Software systems supporting remote education – Fuzzy assessment using a multi-criteria group decision-making method

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During the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for systems supporting remote education increased significantly, and after the pandemic this form of education remained in place to supplement the stationary education. Among the tools that comprehensively support remote learning, there are two most popular systems, i.e. Google Workspace for Education and Microsoft Office 365, available in several different variants, differing in the functionalities offered. The aim of the article is to analyse the functionality, as well as to compare and evaluate this software. Since the assessment of e-learning systems is based on the subjective judgements of experts, and the assessment criteria are qualitative in nature, a new MCGDM (Multi-Criteria Group Decision Making) method called NEAT F-PROMETHEE GDSS (New Easy Approach To Fuzzy PROMETHEE – Group Decision Support System) was developed for the purposes of the study. This method captures the uncertain and imprecise qualitative assessments expressed by many experts and aggregates them into an overall quantitative assessment. As a result of the assessment, it was found that all variants of Google Workspace for Education and Microsoft Office 365 meet the basic requirements for tools for conducting remote learning. In addition, the use of the NEAT F-PROMETHEE GDSS method made it possible to create a ranking of individual software variants. Based on the group evaluation, it was determined that the best system in terms of the relationship between the offered capabilities and the cost of use is Google Workspace for Education Plus, with other variants of Google Workspace for Education taking subsequent positions in the ranking. In turn, Microsoft Office 365 solutions received a worse group rating, largely due to the higher cost of use and slightly less ability to control student work.