Architecture of a Nation-Wide Educational Information System Infrastructure: A Systematic Review

This paper is the part of a doctoral research, which aimed at proposing a national information system for educational administrators in Pakistan. However, this paper only aims at identifying what an information system is composed of and does; and discussing different technical, institutional and social aspects of a nation-wide educational information system infrastructure. It is based on systematic review of the available literature, which has been interwoven around this research question; “Which technical and social aspects should be considered for designing the architecture of a national educational information system infrastructure?” For the literature search, valid sources of published and unpublished information were consulted (i.e., books, journal articles, reports, conference/workshop proceedings, theses and dissertations). Few classical old studies were also reviewed and cited in the paper. Moreover, some information systems existing in developed and developing countries of world were also reviewed (N = 23). This paper is the first one presenting the complete overview for the architecture of educational information system infrastructure particularly at national level. Such a review may help the designers of educational information system. The review of studies related to architecture of educational information system infrastructure reveals that a nation-wide educational information system should consider the following technical and social aspects related to its infrastructure, i.e., a) know the background; b) users and their needs; c) types of users; d) types of information needs; e) coverage; f) centralized or decentralized; g) services; h) organizational considerations; i) manpower requirement; and j) qualitative considerations.