IT's Impact on Education
Study: Device Quality Impacts Remote Learning
Broadband access and speed aren’t the only technological concerns
for students engaged in remote and hybrid learning. The quality of
the student device itself also plays a key role, according to a new
study.
According to a report
released by the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), an
association for IT leaders in K–12 education, two factors
significantly affect the experience students have with remote
learning: the age of the device and device specifications.
According to the report: “… [U]pload and download speeds during
online classes/meetings can vary significantly by the age, type, and
quality of device used. Students that were provided with older and
less powerful equipment had an inferior experience than students with
newer devices. Students that received newer devices with limited
specifications (e.g., memory and processor) also had more challenges
than students that were provided with devices with better
specifications.”
The effects aren’t just perceptual. Researchers looked at data from
students using the same internet service provider and noted that
throughput was actually lower in the case of students who had
inferior devices even though they were on the same network.
Some of the factors that impact the quality of the learning
experience include, according to the report (all bullets quoted
verbatim from the report):
-
Type and speed of processor
-
Amount of memory
-
Central Processing Unit (CPU) utilization
-
Number of applications running at one time
-
Quality of WiFi antenna and signal strength received
-
WiFi standard used and access frequency
It’s worth noting that the researchers found that, beyond replacing
devices or purchasing upgrades, there are steps IT departments can
take to improve device performance, such as safe-listing the sites
and services that deliver students’ at-home learning materials and
online class sessions so that performance isn’t hindered by a
network filtering product.
The report also noted that data analytics are critical for assessing
student device performance. According to the report: “School
districts need sophisticated information and data systems to
adequately manage home connectivity and ensure students are provided
ample resources to learn. With access to this type of adequate data
analytics, the participating school districts have been able to work
with ISPs, application service providers, families, and community
resources to address identified obstacles to adequate home internet
access. Without actionable data, school districts may make
ill-informed judgements, exhausting limited financial resources. In
addition, many school districts continue to use basic methods of data
collection and analysis, like spreadsheets. Districts that have
advanced data and analytics available are better able to make quick,
well informed strategic decisions.”
Some other suggestions from the report:
-
Include internet speed data with other student data “to determine
the impact on student participation. This requires extending the
industry-recognized Ed-Fi Data Standard and providing a standard
API, which could be used for a variety of purposes. For example,
before assigning an intervention to students, the school district
should have data available to determine if the student has
appropriate internet access to participate in the intervention”;
-
Work with meeting software providers “ to provide aggregated
Quality of Service (QoS) data at the student level to assist in
identifying students that are experiencing issues during online
instruction.”
The complete report, Home
Internet Connectivity Study, is freely available on
CoSN’s site.
See also: Landmark
Study Calls for Increased Bandwidth for At-Home Learning.