Against the backdrop of new economic realities, one of the larger forces that is affecting businesses worldwide is cloud computing, whose benefits include agility, time to market, time to capability, reduced cost, renewed focus on the core and strategic partnership with the business. Cloud computing can potentially transform a majority of the…

Most UK universities can trace their current management information systems back to significant investments made in the 1990s, largely fuelled by concerns about the millenium bug and a change from character interfaces to graphical user interfaces following the introduction of the personal computer. It was during this period that institutions also…

The latest installment of the Fordham Institute's "Creating Sound Policy for Digital Learning" series investigates one of the more controversial aspects of digital learning: How much does it cost? In this paper, the Parthenon Group uses interviews with more than fifty vendors and online-schooling experts to estimate today's average…

Network externalities or alternatively termed network effects are pervasive in computer software markets. While software vendors consider pricing strategies, they must also take into account the impact of network externalities on their sales. My main interest in this research is to describe a firm's strategies and behaviors in the presence of…

Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs) that employ a model-tracing methodology have consistently shown their effectiveness. However, what evidently makes these tutors effective, the cognitive model embedded within them, has traditionally been difficult to create, requiring great expertise and time, both of which come at a cost. Furthermore, an…

Describes parallel computing and presents inexpensive ways to implement a virtual parallel computer with multiple Web servers. Highlights include performance measurement of parallel systems; models for using Java and intranet technology including single server, multiple clients and multiple servers, single client; and a comparison of CGI (common…

Presents costs and benefits of document information systems as well as a design methodology. Highlights include the method of working, method of modelling, multiple data types, access structure and indexing, and a case study of the implementation of a document information system in the Netherlands. (Author/LRW)

Discusses the results of modeling the performance of searching large text databases via various parallel hardware architectures and search algorithms. The performance under load and the cost of each configuration are compared, and a common search workload used in the modeling is described. (Contains 26 references.) (LRW)

Computer-based testing (CBT) is typically implemented using one of three general test delivery models: (1) multiple fixed testing (MFT); (2) computer-adaptive testing (CAT); or (3) multistage testing (MSTs). This article reviews some of the real cost drivers associated with CBT implementation--focusing on item production costs, the costs…