This morning at 2:01 CDT, Canvas by Instructure experienced a shutdown that prevented students and teachers from logging onto the Canvas app and the website, according to DownDetector, a site that monitors website outages. This is due to a widespread Amazon Web Service (AWS) outage that has affected many websites, such as Snapchat and United. 

AWS accounts for about one-third of the market, according to CNBC, and while some sites have recovered and are fully operational, Canvas is still down.

On its status page, Canvas wrote that it is “currently waiting for full recovery” from AWS. 

So, while AWS remains nonfunctional, teachers have to adjust their lesson plans.

Geography teacher Ian Duell says that since he never solely uses Canvas for distributing assignments, the shutdown did not affect him all that much.

However, since this morning was a rare occasion where he did not have a paper back-up, the shutdown prevented his students from completing a Canvas assignment today.

Since it is unclear whether Canvas will come back online within the next few days, teachers have to plan accordingly. Like Duell, some teachers have not been solely relying on it. Social Studies teacher Penelope Revis is in the habit of handing out assignments on paper.

“As a teacher knows, you have to have a backup plan,” Revis said. “Always ready to go when technology does its thing. So I got to print some handouts, which was something that wasn’t on my agenda, but I’ll take five minutes to do it.”

Duell admitted that he still needs a plan for tomorrow since he thinks Canvas won’t be back up by then. Revis, too, is unsure of what the next few days will look like for her colleagues.  

“Trying to get some of that feedback and grades back to students this morning has definitely been a little difficult,” Revis said. “Luckily, I was giving a paper exam today, so I’m okay, but I hope other teachers are fine.”

Something that will affect teachers and students alike is quarter grades, which are due Wednesday, Oct. 22.

 

Revis shared that she does not know when she will be able to input quarter grades, which students need to submit to colleges, but when Canvas works again it will be “crunch time” for her.

“Hopefully, at least in my experience when technology does this on learning platforms, [Canvas] can resolve it within the day,” Revis said. “If [it does not], I do think that there will be some schools or some places that will hopefully be understanding that this is a big outage.”

While many teachers adapted to the shutdown, some seniors, like Mia Soffer, must submit their first quarter grades; quarter grades are not typically considered for college applications, but some selective colleges require them.

Soffer has received grades for nearly all assignments due at the end of first quarter, ensuring her quarter grades accurately represent her academic performance.

“Everything in all my classes has been graded for quarter grades,” Soffer said. “So I’m not too stressed out.”

Soffer feels that the Canvas shutdown will end soon, but on the off chance that the shutdown lasts until Wednesday, Soffer doesn’t know how her teachers will approach submitting quarter grades.

“There are things on Canvas that I want to do, but I can’t,” Soffer said. “It’s only been one day though, so I’m hoping this is literally gone in an hour.”

It is still unclear when Canvas’ technical difficulties will be resolved, so teachers and students must continue to adapt to the setbacks this creates. 

“I always say in the teaching profession, it’s always about being flexible,” Revis said. “These things come up, and we just [have] to adapt quickly and hope that, fingers crossed, it gets resolved quickly.