The internet and students’
“wow moments”

Ask a student the main thing that makes their experience great at NWU and you will most likely get many different answers. Fill an auditorium with students and then do the unthinkable … turn off the campus wi-fi. Then listen to the grumbles and complaints and watch the frustration and disappointment on their countenances!

Commence Nkomo

Commence Nkomo
Chief Data & Analytics Architect

Why Reliable Internet is Essential
for Student Success

Intermittent wi-fi access is as terrible an anathema as Eskom load shedding in their eyes.
The greatest need of a student evidently, is a fast and consistent internet access. They need it
to do and submit assignments, check their grades, communicate with professors, classmates
and university staff, attend virtual classes, and take online classes, among many other
technology-based activities. Not to mention the social media side of things.

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Now that smartphones are ubiquitous, we must be ON always. The measure for service delivery is not just the quality of the solution and the attitude of NWU staff. It seems the more important measure today is the duration in minutes it takes for an issue to be resolved. Nobody loves waiting. Patience in such cases is no more a virtue.

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Research shows that people take to social media to share either their “wow” moments or their very negative experiences. They barely share middle ground experiences. Failure to realise this has led many institutions to believe they are doing very well when in fact, many students are dissatisfied. A mediocre service may just be enough to keep students quiet… with some quietly quitting the university. Am not advocating for a terribly bad service to get students talking. It is the “wow moments” that IT should be constantly creating to impact the life of a student. That is the goal of innovation at NWU… and at the base of it is this basic tenet: a fast and reliable internet service.

Internet access may not be a constitutional right, but its importance cannot be over-emphasised. In 2016, the UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution condemning the intentional disruption of internet access and recognizing the importance of internet access for the exercise of human rights. This sets the tone for us to consider the Digital Divide concept. Watch the space in our next edition. Stay Digi-Data connected!