Available online at http://www.journalijdr.com ISSN: 2230-9926 International Journal of Development Research Vol. 07, Issue, 08, pp.14626-14633, August, 2017 ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLEORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE Open Access GOOGLE DOCS: AN EFFECTIVE COLLABORATIVE TOOL FOR GRADUATES TO PERFORM ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES IN THE CLOUD *Dr. Ashadevi, B. and Muthamil Selvi, P. Computer Science, M.V. Muthaiah Govt. Arts College for Women Dindigul – 01, India ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Article History: Academic writing, individual or collaborative, is an essential skill for today's graduates. Received 10th May, 2017 Unfortunately, managing, writing activities and providing feedback to students is very labor Received in revised form intensive and academics often opt out of including such learning experiences in their teaching. 15th June, 2017 Successful integration of educational technology is a complicated process that is influenced by Accepted 22nd July, 2017 multiple factors (Levin & Wadmany, 2008; Valcke et al., 2007). Recently, both within and across th Published online 30 August, 2017 schools, educators have been searching for cloud-based solutions to address the challenges of integrating educational technology into their school systems ─ assessing whether these programs Keywords: are affordable, accessible, and well-suited to improve learning. While the popularity of cloud- Collaborative writing, based applications among educational institutions and students is rapidly increasing due to their Collaborative tools, enhanced sharing features, accessibility, and cost-efficiency, there have been few efforts to Google Docs, investigate the impacts of these cloud-based applications in educational settings. The Internet Google Sheets, giant offers a suite of Web-based productivity applications under the name Google Docs (GoDs). Google Presentations, Google Docs is the ability to share and collaborate with others in “real time.” Each user saves Google Drive. information to the cloud system, he or she can access the same file from anywhere. In online collaboration, multiple users can make edits to the same files at the same time. The objective of this paper is to highlight the various collaborative tools and the importance in doing the academic activities collaboratively. *Corresponding author Copyright ©2017, Ashadevi and Muthamil Selvi. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Citation: Dr. Ashadevi, B. and MuthamilSelvi, P. , 2017. “Google Docs: An Effective Collaborative Tool for Graduates to Perform Academic Activities in the Cloud”, International Journal of Development Research, 7, (08), 14626-14633. INTRODUCTION This is called online collaboration, and it could streamline teamwork over the Web. Because Google Docs preserves Although it's a relatively young industry, many companies earlier versions of documents, there's no reason to worry about offer cloud computing services. One of those companies is irrevocably changing a file. Collaborating on files might mean Google. The Internet giant offers a suite of Web-based changing the way we think about document management. But productivity applications under the name Google Docs. While it might also mean project managers can save time and effort. these applications aren't as complex or comprehensive as the Google Docs is a free Web-based application in which leading desktop counterparts, they have other advantages over documents and spreadsheets can be created, edited and stored traditional software. The most obvious of these advantages is online. Files can be accessed from any computer with an that the applications aren't tied to a specific computer. There's Internet connection and a full-featured Web browser. Google no need to download and install software on a particular Docs is a part of a comprehensive package of online machine. Any computer connected to the Internet can access applications offered by and associated with Google. Users of Google Docs. Because each user saves information to the Google Docs can import, create, edit and update documents cloud system, he or she can access the same file from and spreadsheets in various fonts and file formats, combining anywhere. Users don't have to worry about which version of a text with formulas, lists, tables and images. Google Docs is document is the most current -- it will always be saved in the compatible with most presentation software and word Google cloud. Another advantage is that multiple users can processor applications. Work can be published as a Web page make edits to the same files at the same time. or as a print-ready manuscript. Users can control who sees 14627 Ashadevi and Muthamil Selvi, Google docs: An effective collaborative tool for graduates to perform academic activities in the cloud their work. Google Docs is ideal for publishing within an A. Why use Google Docs ? enterprise, maintaining blogs or composing work for viewing by the general public. Google Docs lends itself to collaborative Work off-site: Prepare for meetings, trainings, and work on projects in which multiple authors work together in real time projects from geographically diverse locations. All participants can see who made specific document changes and when those Collaborate: work easily with others by sharing the same alterations were done. Because documents are stored online document, e.g., prepare conference presentation, write articles, and can also be stored on users' computers, there is no risk of plan projects. total data loss as a result of a localized catastrophe. However, the Internet-based nature of Google Docs has given rise to Control versions: no need for flash drivers, e-mailing etc. – concerns among some authors that their work may not be pull up actual document from homes and other remotes private or secure. This section will elaborate on the locations introduction to the study which is writing on the cloud: the use of Google documents with Schoology to assist students in Simultaneous editing: collaborators can edit documents while improving their academic writing. Writing academic essays in talking on the phone and know where the latest version is. a tertiary education setting can be a rather daunting task for many students. This is particularly applicable in the context of B. Why use Google Sheets? this study where the respondents of this study are facing difficulties when writing critical texts. However, this can be Price: The entire suite of Google Apps is free. done by introducing the students to cloud based collaborative writing programs. Such programs are readily available online, Cloud storage and Portability: automatically saved in the such as Wikispaces and Google documents. cloud, attached to google account, and accessible from any computer with a browser. No need to worry about another The use of cloud based collaborative writing programs are not computer having the same version of Excel. a miracle drug for the students to immediately have their writing skills improved. However, it could be used as a Better cross-platform support: it will work on different catalyst to guide them in improving their academic writing platform. skills. This is especially true with regards to the use of certain cloud computing platforms to provide collaborative support C. Why use Google Presentations? and feedback to the students (Kafer and Center, 2013). In the context of this study, google documents may be deemed as Compatibility in google presentations: import and export effective when used as a collaborative writing software, graphics, text formats, PDFs and even Powerpoint however it lacks any particular place for the lecturer to provide presentations without a hassle. They can also publish their any form of feedback. Calvo, O'Rourke, Jones, Yacef, & creations to the Internet quickly and easily. Reimann (2011) mentioned of the same issue in his study. However, Calvo et.al took a different approach where a new Cloud based presentation creation: several different software was developed to cater to the collaborative writing in colleagues can access and modify a presentation as it is being that study’s context. This study supplemented the feedback formulated. element with an online learning management system (LMS) known as Schoology. The use of Schoology can compensate LITERATURE REVIEW for the provision of feedback and can be used in tandem with google documents. This can be done when Schoology was The concept of cloud computing has many definitions, Sultan used to post the feedback for the students on it to tell students (2010) stated that cloud computing is a platform that can be what are their strengths and weaknesses when it comes to their directly accessed via the internet and does not require any essays. form of software installation. An example that Sultan (2010) gave would be that of Google apps, which consists of Google Furthermore, the use of Schoology as a document archive is documents. Garner (2010) provides a discussion of how good as the students will be able to keep all their previous technologies like GD can support collaboration around work as well as the feedback given to the students. Studies information and personal knowledge management. Chu, such as the one conducted by Manning, Brooks, Crotteau, Kennedy, and Mak assessed stu-dents’ perception on the Diedrich, Moser & Zwiefelhofer (2011) pointed out such effectiveness of MediaWiki and GD in report-writing