Cloud computing is widely adopted in education and other sectors, and the reasons are apparent. In Covid times when education shifted from physical classrooms to online classes, educational organizations such as schools, colleges, and universities got a chance to leverage cloud computing and its benefits. The cloud-enabled learning and coaching centres to connect the students and teachers virtually, save spending on textbooks, eliminating the need to buy or own servers and data centres, and many other capabilities which were not possible with the traditional approach. Moreover, they need not to worry about their study materials, documents safety, or files security as they are safe on cloud. With cloud technology students, teachers, and other working staff don’t have to confine themselves to the physical classrooms for lessons. Teaching and learning is happening remotely, and services are accessible through any internet-connected device.

Cloud computing is revolutionizing the education sector in many ways. Let’s take a look at how this new technology is proving to be the game-changer in the education system by changing the traditional ways of teaching and learning.

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7 Ways Cloud Computing is Changing Education

1. Universal accessibility through virtual classrooms

Distance learning has been there for many years but was never realized until recently when some education institutions migrated to the cloud. However, most education systems still rely on brick-and-mortar classrooms to offer lessons and lectures to students.

Cloud computing makes it possible to host virtual classrooms. Also, sharing learning resources securely and remotely is possible through this technology. A student in one continent can now interactively attend a lecture hosted on another. Students can also interact and access course materials on their mobile devices.

Due to cloud computing, a student can enrol in any school and attain academic certifications without going to a physical classroom. This is also beneficial to people who are held up with other commitments and can’t attend schools and colleges to complete their education. You can now work and pursue your studies from your office desk or home, provided you are connected to the internet.

2. Cost saving on students' data storage and maintenance

Educational institutions are increasingly experiencing challenges with data storage and management systems. The number of students enrolling at every level is increasing, and managing their personal information requires resources. You are supposed to invest in expensive computing hardware and software to run such big educational institutions.

With cloud computing, you no longer need expensive hardware and software. All the information about every registered student is accessible over the internet. This virtual hosting with a pay-as-you-go plan is way much more affordable. Besides, there are many cloud computing service providers to choose from.

3. Cloud brings scalability to educational institutes

Upscaling hardware and software is a big challenge in the education sector. It involves buying expensive hardware and management software to handle the increasing number of enrolling students and traffic hikes. Also, institutions set up classrooms, libraries, hostels, etc.

Besides, these established resources are underutilized when scaling down. An effective cloud-native solution that offers scalability in times of heavy traffic can help solve this problem. A renowned school was facing a similar kind of problem, Minfy designed a cloud-based highly scalable solution to handle the heavy traffic demands during admission times and purge the downtime and expenses involved.

The flexibility of cloud computing makes it the revolutionary solution for education field that learning institutions need. It allows scaling down or up with little or no effect on human resources, IT infrastructure, and physical structures. As mentioned, you only pay the cloud service providers for what you use at that time. That means there will be no underutilization when you scale down during a low activity period. You also don’t have to experience overload during peak usage or due to high traffic experienced during assignment submissions and training registrations.

4. Enhanced data security through virtual applications

Educational institutions are adversely affected by data breaches due to cyber attacks. This problem is even more rampant when you host your servers and computing system locally. Many institutions report data breaches when they experience such attacks. Locally-hosted systems can also be affected by a power outage or server-related problems. Such unpredictable factors can adversely affect learning.

Cloud computing makes education systems more stable. Institutions can offer uninterrupted distance learning services through the cloud and maintain data integrity by using virtual applications such as virtual private network (VPN). The Government of Manipur’s Department of IT were facing security issues with their on-premise data storage, we helped them migrate their mission-critical workloads to AWS Cloud to optimize costs and achieve scalable compute and storage in the cloud using Amazon EC2 and Amazon VPC.

VPN protocols such as IKEv2 automatically encrypt the outgoing data. No one can intercept or alter the information in transit, which means students or the intended target get uncompromised data. Besides, students can also protect their login credentials and other personal information when they use cloud applications.

5. Wide reach to diverse learners through cloud

Diversity is another factor that educational institutions should consider seriously. Many students are locked out because they cannot afford to attend the brick-and-mortar classrooms. That can be due to finances or fear of stigmatization. For example, some adults who unfortunately dropped out of school fear enrolling again to attain their academic mileage for fear of sharing a classroom with children. Besides, they may be committed to responsibilities.

The good news is that cloud computing makes educational institutions take their learning services to potential learners. The distance barrier no longer exists for those already using cloud services. Regardless of age and distance, learners can enroll and attend classes online without the fear of stigmatization or discrimination.

6. Up-to-date learning syllabus available in the cloud

Students may use outdated learning materials because the budget for buying new textbooks is beyond their reach. Technological advancement and redrawing of administrative boundaries make most learning materials obsolete in just a few years. Learning materials published about 5 years ago may have one or more concepts they present inaccurate.

It is less expensive and easy to update the learning materials in real-time when you move to the cloud. That means students always have access to the up-to-date information.

7. Cloud made education affordable

Every student who joins any educational institution receives a long list of textbooks and other learning materials to buy. These are expensive and push parents or guidance to the edge. Some cannot even afford them. Besides, the boarding and tuition fees are usually high because of the complex logistics involved in offering learning services physically.

With cloud computing, learning resources are uploaded to the cloud and accessible to all registered students cost-free. eBooks and e-textbooks can be accessed remotely on almost every internet-connected device. That reduces the learning cost in various institutions that migrate to the cloud.

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Why you need Cloud in Education?

Cloud computing is changing education in many ways. It benefits institutions and students, which makes it a powerful tool to advance learning. Adopting cloud computing ensures universal accessibility of learning services, which also reach more diverse students. It is a reliable technology for digital transformation that learning institutions need to cost-effectively and efficiently offer their training programs.

Cloud computing made it possible to cut down the yearly expenses of buying and commissioning IT infrastructure. Now, all learning resources are in the cloud such as virtual classrooms, software, and textbooks, and, are accessible to every student connected to the internet. Distance learning is now possible and available to learners worldwide. Its flexibility and scalability has made it the present and the next big thing.  Schools, colleges, universities, and other learning institutions are embracing cloud for the technology benefits if offers and learners worldwide embrace it for its convenience. Nothing appeals to them as the access to all the learning materials at their fingertips and achieving the academic milestone remotely. Learning institutions that already use cloud computing services are more immune to future changes, and their success is almost guaranteed.

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The verdict

The cloud technology is still a new subject for many educational institutes that had to rush to using it due to the need of hour in pandemic. Considering this as an opportunity to learn more about cloud computing will only help the education fields to get the maximum benefits of cloud and flourish significantly in future. Having an expert by your side to easy understand how cloud can help your school, college or university grow more is always an add-on.

Till date, we have helped many educational organizations, coaching and teaching institutes to adopt cloud and supported them in understanding why they need cloud in today’s digital world. To know how we can help you, talk to Minfy’s cloud experts.

Book 1-hour free consultation with pricing details

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