Design and Development of a Virtual University Application Using Cloud Computing
email: stdamietebriggs@yahoo.com
A B S T R A C T
This research project is themed on using cloud computing to design and develop a virtual university application that is expected to revolutionise distance learning and virtual education worldwide. A plethora of frameworks exist for the development of applications, nevertheless, the cloud model was chosen considering the fact that it is relatively new and so makes the news. Being a paradigm of evolutionary prototyping, the cloud computing framework which consists of the following layers: platform as a service layer, infrastructure as a service layer and software as a service layer, equips one with all the tools pre-requisite for the successful execution of the project. Starting from a well understood set of requirements, and carefully following an elaborate set of process activities, and from a well organized development environment, structured methods were used to design and develop the virtual university application which for the purpose of this research is named the Utopia University Application (UUA). After a series of unit and system tests, results proved that the UUA was efficiently functional, withstood operational constraints and conformed to specification. This result obtained, leads one to draw the inference that modern information technology systems like cloud computing have defied simplicity, buttressed and reverberated the capability, potential, and sophistication of information technology, and have a positive and strong impact on education and learning and other facets of contemporary society that is beyond the ambit of human expectation and exceeded the threshold of scientific knowledge.