Abstract
In the previous report in this series, Web browser loading times were measured in 12 Asian countries, and were found to be up to four times slower than commonly prescribed as acceptable. Failure of webpages to load at all was frequent. The current follow-up study compares these loading times with the complexity of the Internet routes linking the Web users and the Web servers hosting them. The study was conducted in the same 12 Asian countries, with the assistance of members of the International Development Research Centre’s PANdora distance education research network. The data were generated by network members in Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Mongolia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Additional data for the follow-up study were collected in China. Using a ‘traceroute’ routine, the study indicates that webpage loading time is linked to the complexity of the Internet routes between Web users and the host server. It is indicated that distance educators can apply such information in the design of improved online delivery and mirror sites, notably in areas of the developing world which currently lack an effective infrastructure for online education.
Highlights
The previous paper in this series reported two studies examining the amount of time taken to load different types of webpages in the Internet Explorer Web browser
The analysis indicates that the Internet routes taken by Web materials to the users’ computers range from the simple to the exceedingly complex
The route observed between materials hosted on the PANdora Web server in Lahore and users in Islamabad is a direct one involving seven ‘hops’ from source to target
Summary
The previous paper in this series reported two studies examining the amount of time taken to load different types of webpages in the Internet Explorer Web browser. The second study compared the loading times reported by 41 educators in Mongolia. Both studies found that webpages created using the common programming method of combined HTML and PHP coding took, on the first check, 10-19 seconds to load in the browser. Pages delivered by the widely used Moodle LMS took up to 39 seconds to load. Such speeds are four times slower than the 10-second benchmark recommended in Web design since the mid-1990s (Nielsen, 2007). It was concluded that if such benchmarks are not heeded in the development of online materials, the World-Wide Web is likely to become increasingly inaccessible as a viable educational medium, in the developing world
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