Preliminary study: Readiness of WLAN Infrastructure at Malaysian Higher Education Institutes to support Smart Campus Initiative

Abstract

Smart campus initiative enables higher education to enhance services, decision-making, and campus sustainability. The initiatives are being actively implemented globally by higher education, including in Malaysia. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the need for the education sector to explore a digital revolution. The adaptation of digital technologies has improved many aspects, including the teaching and learning experiences and administration tasks, which results in more efficient task handling. This study investigates the readiness of the WLAN infrastructure at Malaysian Public Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) in implementing smart campus initiatives and measures readiness based on the availability of WLAN Infrastructure, WLAN logical architecture and WLAN populated coverage area. This study administered a questionnaire to 19 respondents, all of whom are IT personnel from Malaysian public HEIs to gather preliminary data on the readiness of WLAN infrastructure at Malaysian Public HEI to support the adaptation of smart campus initiatives in their teaching and learning activities. This study is a preliminary study concerning the readiness of WLAN infrastructure at Malaysian Public HEI in adapting smart campus initiatives. The findings show that, even though WLAN service is available at all Malaysian Public HEI, it is essential to enhance the adopted logical architecture and WLAN coverage to prepare HEI to become smart campuses. The findings of this study can provide the fundamental guidelines for the Ministry of Higher Education in determining the baseline of WLAN infrastructure required by Malaysian HEI to support smart campus initiatives.