AN ACCEPTANCE MODEL FOR CLOUD COMPUTING IN ACADEMIC ENVIRONMENTMuhammad Azri Bin Zainal Nafea 810695

Table of Content Introduction Problem Statement Research Objectives Technology Acceptance Model Hypothesis Methodology Result Summary Discussion Conclusion

Introduction Cloud computing is a universal term for delivering

hosted services over the internet. Dropbox Inc had provided a service called Dropbox. It is a famous cloud storage service an example of

cloud computing. Even though there are many research on the

concept of cloud computing but no previous research conducted research on the acceptance of the Dropbox in the university setting.

This study focus on the user acceptance of Dropbox in university setting.

Problem Statement According to (Bates, 2000) there are 2 different approach to teaching

when using technology in conjunction with it. The first one is using the technology as a classroom aid Second one is use of technology for distributed learning. The use of cloud

storage fall under the second category.

The purpose of this project is to examine the factors and creating an acceptance model for the academic members in a university setting to adopt a cloud storage.

The project is carried to find out what is the impact of perceived ease of use (PEOU), perceived usefulness (PU) on the academician usage of the cloud computing.

A Technology acceptance model (TAM) was selected and modified to accommodate the needs of the project that is done. Then a new model will be formulated to suits the project criteria.

Research objectives To determine the factors that support the

acceptance of cloud computing in academic environment.

To construct a model that assist acceptance of cloud computing in academic environment using TAM.

To validate the model that had been created.

Technology acceptance model (TAM)

Introduced by Fred Davis in 1985 Used to measure the capability of users

to accept or reject the system or technology.

Perceived usefulness (PU) is factor derived from when the user

used a system then put a set value to the system to see if the system is useful for the user.

Defined as "the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would enhance his or her job performance".

Perceived ease of use (PEOU) is to see if the system is easy for the

user to navigate and use it. Defined as "the degree to which a

person believes that using a particular system would enhance his or her job performance"

Attitude toward is to see the attitude of user toward the

system. Is the user like it or hate it. These emotion can affect the user

motivation in using the system.

Hypothesis The research hypotheses determined by the diagram of the TAM model in

the regard of the Dropbox are:

Hypothesis 1: Perceived ease of use has a relationship to perceived usefulness of the system.

Hypothesis 2: Perceived ease of use has a relationship to attitude towards using.

Hypothesis 3: Perceived usefulness has a relationship to attitude towards using.

Hypothesis 4: Perceived usefulness has a relationship to intention to use.

Hypothesis 5: Attitude towards using has a relationship to intention to use.

Hypothesis Figure

Methodology Design

The research utilized a questionnaire design.

PopulationThe research population consisted of school of computing students.

Sample sizeI forwarded request to 50 students in the School of Computing, Universiti Utara Malaysia to complete the survey. Approximately 30 of the students are enrolled in a postgraduate program while the remainders are enrolled in an undergraduate program. Even so, only 47 responses would come in useful, since 3 of the students failed to return the questionnaire.

Result Reliability

Cronbach's alpha is considered the most typical form of internal consistency reliability coefficient determined by the association between variables.

Hair et al. (1998) recommend the values of 0.60 to 0.70 to be the lower limit of acceptability.

The questionnaire Perceived ease of use (PEOU), Perceived usefulness (PU), Attitude toward(ATT) and Intention to use (ITU) had been tested for reliability and came out as in the table.

Cronbach Alpha ResultItem Cronbach Alpha

PEOU 0.966

PU 0.955

ATT 0.949

ITU 0.943

Correlation Correlation refers to any of a broad

class of statistical relationships involving dependence

In the result we can see that It have indicates that there is high positive relationship between subjects

Correlation Correlation between Ease of use and Usefulness

(r =0.765, p =0.000) Correlation between Ease of use and attitude toward

(r =0.799, p =0.000) Correlation between Usefulness and Attitude toward

(r =0.891, p =0.000) Correlation between Usefulness and Intention to Use

(r =0.820, p =0.000) Correlation between Attitude towards and intention to

use(r =0.765, p =0.000)

Multiple Regression Regression results for H1

β p R2

Perceived ease of use

.765 .000 .586

Regression results for H2 and H3

β p R2

Perceived ease of use

.283 .006 .826

Perceived usefulness

.674 .000

Regression results for H4 and H5

β p R2

Perceived usefulness

.570 .002 .728

Attitude toward using

.312 .071

SummaryHypothesi

s

Relationship tested Results

H1 Perceived ease of use has a relationship to

perceived usefulness of the system.Supported (p < 0.05)

H2 Perceived ease of use has a relationship to

attitude towards using.Supported (p < 0.05)

H3 Perceived usefulness has a relationship to

attitude towards using.Supported (p < 0.05)

H4 Perceived usefulness has a relationship to

intention to use.Supported (p < 0.05)

H5 Attitude towards using has a relationship

to intention to use.Not supported (p > 0.05)

Result of Multiple Regression analysis

Discussion The study of the Figure model shown us that the model was only partially

but not fully supported. The student had shown that their attitude toward using Dropbox does not

supported their intention to use Dropbox, but the student had perceived the Dropbox to be useful to them enough that it override the attitude toward using Dropbox.

With that we can see that the model had agree with what Davis (1989) had suggested that is perceived usefulness was discovered to possess a considerable influence on students’ intention to utilize the technology.

Attitude, when it comes to utilizing was at most a partial mediator of the impact of perceived usefulness on intention to use, knowing that it added little causal explanatory strength.

We can rationalized it by stating it was due to the student that are willing to adopt the useful application of Dropbox, this shows us that the students are focusing on the usefulness of the application itself.

Proper training should be given to the students to make the students view on perceived usefulness is to be solidified and strengthen.

Conclusion Used to evaluate the usability of TAM to presenting

students’ acceptance of the Dropbox technology within the academic environment.

An Intention-based model in an academic environment, which deviates significantly from the business institutions normally analyzed in preceding research.

Training as well as information consultations on Dropbox have to concentrate mainly concerning how the technology can help enhance the effectiveness and proficiency of students’ learning method as opposed to on the processes of actual utilization of the technology.

Cont.. In summary, TAM is not a descriptive

model, which, it really does not offer diagnostic capability for particular flaws in technology; it is able to assist the function of assessing and forecasting technology acceptability.