Best questions for community college student survey about technology access and wi-fi reliability

Here are some of the best questions for a community college student survey about technology access and Wi-Fi reliability, and tips on how to create them. We use Specific to build such surveys in seconds—if you want, you can generate one instantly with our AI survey builder.

Best open-ended questions for community college students about technology access and Wi-Fi reliability

Open-ended questions invite honest, detailed feedback—perfect when you want real stories about student challenges. These questions are best when you want to expose pain points, hear about lived experiences, or let respondents bring up issues you didn’t anticipate.

With only 20% of undergraduates able to maintain consistent technology and internet access [1], it’s more important than ever to truly understand every student’s situation, not just tally statistics.

1. Can you describe a recent situation where a lack of technology or unreliable Wi-Fi affected your studies?

2. What specific challenges have you faced with campus or home internet access this semester?

3. How do technology or Wi-Fi issues impact your ability to complete assignments on time?

4. What kind of devices do you regularly use for your courses, and how do they meet (or not meet) your needs?

5. Have you found any workarounds for unreliable internet access? Please share your experiences.

6. How do technology-related issues make you feel as a community college student?

7. What would make your learning experience smoother when it comes to tech or Wi-Fi access?

8. How has access to technology changed for you since starting college? What’s gotten better or worse?

9. What support or resources would help you overcome tech or connectivity challenges?

10. What advice do you have for the college to improve Wi-Fi reliability and technology access?

Best single-select multiple-choice questions for community college students about technology access and Wi-Fi reliability

Single-select multiple-choice questions are excellent for quick quantification or when you want to kickstart a conversation. They’re less intimidating than open-ended queries and help respondents ease into deeper topics. Once you set the stage, following up can reveal much more nuance.

Question: How reliable do you find the campus Wi-Fi in your main study areas?

• Very reliable

• Somewhat reliable

• Rarely reliable

• Not at all reliable

Question: Where do you most often experience technology or Wi-Fi issues?

• At home

• On campus

• Both equally

• Rarely experience issues

Question: What is your main device for accessing course content?

• Laptop

• Tablet

• Smartphone

• Other

When to follow up with "why?" Whenever a student selects a surprising or concerning answer—like “Not at all reliable” for Wi-Fi—it’s crucial to dig deeper. Immediately asking, “Why do you feel the Wi-Fi is rarely reliable?” helps you get actionable feedback on exact causes, not just opinions.

When and why to add the "Other" choice? If you want to avoid forcing students into unsuitable boxes, always give an “Other” option. Often, it allows students to mention technology or connectivity setups you didn’t consider. A tailored follow-up then uncovers insights you’d otherwise miss.

NPS: Would it make sense for community college student surveys on tech access?

NPS (Net Promoter Score) is typically used to gauge overall satisfaction or likelihood to recommend—but it’s surprisingly effective for understanding tech experience, too. Asking, “How likely are you to recommend our campus Wi-Fi and technology resources to a friend?” immediately shows you if tech support is driving satisfaction, or if there’s a silent majority struggling. With major stats indicating that only 20% of students consider campus Wi-Fi very reliable in all or most areas [3], an NPS-style question helps you benchmark sentiment and prioritize technology support efforts.

If you want to try it, see this NPS survey template for community college students about technology access.

The power of follow-up questions

Automated, smart follow-up questions unlock deeper context—with every response. Specific’s AI automatically asks the right follow-up in real time, clarifying or probing based on how the student replied. This turns ambiguous answers into usable insights, cuts down on post-survey email ping-pong, and truly makes your survey conversational. You can learn more about this process in our guide to automated AI follow-up questions.

• Student: “I can’t always connect to Wi-Fi at home.”

• AI follow-up: “Can you describe when this usually happens? Is it during certain times, or with specific devices?”

How many followups to ask? Generally, two or three follow-ups are enough for each question—enough to clarify and get details, without overwhelming the respondent. Specific allows you to set how persistent the follow-ups should be, and even lets students skip ahead once you have what you need.

This makes it a conversational survey—not just a form, but a genuine conversation that adapts to student replies in real time and keeps them engaged.

AI survey analysis—unstructured data made easy. Even with long, open-ended responses, AI-powered analysis finds the patterns for you, surfacing top themes and helping you act faster.

Automated follow-up questions are a new way to get rich, actionable feedback. Try generating a survey to see the experience in action.

Prompting ChatGPT to come up with great survey questions

Here’s a simple way to get started with AI: prompt it for ideas!

Start with the basics. For example:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for community college student survey about technology access and Wi-Fi reliability.

But AI always works best when you provide a little more context—describe your situation, your goals, and the kind of feedback you want:

I’m creating a survey for community college students. Many have unreliable home internet and rely on public Wi-Fi. I’d like to understand both the technical and emotional impacts of tech issues. Suggest 10 open-ended questions to capture their experiences.

Next, organize the questions by category:

Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.

Finally, if one category stands out (say, “Emotional Impact”), ask for even more detail:

Generate 10 questions for the Emotional Impact category.

What is a conversational survey?

A conversational survey feels like a chat, not a checklist. Instead of static forms, you interact naturally—one question at a time, with smart AI following up only when it’s needed. This is where tools like Specific shine. When you use an AI survey generator, creating and editing your survey is faster and much less draining than dragging boxes around in traditional software. Even editing is easier, thanks to features like the AI survey editor, so you can make changes in plain English.

Why use AI for community college student surveys? Because issues like technology access and Wi-Fi reliability are highly contextual. Students will rarely tell the whole story in one word—they need space and prompting. A tool like Specific ensures you collect richer, deeper insight and make the survey process less of a chore, more of a conversation.

If you're looking for a conversational AI survey example, or want to see how fast you can get useful data, you’ll quickly see why these tools are redefining student surveys. Specific’s conversational surveys offer a best-in-class user experience, making feedback collection smooth for both organizers and students. Want to create a survey step by step? Check out our guide on how to create a survey for community college students about technology access.

See this technology access and Wi-Fi reliability survey example now

Build a conversational student survey that digs deep, adapts in real time, and instantly reveals where technology and Wi-Fi access needs improvement—save hours, discover more, and experience surveys that truly listen to your students.