How the cloud is transforming Higher Education

The cloud is good at solving large-scale problems and serving fast-changing communities. One of the best communities is on campus—students and teachers. According to university world news, 1.6 million new teaching posts are needed to achieve the goal of universal primary education by 2015. How could you solve such large-scale problems without the help of technology? 

Among all technologies, could is undoubtedly a game-changer. It is helping and transforming higher education to reach a new level. Despite shrinking budgets, aging facilities, and rising costs, here are five aspects of higher education where the cloud works well.

The business

Like enterprises, many universities and colleges are running as businesses. They have a limited budget to maintain everyday operations and, most importantly, support students and staff. The business side of higher education, such as financials, enrollment, and housing, indeed needs the help of the cloud. Higher education institutions are also using the software platform to do administration. They choose the cloud for its lower costs and good efficiency. Plus, the cloud can help them to contact a large number of students every day.

The classroom

It is estimated that 4 in 5 higher education students are expected to have coursework online. This doesn't mean schools today will no longer have physical classes, but the combination of in-person and online courses will take the lead. Teachers and students are integrating technology into the learning experience.

The first online degrees were established around 1995. As time passes, students gradually have more incentive to consider this route. One of the incentives is that virtual education allows students to stay away from the monitor. Online schools get extremely popular with the development of technology. Students love the concept.

In 2020, the global pandemic pushed all educational institutions to provide online courses. Statistics show that 68% of institutions use (or will use) the cloud for conferences and collaborations; 65% of institutions use (or will use) the cloud for office and productivity suites; 62% of institutions use (or will use) the cloud for messaging. In addition, innovative learning technology like the flipped classroom encourages students to do previews. As a result, the cloud is transforming the teaching process in higher education.

The research

The cloud is a promising technology for collecting and analyzing data. Higher education institutions need to conduct plenty of research each day. First-hand and second-hand resources work together to guarantee academic integrity. With the growth of cloud computing, students can form a more flexible online community. Data on student options can be collected and analyzed through systems like Massive Open Online Course so that higher education institutions can research students and staff. Cloud provides the best for research.

The course

Academic research is painstaking work. Without the help of the cloud, many resources cannot be collected and read in a short time. Thus, some colleges and universities use high-performance computing (HPC) to support reducing teaching workloads. In addition, courses in big data and analytics cannot be delivered at scale without the auto-provisioning cloud architecture. Based on the cloud, students can get relevant experience with enterprise-scale architectures. This will help them be more competitive in the job market.

The outcomes

Now most universities have evolved their professional admin app based on the cloud. Educational information resources from multiple schools can be added to a cloud because cloud computing is very scalable, reducing the time and capital of a particular faculty. The powerful collaborative working ability provided by cloud computing can be used to access information resource construction or various educational institutions. It will help realize the overall structure of academic information resources.

In addition, cloud computing service providers provide safe, efficient, and professional data storage and cloud computing services store data in the "cloud." Therefore, using cloud computing in schools can significantly ensure the safety and reliability of the data of teachers and students. Teachers and students will no longer need to worry about the invasion of viruses and hackers and data loss caused by hardware damage.

Overall, cloud computing is a more flexible, efficient, energy-saving, and low-cost information operation method. It is the result of the long-term development and accumulation of information technology. It is also the most profound change in the IT industry since the Internet revolution. 

Cloud will become the trend and trend of the future development of higher education. In fastening higher education informatization, it is essential to embrace new technology. Therefore, cloud computing will have an important role and impact on higher education.

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