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Performance-Centric Cloud-Based e-Learning
-- Narayan A Joshi
Advancements in information technology have enhanced its usage in many areas of society, including the education sector. The e-learning paradigm is widely accepted by the online learning community and the education providers across the world. However, factors like limited availability of infrastructural resources, increasing demands for resources, time, space and cost constraints have resulted in their performance degradation which has led them to trivial access only. Implementation of integrated cloud-based e-learning environments may result in solutions which may be of use to the increasing number of online learners and their increasing instantaneous demands for computing resources. This paper presents the issues concerning the implementation of cloud-based e-learning solutions and suggests an efficient and performance-centric architecture of mutually teamed up community e-learning cloud environments. © 2014 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
e-Commerce and Its Structural Development in India:
An Analysis
--G V Chalam and K Siva Nageswara Rao
India has been implementing liberalization, globalization and privatization policies since 1991. Following these policies, the banks/financial institutions have taken advantage of liberalization and technology has become cheap, and customers are getting better quality services. Though India ranks third in the world in the number of Internet users, the percentage of the users compared to the population is not remarkable. However, in recent years, there has been an increase in the availability of state-of-the-art technological devices and communication gadgets in India. Against this background, in this paper, an attempt has been made to discuss the evolution of various electronic gadgets and structural development of e-commerce. The paper also explains the trends of Internet usage and the role of India in the global market. Finally, the paper analyzes the applications of e-commerce in different areas of human life. © 2014 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
A Framework for Improving e-Services Utilization in Rural Areas
--Puneet Kumar, Dharminder Kumar and Rajesh Sharma
The Indian rural society is infested with problems like illiteracy, poverty, lack of awareness, etc., and to eradicate such problems an attempt has been made by the Government of India in the form of 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act which strongly affirms the establishment of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs). The PRIs comprise elected representatives from rural vicinity, who can understand local demands and problems. The government has initiated various rural development programs which encompass keen involvement of PRIs and bureaucracy for their success. In the year 2006, the government approved National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) for computerization of high priority mundane tasks. As a result, numerous e-governance applications were designed for imparting various types of services to people in their own vicinity. But a majority of applications have not attained the intended success. The e-services, especially in rural areas, were hampered by the lack of participation and awareness among PRIs, bureaucrats and beneficiaries. This paper proposes a prototype for enhancing utilization of e-services in rural areas by reengineering the methodology adopted for capacity building of PRIs and sensitization mechanism. It also includes the feedback mechanism for beneficiaries. The paper encompasses the formal mathematical representation of the framework which gives an impeccable idea about the boundaries of the framework and the impact of various parameters in enhancing e-services utilization, and assists in the development of ontologies for the framework. © 2014 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Precursors to Electronic Word-of-Mouth: An Exploration
of Factors That Influence Mobile Phone-Related Online
Communication Behavior Among University Students
--Sumangla Rathore, Avinash Panwar and Jitendra Shreemali
The present study focuses on customer-sharing of information on mobile phones. The data for the study was collected through administering a structured questionnaire to a group of University students living on the same campus in the city of Udaipur in Rajasthan. The survey instrument included a variety of measures that assess the innovativeness, involvement, Internet usage and online connection of the communicators. Based on the impact of various factors, electronic Word-of-Mouth (WOM) was examined in terms of customers seeking further opinion on the product/service or becoming opinion leaders on the product/service. It was observed that innovativeness and Internet usage have a high positive impact on opinion leadership and Internet usage and online connection have a greater influence on opinion seeking. It was further noticed that opinion seeking or opinion leadership are not mutually exclusive outcomes, but in fact, influence each other, suggesting that the online behavioral outcome falls on a continuous spectrum and mutually interact with each other in a continuous fashion. © 2014 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
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