INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE 22 23 November 2013, GABROVO

GROUNDS AND SECURITY ISSUES IN CLOUD BASED E-LEARNING OF T E ENGLIS LANGUAGE

D!"#$! %#&o'ev#(
Technical College VTS, Ni, Serbia

Bor#vo)e %#&o'ev#(
Technical College VTS, Ni, Serbia

%#&!" %#)!&*ov#(
VISER, Beograd, Serbia

Ab'+r!$+ Cloud computing provides an efficient, scalable and cost effective !a" for organi#ations to provide business or consumer IT services over the Internet$ %ifferent models of cloud computing are available, providing a solid support for core business functions and fle&ibilit" to deliver ne! services$ 'o!ever, the fle&ibilit" and openness of the Cloud computing model has created a large number of securit" problems$ This paper !ill sho! that the problems of securit" in a
Cloud E (earning s"stem ma" occur in the application of learning English in schools$

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INTRODUCTION Nowadays, many technologies which are making human life easier are introduced almost every day. Web-based technologies, for instance, [3] contribute greatly to the reduction of efforts that users have to make in order to obtain a required iece of information. !eanwhile, many institutions and universities are introducing new courses that rovide knowledge about these technologies, making it easier for users to co e with them. "owever, such institutions generally face a shortage of e# erienced teachers who are res onsible for holding technical courses. $o overcome this roblem, online education services are introduced for a range of different courses based on the %nternet latform. &loud com uting, as one of the internet latforms is a highly fle#ible, cost-effective and ''user friendly'' latform, whose main task is to deliver and rovide business or consumer %$ services over the internet. &loud resource systems are evolving very ra idly, along with all the rocesses, a lications, and services obtained '' on demand (, regardless of the user's location or device within a broadband %nternet network. $hey re resent a large ool of easily usable and accessible virtuali)ed resources *such as hardware, develo ment latforms and + or services,. $hese resources can be dynamically refigured to ada t to the

varying scale load, which also enables the o timal utili)ation of resources. &loud com uting customers can use one or more &loud com uting services based on their business needs. -artner and .orrester offered the following definition of &loud com uting which can be seen as/ () st"le of computing !here scalable and elastic IT enabled capabilities are delivered as a service to e&ternal customers using Internet technologies$,( or/ (Standardi#ed, highl" scalable and controlled computer infrastructure over the Internet host applications, intended for end users, !ho are charged for services based on the actual usage$ ( $his a er discusses the a lication of a new technology in &loud com uting system of electronic learning and its security. 0sers can, by virtue of the authori)ation system and 1!2 *1earning !anagement 2ystem, access 3learning a lications from any com uter. $oday, it is quite common that these systems are installed on web servers located in schools, colleges, universities, or any other ty e of organi)ation. $hese a lications offer the ossibility to create 3-learning courses, which thus become the sites for osting and sharing teaching ublications and materials, erforming online discussions and lectures,

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holding teacher seminars and resenting final and other a ers, etc. "ardware devices such as 456s, mobile hones, standard com uters, ortable com uters, and software a lications such as Web browsers or &loud com uting, have become the most o ular latforms in all business sectors today thanks to their ca acity to reduce the full costs of using software a lications and hardware. E - LEARNING CLOUD $he 3nglish language 3 - learning based on &loud technology is a subset of &loud &om uting a lied to the field of education. $he future for the develo ment of technology and 3-learning infrastructure is bright. 3- learning based on &loud has all the necessary resources, such as hardware and software, as well as the management system of re ort to enhance traditional learning infrastructure , .ig. 7.

Figure 1. Iodel of integrated learning management

s"stem

2ince educational material for the 3nglish language 3-learning systems is re resented in virtual &loud servers, this material is available for students and other educational institutions and businesses to use. $he rocess begins with learners or users sending a request to the web ortal. $hen, the request travels through the system8s management which is res onsible for the decision on the a ro riate kind of resources. 1earners who use this service receive the information u on their request after which the required resources are delivered to them. $he last art is evaluation. %t is im ortant to distinguish between two &loud environments that offer students and other users a wide range of services [3] for 3-learning/

V(E JVirtual (earning EnvironmentK is an electronic latform that can be used to track and rovide e-learning courses and enhance face-to-face instruction with online com onents. 4rimarily it automates the administration of learning by facilitating and then recording learner8s activity. $he second service is L(E JLersonal (earning EnvironmentK, which a eared in the last few years as a new wave of web technologies such as blogs, wikis, and social software, known as Web 9.:. L(E has become a ma;or technology that su orts content ublishing over the %nternet. .or instance, Web 9.: allows eo le to create, ublish, e#change, share, and coo erate on information in a new way of communication and collaboration. 6 lying Web 9.: technologies to e-learning can enhance interactive communication and collaboration among artici ants and learners who either ossess related learning resources, or can hel each other discover and obtain the resources, or are willing to e#change and share the resources with others in the Web-based learning. %n Web 9.:, learners can read and write to the Web, in which learners become both the consumers and roducers of learning resources. $hus, Web 9.: rovides a learning environment which has the otential to fundamentally change the nature of learning and teaching, through the creation of learner -controlled web. 5evelo ing of 3-learning is more e# ensive than re aring classroom materials and training the teachers, es ecially if multimedia or highly interactive methods are used, .ig. 9.

Figure 2$ %eveloping an E learning model

$here are at least two entities involved in an 3-learning system/ students * who take online courses and e#ams, send feedback, homework and ro;ects<, and trainers *who deal with content management, re are and assess tests,

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set homework assignments and send feedback to students , .ig. 3.

Figure 3$ Communication and E learning users

=ased on this figure, we can conclude that this is a three-tier 3- learning &loud architecture system with 4hysical "ardware, >irtual 2torages and !achines and &loud !anagement 2ystem. $his is e# lained in the following .ig. ?.

Figure 4$ Mvervie! of a Cloud architecture for E (earning

$here are a lot of benefits in using &loud systems for 3 -1earning/ Nor users, advantages of using the system are the following / @ 0sers of the system for 3-learning do not need to have high- erformance com uters to run their a lications. $hey can be started from &loud latforms, while services are aid on a ay- as-you -go basis. .i#ed monthly costs are low since &loud com uting networks are taking advantage by bringing large numbers - millions of users, and the low cost of o eration at information centers, which are managed from another location.

@ $here is no u -front investment in hardware, which is articularly attractive to small and medium educational institutions, enter rises and newly founded com anies. 2ince the a lications are rocessed on a &loud latform, client machines cannot face roblems in their work. @ 2ince the a lications for e-learning are centered on the owerful &loud servers, the software can automatically u date with &loud sources. $here is no need to install and maintain servers, manage su erstructure or care about whether the software is com atible with the hardware or not. @ 6lso, there is no need for license management a lications. @ 2tudents and other users have numerous advantages using &louds for 3-learning . $hey can run on- line courses, attend on- line e#ams, receive feedback from rofessors and instructors, and send their ro;ects and s ecial assignments to be assesed. $he system can easily ada t to the needs of more users or additional services - or it can reduce the activity when the demand for services seasonally decreases. @ %f any of the fonts and format documents do not o en ro erly on other devices, users of &loud systems do not have to worry about this since such documents are now o en directly to the &loud system. $herefore, there is a ossibility to access documents from any kind of machine instead of being attached to a articular device. @ $he system can be e# anded, and does not have to be urchased, which is beneficial to the com anies that are still develo ing. Benefits to the teachers are great as well and only some of them will be mentioned below / @ $he teachers re are online offers for student testing and teaching, create better resources for students through the content management. $hey can access tests and the content of students' home ro;ects that the students have done. $hey also send feedback and communicate with students through on line forums. 6s we have seen, 3-learning a roaches can combine different ty es of 3-learning com onents [7] ,$able 7.

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De'$r#1+#o" 2im le learning resources are non-interactive resources such as documents, 4ower4oint resentations, videos or audio files. $hese materials are non-interactive in the sense that learners can only read or watch content without erforming any other action. $he most common a roach for self- aced e-learning is Web-based training consisting of a set of interactive elessons. 6n e-lesson is a linear sequence of screens which can include te#t, gra hics, animations, audio, video and interactivity in the form of questions and feedback. 3-lessons can also include recommended reading and links to online resources, as well as additional information on s ecific to ics. 2imulations are highly interactive forms of e-learning. $he term AsimulationB basically means creating a learning environment that AsimulatesB the real world, allowing the learner to learn by doing. 2imulations are s ecific forms of Web-based training that immerse the learner in a real-world situation and res ond in a dynamic way to his+her behaviour. Cob aids rovide ;ust-in-time knowledge. $hey can take several forms and be delivered on different latforms *e.g. com uter, rinted document, mobile hone,. $hey usually rovide immediate answers to s ecific questions, thus hel ing users accom lish ;ob tasks. $echnical glossaries and checklists are ;ust a few e#am les of sim le ;ob aids, but so histicated e# ert systems can also be develo ed to assist workers in com le# decision-making situations. 2ervices which rovide human and social dimensions can be offered to learners to su ort them through the learning e# erience. 3-tutoring, 3-coaching and 3-mentoring rovide individual su ort and feedback to learners through online tools and facilitation techniques. 2ynchronous and asynchronous online discussions are designed to facilitate communication and knowledgesharing among learners. 1earners can comment and e#change ideas about course activities or contribute to grou learning by sharing their knowledge. &ollaborative ro;ect work im lies collaboration among learners to erform a task. &ollaborative activities can include ro;ect work and scenario-based assignments. 6 virtual classroom is an 3- learning event where an instructor teaches remotely and in real time to a grou of learners using a combination of materials *e.g. 4ower4oint slides, audio or video materials,. %t is also called synchronous learning. $his method requires the least amount of effort to convert materials *but instructors still have to re are them,. 6 ro riate technology must be in lace for both the learners and roviders *e.g. software for the virtual classroom and good connectivity,.

Table 1$ E learning components

$here are many instructional system design models, most of which are based on &loud systems, resented in the diagrams below.

6da ting e#isting models to match s ecific needs is wiser than roceeding without any lan. "owever, fle#ibility is needed to select and ada t a model to a given situation. 3-learning ro;ects vary considerably in comle#ity and si)e. $he rocess described below is com rehensive-it covers all the o tions that can be included in a com le# learning ro;ect. "owever, some of the ste s can be ski ed or sim lified according to the ro;ect8s ob;ectives and requirements, such as budget, e# ertise or organi)ational constraints. $he basic rinci le of &loud 3-learning, a lied to any form of the curriculum or course, lies in the fact that the teacher, in terms of mass instruction is transferring art of his+her functions to the s ecial devices for learning, which in this case allows the fulfillment of all the im ortant conditions

which are otherwise ossible only in individual work. $hese are/ @ simultaneous acce tance of ieces of information from individual students, their analysis and understanding @ simultaneous tutoring of each student, using the methods that are o tirmal for each student @ simultaneous teaching erformance at a ace that suits each student individually @ simultaneous decision-making on o timal ways for training students @ simultaneous revision of student work and feedback information on the accuracy of each res onse, creating a ositive motivation for every student @ simultaneous re etition of information after which a student gave an incorrect answer as many times as it takes each student to understand the given roblem *information, and give the correct answer to the question @ 6voidance of all the sub;ective factors of teachers, which influenced e#amination and assessment of the students8 knowledge, or determination of the roficiency level of the rogrammed material. $o build and start the ro;ect of &loud 3 learning of 3nglish, three roblems must be solved.

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$he first consists in drawing rogrammed books, bearing in mind the very motodical sensitivity of the material for learning. 0sing the technique of linear or branched rogramming, books can be rogrammed relying on one of ordinary te#tbooks so that the entire material can be s lit on many small logical entities *units of information,. $he distance between them is called (a ste of rogrammed learning(. 5e ending on the model, a ste may be long or short. 6fter each unit of information is resented to a student, the student receives questions and is given the o ortunity to res ond to them, choosing one of the given o tions or filling in a ga , with his+her own res onse. 6fter answering the questions, if the answers are correct, the student gets a new unit of information relying on the logical sequence, or is informed about the nature of the error, after which he+she is forced to study again the information after which he+she gave the wrong answer. "owever, starting from the ossibility that an ordinary te#tbook in terms of its content can be difficult to gras and not always user-friendly, the material for learning will not become easier and more understandable by being rogrammed. $he e#isting coursebook needs to be revised by creating a more suitable model. 6 rogrammed te#tbook can be considered a semi-automatic (device( for learning, since it rovides information on student8s work and the material he+she should master. $he second roblem is the re aration of the a lication or a lications and achieving their algorithmic - logical correctness. $his roblem is much easier to solve, because it de ends on the skill of the teacher, rogrammer and the knowledge of the rogramming techniques. $he a lication is usually written in one of the o en interactive languages and enables work on the dis lay and keyboard as in ut-out ut units. Dut ut data, which are given after each cha ter and rocessed at the end of the rogram, deliver the re ort on errors, number of asses through the rogrammed material and the time s ent learning *to establish the level of roficiency of the rogrammed material, and contain diagnostic information that would serve to identify the shortcomings in the analysis of the students' answers. $his would hel to remove (bottlenecks( and (tight laces( from the rogram in order to obtain o timal rograms which will enable u ils to acquire the entire rogrammed material with ma#imum efficiency and minimum time. $he third roblem is the hysical organi)ation of the classroom for rogrammed

learning, or selection of an a lication for &loud 3 - 1earning *whether it will be !oodle, 2&DE! &loud, -oogle, World4ress, &loud 5ru al, etc. , $he quality of an 3-learning &loud course is enhanced by/ @ 1earner-centred content/ 3-learning curricula should be relevant and s ecific to learners8 needs, roles and res onsibilities in rofessional life. 2kills, knowledge and information should be rovided to this end. @ -ranularity/ 3-learning content should be segmented to facilitate assimilation of new knowledge and allow fle#ible scheduling of time for learning. @ 3ngaging content/ %nstructional methods and techniques should be used creatively to develo an engaging and motivating learning e# erience. @ %nteractivity/ .requent learner interaction is needed to sustain attention and romote learning. @ 4ersonali)ation/ 2elf- aced courses should be customi)able to reflect learners8 interests and needsF in instructor-led courses, tutors and facilitators should be able to follow the learners8 rogress and erformance individually. SECURITY IN E-LEARNING CLOUD 2ecurity, digital identity and access control *authori)ation, authentication, and access control, is a core oint for organi)ation of 3learning &loud systems, which are looking for the a ro riate standards that can be im lemented across business systems and between university institutions. 3ach ste of interaction between the two systems requires an inde endent identity and access management requirements. .inal solution will be quite com licated since it will require a set of standards, a detailed analysis of the interaction and the a ro riate standards to be a lied at each ste together with the su ort in legal, social and economic conditions for their a lication. $he rinci al risks [3], which in this case can occur are given in $able 9.
Co"6#/e"+#!&#+V#o&!+#o" I"+e2r#+V#o&!+#o" De"#!& o6 Onauthori#ed user gains access to the s"stem for E (earning Onauthori#ed access to the user name advantage, leading to the desired state of the s"stem for E learning$ Lreventing legitimate access rights

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Serv#$e I&&e2#+#m!+e 3'e %!&#$#o3' 1ro2r!m Re13/#!+#o" %!'73er!/e Tr!66#$ !"!&-'#' Br3+e-6or$e !++!$*

to interfere !ith traffic during the transactions bet!een users of E learning$ E&ploitation of privilege legitimate users$ (ines of code that harm other programs$ %enial of participation of users in an" transaction documents$ Behavior that hides the true event id b" hacPers$ (eaPage of information misuse !ithin communication channel$ Tr" to get all the possible combinations reveal it correct$

Figure 5$ Seven threats to securit" in Cloud computing E (earning )uthentication - is a method which hel s avoid intruders to hack the roduct or access the roducts8 functionality to create malfunctions. End Oser - =ased on the e# ectation and demand of the end user, the com anies modify their roducts till the user becomes satisfied with the roducts of the com any.

Table 2$ Basic risP

%n a ;oint 3 - learning &loud environment, customers want to ensure that all domain members are ro erly isolated and that there is no ossibility that the data and transaction fees have leaked from one of the following domains. $o achieve this, customers need the ability to configure security virtual domain or ro erly based security )one. 6s the data is getting out of the clients8 control, the system is e# ected to detect and revent the attack to the environment. Eemoval of the data to e#ternal services creates additional concerns about internal and %nternet-based denial of service *5D2, or distributed denial of service *55o2, attacks, from various virus attacks like 2 am, WDE!, $ro;ans, and $ra doors, .ig. G. $herefore the following measures must be rovided for/ Securit" management - [9] deals with the %nternet and network to rotect and ensure the user safety, information security, server security from various attacks, and rotect the total system. Information securit" - $he security measures taken by the organisation or the individual user to rotect the information from being stolen from their system by hackers and unauthorised ersons. Server Securit" - $he security of servers is im ortant because servers deal with the data of a large number of individuals and organisations. $herefore, server security and server management is a big issue due to which numerous security measures are taken to save the data in server from hackers and natural disasters.

CONCLUSION &loud com uting model has created a large number of security roblems. "uge amounts of %$ resources are divided among many users and security rocesses are often hidden behind layers of abstraction. &loud com uting is often offered as a service, so that the control of the data and o eration switches to inde endent service roviders, demanding that their clients establish a trust relationshi with their rovider and develo solutions for the security that this relationshi takes into account. REFERENCE
[7] E learning methodologies, Hnowledge 3#change and Eesearch, Eome, %taly, 9:79. [9] -unasekar Humar, 6nirudh &helikani, )nal"sis of securit" issues in Cloud based E learning, 0niversity of =orIs, 2weden, 9:77. [3] =orivo;e !iloJeviK, 2lobodan DbradoviK, ElePtronsPo uiQenRe ba#irano na Cloud platformama, L0 %N.D 9:73, 2erbia. [?] =linco H., !ason C., !c1ean N., Wilson 2., ATrends and Issues in E learning Infrastructure %evelopmentD, 4re ared on behalf of 532$ *6ustralia, and C%2&-&3$%2 *0H,, Culy 9::?.

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