Cloud Computing’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Delivery Model Benefits Technical Courses in Higher Education

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is a form of cloud computing that relieves the user of the burden of hardware and software installation and management. SaaS can be used at the course level to enhance curricula and student experience. When cloud computing and SaaS are included in educational literature, the focus is typically on implementing administrative functions. Yet, SaaS can make more immediate and substantial contributions to the technical course content in educational offerings. This paper explores cloud computing and SaaS, provides examples, reports on experiences using SaaS to offer specialized software in courses, and analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of using SaaS at the course level. The paper contributes to the literature in higher education by analyzing the major technical concepts, potential, and constraints for using SaaS to deliver specialized software at the course level. Further it may enable more educators and students to benefit from this emerging technology. Keywords—Cloud computing, software-as-a-service, e-service, higher education. I. BACKGROUND AND MOTIVATION TUDENTS in technical courses often would benefit by having experience with the same specialized software as used in industry. This is especially true in computer science and related computer application courses where advanced software is often required to help students understand important principles. Yet, budget constraints may rule out such software purchases. Some vendors offer free downloadable software for educational use. However, downloaded software still requires sufficient computing resources to install and make use of the software. Further, software installation, configuration, and routine maintenance often requires the time of skilled information technology (IT) staff, another scarce resource in higher education. In the case of specialized software, the limited number of students served makes it more difficult to justify the expense by the university. Another problem has been the difficulty students have in obtaining, installing and configuring software in a timely fashion, particularly during accelerated 8 or 9-week course format. Typically many hours of faculty support are required to assist students in this situation. When the course is offered in a distance education format, it becomes even more challenging in order to help students get up to speed fast enough for course demands. Janet L. Kourik is with Webster University, US. E-mail: [email protected] To circumvent such problems, some vendors responded by offering access to their software via the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model. SaaS, sometimes called e-service, is a form of cloud computing that delivers software and its associated data via a web browser or a thin client to relieve the user of the burden of hardware and software installation and management. From vendors that offer specialized software via SaaS delivery, the products may be rapidly incorporated into a course, often at little or no expense to the instructor in higher education. II. CLOUD COMPUTING AND SAAS Cloud computing actually is a broad collection of ideas. An analogy at this point may be helpful. Consider “TRANSPORTATION” as a broad collection of ideas. Transportation encompasses many different components of moving a person or object from point A to point B, as listed in Table 1. Transportation includes movement on land, water, and in the air. Wind, gasoline, electricity, etc. may be used to generate force for movement. A variety of vehicles may implement transportation. The elements of transportation components may be combined in many ways. For instance, wind may be used to move a sail boat on water. Another example would be a diesel engine may be used to move a bus