The Review

Issue date: 2/19/08 Section: Editorial

It is never promising to open your e-mail inbox and see a message from the university with a subject line that screams "Major Problem." But for the countless number of students who use MyCourses for their classes - myself included - that is exactly what greeted us on Valentine's Day.

Apparently, some files on the server got corrupted and messed up the entire WebCT system. Now, I know technology is finicky and sometimes things crash.

It is bad enough the platform crashed, what is even worse is that, in order to fix the problem, Information Technologies has to restore the system to its original, non-corrupted state from Feb. 10 - meaning all information put into MyCourses since that date, including student discussions, have to be re-entered.

Are you kidding me?

I doubt most university students wanted to type their discussions in the first time, let alone do it a second time. This is probably the one and only time I'm glad I am lazy and a procrastinator and did not start on my online course until, well, I still haven't started yet.

Why? Because as of Feb. 18, four days later, MyCourses is still inaccessible.

How is this even remotely acceptable? Not only are a number of students on campus using the program as a supplement to the courses they take in-person - it is the only way students who are not on campus can access their courses. This includes distance learning students taking university classes from all parts of the country.

I registered for an online class because I thought it would be more convenient to learn sitting in my pajamas from the comfort of my room, rather than sitting in my pajamas in a classroom. This is not convenient. This is what most learned scholars refer to as "inconvenient."

And I cannot mention the word "inconvenient" without mentioning the epitome of online inconvenience at the university: UDSIS.

It has been a year and a half since UDSIS became the bane of my existence, and I still hate it. Registering for classes should be a joyous time in students' lives - it is like spring, an academic reincarnation, if you will. I can almost smell the flowers just thinking about it.

But every semester, the system will inevitably lag and crash because there are so many students trying to register at the same time. Registration in real-time? Talk about a real hassle.

Just last month, I discovered that my academic progress report and transcript, whose presences I had so dearly missed and whose absences were a true annoyance, had reappeared on UDSIS. My progress report was incorrect and my transcript was not up to date, but at this point I am overjoyed at even the smallest of victories.

Baby steps, I tell you. Besides, it is not like we need the information on our progress reports and transcripts to graduate or anything.

For its part, the university is trying to broadcast that IT is doing everything it can to fix the problem. According to a message posted on the now-defunct MyCourses site, under another banner that proclaims "Critical Notice" in a lovely shade of purple, "IT staff have been actively engaged with the vendor (Blackboard) in resolving the problems with the WebCT server."

Actively engaged? That sounds like IT and Blackboard are playing a game of squash. After the system having been down for nearly a week, it doesn't seem like either side is being active enough.

In the meantime, the Web site lists ways for professors to communicate with students, one of which is through the university's e-mail system.

Thank you for insulting my intelligence. Do you really need to tell us that we can communicate with our professors through e-mail? What is this, 1990? How do you think we were notified that WebCT was not working in the first place?

Here is an idea: the university has a department of computer and information sciences. Here is a final project if there ever was one: fix our online systems.

I bet they could do it.

As of 5 p.m. Monday afternoon, MyCourses is back up and running. Now that the system has decided to rise from the ashes, the fiasco should give the university cause to take a serious look at the online systems tens of thousands of students are accessing on a daily basis. It is absolutely unacceptable for students to be locked out of information for which they have paid a pretty penny.

The administration has dumped so much money into renovating the campus and building new Visitor's Centers and theaters, yet the students of the university are stuck with suboptimal programs like WebCT and UDSIS.

We have to deal with them every single day. Give us something that works.


Kelly Durkin is a copy desk chief for The Review. Her viewpoints do not necessarily represent those of the Review staff. Please send comments to durkin@udel.edu.

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