Development and implementation of cloud platforms for educational process management in the context of digital transformation of universities

Abstract

Modern universities face the need to respond promptly to the challenges of digital transformation: improving the quality of educational services, the flexibility of educational processes and the effectiveness of management. Cloud platforms are a key tool for solving these tasks, providing centralized access to resources, analytics, and communications. The purpose of the research is to develop and implement a cloud–based educational process management platform, taking into account the requirements of teachers, students and administrative staff in a digital environment. A combined methodology was used in the work, including the following steps:: 1) analysis of stakeholders' requirements and existing solutions; 2) architecture design based on a microservice approach and containerization; 3) prototype development using an IaaS/PaaS cloud provider; 4) pilot implementation in three university faculties; 5) collection and statistical processing of data on efficiency, usability and engagement indicators. The methods of questionnaires, in-depth interviews, and logical analysis of user scenarios were used to assess the quality of the platform. The developed platform provides a schedule management module, a repository of educational materials, a performance monitoring system, and integration with videoconferencing services. During the pilot implementation, there was a 35% reduction in time spent on the administration of the educational process, a 28% increase in teacher and student satisfaction, and a 42% increase in online engagement. The performance analysis showed the stability of the system with a simultaneous load of up to 2000 active users. The results obtained confirm the high efficiency of cloud solutions for integrated educational process management. The limitations of the study are related to the scale of the pilot project and the specifics of the infrastructure of a particular university. In future work, it is advisable to expand the functionality of the platform through integrated artificial intelligence analytics and test it in a multi-institutional format. The introduction of such systems will allow universities to increase the competitiveness and quality of specialist training in the digital economy era.