AWS Outage Disrupts College Students’ Online Experience
On Monday, an Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage disrupted online education for many college students across the United States. The incident particularly affected users of Canvas, a widely used educational technology platform. Students found themselves unable to access course materials, assignments, and professor communications due to this significant disruption.
AWS Outage Impacts Students Nationwide
Abby Fagerlin, a 19-year-old physics major at Pasadena City College, exemplified the challenges faced. When she tried to log into Canvas, she could not gain access to vital materials for her three classes. This situation left her uncertain about any important messages from her professors, as many communicated only through Canvas.
Widespread Effects
Fagerlin’s experience was not isolated. Numerous students from various colleges reported similar issues. The outage hindered their ability to submit assignments, engage in class activities, and retrieve necessary textbooks and resources.
- More than a dozen students experienced difficulties.
- Access to services like WhatsApp and Venmo was also disrupted.
- Some UK banks faced inaccessibility due to AWS downtime.
Details of the Outage
The AWS disruption originated from the US-EAST-1 hub in Northern Virginia. By Monday evening, Amazon announced that all affected services were restored. However, this incident highlighted the critical role that platforms like Canvas play in the educational ecosystem.
Canvas: A Central Hub for Education
Canvas, owned by Instructure, is one of the leading learning management systems in the U.S. It competes with platforms like Blackboard and Moodle. According to Brian Watkins, the director of communications at Instructure, approximately half of college students in the U.S. rely on Canvas, with 38% of K-12 students also utilizing the platform.
Watkins acknowledged the vital role Canvas fulfills in daily educational activities, indicating that the AWS outage’s impact was significant. The incident serves as a reminder of how dependent modern education has become on a few key technological platforms.
