World Journal of Engineering Research and Technology

*Ntirenganya Lenatha, Dr. Yonah Etene and Dr. Anselemo Ikoha Peters

ABSTRACT

Currently the growth of Information Technology (IT) in public and private sector speed up service delivery. Particulary, hardware and software technologies have developed dramatically. One of the computing technologies, which is very common nowadays, is cloud computing technology. Research reveals that this is an essential technology in many sectors especially in education sector. Cloud computing enhances educational users' flexibility and access to a variety of educational resources. Students and staff can use numerous application platforms and resources on-demand rapidly and affordably on web pages. Usability of cloud computing in education sector is wide- ranging to many services, as recognized to many educational institutions across the world. Cloud computing provides services to university users such as software as a service, platform as a service and Infrastructure as a service. These services are under utilized by university staff and students. However, usability of cloud computing is still an issue in many private universities in Rwanda. The cloud users have challenges in terms of usability of software as a service. The study sought to investigate usability of cloud computing services based on software as a service. The objective of this study was to analyze the effect of cloud computing software usability on the efficient service delivery in private universities in Rwanda. This study adopted a case study research design. The target population of the study was three hundred (300) computing students and lecturers who offer computing courses. Sampling techniques such as simple random sampling, purposive sampling were used and stratified sampling which were used to group respondents into heterogeneous stratums, the sample size was 103 respondents. This study employed both questionnaire and interview guide as the research tools in order to collect primary data. Research tools were tested for validity using content validity and face validity while reliability was performed by computing Cronbach?s alpha to measure internal consistency, with alpha coefficient higher than zero point seven (0.7). Data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings, showed significant effect of usability of cloud computing software as a service on efficient service delivery. The study revealed that most respondents still face challenges of lack of enough technical skills, lack awareness and security of data/information. The result of this study will be of great advantage to the Students and Academic staff in Universities in Rwanda as whole. The study will also help universities to reduce the cost of hardware by using cloud computing services to enhance service delivery in learning, teaching and operations in universities in Rwanda.

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