A Pilot Study on Open Source Cloud Computing (OSCC) Awareness in the Universiti Sains Malaysia Education Sector Hala A. Albaroodi, Selvakumar Manickam, Mohammed Faiz Aboalmaaly, Hemananthan Palakarnim
A Pilot Study on Open Source Cloud Computing (OSCC) Awareness in the Universiti Sains Malaysia Education Sector 1
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Hala A. Albaroodi, Selvakumar Manickam, Mohammed Faiz Aboalmaaly , 4 Hemananthan Palakarnim
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National Advanced IPv6 Centre (NAV6) Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 USM, Penang, Malaysia,
[email protected] 2,3,4 National Advanced IPv6 Centre (NAV6) Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 USM, Penang, Malaysia, selva, essa, nanthan @nav6.usm.my
Abstract The goal of the study was to identify the outcome of the adoption of open source software (OSS)–based cloud services among information communication technology (ICT) project managers, ICT quality managers, and ICT senior developers. To identify ways to promote the use of open source cloud computing (OSCC), a questionnaire entitled "Effectiveness of open source cloud computing on Malaysian organisations" was designed, developed, and pretested. The questionnaire was validated, and its reliability was tested. A convenient sample of 55 respondents was identified from university Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). The questionnaire was designed to measure the knowledge levels of ICT and the intent to use OSCC. The reliability was tested for internal consistency using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Good internal consistency was found (Cronbach's alpha = 0.799). The reliability of attitude items and some knowledge items were measured by the Split-Half reliability method; the Spearman-Brown and Guttman Split-Half coefficients were 0.60 and 0.560, respectively. In conclusion, the finding from this validation study indicate that the "Effectiveness of open source cloud computing on Malaysian organisations” questionnaire is a reliable and valid measure of OSCC knowledge that can now be used in educational settings because it shows acceptable test reliability and validity.
Keywords: Open Source Cloud Computing (OSCC), Cronbach's Alpha, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Information Communication Technology (ICT)
1. Introduction Cloud computing is a computing model that allows resources to be provided based on demand; for instance, when necessary, cloud users can rent these resources. Cloud computing is a reassuring paradigm that is used to support networks of computers and communications in the most cost-effective manner. Clouds provide elastic capacity to serve a wide and continuously expanding range of information-processing needs, which include government, education, and business. The Cloud Computing paradigm is rapidly maturing and is being considered for adoption in government and business sectors [1]. Open source systems are software systems whose source code is available, which allows for the incorporation of improvements and adaption of the system by third-party developers. Unlike centralised, proprietary software models, open source offers practical accessibility to the source code, allowing immediate incorporation of different approaches and enabling the branching of the system into customised variants [2]. The emerging trends have led to a new breed of computing known as Open Source Cloud Computing (OSCC). The new OSCC approach helps provide customisable infrastructure to deploy clouds for any type of application domain. For a developing country such as Malaysia, competing in the global market has become more challenging and complex. Attaining competitiveness is not only about liberalisation of the economy but also about how much OSCC is being used in the country. Because OSCC benefits all activities, wider diffusion is vital to ensure national welfare. To this end, the governments of developing countries are being pressured to increase OSCC diffusion in the economy to maximise the benefit from technological investments. In essence, strategic policies have to be developed to address failures in chieving global competitiveness rather than building production capabilities in relative isolation [3, 4].
International Journal of Advancements in Computing Technology(IJACT) Volume5, Number9,May 2013 doi:10.4156/ijact.vol5.issue9.149
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A Pilot Study on Open Source Cloud Computing (OSCC) Awareness in the Universiti Sains Malaysia Education Sector Hala A. Albaroodi, Selvakumar Manickam, Mohammed Faiz Aboalmaaly, Hemananthan Palakarnim
This means that the important ingredients (i.e., all resources available in the country) need to be ‘plugged’ into the global market to maximise the payoffs from OSCC investment. OSCC in the networking industry in the form of E-government, E-education, and E-telecommunication with Network as a Service (NaaS) will lead to innovations across different segments of the marketplace: vendors and developers of platform, applications, customers, etc [5]. Malaysian organisations have not adopted OSCC into their organisations in any significant way. This could be due to a lack of knowledge about OSCC, the lack of standards in security and information exchange and handling, the insufficient technological standards, and a lack of understanding about how important OSCC is in achieving a competitive advantage. OSCC is practical not only in various industries but also in the public sector. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the validity and reliability of our developed “Effectiveness of Open Source Cloud Computing on Malaysian Organisations” The questionnaire is designed to measure knowledge levels about ICT and the intent to use OSCC in Malaysian organisations.
2. Research approach This research is hybrid research that combines quantitative and qualitative techniques. It is based on a comprehensive literature review within the fields of open source cloud development, open source cloud adoption, software component services, organisation size, and security. In addition, interviews were conducted with project managers, quality managers, and senior developers. Through this initial exploratory investigation and literature review, we developed a model for this research, identified variables, and designed a survey questionnaire. We developed a questionnaire entitled “Effectiveness of Open Source Cloud Computing on Malaysian Organisations” based on information drawn from the literature on open source cloud computing. We chose to evaluate the questionnaire using pretesting techniques that are commonly used following initial questionnaire drafting. An expert review was done to ensure that the questions and the way they were asked were adequate to address the evaluation questions and that the target population had the knowledge to answer. After developing, designing, and pretesting the 28-item questionnaire, an additional pilot study will be carried out to explore and report the reliability and validity of the instrument used among project managers, quality managers, and senior developers. The readability test was performed using Microsoft Word to enhance the questionnaire validity. The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level test rates text on a U.S. school grade level. Most document scores are between 7.0 and 8.0; a score of 8.0 means that an eighth grader can understand the document. The questionnaire was found to be readable by respondents with a grade 8.3 education level [6].
3. Methodology A pilot study was conducted in the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) schools, Penang, Malaysia. USM is the largest public university in Penang state. USM provides all the academic schools and centres. A convenient sample of 55 respondents for the pilot test was identified between October and December 2012. To be included in the study, students, academic staff, business owners, and others had to (1) know about or be aware of OSCC, (2) use cloud computing, and (3) be able to communicate in the English language. Users who did not have any idea what OSCC was could not complete questionnaire and were excluded. In addition, the 55 respondents in the sample were randomly selected and agreed to participate in a reliability test analysis. All face-to-face interviews with the 55 respondents were performed by the investigator, who is a computer scientist (Ph.D. candidate). Figure 1 illustrates the steps in the process of developing the questionnaire and collecting the data.
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A Pilot Study on Open Source Cloud Computing (OSCC) Awareness in the Universiti Sains Malaysia Education Sector Hala A. Albaroodi, Selvakumar Manickam, Mohammed Faiz Aboalmaaly, Hemananthan Palakarnim
Developed the questionnaire
Pretesting techniques choose to evaluate the questionnaire
No. of the reviewers 1st review Modify To ensure face, content and construct validity
2nd review Modify Readability Test
Reliability analyses (will be used Cronbach’s alpha)
3rd review Modified If Needed Data Collection Figure 1. The processes involved in developing the questionnaire and collecting data The questionnaire was pretested among (8-10) reviewers from NTT DATA to ensure its validity with our study objectives. Modifications were made as suggested by the reviewers, and its validity was rechecked by another reviewer from the USM staff. The questionnaire readability was measured to ensure it is easy to read. The questionnaire was checked for its readability level by using the readability tool in Microsoft Word; the readability was “8.3”, which is within the recommended range [6]. The question in section A about current work location in Malaysia (respondent profile) was added because a reviewer suggested that we investigate where the highest knowledge of cloud computing and OSCC exists in Malaysia. In addition, some questions were asked to see the effect on the respondent’s answers. We included some of knowledge questions, for example, “do you have knowledge of cloud computing technology”, because if the participants do not have any knowledge of OSCC, they cannot answer the rest of the questions. Moreover, other questions were added because of their strong relation to our study objective. The rest of the knowledge questions were drawn from other literature and modified [7-10]. However, we added a section to measure the intention to use OSCC services in Malaysian organisations [11] and two more questions on attitude [11, 12]. Moreover, a perceived
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A Pilot Study on Open Source Cloud Computing (OSCC) Awareness in the Universiti Sains Malaysia Education Sector Hala A. Albaroodi, Selvakumar Manickam, Mohammed Faiz Aboalmaaly, Hemananthan Palakarnim
usefulness section was added [13], along with four questions on perceived ease of use [13]. Furthermore, two questions on perceived risk [12, 14-16] and one question on shared value [12, 17-20] were added, and the entire trust section [21, 22] was modified, as recommended by the reviewers.
4. Statistical analysis Descriptive statistics were used to describe the pilot study analysis involving 55 respondents; demographics, characteristics, and OSCC knowledge scores were recorded. Percentages and frequencies were used for the categorical variables, and means ± and standard deviations were calculated. The characteristics of the whole sample and some of the knowledge questions are presented in Table 1. To test reliability, the internal consistency was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha, and the Spearman-Brown and Guttman Split-Half rank correlation coefficients were calculated and are presented in Table 2. The criterion for accepting Cronbach’s alpha is a score above 0.799. All analyses were performed using SPSS version 20.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, Ill).
5. Reliability Cronbach’s alpha test of internal consistency was around 0.799 for the 55 respondents to the OSCC questionnaire and is within the recommended limit [23]. Table 2 shows the attitude items and some of the knowledge items that were measured by the split-half reliability method. The Spearman-Brown and Guttman Split-Half correlation coefficients were 0.605 (p
