Report on UKZN Westville students' perceptions of the quality of Wi-Fi service on campus. To report on UKZN Westville students' perceptions of service quality when using Wi-Fi services on campus.
Wi-Fi devices
Users B, D, and E can access Wi-Fi services because they are within line of sight of the Wi-Fi signals. There may also be interference in the Wi-Fi signal going to User D's device.
Implementing Wi-Fi access points
The following subsection describes the strategies used to implement an infrastructure of access points to relay communications in a Wi-Fi network. As a result, Wi-Fi resources accessed by the user may fail to load or freeze.
The Wi-Fi electromagnetic spectrum
Wi-Fi standards, modulation techniques and spectrum configurations
23 The IEEE has released several upgrades to the 802.11 standard to provide better Wi-Fi quality services to users. Devices that support the 802.11g standard will work on Wi-Fi networks that support the 802.11b standard.
Devices used by students to access Wi-Fi
Students’ usage times, and time spent, on Wi-Fi
Locations at which students use Wi-Fi
The following section discusses quality of service and explains the factors higher education institutions should consider when planning for Wi-Fi quality of service. Since higher education institutions provide Wi-Fi services, they should be concerned about the quality of the services they provide (Pitt, Watson, & Kavan, 1995).
Outcome quality
Therefore, they can affect the quality of Wi-Fi service results as perceived by users. For example, the Wi-Fi protected access encryption (WPA2) allows users to access Wi-Fi services after passing authentication (Soyinka, 2010).
Physical environment quality
The results showed that the physical appearance of the service location influenced the perceived service quality. However, there has been no study to investigate whether these factors can influence the perception of service quality at Wi-Fi locations in South Africa.
Quality of interaction with service providers
In addition, the temperature in a service environment can affect the perception of the physical environment's quality. The Wall and Berry (2007) study looked at the combined effect of the physical environment and employee behavior on customers' perception of restaurant service quality.
Perceived service quality
An investigation of student Wi-Fi usage found that students reported varying degrees of satisfaction with the Wi-Fi services they received. For example, the construct of outcome quality is explained by assessing the availability, reliability, timeliness and stability of the Wi-Fi network.
Outcome quality
Physical environment quality
Interaction quality
Perceived Wi-Fi service quality
The second part of the model states that the quality of the user's system device and the configurations of the technical access points can influence the quality of the Wi-Fi result (see Figure 7). From an infrastructure perspective, the literature has shown that network providers can use different access point configurations to deliver Wi-Fi services, which can affect the quality of Wi-Fi services provided (Bing, 2002; Held, 2003; Reynolds, 2003). Additionally, the qualitative approach allowed the researcher to interview ICS administrators to better understand the campus Wi-Fi infrastructure provided by the university.
The sampling procedure for the quantitative data
The University of KwaZulu-Natal Westville, in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, is the site of this study. The target population of this study was the enrolled students of the University of KwaZulu-Natal Westville campus.
The sampling procedure for the qualitative data
Permissions needed
Strategies for recording the data
The research instruments used in the study
The researcher conducted two interviews to obtain information about Wi-Fi infrastructure and usage at the university (see Appendix 4). The first section (Section IV) was aimed at understanding the Wi-Fi infrastructure available in the campus in general. The second part (Section V) aimed to understand whether there are problems with the Wi-Fi infrastructure from the students' perspective.
Procedures for collecting quantitative data
Procedures for collecting qualitative data
The quantitative data was collected in two phases, from May 26, 2017 to August 31, 2017, at the University of KwaZulu-Natal Westville campus. The second phase of data collection took place when the semester started, from July 16, 2017 to August 22, 2017. After analyzing the quantitative data, the researcher arranged interviews with two ICS employees to collect the qualitative data.
The collection and verification of completed questionnaires
Data coding
Data entry
Data entry began after the first phase of data collection and continued until all the questionnaires were captured. To ensure the accuracy of data capture, the researcher checked each questionnaire entered and compared the entered data from each response. Open-ended questions (including a response category of “other: please specify” and narrative descriptions) were entered as text into the Microsoft Excel data file to enable statistical analysis in SPSS.
Validity
To ensure data quality was maintained, most of the response options on the questionnaire were named in a way that made them easy to select using labeled check boxes rather than asking students to write down their responses. The study used the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy to extract data reliably.
Reliability
Quantitative Data Analysis
This test was used to see if there was a variance between the different groups, with the variability within each of the groups using an F ratio. The Chi-square fit test was used on categorical variables to test if any of the response options were selected significantly more/less often than others. The binomial test was performed to test whether a significant proportion of students chose one of the two possible answers.
Qualitative data analysis
To report difficulties experienced by UKZN Westville students when using Wi-Fi services on campus. To report on UKZN Westville students' perceptions of the quality of service outcome when using Wi-Fi services on campus. To report on UKZN Westville students' perceptions of the quality of interaction when using the Wi-Fi service on campus.
Use of free Wi-Fi on campus
Locations UKZN Westville students prefer to access Wi-Fi services on campus
Very few students staying in on-campus residence halls chose the cafeteria (0.7%) or remote locations (1.4%) as their most used Wi-Fi locations. The locations where students experience a poor WiFi signal on campus have been analyzed per student residence (see Figure 18). The locations where students experienced the best Wi-Fi signal quality were analyzed based on where the students lived (see Figure 21).
Amount of time UKZN Westville students spend accessing Wi-Fi on campus
75 Figure 24: The average number of hours that students use WiFi on campus. The majority of students who used Wi-Fi after 8 p.m. (50.3%) lived in on-campus housing. Most students who used Wi-Fi after 8 p.m. (34.5%) lived in on-campus housing.
Internet resources UKZN Westville students access when using Wi-Fi on
114 Objective 5: How outcome quality (OQ), physical environment quality (PEQ), and interaction quality (IK) affect students' perceived Wi-Fi service quality (SQ). The results showed that campus residence halls were the most used Wi-Fi location on campus (see Figure 15).
How interaction quality affects perceived service quality
140 students will experience good quality of results, which will in turn improve the quality of perceived Wi-Fi services. Additionally, measures to improve the design of Wi-Fi locations, such as providing enough power outlets and enough seating, will make students perceive Wi-Fi locations to be of good quality; which in turn will improve the perceived quality. However, social conditions, which included student behavior at the Wi-Fi locations, had no effect on perceived service quality.
How outcome quality, physical environment quality and interaction quality
Factors which affect Wi-Fi outcome quality on Westville campus
Recommendations on the provision of Wi-Fi services in on-campus locations
These should identify and reduce possible sources of interference and obstructions at Wi-Fi sites. Priority should be given to locations where students experience poor Wi-Fi signal quality and where studying and learning are more likely to occur. For example, the library is reported as the second most used Wi-Fi location, and it is mostly used by students who live off campus, so the experiences here affect many of the students.
Recommendations on the use of resources over Wi-Fi
It is recommended that high-density access points that can handle large amounts of congestion, or multiple access points, be placed (in particular) in the library. In addition, the university can make more study or learning places available to students to reduce congestion at the access points in the library.
Recommendations on the use of Wi-Fi devices in on-campus locations
It is important to note that most laptops can provide more computing power than smartphones; thus, one measure that could ensure the success of the policy would be the placement of electrical outlets at Wi-Fi locations throughout the university, particularly in the library. Students should also be advised to disconnect devices that are not being used over Wi-Fi. This will reduce access point congestion and may improve the quality of Wi-Fi service for users accessing the same access point.
Recommendations on access point configurations
149 supported by the Wi-Fi devices and the benefits students can gain by purchasing laptops and smartphones that support the same Wi-Fi standard used at the university. The university has a 'bring your own devices' policy to encourage the use of laptops on campus (Vithal, 2015). However, the research shows that most students on campus use smartphones more than laptops (see Figure 25).
Recommendations for solving the difficulties faced by students while using Wi-
150 ICS administrators can educate students about measures to resolve Wi-Fi difficulties, such as moving when receiving a weak signal or approaching an access point. This can be done through a link sent to their app receipt telling them about the different Wi-Fi standards and devices to buy. Finally, when students face difficulties or problems with Wi-Fi, demonstrations can be offered to students in the call center so that they are able to help each other in the future to solve the same problem.
Recommendations for using the model to predict the perceived Wi-Fi service
The educational process may be completed before students come to UKZN as first years and/or before they purchase the laptops, tablets or smartphones they will use for their studies. If there was a YouTube video on how to connect to Wi-Fi, lecturers could make that connection available in first semester Moodle courses (especially).
Recommendations for further research
This study acts as a baseline for Wi-Fi usage and quality perceptions at the UKZN Westville campus. Many organizations are migrating from the most common local area networks to using Wi-Fi services. Awareness and usage of Wi-Fi infrastructure in the student community: A case study of Pondicherry University on campus students.
Gate keeper’s letter
Ethical clearance letter
Questionnaire (with consent to participate and consent form)
If you use Wi-Fi on campus, indicate the locations where you use it. Indicate the difficulties you face when using Wi-Fi in the location you selected in the Question (check all that apply). Resources (YouTube, Gmail, and Student Central) never freeze when using Wi-Fi at this location.
Interview (with consent to participate and consent form)
