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

were spending more time on campus. With the provision of the WLANs on
campus, students brought their own portable electronic devices with wireless
capabilities to school. Students spent more time on campus after class since
the WLANs had been provided. Students used the on-campus WLANs during
and after lectures. Students thought the provision of WLANs was essential
for their learning because of the advantages and convenience of the use of
on-campus WLANs.
The sixth and seventh sub research questions “What opportunities are
available for educational institutions to provide the convenience of WLANs
for students?” and “Are there any technical issues concerning WLANs
relevant to educational institutions that arise from user requirements?” have
been answered as recommendations. To provide convenient WLANs is
important because most participants spent a lot of time on campus because of
the convenience of having WLAN access. In this research, the opportunities
for providing convenience of WLANs were determined from the aspects of
student dissatisfaction. The participants were obviously dissatisfied with the
slow speed and poor signal of the on-campus WLANs. Some of the
participants recommended upgrading the bandwidth of the networks and
adding more access points within the areas where WLANs were provided.
The researcher recommended some examples of technical solutions for
improving speed and signal problems which were found from the literature
review, such as the 802.11n technology, SSL encryption and the 802.11x
protocol.
The over arching response was that WLAN provision had enabled students to
continue with their personal and business Internet requirements on campus
without being restricted by the use of hard wired equipment supplied by the
institute or having to move off site. The advantages of the mobility and free
Internet access were attracting students to spend more time on campus. The
compatibility of the networks enabled students to connect to the Internet
anywhere any time. As Internet usage becomes increasing common and an
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