USAGE OF CLOUD APPLICATIONS BY STUDENTS

Cloud computing is an increasingly accepted trend in the IT sector and it is widely used in various fields including education. This paper focuses on the possibilities of using cloud computing in higher education in general, and it considers students' readiness to use this innovative technology. The paper deals with one of the models of cloud computing, named "software as a service" (SaaS), because it is assumed that students are often mobile and that they need access to data and applications from various devices and locations. Motivation and perception are two important factors contributing to the acceptance of new technologies. For that reason, the objectives of this paper are to determine students' motivation to use and their perception of cloud applications and the level of use of those applications, so as to establish a correlation between these variables. A statistically significant difference in students' motivation to use and their perception of cloud applications between the students of Information Sciences and those of other study programmes of the Polytechnic of Rijeka has been determined. The number of computers and mobile devices with Internet access has indicated a statistically significant difference with regard to motivation to use cloud services. However, the number of computers/mobile devices used has had no impact on the perception. The statistically significant positive correlation between the variables motivation – use of cloud applications, and perception – use of cloud application has also been confirmed. Among the best known cloud applications, the most used are those for communication and socializing, and the least used are office applications.