Internet In Rural Areas Research Articles

The impact of technology on access to credit: A review of loan approval and terms in rural Vietnam and Thailand

The acceleration of economic digitalisation has been immense in recent years, especially when coupled with the rapid development of technology-augmented finance. However, less understood is how such technology-augmented finance has impacted access to credit within rural contexts of developing economies. Using household-level survey data, our results provide novel evidence of a negative relationship, on average, between rural households’ access to credit, as measured by loan approvals, and internet access. More specifically, use of internet in rural areas of the countries under analysis reduces the chance of accessing credit by up to 65%. Moreover, when we further investigate loan terms, our findings indicate that internet users get six-month shorter loan durations and have a lower interest cost of borrowing of up to 1.2%. The results for loan approval rates are persistent for formal loans and for nations at a lower stage of economic development, i.e., only within the less developed Vietnamese rural context. Our findings provide richer insights into the impact of information and telecommunication technologies (ITC) on access to finance in developing countries characterised by significant proportions of rural areas affected by severe information asymmetry-related issues that may be amplified or reduced by increased internet connectivity. Our results carry important policy implications. On the demand side, they highlight the need to ensure that government initiatives should aim to better educate rural borrowers in relation to financial literacy and credit choices. On the supply side, our findings urge the need to introduce policies for formal lenders targeted towards the reduction of the information asymmetries pervasive in rural areas.

Application Programs for Learning Arabic in the Industrial Era 4.0: A Qualitative Analysis of Teachers and Students in Aceh

This article describes learning Arabic using online applications in secondary and tertiary schools in the Aceh region. It analyzes the benefits and obstacles faced by teachers and students. This research uses the qualitative-analytical approach using Creswell's analysis theory, including data preparation and processing, building a general sense of information, and coding and interpreting the data. This research shows that learning the Arabic language through online applications is an activity that provides information, especially Arabic language studies, through the Internet, such as via WhatsApp, Google Classroom, Zoom, Kahoot, and Quizizz applications. Using these applications makes them more knowledgeable in developing their technology capabilities. Technology can accustom students to independent learning and not rely on the teacher's explanation alone, creating the habit of reading and analyzing educational materials. One of the obstacles to learning through electronic media is the lack of access to the Internet in rural areas of Aceh. There are no computers or laptops for students, and there are materials that are difficult to understand.

ICTS in Brazilian family farming: facing isolation and digital exclusion

The article records the evolution of primary data made by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) with the aim of understanding the progressive digital inclusion in the Brazilian rural world. We revisit in an updated perspective a survey that originates in 2006 and continues until 2022, relating the consumption of ICTs by Brazilian family farming. The importance of mobile phones is highlighted, anticipating the arrival of Smartphones and the Internet in rural areas. The exodus of young people, especially girls, is a reality even in family farming. Masculinization and aging are constant in rural reality, aspects that greatly contribute to the wear and tear of the social fabric. The analysis of the evolution of primary data on the presence of ICTs allows us to understand the characteristics of digital inclusion in the Brazilian rural world. At the end, we present our reflection on the potential of ICTs in the context of gender and generation relations for rural development policies.

Internet in the Middle of Nowhere: Performance of Geoportals in Rural Areas According to Core Web Vitals

The spatial planning system in Poland is undergoing a fundamental reform. It emphasises the digital representation of spatial data. Low performance of geoportals, no Internet access, or poor connectivity can contribute to the exclusion from the spatial planning process, and consequently to the exclusion from a specific part of public life. Considering these developments, the present study seems relevant by pointing out the issue with geoportal performance and availability of quality Internet in rural areas. The primary contribution of the article is (1) results of performance measurements for selected geoportals; (2) presentation of measuring tools and performance indices combined with methods for ad-hoc performance measuring; and (3) presentation of potential actions to improve geoportal performance on the device with which it is used. The article offers case studies where the performance of selected geoportals was tested in rural mountainous areas with limited Internet access. Five geoportals were tested with PageSpeed Insights (PSI), WebPageTest, GTmetrix, Pingdom, and GiftOfSpeed. Core Web Vitals indices were analysed: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), and First Contentful Paint (FCP). The author verified values of the Speed Index and Fully Loaded Time along with other performance indices, like GTmetrix Structure. The study failed to provide unambiguous evidence that radio link users in rural areas could experience problems with geoportal performance, although the results seem to suggest it indirectly. PSI Lab Data and Field Data tests revealed a relatively low performance of the geoportals. The Performance index remained below 50 in most cases, which is ‘Poor’ according to the PSI scale. The fully loaded time exceeded 10 s for all the geoportals and 20 s in some cases (Lab Data). It means that the perceived performance of the tested geoportals on a radio link in rural areas is most probably even lower. The case studies demonstrated further that the user has limited possibilities to speed up map applications. It is possible to slightly improve the geoportal experience through the optimisation of the device locally, but the responsibility to ensure geoportal performance is mainly the publisher’s.

The correlation between broadband prices and the digital divide: A survey of Taiwan’s north coast

This study highlights the importance of differentiating between urban and rural areas when exploring broadband issues that matter to consumers and statistically sampling accordingly. To test the effectiveness of rural broadband programmes in improving internet usage, this study is based on a selection of five geographically adjacent administrative districts with varying population densities.During a survey using the double-bounded dichotomous choice model to measure people’s WTP, two research hypotheses were tested and verified through regression analysis. The results showed that consumers living in rural areas are significantly less willing to pay for broadband than those living in urban areas, which contradicts the findings of the study by Worden and Hambly (2022) conducted in Canada.Additionally, the significant t value test results found in this study showed that consumers are willing to pay more for download bandwidth than for upload bandwidth for every dollar spent. This result indicates that consumers have a clear preference for one over the other and highlights significant differences in their choices.In particular, the results of the willingness-to-pay survey revealed that the incumbent operator yield opposite results in the regression coefficients for their willingness to pay for each unit of download bandwidth and upload bandwidth. This result may be due to differences in the design of internet products offered by the two operators.Given the inevitable reality that income generated by service operators in rural areas is lower than that in urban areas, there is a need to study price differentials between urban and rural areas in order to promote greater use of broadband internet in rural areas in the context of the adoption of a single price throughout the region.

Effectiveness of Information Acquisition via the Internet in Standardizing the Use of Antimicrobials by Hog Farmers: Insights from China

Antimicrobial residues and resistance caused by farmers’ overuse of veterinary antimicrobials have seriously threatened food safety, the ecological environment, and public health. With the popularization of the Internet in rural areas, especially in developing countries, the constraints of obtaining agricultural technical information provided by governments or organizations are greatly eased, farmers’ knowledge and skills are significantly improved, and the agricultural standardized production system is effectively constructed. However, there is still a research gap on whether information acquisition via the Internet (IAI) can induce farmers to standardize the use of antimicrobials. Using the data of 675 hog farmers in the Hebei, Shandong, Henan, and Hubei provinces, China, the IV-Heckman and mediating effect models were used to analyze the phenomenon empirically. The main findings revealed that the IAI had exerted a significant influence on the standardized use of veterinary antimicrobials by hog farmers, i.e., the IAI not only helped farmers to decide to standardize the use of antimicrobials but also reduced the amount of investment in the standardized use of antibiotics. Moreover, information-sharing and feedback mechanisms partially mediated the relationship between the IAI and farmers’ standardized use of antimicrobials. Finally, considering the heterogeneity of individual endowments, the study further revealed that the IAI significantly impacted the standardized use of antimicrobials for farmers below the age of 36 years. However, the IAI was found to positively and significantly promote farmers’ standardized-use decisions only if they had less than five years of breeding time.

Impact of Internet Use on Farmers’ Organic Fertilizer Investment: A New Perspective of Access to Credit

Encouraging farmers to increase the use of organic fertilizer will be conducive to promoting the green transformation of farmers’ production and realize sustainable agricultural development. As a long-term investment, the accuracy of farmers’ access to organic fertilizer information and the supporting role of credit are important factors that affect their organic fertilizer application decisions. However, the existence of information asymmetry in the organic fertilizer market and the credit constraints in the financial market, which restricts the enthusiasm of farmers to apply organic fertilizer. In recent years, the rapid development of the Internet in China’s rural areas has effectively alleviated the degree of information asymmetry in rural areas, and improved farmers’ access to credit, which provides a new opportunity for farmers to increase the application rate of organic fertilizer. This study takes 1030 apple growers in the main apple production areas of China as the research object, and employs Tobit model, IV-Tobit model and mediation effect model to explore the impact of internet use on farmers’ organic fertilizer investment. The results show that internet use can promote farmers’ organic fertilizer investment. After addressing the endogeneity issue and the robustness test, the conclusion is still robust. Heterogeneity analysis shows that internet use has a more significant impact on organic fertilizer investment in the older generation and the large-scale group of farmers. The mechanism analysis shows that internet use affects farmers’ organic fertilizer investment through improving access to credit. Therefore, it is necessary to continuously improve the construction of rural digital infrastructure, accelerate the development of the Internet in rural areas, and actively guide financial resources to agriculture, so as to effectively promote the green transformation of agricultural production.

Influence of spatial factors on the diffusion of mobile internet in rural areas

In the conditions of the continuing sanctions regime of unfriendly countries, the problem of digital development of Russian society is urgent. Especially important is the digital transformation of rural areas, where the wider introduction of information and communication technologies can neutralize the problems of socio-economic development. One of the constraining factors for the digitalization of the village is the low quality of Internet coverage. The process of diffusion of mobile Internet technology in rural areas was assessed on the materials of the Kaliningrad and Pskov regions according to data from telecom operators for the fourth quarter of 2022. The research methodology included an assessment of the geography of mobile Internet coverage in rural areas and subsequent typologization of rural areas by the level of growth of mobile Internet technology. The key centers of technology distribution in the center-peripheral model are identified. It is shown that the diffusion of mobile Internet occurs hierarchically (from cities and towns towards large villages) and contagiously (in areas adjacent to them). The main drivers of the spread of the Internet have been identified: an increase in Internet speed due to frequency refarming, an improvement in the quality of the Internet with the help of state support.

Rural regional newspapers of the Russian Federation on the Internet

In the context of the development of broadband and mobile Internet in rural areas of the Russian Federation, using the example of three regions of the Siberian Federal District, the dynamics of circulation of rural regional newspapers and the development of the Internet by this type of socio-political periodicals are examined. The article presents an analysis of websites and public pages in various social networks of almost one hundred newspapers based on a complete sample of municipal publications in regional districts. The analysis showed that over the past ten years, newspapers have made significant progress towards accumulating an Internet audience: almost all of them have functioning, daily updated websites, although they are still quite poorly adapted to mobile media consumption. All newspapers have pages on at least two social networks (VKontakte and Odnoklassniki), and newspapers in the Krasnoyarsk Territory work better than others with platforms that are new to this type of publication, such as Telegram and video hosting.

How Does Internet Use Promote Farmer Entrepreneurship: Evidence from Rural China

Entrepreneurship and innovation are important driving forces for economic sustainable development. Despite the rapid popularity of the Internet in rural areas, whether—and if so, how—the Internet use may affect farmer entrepreneurship remains a key research gap. This paper studies the impact of the use of the Internet on farmer entrepreneurship and its mechanism by using Probit model, the Karlson–Holm–Breen (KHB) method and China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) dataset from 2014 to 2018. It is found that: (1) Use of the Internet has a positive impact on farmer entrepreneurship, and this result remains robust after addressing endogeneity. (2) Necessity entrepreneurship is more likely to be affected by use of the Internet than opportunity entrepreneurship. (3) Use of the Internet can significantly influence necessity entrepreneurship by affecting farmers’ risk attitude, social capital and information acquisition, while opportunity entrepreneurship is not affected by these mediating effects. (4) Among three mediating effects, the effect of social capital accounts for the largest contribution to the impact of the use of the Internet on farmer entrepreneurship. Our empirical findings could provide theoretical references for policies or reforms intended to promote entrepreneurship in rural regions.

Assessing the Impact of Satellite Internet in Rural Areas: A Case of C. K. Tedam University of Technology and Applied Sciences, Navrongo, Ghana

The internet has become an essential part of the world today. The internet will need to reach a wide range of individuals’ family members, friends, acquaintances, or even share data or information with a group of people. Imagine a constant and reliable internet connection, regardless of location or place. The CKT-UTAS (C.K. Tedam University of Technology and Applied Sciences) Campus is an example of an area where internet connection is inferior and unreliable. This research work studied the benefits and limitations of satellite internet, which can be a solution to the current state of internet connection unreliability on the CKT-UTAS campus and derive into the benefits it will provide to the university if implemented. This study aimed to compare the current telecommunication network services to the Satellite Internet services, analyses the awareness level of Satellite Internet in rural areas and examine the significance of Satellite Internet technology in rural areas. In-depth research was done by administering questionnaires and studying other related works on this study to gather all the necessary information. After the data were analyzed, it was concluded that the Satellite Internet had more advantages that are significant in rural areas than the Current/Traditional Internet.

Educational Innovation in Adult Learning Considering Digital Transformation for Social Inclusion

This research seeks to identify teaching-learning mechanisms that allow innovation and educational evolution for Youth and Adult Basic Education and thus achieve social inclusion in a rural development environment that has technological limitations and internet access in rural areas. The work seeks to identify a strategic process of learning objects to apply an inverted classroom in no presential modality. The objective is to respond to the low level of knowledge in the area of Language and Literature to mitigate the lack of understanding of the andragogical resources of the teachers in virtual classes. A methodological strategy is proposed that is related to the scientific field through bibliometric and quantitative analysis based on scientific information; in a second moment, the environment is evaluated via satisfaction surveys conducted with students and teachers of the third baccalaureate of the rural areas in the no presential modality of the Juan Jiménez Educational Unit, Abdón Calderón extension, province of Sucumbíos, Ecuador. A total of 66.67% of teachers between 41 and 45 agree with implementing ICT as a strategy for better learning in the education of young people and adults despite the scarce access to the internet in rural areas.

Key stakeholder perspectives on challenges and opportunities for rural HPV vaccination in North and South Carolina

ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to identify factors at the individual, provider, and systems levels that serve as challenges or opportunities for increasing adolescent vaccination—including Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination—in rural communities in the southern United States (US). As part of a broader study to increase HPV vaccine uptake in the southern US, we conducted in-depth interviews with vaccination stakeholders representing public health and education agencies in North Carolina (NC) and South Carolina (SC). Fourteen key stakeholders were recruited using purposive sampling to obtain insights into challenges and solutions to rural-urban disparities in HPV vaccination coverage. Stakeholders were also queried about their experiences and attitudes toward school-based vaccination promotion programs and campaigns. We used a rapid qualitative approach to analyze the data. Stakeholders identified factors at the individual, provider, and systems levels that serve as challenges to vaccination in rural communities. Similar to previous studies, stakeholders mentioned challenges with healthcare access and vaccine-related misconceptions that pose barriers to HPV vaccination for rural residents. Systems-level challenges identified included limited access to high-speed internet in rural areas that may impact providers’ ability to interface with state-level digital systems such as the vaccination registry. Stakeholders identified a number of opportunities to increase HPV vaccination coverage, including through school-based health promotion programs. Stakeholders strongly supported school-based programs and approaches to strengthen confidence and demand for HPV vaccination and to help address persistent social determinants and system level factors that pose challenges to HPV vaccination coverage in many rural areas.

Tertiary Students’ Perceptions of Online Learning Strategies in Remote Learning Environment at Covid-19 Pandemic Era

This study aimed at investigating the perceptions of tertiary students about online learning strategies in the Remote Learning Environment during the Covid-19 pandemic era. The method used in this research was a descriptive qualitative method by using a survey to collect the data from 20 tertiary students’ perceptions of their online learning strategies in rural areas during this pandemic era. The results indicated that students agreed with online learning strategies with digital platforms but they are still confused about how to learn and access them. Virtual meetings declined students’ motivation to learn because of bad access to the internet in their areas. Using Video Conferences is more flexible because it can be used wherever whenever. Online learning still becomes the best learning strategy in this pandemic, but access to the internet in rural areas must be improved. Tertiary students need access to the internet and infrastructure and instructional materials design especially applied in this pandemic era. In conclusion, online learning strategies by using digital platforms still become the best solution to be applied in the remote learning environments during this Covid-19 outbreak, even there are some obstacles still existed.

Effectiveness of Digital Marketing on the Promotion of the Botswana Human Resource Development Council’s (HRDC) Services

Since 2015, Botswana Human Resource Development Council (HRDC) has been using digital marketing platforms to promote its services and reach out to its stakeholders, customers and clients. This was meant to augment traditional marketing platforms such as television, radio and newspapers, which were not reaching out to all stakeholders due to geographical spread. As a result, the Botswana HRDC decided to incorporate digital marketing in its Marketing Communications Strategy. After this shift, it became necessary to know whether digital marketing platforms, mainly Facebook and Twitter, were achieving the intended results. The study sought to investigate the effectiveness and efficiency of digital marketing on the promotion of Botswana HRDC’s services. The study targeted Botswana HRDC stakeholders, customers and clients. A mixed‐methods research approach was used. Purposive sampling was used to select 420 respondents, of which 348 answered a quesƟonnaire, while 26 participated in interviews, and two focus–group discussions were conducted with seven and 13 respondents, respectively. The response rate was 82.4 per cent. The findings suggest that participants generally preferred to use digital marketing; however, due to the unaffordability of data to some and inaccessibility of the internet in rural areas, some still preferred traditional marketing platforms. The findings also showed a relationship between the use of digital marketing platforms and the type of stakeholder, age, position, location and level of education. The findings further recommended the use of Instagram, WhatsApp and Pinterest. The significance of this study is that the research findings inform Botswana HRDC on how to plan for its next strategic plan of 2021–2026 on digital capacity building, agility, management, budgeting and how best to exploit digital marketing for reaching out to all types of stakeholders.

SPECIFICS OF SELECTING AND EXPERIENCE OF IMPLEMENTATING DISTANCE LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES AT THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTOLOGY, CYTOLOGY AND EMBRYOLOGY OF IVANO-FRANKIVSK NATIONAL MEDICAL UNIVERSITY

Because of COVID-19 spreading since March 2020, European countries began to introduce quarantine measures that inevitably led to the closure of all educational institutions. In the context of globalization and the development of the Internet, opportunities for lifelong education and self-education have appeared and are rapidly evolving. In particular, distance learning is available for a large audience including self-education-oriented learners and teachers, as well as can improve the qualification levels of specialists. The learners can reside in different geographic regions, represent different ethnic groups and cultures, but they are all united by one desire to update and expand their knowledge, improve practical skills. Most of medical universities in Ukraine had to modify their courses for distance learning format in a short time. The readiness for this process was different for each university: both purely technical problems arose, mainly due to the lack of the Internet in rural areas, out-of-date computers, no specially prepared educational and methodological materials and guidance on the one hand, and difficulties associated with no experience in organizing this form of education, on the other. To conduct all forms of training at the Ivano-Frankivsk National Medical University in quarantine restrictions, various interactive teaching techniques were chosen in the form of videoconferences, organized by using the corporate Microsoft Teams platform. This teamwork centre brings together chat, appointments, notes and attachments in its workspace. This teamwork platform brings together chat, appointments, notes and attachments in its workspace. On this platform, in the form of webinars, the heads of the information department of the University conducted training for educators sharing practical recommendations for organizing distance learning. Scientific and pedagogical staff of the Department of Histology, Cytology and Embryology managed effectively enough to adapt educational distance learning technologies for the study and knowledge of the students of the microscopic and ultramicroscopic structure of the structures of the human body, its development and changes in the different conditions to develop and boost their general and professional medical competence. Distance learning can be considered a very promising form of organizing the educational process in the context of life-long learning. In the medical field, due to the large number of practical skills at the undergraduate stage and the complexity of their development remotely, the maximum effectiveness of this form of education is currently presented when receiving correspondence pharmaceutical education and postgraduate advanced training of doctors.

Inter-domain routing in integrated LTE and WLAN networks

The integrated LTE and WLAN Networks provide flexibility to use the Internet in Rural areas of India where their network infrastructure is not available. The research article focus to provide Internet service to the rural area end-users with a certain level of defined QoS as per ITU and TRAI guidelines. The selection of the best-suited routing protocol may have the capacity to help to achieve our objective. In the integrated network, it is much common to use a diverse variety of inter-domain routing protocol for forwarding packets by routing table updates. These tables are part of the memory of routers that help to forward packets from source to destination using their routing algorithms so that more users may experience QoS. This paper evaluates the performance of Bellman BGPv4, Inter OSPFv2, and Inter RIPv2 in terms of Routing Overhead for the integrated networks under a virtual QualNet 9.1 network simulator scenario.

The impact of Internet use on adolescent learning outcomes: evidence from rural China

PurposeInternet use has become particularly prevalent among adolescents, prompting much thought and concern about both its potential benefits and adverse effects on adolescent learning outcomes. Much of the empirical literature on the impact of Internet use on adolescent learning outcomes is mixed, and few studies examine the causal relationship between the two in rural China. In order to bridge these gaps, we use empirical analysis to investigate the effect of Internet use on the learning outcomes of adolescents in rural China.Design/methodology/approachWe use fixed effect models with samples drawn from a large nationally representative dataset (the China Family Panel Studies—CFPS) to identify the causal impacts of Internet use on the learning outcomes of three cohorts (Cohort A (N = 540), Cohort B (N = 287) and Cohort C (N = 827)) of adolescents in rural China.FindingsThe results of the descriptive analysis show a continued increase in the number of adolescents accessing the Internet and the amount of time they spend online. The results of the fixed effect models show that Internet use has positive (in many of the analyses), but mostly insignificant impacts, on the learning outcomes of adolescents. In the sets of results that find significant associations between Internet use and learning outcomes, the measured effects are moderate.Originality/valueThis study investigates the causal relationship between Internet use and adolescent learning outcomes in rural China. The findings claim that there is not a great need to worry about adverse effects of Internet use on adolescent learning development. Attention, however, should focus on seeking ways to improve the positive effects of the Internet use on adolescent learning outcomes. The study will provide a reference and experience for the development of education and the Internet in rural areas and promote the integrated development of urban and rural areas in China.

Digital Village: Modelling of Public Wireless Internet Development using Supply Chain Structure Approach

This study aims to describe the design of rural public wireless internet development based on a supply chain structure approach. Now, many new internet services have sprung up in the private, public, business, education, health, and even governmental sectors until considered as the leading global system. Especially in rural areas, the provision of cable internet networks and cellular internet networks have not been able to reach all rural areas, so a new breakthrough is needed, one of which is a public wireless internet network. This research was conducted with a Design-Based Research approach that combines scientific design methods with the problems that occur for internet development in rural areas of Indonesia. The finding that the development of wireless internet in rural areas can be carried out with the concept of a supply chain structure consisting of suppliers (ISP providers of internet sources), manufacturers (local government or village-owned enterprises managing and transmitting wireless internet to wholesaler), wholesaler (installed 5GHz wireless repeater in people residential areas), retailers (installed 5GHz wireless receiver devices from wholesaler and convert to 2.4GHz wireless transmitters installed in every resident’s house) and customers (each resident’s smartphones or notebooks device connected by wireless).

Online Teaching of Rural Multi-Grade Classes in the Context of COVID-19: Proposing a Holistic Approach

This study addresses the educational challenges faced by students in rural multi-grade classes in the context of the global epidemic of Covid 19. Rural students in this course face unprecedented challenges in trying to adapt to a new way of life and learning. This study was conducted with the aim of creating a better future for these students and in line with critical research of the current situation. In order to collect data, participatory action research method was used. A total of 12 students from elementary multi-grade classes (fourth, fifth and sixth grades) and 6 teachers participated in this study. This study answers two key questions: What are the learning challenges for rural learners during Covid 19? How can their teaching and learning be enhanced? The results showed that while our education decision-making system promoted online learning as the only alternative at the time, many rural students were deprived of teaching and learning. This is due to reasons such as lack of hardware resources for Internet connection, lack of Internet network coverage in many villages, poor learning management system, economic poverty, heavy financial cost of Internet use, weakness or lack of necessary technological knowledge in some Rural teachers, the lack of Internet cafes in rural areas, the lack of fixed ADSL Internet in rural areas, has not been able to meet the educational needs of rural students.