4 Key Findings and Recommendations for Student Home Connectivity

Innive is proud to have partnered with CoSN on data collection and analysis in the Student Home Connectivity Study. The report from this breakthrough study is organized into four key findings and related recommendations for school districts about how to address common issues in student home connectivity. This first-of-its-kind study employed recent de-identified student data to capture the experience of students using computing devices and accessing the internet at home. Each participating school district provided data such as student characteristics, network logs, Quality of Service (QoS) data for meeting software, Internet Service Provider (ISP) data, and geolocation data. Thirteen urban, suburban, and rural school districts representing approximately 750,000 students from across the United States participated in the study over the course of six weeks. The preliminary findings and recommendations in this report have already informed policymakers at the FCC around expanding use of E-Rate funds to address the Homework Gap.

“Sometimes the status quo feels like the wild west — which is why it’s critical that we equip educators with the information they need to make the right choices for their classrooms.” – Keith Krueger, CEO of CoSN

Four key findings are listed in the report:

1. Learning with Video is Essential for Education. Over 85 percent of network traffic in remote learning is used for video, which requires sufficient upload and download speeds. This increasingly popular learning trend is expected to continue for the foreseeable future.
2. Students are Mobile and Rely on WiFi. Many students participate in online learning activities outside of their own home, with 92 percent using WiFi to do so. Students oftentimes concurrently use district-provided devices and personal devices, increasing WiFi bandwidth needs.
3. Certain Communities, Especially in Remote and Rural Areas, Require More Support and Resources. Students in remote or rural areas most often have limited internet access and students working in areas with a large concentration of other students also experience poor connectivity.
4. The Remote Learning Experience is Significantly Impacted by Device Quality. The quality of a student’s experience can be impacted by the age, type, quality and configuration of the device they’re using. Routinely collecting data sets that provide insight into student use of district-provided devices can enhance their experiences.

Keep an eye out for our next blog series: Student Home Connectivity Findings, in which we’ll dive into each of these findings. Also coming soon:CoSN Student Home Connectivity Study Public Dataset