs of IT in higher education.
2.2 Cloud Computing Deployment Models
Deploying cloud computing can differ depending on requirements and four deployment
models that have been identified each with specific characteristics that support the needs of the
services and users of the clouds in particular ways (Richard and Ahmed, 2013; IITE, 2010).
i. Private Cloud: The cloud infrastructure is provisioned for exclusive use by a single
organization comprising multiple consumers (for example, business units). It may be
owned, managed and operated by the organization, a third party or some combination
of them, and it may exist on or off premises. With shared services models and private
clouds, like-minded education or research organizations can use a shared cloud
infrastructure or single institutions can take advantage of specific cloud technologies
such as virtualization-enabled self-provisioning of application environments (Oracle,
2011).
ii. Community Cloud: The cloud infrastructure is provisioned for exclusive use by a
specific community of consumers from organizations that have shared concerns (for
example: mission, security requirements, policy and compliance considerations). It
may be owned, managed and operated by one or more of the organizations in the
community, a third party or some combination of them, and it may exist on or off
premises.
iii. Public Cloud: The cloud infrastructure is available to the public on a commercial basis
by a cloud service provider. This enables a consumer to develop and deploy a service
in the cloud with very little financial outlay compared to the capital expenditure
requirements normally associated with other deployment options. The cloud
infrastructure is provisioned for open use by the general public. It may be owned,
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managed and operated by a business, academic, or government organization, or some
combination of them. It exists on the premises of the cloud provider.
iv. Hybrid cloud: The cloud infrastructure is a composition of two or more distinct cloud
infrastructures that remain unique entities but are bound together by standardized or
proprietary technology that enables data and application portability (for example: cloud
bursting for load balancing between clouds).
2.3 Conceptual Underpinnings
CPN (2014) in her April diet reported that Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria’s
(ISPON) national software conference identified cloud as the latest strategic roadmap for ICT
development at all levels of engagement. The mission of the conference is to establish a functional
roadmap and a national cloud strategic framework, ensuring that the pursuit of cloud computing
initiative is classified as a significant national ICT asset and project that will guarantee the
survivability of education in Nigeria and make her globally competitive.
Echezona and Inyiama (2013) developed a use case scenario of inter-university
collaborations in Nigeria using cloud computing infrastructure. This cloud model was designed to
implement national education and research network as well as Educational Information System
(EIS) for Nigeria. According to the design, every class of user is expected to access the EIS
software through a single platform. It is the duty of this platform to accept requests from different
users and channel them to the ubiquitous information contained in the EIS. The authors concluded
by reviewing security issues as it concerns cloud computing adoption in Nigeria.
Richard and Ahmed (2013) presented a general review of cloud computing and its
applications in e-library services with focus on Nigeria. The authors argued that the every change
in technology can be accommodated and updated in the cloud which all the universities can have
access to. They stressed that cloud offers reduction of in-house data center, reduced cost for using
sophisticated IT hardwares, improved collaboration and agility.
Edtech (2013) conducted interview with a panel of the world’s top technologists discussing
new technologies changing higher education especially "education in the cloud" trend. Shel
Waggener, the senior vice president of Internet2 and former Chief Information Officer (CIO) at
University of California in Berkeley, Ted Dodds, Chief Information Officer and Vice President at
Cornell University, Ron Kraemer, the vice president and CIO at Notre Dame University and Bill
Wrobleski, Director of infrastructure services for information and technology services at
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University of Michigan discussed issues relative to benefits of cloud adoption, risk factors and risk
management practices. A great number of advantages of using cloud computing in education were
highlighted and techniques for mitigating the risk of cloud adoption were explained.
Gerald and Eduan (2012) conducted a survey on the adoption of cloud computing among
public universities and FET colleges within South Africa. The authors argued that public
universities and colleges share many similar operational processes such as course offerings,
admissions, enrollments, bursaries, research and graduations that can be standardized across the
higher education sector and offered as a set of services through cloud to the many colleges and
universities in a more cost effective way than is currently the case. The results of the analysis shed
some light on the current state of cloud computing adoption within the South African public higher
education sector, the main factors that fuel its adoption, the main barriers that impede its adoption
and the direction it may take in future as it matures.
Abdulsalam and Fatima (2011) argued that cloud computing is the solution to ICT in higher
education in Nigeria. The authors identified scarcity of ICT infrastructure and lack of access, high
cost of ownership, unsteady and inadequate electrical power supply as factors that are limiting the
infusion of ICT in Nigeria higher education. They claimed that the prospect of a maturing cloud
of on-demand infrastructure, application and support services is important as a possible means of
driving down the capital and total costs of ICT in higher education, facilitating the transparent
matching of IT demand, scaling ICT, fostering further ICT standardization and accelerating time
to market by reducing ICT supply bottlenecks.
Armbrust et al. (2009) observed that laboratories in the Department of Electrical
Engineering and Computer Science at the University of California in Berkeley, an adopter of cloud
computing, have benefited substantially from the ability to complete research by conference
deadlines and adjust resources over the semester to accommodate course deadlines. In the same
vein, North Carolina State University achieved substantially decreasing expenses using the cloud
services which eliminated software licensing cost and reduced the IT staff from 15 to 3 employees
with full working schedule (Goldstein, 2009).
3.0 Materials and Method
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The methodology and approach adopted in this paper are described below. In this section,
the research questions are highlighted, the study area, sampled population and research techniques
used are discussed.
3.1 Research Questions
To realize the purpose of this research study, four (4) research questions are formulated as
follows:
1) What is the level of awareness and adoption of cloud computing in Nigerian
Universities?
2) What are the cloud computing services that are being adopted and used in Nigerian
Universities?
3) What are the benefits associated with the adoption of cloud computing in Nigerian
Universities?
4) What are the challenges and the constraining features to the successful adoption and
use of cloud computing in Nigerian Universities?
3.2 Data Source and Presentation
This study is an empirical research which investigates the level of awareness and adoption
of cloud computing in Nigeria universities. The instrument for data collection was a well-
structured questionnaire titled, “The Evaluation of Trends, Benefits and Challenges of Cloud
Adoption and Use in Nigerian Universities” with four (4) parts. Its first part provides vital biodata
information about each respondent while the second part provides information on the assessment
of the trends of awareness and adoption of cloud computing in Nigeria universities. The third part
assesses the benefits of using cloud computing in Nigeria Universities while the fourth part
investigates the challenges of using cloud computing in Nigeria universities.
The questionnaire was validated and tested for reliability using the Pearson Product
Moment Correlation. A Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient (α) of 0.89 was obtained, an
indication that the instrument was reliable for data collection. The questionnaire was administered
to fifty-four (54) out of seventy two (72) public universities across the six (6) geo-political zones
in Nigeria. A total of hundred (100) IT staff, fifty (50) para-IT staff and fifty (50) students were
surveyed in each university. 10, 800 copies of the questionnaire were administered by the
researcher via both online and physical collaboration while 8756 copies were returned and used
for computation which represents a respondent rate of 81.1%.
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Microsoft Excel was used to capture and analyze the data obtained from the duly-filled
copies of questionnaire while frequency, mean and percentage distributions were the descriptive
techniques used. The descriptive survey was adopted to obtain the opinion of a representative
sample of the target population so as to be able to infer the perception of the entire population.
4.0 Results and Interpretation
The results of the research on the trends of awareness and adoption of cloud computing,
the cloud computing services that are being adopted as well as the benefits and challenges associated
with the adoption and use of cloud computing in Nigerian Universities are presented and discussed
in this section.
4.1 Trends of Awareness and Adoption of Cloud Computing in Nigeria Public
Universities
The analysis of the findings for research question 1 is presented in Figure 1. 8056
respondents representing 92% of the total respondents are aware of cloud computing in education
while 700 respondents are not directly and technically aware of this new paradigm. The result
reveals that major educational stakeholders (including students, IT staff and lecturers) are aware
of cloud computing and its relevance in Nigerian University educational enterprise as a result of
their direct access to mobile devices with internet ends.
This result agrees with the report by Neil and Associates (2011) that the emergence of
electronic telecommunications devices especially low-cost laptop computers, mobile telephones,
Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and other related technological innovations has tremendous
potential to accentuate the digital divide within education, conferring benefit on those with access
to ICT, offering them prompt and immediate access to latest technological innovations and further
marginalizing those without such access. By implication, the percentage of the respondents that is
not aware of cloud computing do not use or have access to the internet.
92%
8%
Respondents' Awareness of Cloud
Computing in Education
Aware
Not Aware
10
Figure 1: Result of respondents’ awareness of cloud computing in Nigerian Universities
As illustrated in figure 2, the responses obtained from 7180 respondents in this research
study indicated that out of the 54 Universities in the study area, 45 universities have already
adopted the technology and using it which represents 82% adoption rate, while 9 others
representing 18% are yet to adopt or consider the adoption of the cloud paradigm. This confirms
the report by Edudemic (2013) that many higher education and research institutions have moved
to the cloud for email and collaboration services. However, the primary reluctance of few other
institutions to expand their use of cloud services has been based on concerns over privacy, security
and the potential or perceived risks associated with intellectual contents.
The analysis of the findings for research question 2 is illustrated in Figure 3. The responses
obtained indicated that 28 universities use SaaS. Applications including google docs, Moodle,
Google Mail, Yahoo Mail and NetSuite offered by SaaS in universities are universal, free and in
high demand by the entire university community which accounted for its widest adoption and use.
PaaS in universities including Google sites, online databases, Microsoft Dynamics CRM online
and integrated development environment are only used by a limited number of consumers
including the developers, researchers and other technical personnel that are for research, training
and development purposes. Thus, in the result obtained, only 15 universities use PaaS. IaaS in
education offers oracle coherence, educationERP.net, microsoft, virtual computing laboratories,
servers and operating systems and adopted by 2 universities for e-learning and portal hosting. This
result corroborates the report of Marinela and Anca (2010) that the highest number of cloud
consumers subscribes to SaaS.
Figure 2: Result of Adoption of Cloud Computing in Nigerian Universities
82%
18%
Adoption of Cloud Computing in
Nigeria Universities
Adopted Not Adopted
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The analysis of the responses obtained from this study as illustrated in Figure 4 indicated
that, on the average, no university adopts the private cloud, 2 universities adopt the hybrid cloud,
5 Universities adopt the community cloud and 38 universities adopt the public cloud. The zero (0)
adoption of the private cloud can be justified by the fact that private cloud, though it is the most
secured deployment model, is very expensive. The public cloud offers relatively cheap services to
consumers and this accounted for its massive adoption. Dan (2011) stated that many educational
institutions have begun their movement to public cloud computing by outsourcing their student
email provision.
The hybrid cloud offers some level of control to the user. Confidential information is kept
in the private portion of the hybrid cloud while general information is kept in the public portion of
the hybrid cloud. Common resources are being accessed and shared among the five universities
adopting the community cloud. This result agrees with the claims of Richard and Ahmed (2013)
that the trend of adoption of a cloud deployment platform is a function of the end-users’ needs
with the public cloud as the most demanded, followed by community, hybrid and private cloud
models in that order.
Figure 3: Result of Cloud Services Adopted in Nigerian Universities
4.2 Benefits being derived from Adoption of Cloud
The result of the findings obtained for research question 3 is presented in Table 1. The
major benefits being derived by the use of cloud computing in Nigerian Universities include cost
efficiency which is the most important factor that drives most Universities in Nigeria to adopt
cloud, followed by enhanced availability, low environmental impact, reduced IT complexities,
mobility, scalability, increased operability and reduced investment in physical asset in that order.
IAAS
4%
SAAS
62%
PAAS
34%
Cloud Services Adopted in Nigeria Universities
12
This result is supported by Behrend et al. (2011) who stated that cloud computing is a technological
innovation with a major purpose of reducing IT costs for the college and eliminating many of the
time-related constraints for students, making learning tools available and accessible to a larger
number of students. EDUCAUSE (2012) stressed that cloud computing offers to universities the
possibility of concentrating more on teaching and research activities rather than on complex IT
configuration and software systems.
Figure 4: Result of Cloud Computing Deployment Models Adopted in Nigerian Universities
Westmont College reports that after deploying six cloud-centric service platforms, it has
achieved numerous benefits, including a 65 percent cost reduction up front (over more traditional
deployments), and a 55 percent cost saving over the useful lifetime of the solutions. Beyond the
cost savings, the college reports a significant increase in user satisfaction, as well as a significant
decrease in the amount of IT management time required (Sheard, 2010). Sasikala and Prema (2010)
emphasized the Cloud Computing trend of replacing software traditionally installed on campus
computers (and the computers themselves) with applications delivered via the internet is driven by
aims of reducing universities’ IT complexity and cost.
Table 1: Benefits of Cloud Computing in Nigeria Universities (N = 7180)
S/N
Benefits of Cloud Computing in
Nigeria Universities
% of Respondents
1
Enhanced Availability
99.29
2
Reduced Cost
100
3
Scalability
84.2
4
Low Environmental Impact
95.64
5
End-User Satisfaction
74.6
6
Mobility
85.4
7
Reduced IT Complexities
93.4
8
Reduced Physical Asset Investment
82.83
Public Cloud
85%
Private Cloud
0%
Community Cloud
10%
Hybrid Cloud
5%
Cloud Computing Deployment Models
Adopted In Nigeria Universities
13
9
Increased Interoperability
83.5
4.3 Challenges facing Universities using Cloud Services in Nigeria
Based on the analysis of the findings obtained for the research question 4 in this study as
presented in Table 2, a number of challenges currently embattling Nigerian Universities using
cloud services have been identified. These constraining factors include data insecurity, regulatory
compliance concerns, lock-in, privacy concerns, unsolicited advertising and reluctance to
eliminate staff positions, reliability challenge and resistance to change in technology in that order.
This result is supported by the work of Dan (2011) who identified that approximately, 75% of
Chief Information Officer and IT specialists consider security as being the number one risk.
IITE (2010) explained that major concern of university administrators and CIO is around
the security of data. Institutions may consider that their data is more secure if it is hosted within
the Institution. Transferring data to a third party for hosting in a remote data centre, not under the
control of the Institution and the location of which may not be known presents a risk. Another risk
identified is that cloud providers target users with unsolicited email or advertising.
Lock-in is also of concern as some companies such as Google and Microsoft allow
institutions to co-brand their cloud products. There may be a risk in associating an institution too
closely with these companies whose popularity is variable with users (IITE, 2010). Probably of
greater risk is that an institution will become “locked-in” to the products of a particular provider.
There are significant costs in migrating from any widely used system. Institutions which start to
integrate educational processes with the cloud systems will find it even more difficult to migrate.
If a better rival product emerges or the cloud provider decides to impose or increase charges on
institutions it may be too late to change.
Table 2: Challenges of Cloud Computing Adoption in Nigeria Universities (N = 7180)
S/N
Challenges of using Cloud Computing in Nigeria
Universities
% of
Respondents
1
Data insecurity
89.3
2
Unsolicited Advertising
64.6
3
Lock-in
77.6
4
Reluctance to eliminate staff positions
64.6
5
Privacy Concerns
68.9
6
Reliability challenge
64.2
7
Regulatory compliance concerns / User control
80.0
8
Institutional culture / resistance to change in technology
59.2
5.0 A Proposed Cloud Archetype for Nigerian Universities
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To manage the challenges and the constraining features to the successful adoption and use
of cloud computing in Nigerian Universities, a flexible end users’ self-tuning cloud archetype is
desirable. However, reluctance to eliminate staff position and institutional resistance to changes in
technology cannot be handled by this proposed archetype. However, it can guide prospective cloud
adopters in universities on a limited risk modality for such consideration. The proposed archetype
is presented in Figure 5. The archetype is a five-layered structure involving the cloud provider, the
cloud subscriber, the subscribers’ service tuning platform, the cloud deployment model and the
cloud services.
The cloud subscriber is the consumer (university community) that uses the cloud services.
The cloud service provider provides software, platform and infrastructure resources to the
University (consumer). The subscribers’ service tuning platform offers an application level
flexibility to the offered service settings. It could be a support mobile apps running on the
consumer’s client system to adjust variables such as “allow advertising messages” which can be
turned on or off depending on the subscriber’s preference. However, the cloud deployment model
and services have been earlier reviewed in this study. This archetype is expected to offer agility
and collaborative communications among Nigerian universities.
Servic
e
Model
Cl
ou
d
Se
rvi
ce
Co
ns
um
Clo
ud
ser
vice
Dev
elo
per
Service levels
Platform
Infrastruct
Ia
P
Integrated
Infrastructu
Hybrid Cloud Public
Subscribers’ Cloud Service Tuning Layer
Cloud Provider
15
- - - - - -
Figure 5: The Proposed Cloud Computing Archetype in Nigerian Universities
6.0 Conclusion and Future Works
The poor state of ICT in Nigerian universities has really limited its impact on socio -
economic development, quality of graduates and research outputs. Cost has been identified as the
major barrier to the survival of ICT in education which can be leveraged through the adoption of
cloud computing. Cloud computing can actually help institutions reduce high expenditures on
hardware, software and IT maintenance.
The result of the analysis obtained in this research work indicates that ninety two percent
(92%) of the total respondents are aware of cloud computing in education, 82% of the universities
adopt the use of cloud, 28 universities use SaaS, 15 universities use PaaS while 2 universities use
IaaS. No university adopts the private cloud, 2 universities adopt the hybrid cloud, 5 Universities
adopt the community cloud and 38 universities adopt the public cloud.
The major benefits being derived by the use of cloud computing in Nigerian Universities
include cost efficiency which is the most important factor that drives most Universities in Nigeria
to adopt cloud, followed by enhanced availability, low environmental impact, reduced IT
complexities, mobility, scalability, increased operability and reduced investment in physical asset
in that order.
The constraining factors to successful adoption and use of cloud computing in Nigerian
universities include data insecurity, regulatory compliance concerns, lock-in, privacy concerns,
unsolicited advertising and reluctance to eliminate staff positions, reliability challenge and
resistance to change in technology in that order. This paper concludes by proposing a cloud
archetype that mitigates the challenges identified and offers improved agility, low cost adoption,
access and use of sophisticated educational ICT infrastructures and applications in Nigerian
universities.
The cloud can help Nigerian universities to:
i. Accommodate the rapid increase in mobile device dependency
Uni
Uni
Uni
Uni
Uni
-
16
ii. Open their technology infrastructures to businesses and industries for research
advancements.
iii. Remain updated with the ever-growing resource requirements and energy costs.
iv. Store expansive amounts of sensitive data and information that’s easily accessible
v. Teach students in new, different ways and help them manage projects and massive
workloads with the provisioning of a digital campus storage for class notes, papers and
projects.
vi. Acquire and implement the latest software and application updates
vii. Streamline enrollment and admissions processes that are costly and time-consuming
viii. Turn to subscriptions that are scalable and provide options
ix. Produce graduates with better understanding of the value of new technologies in the global
workforce
x. To use applications without installing them on their computers and also allows access to
saved files from any computer with an Internet connection
Future research work can investigate how the constraining factors to successful adoption of cloud
computing in Nigeria universities can be managed easily without incurring additional overheads.
The proposed archetype can also be validated for reliability and efficiency.
17
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APPENDIX
QUESTIONNAIRE FOR THE EVALUATION OF TRENDS, BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES
OF CLOUD ADOPTION AND USE IN NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES
The purpose of this questionnaire is to evaluate the trends, benefits and challenges of cloud adoption and
use in Nigeria Universities. Your sincere contribution to the research by giving very accurate and honest
responses is solicited as confidentiality of volunteered information is guaranteed.
Part I: Biodata of the Respondent
1. Status: IT Staff Para-IT Staff Student
2. Age:
3. Sex: Male Female
4. University:
5. Rank:
Part II: Assessment of the Trends (Awareness and Adoption) indices of Cloud Computing in
Nigerian Universities (To be completed by IT member of Staff)
1. Are you aware of cloud computing in Education? Yes No
2. If yes, what cloud services are being adopted and used in your University? Tick as appropriate:
3. Indicate the deployment model(s) supporting the needs of the cloud services in your University.
Tick as appropriate.
Public Cloud Private Cloud Community Cloud Hybrid Cloud
Part III: Assessment of the benefits of Using Cloud Computing in Nigerian Universities. Rate
as applicable to your University on the likert scale of Strongly Agree, Agree, Not
Sure, Disagree and Strongly Disagree (N = 7180).
Infrastructure as a Service (IAAS):
for example, storage of educational
multimedia resources, hosting of the E-
library resources, Institutional Learning
Management Systems (LMS) like
Moodle and Blackboard, Computer
laboratories, Telephony, University
portal on cloud by cloud providers like
Amazon EC2 Elastic Cloud, IBM,
Terramark, GoDaddy and Intuit Quick
Base among others who presented
infrastructure components for rent.
Software as a Service (SAAS): for
example, use of ERP, Identity Services,
Google Apps which covers the
following three main areas: messaging
(Gmail, Calendar and Google Talk),
collaboration (Google Docs, Video and
Sites) and security (email security,
encryption and archiving).
and other cloud computing software
services.
Platform as a Service (PAAS): offers
Integrated Development Environments
(IDE) / platform for rent. For example,
use of Google Sites and cloud-based
APIs and .NET platforms.
20
Serial
Nos
Benefits
Strongly
Agree
Agree
Not Sure
Disagree
Strongly
Disagree
1
Enhanced Availability
6109
1020
39
12
0
2
Cost effectiveness /
Affordability
3715
3465
0
0
0
3
Elasticity / Scalability
2948
3098
1119
15
0
4
Lower environmental
impact
3746
3121
313
0
0
5
End-User Satisfaction
2822
2533
1476
349
0
6
Mobility
2958
3172
1050
0
0
7
Reduction in IT
Complexities
4410
2293
365
112
0
8
Less investment in
physical assets
2071
3876
1211
22
0
9
Increased
Interoperability
between disjointed
technologies
2444
3551
1185
0
0
Part IV: Assessment of the challenges of using Cloud Computing in Nigerian Universities: Rate as
applicable to your University on the likert scale of Strongly Agree, Agree,
Not Sure, Disagree and Strongly Disagree.
Serial
Nos
Challenges
Strongly
Agree
Agree
Not Sure
Disagree
Strongly
Disagree
1
Data insecurity
1562
4851
455
312
0
2
Unsolicited Advertising
2307
2334
2330
209
0
3
Lock-in
2544
3030
1584
22
0
4
Reluctance to
eliminate staff
positions
1444
3194
2386
156
0
5
Privacy Concerns
1278
3668
2021
213
0
6
Reliability challenge
875
3736
2443
126
0
7
Regulatory compliance
concerns / User control
2378
3367
1380
55
0
8
Institutional culture /
resistance to change in
technology
2598
1655
2859
68
0
Table showing the summary of the survey of the Universities across the six geo-
political zones
21
Geopolitical
Zones in Nigeria
Public Universities
Total Number of
Questionnaires
Returned by
Respondents
Total Not
Returned
South East
Abia State University, Uturu
169
31
University of Nigeria, Nsukka
174
26
Michael Okpara Federal University
of Agriculture, Umudike
176
24
Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka
189
11
Enugu State University of Science
and Technology, Enugu
145
55
Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki
179
21
Federal University, Ndufe-Alike, Ebonyi
150
50
Imo State University, Owerri
173
27
South South
University of Benin, Benin
150
50
University of Port-Harcourt, Port-Harcourt
168
32
Federal University of Petroleum
Resources, Effurun
155
45
University of Calabar
166
34
University of Uyo, Uyo
146
54
Niger Delta University, Yenegoa
178
22
Federal University, Otuoke, Bayelsa
162
38
Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma
148
52
South West
Ladoke Akintola University of Technology,
Ogbomoso
190
10
Adekunle Ajasin University,
Akungba-Akoko
169
31
University of Ado-Ekiti, Ado-Ekiti
160
40
University of Agriculture, Abeokuta
177
23
University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Oyo State
189
11
Lagos State University, Ojoo, Lagos State
173
27
Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, Ekiti State
182
18
Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife
172
28
University of Lagos, Lagos State
168
32
Federal University of Technology, Akure
162
38
North East
University of Maiduguri
179
21
Federal University of Technology, Yola
173
27
Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi
175
25
Adamawa State University, Mubi
185
15
Bukar Abba Ibrahim University, Damaturu
152
48
Federal University, Kashere, Gombe
146
54
Federal University, Wakari, Taraba
156
44
Gombe State University, Gombe State
153
47
North Central
University of Ilorin, Ilorin
188
12
Kogi State University, Ayigba
163
37
Benue State University, Makurdi
181
19
University of Jos, Jos
153
47
University of Abuja, Abuja
169
31
University of Agriculture, Makurdi
122
78
Federal University of Technology, Minna
156
44
Federal University, Lafia, Nasarawa
166
34
Federal University, Lokoja, Kogi
122
78
22
Fagbola Temitayo Matthew is a lecturer and researcher at the Department of Computer Science,
Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria. He bagged B.Tech and M.Sc degrees in
Computer Science from Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Nigeria and
University of Ibadan, Nigeria respectively and currently on his Ph.D programme in the Department
of Computer Science & Engineering, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso,
Nigeria. He has presented papers in conferences and published both locally and internationally in
the areas of health informatics, data mining, cybersecurity, soft computing as well as on web and
mobile apps design and development. In 2011, he published a book on the fundamentals of
computing and information technology. His current research interests are in the area of multimedia
cloud computing, social media computing, ICT in health and education, video-based face
recognition and resolution reconstruction. He can be reached through
temitayo.fagbola@fuoye.edu.ng. The mobile is +234-703-0513-010
Nasarawa State University, Keffi
133
67
North West
Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna
177
23
Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria
123
77
Usman Dan Fodio University, Sokoto
142
58
Kano University of Science and Technology,
179
21
Bayero University, Kano
137
63
Ibrahim Babangida University, Lapai
118
82
Kaduna State University, Kaduna
128
72
Federal University, Dutsin-Ma, Katsina
167
33
Federal University, Dutse, Jigawa State
178
22
Kebbi State University, Benni-Kebbi
165
35
