CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Outages with both Zoom and remote learning platforms brought remote learning grinding to a halt again in North Carolina Monday.
The outages on Zoom, delays and breakdowns in the Canvas learning application, and a slow-to-respond NCEDCloud platform meant students were unable to access virtual learning materials and classes for at least the third time in the six says since students went back to school in across North Carolina.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg families and teachers began experiencing Canvas crashes early Monday morning, reporting their problems to WCNC Charlotte and to school district leaders.
“CMS is aware of a nationwide connection issue for Zoom, the web conferencing tool used by teachers, students, and staff,” spokesperson Brian Hacker wrote in a statement. “Zoom is working to fix that issue.”
Hacker also addressed the issues that interrupted the Canvas program, writing:
“There are also reports of intermittent login difficulties and slow connection speeds with the Canvas online learning platform. The CMS IT staff is investigating the Canvas issues and we will provide more information when we have identified the source of the problem. Thank you for your patience.”
The return to school has been marred by technological programs in school districts across North Carolina.
Last week, NCEDCloud, the platform that students use to access Canvas, PowerSchool, and other learning programs, went on the blink on Monday and again on Wednesday.
At the time, North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction Mark Johnson called the repeat outages “unacceptable.”
Johnson issued a statement saying the Department of Public Instruction was investigating the matter with the vendor that provides the NCEDCloud service, as well as the Department of Information Technology.
Zoom reported the issues were resolved by mid-afternoon Monday.