Leveraging Information Technology tools to create cost-effective alternatives: Using Google Sheets as a platform for...

Area of Science:

• Educational Technology
• Computational Social Science

Background:

• Traditional debate tabulation systems present significant cost and accessibility challenges.
• Limited access hinders participation and event organization in competitive debating and public speaking.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce Tab XYZ, a novel, cost-effective debate and public speaking tabulation platform.
• To demonstrate the feasibility of using cloud-based tools like Google Sheets for specialized event management.

Main Methods:

• Developed Tab XYZ leveraging Google Sheets, Google Apps Script, and Google Forms for automated tabulation.
• Deployed cloud-based features for real-time collaboration and data input, eliminating server and license costs.
• Evaluated system performance across five tournaments with 435 participants, comparing against a commercial platform.

Main Results:

• Achieved user satisfaction scores (4.7/5) comparable to conventional systems (4.6/5).
• Eliminated all licensing and hosting expenses associated with traditional tabulation software.
• Demonstrated robust data security and offline error recovery through Google's infrastructure.

Conclusions:

• Tab XYZ provides a viable, low-cost alternative for debate and public speaking event organization.
• Leveraging accessible IT tools can overcome cost and complexity barriers in specialized domains.
• Cloud-based spreadsheet solutions offer scalable and reliable alternatives for event management.