The Study of Students Perceptions of On-campus ... - Research Bank

5.8 Summary
This chapter showed the relationship between the sub-research questions
and the survey and interview questions. The link between each question and
the coding of data in each question helped the researcher to analyse the data
gathered. It was easy for the researcher to look at a particular research
question, and compare opinions from different participants on particular
survey or interview questions. Based on the answers from the survey, there
was no particular group of users of the on-campus WLANs. The users could
be any students in any school and in any year of their course. The users could
be any students who owned portable electronic devices with wireless
capability.
During the data analysis, the researcher identified a phenomenon that exists
not only among the participants of this research but also in the academic
literature. Based on the data gathered from 64 participants, users of the
on-campus WLANs were varied, from different schools and different year of
course; students had different reasons besides study, and students used
laptops in classrooms, the library, the cafeteria and the residential village.
Students who used on-campus WLANs had integrated the WLANs into their
lives. In the academic literature, “Tech Check” (2007) reported that more
students owned portable electronic devices; Brass (2004) stated that laptops
had become must-have devices for students and Nisbet (2004) emphasised
that students had to take laptops to class in two private schools. There are
also many articles reported that many universities used and provided
wireless networks for students and faculties.
Not all the participants knew the exact restrictions or requirements for
getting connected to the on-campus WLANs. Satisfactions with the
on-campus WLANs varied from very poor to very good. This shows that
student perception were quite different as the quality of the wireless
networks was not stable when more users were connected.
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