Work

Leveraging Information Technology tools to create cost-effective alternatives: Using Google Sheets as a platform for competitive debate and public speaking tabulation

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Traditional web-based tabulation systems used for extracurriculars like debate competitions, while offering robust features, usually pose cost and accessibility challenges for respective stakeholders in the debate community within academic settings. Such challenges tend to limit participation, frequency of organization, or the smooth running of such events. In this paper, we leverage Google Sheets’ inherent features like Apps Script, Google Forms, real-time collaboration, and cloud functionality to create a cost-effective alternative, Tab XYZ, for debate and public speaking tabulation purposes. We examine and compare the proposed system’s key functionalities and architecture to a widely used conventional web-based platform, Tabbycat, through a comprehensive evaluation via metrics such as user satisfaction, ease of setup, cost-effectiveness, system reliability, data security and privacy, and error handling and management. After rigorous testing involving a diverse group of 435 users across five different debate and public speaking tournaments, results confirmed Tab XYZ's superior cost-effectiveness, comparable user satisfaction, robust data security through Google's infrastructure, and timely setup process. Additionally, the experiments revealed that the proposed system presented user-friendly and robust error handling and data recovery capabilities through offline functionality. Finally, this study presents a pathway for leveraging the integration of readily available Information Technology tools, such as Google Sheets and its features, to create innovative solutions for specialized problems within educational settings, to elude the burden of cost and accessibility that usually come with conventional approaches

Source: PLoS ONE

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0332576

Authors: Franco Osei-Wusu, William Asiedu, Donald Yeboah, Shuvajyoti Kar, Siddique Abubakr Muntaka, Joel Kwesi Appiah

Institutions: University of Skills Training and Entrepreneurial Development, KIIT University, University of Cincinnati

Language: English

Topic: Engineering and Information Technology

Subfield: Software

Field: Computer Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Quality education

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,382