GREENSBORO, N.C. — After a statewide glitch kept students from logging onto online learning services on the first day of remote learning, Guilford County Schools is exploring options in case digital difficulties come up again.
"Especially with so many challenges wrought by the coronavirus pandemic, I can't say we saw this one coming," Guilford County Schools Superintendent Dr. Sharon Contreras said.
The glitch left students and teachers in the dark on the first day of school across the state of North Carolina.
The digital difficulty kept students from logging onto the online learning system for around two and a half hours, according to the school district.
Even though the issue happened at a state level, Guilford County Schools Superintendent Dr. Sharon Contreras said they're already thinking about other ways to give students access to recorded lesson plans in case this happens again.
"We can certainly use our television station GCSTV but we have so many grade levels so many courses that we have to figure out, how do we provide access to that?" Contreras said.
She added teachers helped things run smoothly by calling students to get them on the same page.
She said if it happens later in the year, students will still be able to get work done.
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"Students would already have access to lessons with some of their work so they could just continue with their studies but it was certainly frustrating," she said.
To make sure students are learning the material, the district says it's pushing teachers to start counting attendance at the end of the week after students have turned in assignments.
"Many parents have shared that they cannot log on and help their students until the end of the school day or until the weekend and that’s when they’ll be submitting work," Contreras said.
The district said students will not be penalized or counted absent for the time that NCEDCloud was down Monday morning.