March 13, 2014
Dear AUCA students!
We would like to share with you the results of the survey about AUCA Wi-Fi, which was conducted two months ago, our internal statistics on use of the Internet channel, our conclusions and issues for future discussion, as well as steps that we have taken and plan to take in a soon to provide you with more convenient and reliable AUCA Wi-Fi.
First of all, let us thank all of you who participated in this survey. All your answers and comments were taken into account.
247 respondents participated in the survey.
Looking at the results we can say that, in general, most of you evaluated the quality of AUCA Wi-Fi as at least satisfactory: (excellent (4%), good (22%) and satisfactory (41%), which in sum is 67% of respondents.
Wi-Fi in the second building (Library and labs) was evaluated more positively than Wi-Fi in the main building.
70% respondents answered that they never or very rarely approach the IT department about technical support regarding issues with Wi-Fi. 21% answered that they rarely approach to IT, and 9,3% do so often.
Most of respondents use a laptop to connect to AUCA Wi-Fi (78% of all respondents) and smartphones (70% of all respondents). 23% of all respondents use tablets.
This indicates that about 70% of respondents use two devices to connect to AUCA Wi-Fi and some of them maybe use even 3 devices.
Most of respondents evaluated speed of opening web-pages as good (26%) or satisfactory (45%): 71% in sum.
Similar statistics can be found in answers about speed of files downloading (39% good and 38% satisfactory).
Evaluation of online video downloading shows that 61 % of respondents evaluated it as at least satisfactory : (excellent (3%), good (20%) and satisfactory (38%)), but nevertheless the number of respondents who are unsatisfied with Wi-FI for downloading online video is larger than in the two previous questions (39%).
18% of respondents answered that they use online video sources for learning/teaching every day. 41% of respondents use these sources several times a week, and 27% several times a month. These responses, however, do not coincide with what our faculty tell us, as very few faculty members report assigning required video materials. So we are really not quite sure what to make of this disconnect.
What sources of online video are the most called-for?
It is Youtube (98% of all respondents), Namba.kg (35%), TS.kg (19%), Blive.kg (8%). 11% of respondents indicated other resources.
62% of respondents answered that they use AUCA Wi-Fi both for academic purposes, and for personal needs (i.e. for fun). 35% use AUCA Wi-Fi for academic purposes mostly. 4% uses AUCA Wi-Fi mostly for personal needs.
We made a snapshot of Internet usage in computer labs, in Wi-Fi zone and in Wi-Fi zone in dorm.
This rating shows the most used web-sites.
In computer labs, the following 10 sites are the most called-for:
Such resources as ebrary.com and ebscohost.com are in 21st and 23rd places. In Wi-Fi zones, these resources are not placed even in the top 50 sites.
In Wi-Fi zones, the following 10 sites are the most used:
In the Wi-Fi zone of the dormitory, the following 10 sites are the most called-for:
You can see that video resources dominate in all lists.
However, are these video resources really used for academic purposes? It is hard to believe that Namba.kg or TS.kg is used for learning/teaching. But you can see how popular they are.
In connection with this, we see three questions for discussion with you:
What do you really want from AUCA Wi-Fi?
Specifically, do you think that AUCA should be investing large amounts of money to pay for extra internet bandwidth, equipment, etc., so that you can watch videos for fun, especially keeping in mind that this money comes from your tuition?
Are you ready to pay some extra money for a dedicated premium Wi-Fi channel, which would provide you more high speed internet channel, which would allow you to watch video more comfortable?
Please, think about it.
Meanwhile we can tell you what we have done after this survey to provide for you with more convenient and reliable AUCA Wi-Fi and what we plan to do.
We switched on the function that allows you to connect more than one device at a time to the AUCA Wi-Fi using the same authentication data (username and password).
We added some access points, and will add more in next two months to ensure better signal quality. This does not mean that Wi-Fi will cover 100% of campus space, but nevertheless the quality of signal will become better.
On the new campus, we expect very good Wi-Fi connection. But, if it also will be used for watching videos for fun, we may still have some problems.
We also expanded the period of time for your connections, which means that you will be asked about authentication in Wi-Fi more rarely than before.
We are also preparing a web page about AUCA Wi-Fi to provide you more information.
Finally, we will have several meetings with Student Senate and will discuss with them all these questions.
If you have any questions about AUCA Wi-Fi, or want to speak about this subject, please write on it@auca.kg. We will be happy to answer.
Sincerely yours,
IT.
American University of Central Asia
7/6 Aaly Tokombaev Street
Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic 720060
Tel.: +996 (312) 915000 + Еxt.
Fax: +996 (312) 915 028
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