We’ve all been there: relentlessly pressing the “refresh” button on the computer screen, hoping that, this time, the page will actually load, cursing yourself as the panic sets in that your assignment will be late because Moodle refuses to open, or desperately trying to Google something in order to do research for a paper.
It’s no secret that the Guilford Internet can be extremely aggravating for both students and faculty.
“The Internet here is really inefficient for me to get any work done in a good amount of time because I’m constantly worrying about how slow the Internet is and not about what I’m writing,” said senior Leia Gaskin-Sadiku. “It’s really frustrating.”
When it was time for midterms this semester, the Internet really took a turn for the worse. The Moodle page wouldn’t load at all and neither would any other Guilford-related Web pages.
During one of the most pertinent times for a dependable Internet, many students found that pages like Facebook and Twitter would load, but they were unable to log onto Moodle to download any needed material.
The Internet problems cause frustration amongst faculty as well because they are often just as reliant on the Web as students are.
“I’m a professor who uses technology as a crucial part of my courses,” said Visiting Assistant Professor of Theatre Studies Chad Phillips. “I have found it difficult to be rigid with assignment deadlines when there are internet connectivity problems and updates and outages to Moodle, where it is not only unreliable, but the interface is often too complicated for many non-traditional students.”
Many times teachers are unable to efficiently use the Internet in class, and it can be frustrating for everyone.
“The lack of good internet is disruptive in class because teachers often try to pull up YouTube videos or links, and it just takes forever,” said senior Adelaide Ayers. “Some students even come to my house off-campus during exam times to do work because they’re unable to do so on campus.”
It seems ridiculous that students would feel the need to go off campus in order to do school work, yet many find there is no other option if they want to be able to finish tasks in a reasonable timeframe.
So who’s really to blame for all the frustration?
Many people find it easy to blame IT&S and their office is constantly flooded with complaints about internet issues, but according to Ian Hulsey, level II support technician help desk, solving internet inefficiency is one of their main goals, and they work on improving the server constantly.
“It’s one of our number one priorities to stabilize the infrastructure of the campus network … so that includes everybody being able to get online, everybody being able to get to what they need to get to, and to most of what they want to get to,” said Hulsey.
The unfortunate Internet shutdown during midterms was completely out of IT&S’ control.
“We have had some hardware issues in the past several weeks that haven’t been planned obviously,” said Hulsey. “It’s definitely not something we’re unaware of. We’re super aware of it because it keeps us from doing what we need to do too.”
While it is good to hear that IT&S is doing their best to solve the issues, I’m still not convinced that we will see any significant changes.
Unfortunately, every semester I’ve attended Guilford, I’ve heard countless complaints about the internet and every semester, I’ve heard countless promises for a better, faster internet, yet I’ve still not seen any kind of improvement.
Maybe instead of dropping loads of money in trivial areas, such as the construction of a fish tank in the Quakeria, or yet another flat-screened TV in the Grill, Guilford should work on providing a satisfactory Internet for its students and faculty. Perhaps our resources should be going into more essential realms of an educational environment.
Considering the fact that a dependable internet connection is imperative in today’s academic setting, I do hope that Guilford will put fixing this issue at the top of its priority list and actually generate some kind of improvement before we all pull our hair out.