The use of software as a service by students in higher education institutions: a systematic literature review
In this paper, we provide an overview of the concepts and structure of cloud computing and then focus on Software as a Service (SaaS) because it is the most common cloud computing service model adopted by higher education institutions (HEIs) [29] SaaS is a service model of cloud computing that has the potential to provide students with improved academic experience by providing them with anytime anywhere access to learning, communication and collaboration materials [28] It has the potential to turn around the delivery and support of educational services [26] In this paper, we review the literature on the use of SaaS by students in HEIs. A total of ninety eight recent articles on cloud computing/ SaaS in Higher Education were reviewed and twenty six of the articles were found to be relevant to this paper. This research used a systematic literature review by ensuring that the search terms included all the concerned areas of using cloud computing/ SaaS in HEIs. The contents of online electronic databases including Google Scholar, Elsevier Science direct, Springer Link and IEEE were searched for recent articles and a content analysis of all the identified papers was conducted. The aim was to identify the current state of student's use of SaaS in HEIs. To achieve this, the researchers conducted a systematic review of the relevant papers. This paper also explains SaaS in details and identified the benefits of SaaS as well as the perceived obstacles to student's use of SaaS in HEIs.
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