Rania Fahim Hassan Ibrahim Elgazzar

• Nguyen, Anh Duc; Lønnestad, Tor; Sundbø, Ingrid; Johannessen, Marius Rohde; Sanchez, Veralia Gabriela & Ahmed, Salah Uddin [Show all 7 contributors for this article] (2023). Exploring the Potential Impact of Generative AI in Education – A reflective analysis from nine IT courses. NIKT: Norsk IKT-konferanse for forskning og utdanning. ISSN 1892-0713. Show summary

  The increasing use of digital teaching and emerging technologies, particularly AI-based tools, such as ChatGPT, is presenting an inevitable and significant impact on higher education. The capability of processing and generating text could bring change to several areas, such as learning assessments or learning experiences. Besides the negative impact, i.e exam cheating, we also see a positive side that ChatGPT can bring to education. This research article aims to contributeto the current debate on ChatGPT by systematic reflection and experience reported from ninebachelor IT courses at a Norwegian university. We conducted inductive empirical research with reflective notes and focused groups of lecturers from nine differentITcourses. The findings were thematically organized with numerous use cases in teaching IT subjects. Our discussion highlights the disruptive implications of AI assistant usage in higher education and emphasizes the need for educators to shape this transformation.

• Sadoughi, Farahnaz; Elgazzar, Rania Fahim Hassan Ibrahim; Erfannia, Leila & Sheikhtaheri, Abbas (2022). How the health information systems can overcome the challenges of migrating to the cloud? A framework based on a mix method approach. Frontiers in health informatics. ISSN 2676-7104. 11. doi: 10.30699/fhi.v11i1.342.
• Ahmed, Salah Uddin; El-Gazzar, Rania & Nguyen Duc, Anh (2020). IT Students Project Group Work in the Day of COVID-19: Understanding the Impact and Attitudes. NIKT: Norsk IKT-konferanse for forskning og utdanning. ISSN 1892-0713. 4. Show summary

  COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in disruptive impacts on teaching and learning experience around the world. In a particular context of project-based courses, where students need to interact and collaborate frequently, there appears additional challenges in implementing and learning from projects. Understanding the impact of COVID-19 on project-based courses does not only provide recommendations for preparing such courses in post-pandemic eras, but also has some implications for physical IT projects in industry. We investigated 30 student teams in Spring semester 2020, when COVID-19 measures were applied in the middle of the course. We adopted a mixed-method approach; a bottom-up analysis with a thematic analysis, and a top-down approach with attribution theory. We found that COVID19 measures introduced as external attributions to the course had direct and sudden impact manifestations on individual level, which leads to internal attributions, such as lack of motivation, lack of commitment, realization of usefulness of some online tools, and mental struggle. This creates an indirect impact on team, process and product factors in the course.

• El-Gazzar, Rania & Stendal, Karen (2020). Examining How GDPR Challenges Emerging Technologies. Journal of Information Policy. ISSN 2381-5892. 10(1), p. 237–275. doi: 10.5325/JINFOPOLI.10.1.0237. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Emerging technologies, particularly cloud computing, blockchain, Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence, have received noticeable attention from research and industry. These technologies contribute to innovation in public and private organizations, but threaten the privacy of individuals. The natural characteristics of these technologies are challenged by the new general data protection regulation (GDPR). In this article, we examine the compliance challenges between these technologies' characteristics and GDPR both individually and when combined. We identified compliance opportunities related to the characteristics of these technologies. We discuss possible approaches to address the compliance challenges identified and raise questions for further research in the area.

• El-Gazzar, Rania & Stendal, Karen (2020). Blockchain in health care: Hope or hype? Journal of Medical Internet Research. ISSN 1438-8871. 22(7). doi: 10.2196/17199. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  There has been an increasing interest in blockchain technology from the health care sector in the last couple of years. The value proposition for using blockchain technology in the health care sector is to share sensitive patient data among health care entities securely and to empower patients. Blockchain technology allows patients to have an active role in developing and updating their own patient data. However, is blockchain technology really the silver bullet it seems to be? With this paper, we aim to understand the benefits and challenges of blockchain technology in the health care sector. We discuss innovation and security implications concerning blockchain technology in health care. Furthermore, we show that there is a need for more use cases to ensure the secure sharing of data within the health care sector. In our opinion, blockchain technology will not solve the issues encountered by the health care sector; in fact, it may raise more issues than it will solve.

• El-Gazzar, Rania & Stendal, Karen (2019). CLOUD COMPUTING, BLOCKCHAIN, AND IOT: A BLESSING OR CURSE? NOKOBIT: Norsk konferanse for organisasjoners bruk av informasjonsteknologi. ISSN 1892-0748. 27(1). Show summary

  Cloud computing, blockchain, and Internet of Things have gained considerable attention from industry and academia. The focus was on the benefits of using such technologies to do more with less i.e. improve work routines and enhance resource usage, as well as reduce costs. However, when the interest in combining the three technologies surfaced, several challenges appeared due to the conflicting nature of these emerging technologies. These challenges cannot be ignored, as they span technical, organizational, business, and legal aspects of organizations. In this paper, we discuss those challenges through selected literature. We conclude the paper with implications for research.

• Johannessen, Marius Rohde; Berntzen, Lasse & El-Gazzar, Rania (2019). A Survey on Smart Cities, Big Data, Analytics, and Smart Decision-making. Towards an analytical framework for decision-making in smart cities. International Journal on Advances in Intelligent Systems. ISSN 1942-2679. 12(1&2), p. 27–38. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Smart decision making is based on data combined with analytics to improve decision-making. This paper examines several application areas of smart cities, and related data sources used for decision-making. Further, we present a review of analytical techniques used in earlier studies. In many cases, systems may make decisions on their own. Such autonomous systems may play an essential role in the development of smart cities. In other cases, the data can be combined with historical data or other open data sources to play a role as the foundation for decision-making. Our findings are presented as an analytical framework, which will be used for further empirical studies into this domain.

• Berntzen, Lasse; El-Gazzar, Rania & Johannessen, Marius Rohde (2019). Parliamentary Open Big Data: A case study of the Norwegian Parliament´s open data platform. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing. ISSN 1865-1348. p. 91–105. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-11395-7_9. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The paper presents a case study on the use of open big data in the Norwegian Parliament. A set of policy documents was examined to find motivation for publishing open data. The case study was based on an examination of the parliament website, combined with document studies and interviews. The paper concludes that third parties have used open data to create new applications that generate value for their users. Applying our findings to the open government benchmarking framework, we identify some national barriers and possible solutions to further promote the use and publication of open data.

• El-Gazzar, Rania; Wahid, Fathul & Stendal, Karen (2018). Unpacking Knowledge on Cloud Computing: An Umbrella Review. In Ukjent, Person (Eds.), AMCIS 2018 Proceedings. Association for Information Systems (AIS). ISSN 978-0-9966831-6-6. Show summary

  Literature reviews (LRs) are paramount to researchers who seek to gain knowledge about previous contributions to a particular topic of interest. Cloud computing (CC) LRs have documented conceptual and empirical research efforts done by scholars from various disciplines, and contributed to the knowledge base on CC. The knowledge generated by previous LRs on CC is fragmented. It is not clear what types of contributions made to the body of knowledge. There has been no evaluation of the contributions of LRs in the area of CC. We address this void by analyzing 84 LRs on CC and identifying the topics they have addressed. Further, we identify the types of knowledge contributions they have created, in terms of synthesis, adopting a new perspective, theory building, and theory testing, identifying research gaps, and provisioning a research agenda. We conclude the paper with a summary of its contributions and suggestions for future LRs.

• Berntzen, Lasse; Johannessen, Marius Rohde & El-Gazzar, Rania (2018). Smart Cities, Big Data and Smart Decision-making - Understanding "Big Data" in Smart City Applications. In Berntzen, Lasse & Hartog, Martijn (Ed.), ICDS 2018, The Twelfth International Conference on Digital Society and eGovernments. International Academy, Research and Industry Association (IARIA). ISSN 978-1-61208-615-6. p. 7–13. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Smart decision making is based on data combined with analytics to improve decision-making. This paper examines several application areas of smart cities, and related data sources used for decision-making. In many cases, systems may make decisions on their own. Such systems may play an important role in the development of smart cities. In other cases, the data can be combined with historical data or other open data sources to play a role as the foundation for decision-making. Our findings are presented as an analytical framework, which will be used for further empirical studies into this domain.

• El-Gazzar, Rania & Elgazzar, Rasha F. (2017). Smart Cities, Sustainable Cities, or Both? A Critical Review and Synthesis of Success and Failure Factors. In Helfert, Markus; Klein, Cornelius & Donnellan, Brian (Ed.), 6th International Conference on Smart Cities and Green ICT Systems. SMARTGREENS 2017. SciTePress. ISSN 978-989-758-241-7. p. 250–257. doi: 10.5220/0006307302500257. Show summary

  As the majority of world population will be living in cities by 2050, it became a necessity for societies to build cities that are capable of meeting the needs of current and future generations in a smart way. There have been initiatives toward smart/sustainable cities that had succeeded, and others had failed. Being sustainable and smart had been used in a quite confusing way. In this paper, we attempt to understand related concepts, such as smart, sustainable, sustainable development, and sustainability. Then, we analyse five examples of existing initiatives of smart/sustainable cities to understand the factors behind their success or failure, by applying SMART criteria as a managerial perspective on those initiatives. Finally, we conclude the paper with key implications and possibilities for future research.

• Elgazzar, Rasha F.; El-Gazzar, Rania F. & El-Gohary, Mohamed A. (2017). Understanding the Dilemma of the Municipal Solid Waste Management System in Alexandria, Egypt: Could ICT Improve the System? Information and Communication Technologies for Development. Springer. ISSN 978-3-319-59110-0. p. 816–822. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-59111-7_67. Show summary

  Waste management is one of the significant activities for preserving the environment from pollution that has impact on society mirrored on people’s health. This study approaches the topic of waste management using interpretive qualitative case study method to understand problems in the Municipal Solid Waste Management (MSWM) system in Alexandria city, the second largest city in Egypt. Alexandria has been facing a problematic situation with regard to MSWM, which is worth paying attention to. Furthermore, we explore opportunities for benefiting from Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to improve the MSWM system in Alexandria.

• El-Gazzar, Rania; Henriksen, Helle & Wahid, Fathul (2017). IT innovations and entrepreneurship in emerging economies - Is cloud computing a magic ingredient for Egyptian entrepreneurs? In Ramos, Isabel; Tuunainen, Virpi Kristiina & Krcmar, Helmut (Ed.), The 25th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS). Association for Information Systems (AIS). ISSN 978-989-207655-3. p. 1044–1061. Show summary

  Using the concept of affordances as an analytical lens, this study aims to understand the use of Cloud Computing (CC) by Egyptian entrepreneurs. The study analyses impact of CC on their businesses and its inhibiting and enabling factors. In general, Egyptian entrepreneurs have positive perceptions of CC and note its various actualized affordances: accessing information technology (IT) resources rapidly, broadening reach and transferring responsibility. The use of CC has yielded diverse effects: shortened time to market, reduced costs, a diversified audience and more useful feedback. We also identify what inhibits the use of CC, including transparency and corruption problems, limited support for online transactions, unsupportive government policies, low appreciation from the domestic market, cumbersome bureaucracy, account hacking and unreliable infrastructure. Finally, we also reveal some enabling factors, including institutional support, overseas market potential and CC uptake (i.e., growing use).

• El-Gazzar, Rania ; Hustad, Eli & Olsen, Dag Håkon (2017). An institutional lens on cloud computing adoption: A study of institutional factors and adoption strategies. In Ramos, Isabel; Tuunainen, Virpi & Krcmar, Helmut (Ed.), Proceedings of the 25th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS 2017). Association for Information Systems (AIS). ISSN 978-3-00-050284-2. p. 2477–2492.
• Elgazzar, Rania Fahim H.I.; Hustad, Eli & Olsen, Dag Håkon (2016). Understanding cloud computing adoption issues: A Delphi study approach. Journal of Systems and Software. ISSN 0164-1212. 118, p. 64–84. doi: 10.1016/j.jss.2016.04.061. Show summary

  This research paper reports on a Delphi study focusing on the most important issues enterprises are confronted with when making cloud computing (CC) adoption decisions. We had 34 experts from different domain backgrounds participated in a Delphi panel. The panelists were IT and CC specialists representing a heterogeneous group of clients, providers and academics, divided into three subpanels. The Delphi procedure comprised three stages: brainstorming, narrowing down and ranking. The panelists identified 55 issues of concerns in the first stage, which were analyzed and grouped into 10 categories: security, strategy, legal and ethical, IT governance, migration, culture, business, awareness, availability and impact. The top 18 issues for each subpanel were ranked, and a moderate intrapanel consensus was obtained. Additionally, 16 follow-up interviews were conducted with the experts to get a deeper understanding of the issues and why certain issues were more significant than others. The findings indicate that security, strategy and legal and ethical issues are the most important. The discussion resulted in highlighting certain inhibitors and drivers for CC adoption into a framework. The paper is concluded with key recommendations with focus on change management, competence and maturity to inform decision-makers in CC adoption decisions.

• Elgazzar, Rania Fahim H.I. (2015). The start of a journey to the cloud in the developing world: A case study of Egypt. Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS). ISSN 1530-1605. 2015-March, p. 4345–4354. doi: 10.1109/HICSS.2015.520.
• Elgazzar, Rania Fahim H.I. (2015). The Start of a Journey to the Cloud in the Developing World: A Case Study of Egypt. In Bui, Tung & Sprague, Ralph H. (Ed.), Proceedings of the 48th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers). ISSN 978-1-4799-7367-5. p. 4345–4354. doi: 10.1109/HICSS.2015.520.
• Elgazzar, Rania Fahim H.I. & Wahid, Fathul (2015). Strategies for Cloud Computing: Insights from the Norwegian Public Sector. In Lambrinoudakis, Kostantinos; Morabito, Vincenzo & Themistocleous, Marinos (Ed.), Proceedings of the 12th European, Mediterranean & Middle Eastern Conference on Information Systems. University of Pireus og Brunel University. ISSN 978-960-6897-08-5.
• Elgazzar, Rania Fahim H.I. (2014). An Overview of Cloud Computing Adoption Challenges in the Norwegian Context. In Bilof, Randall (Eds.), 2014 IEEE/ACM 7th International Conference on Utility and Cloud Computing UCC 2014, London 8-11 December 2014 . IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers). ISSN 978-1-4799-7881-6. p. 412 –418 . doi: 10.1109/UCC.2014.52. Show summary

  Cloud computing is dominating European countries' Information and Communication Technology (ICT) agenda. Although the European cloud market is mostly mature, there are still challenges to overcome. Norway is one of the European countries facing such challenges, despite it is a developed country in terms of quality of life and ICT development. This paper identifies the current state of cloud computing adoption challenges in Europe in general and Norway in specific, and the way they are addressed. This is achieved through analyzing research articles, reports published by consulting companies and official bodies, official online news articles, and documents published by official authorities. The findings are organized using isomorphic pressures (i.e., Coercive, normative, and mimetic) borrowed from neo-institutional theory. The paper concludes that despite the prevailing concerns about legal issues still exist, there is an increasing tendency towards adopting cloud computing in Norway. The study also suggests future avenues accordingly.

• Elgazzar, Rania Fahim H.I. (2014). Cloud Computing Adoption Factors and Processes for Enterprises - A Systematic Literature Review. In Helfert, Markus; Desprez, Frederic; Ferguson, Donald; Leymann, Frank & Munoz, Victor Mendez (Ed.), CLOSER 2014 - Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Cloud Computing and Services Science, Barcelona, Spain, 3-5 April, 2014. SciTePress. ISSN 978-989-758-019-2. p. 78–87. doi: 10.5220/0004841900780087. Show summary

  Cloud computing (CC) has received an increasing interest from enterprises since its inception. With its innovative Information Technology (IT) services delivery model, CC could add technical and strategic business values to enterprises. However, it poses highly concerning, internal and external, issues. This paper presents a systematic literature review to explore cloud computing adoption processes in the context of enterprise users and the factors that affect these processes. This is achieved by reviewing 37 articles published about CC adoption. Using the grounded theory approach, articles are classified into eight main categories: internal, external, evaluation, proof of concept, adoption decision, implementation and integration, IT governance, and confirmation. This is concluded in two abstract categories: CC adoption factors and CC adoption processes whereas the former affect the latter. The results of this review indicate that there are serious issues need to be tackled before enterprises decide to adopt CC. Based on the findings of this review, the paper provides future Information Systems (IS) research directions toward the previously under-investigated areas regarding the phenomenon. This involved the call for further theoretical and in-depth empirical contributions to the area of CC adoption by enterprises)

• Elgazzar, Rania Fahim H.I. (2014). A Literature Review on Cloud Computing Adoption Issues in Enterprises. In Bergvall-Kåreborn, Birgitta & Nielsen, Peter Axel (Ed.), Creating Value for All Through IT. Springer Science+Business Media B.V.. ISSN 978-3-662-43458-1. p. 214–242. doi: 10.1007/978-3-662-43459-8_14. Show summary

  Cloud computing has received increasing interest from enterprises since its inception. With its innovative information technology (IT) services delivery model, cloud computing could add technical and strategic business value to enterprises. However, cloud computing poses highly concerning internal (e.g., Top management and experience) and external issues (e.g., regulations and standards). This paper presents a systematic literature review to explore the current key issues related to cloud computing adoption. This is achieved by reviewing 51 articles published about cloud computing adoption. Using the grounded theory approach, articles are classified into eight main categories: internal, external, evaluation, proof of concept, adoption decision, implementation and integration, IT governance, and confirmation. Then, the eight categories are divided into two abstract categories: cloud computing adoption factors and processes, where the former affects the latter. The results of this review indicate that enterprises face serious issues before they decide to adopt cloud computing. Based on the findings, the paper provides a future information systems (IS) research agenda to explore the previously under-investigated areas regarding cloud computing adoption factors and processes. This paper calls for further theoretical, methodological, and empirical contributions to the research area of cloud computing adoption by enterprises.

• Elgazzar, Rania Fahim H.I. & Wahid, Fathul (2013). An Analytical Framework to Understand the Adoption of Cloud Computing: an Institutional Theory Perspective. In Endicott-Popovsky, Barbara (Eds.), Proceedings of the International Conference on Cloud Security Management. Academic Conferences International (ACI). ISSN 978-1-909507-67-8. p. 91–98. Show summary

  Cloud computing (CC) offers a new IT service model to the adopting organizations. In spite of its possible benefits, however, it also poses some serious concerns or risks. Why do organizations adopt CC in spite of its potential risks? Based on several core concepts drawn from institutional theory, we propose an analytical framework to better understand the adoption of CC among organizations. In doing so, we especially pay attention to the concepts of field level changes, organizational field, institutional isomorphism, and institutional strategic responses. We bring in these concepts into the context of CC adoption. We identify a number of organizations that form the organizational field and bring about changes that may trigger institutional pressures. Those are CC providers, peer organizations, business partners, professional and industry associations, and regulators. We also reveal isomorphic (i.e., coercive, normative, mimetic) pressures germane to be taken into consideration by the adopting organizations. Next, we introduce possible strategic responses (i.e., acquiescence, compromise, avoidance, defiance, manipulation) to address the institutional pressures in the context of CC adoption.

View all works in Cristin

• Elgazzar, Rania Fahim H.I. (2014). Check This Before Moving Your Applications Into The Cloud!
• Elgazzar, Rania Fahim H.I.; Hustad, Eli & Olsen, Dag Håkon (2015). Adoption of Cloud Computing: Results from a Delphi Study. Universitetet i Agder. Show summary

  Topic: The adoption of cloud computing services is influenced by many issues perceived differently by clients and cloud service providers; providers may see the positive side of the cloud, whereas clients may perceive it otherwise. This report presents the results of a Delphi study and focuses on the following two questions: What issues confront enterprises when adopting cloud computing services? What is the relative importance of these issues? Method: Thirty-four experts from different industries and public institutions participated in a Delphi panel. It was divided into three subpanels that represent different stakeholders, namely, clients, providers, and academics. We started the study in 2013 and completed it in March 2015. The Delphi study procedure comprised three stages, namely, (1) brainstorming, (2) narrowing down, and (3) ranking. Follow-up interviews were also conducted to gain an in-depth understanding of the topics examined. Findings: The panelists identified 55 issues of concern in the first round, and these were analyzed and grouped into 10 categories: (1) security, (2) availability, (3) migration, (4) business, (5) legal and ethical concerns, (6) culture, (7) awareness, (8) impact, (9) strategy, and (10) IT governance. In the second round, most of the panelists’ votes went to security (104 votes), followed by legal and ethical (67 votes), impact (60 votes), and strategy (54 votes) issues. In the narrowing down phase, 33 issues were identified, and these were based on a threshold of 30%. In the first ranking round, 33 issues were ranked by the panelists. However, we could not reach an acceptable agreement (Kendall W was for clients=0.173, providers=0.069, and academics=0.270). In the second round of ranking, the top 18 issues of each subpanel were ranked, and the intrapanel agreement showed moderate consensus on the issues (Kendall W was for clients=0.392, providers=0.443, and academics=0.493). We found that the client panel ranked the issue “Data protection legislations are different and not strong in all countries” as number one, the provider panel ranked the issue “The risk of losing control over resources (data, software, hardware, and human resources) in private clouds is less than that in public clouds. However, risks are not absolute, and most of them can be addressed, but not all of them” as number one, and the academic panel ranked the issue “Enterprises are faced with weak undetailed Service Level Agreements (SLAs) from providers (e.g., providers may not be transparent about where and how do they store the data and the acknowledgement of security incidents whenever happen and how the cloud provider deals with it)” as number one. Follow-up interviews were also conducted. The insights of the panelists are shared in this report. Conclusions: The report highlights current cloud computing adoption issues. Security, strategy, legal and ethical concerns, and IT governance were among the highest-ranked issues by the participants in the study. The results show different perspectives across the subpanels, especially for the clients and providers. Clients need to understand well their business needs and what value cloud computing can add to their business. Cloud service providers need to fully comprehend the current needs of their market. More work needs to be done on increasing awareness regarding cloud computing and its benefits for businesses. Clients are particularly interested in hearing more about hybrid cloud solutions. The most important issues of concern are further discussed in this report.

View all works in Cristin