C6.1 Moodle and Canvas Systems

It’s worth noting that Moodle outages are quite common at foreign universities, especially during peak deadline periods, but most institutions restore the system within a few hours or days. After experiencing a Moodle crash at my university for the first time, Shishengmiao has been submitting essays and other assignments ahead of time ever since.

For example, the University of Nottingham’s Moodle was down for a whole week and still not fixed!!

Besides Moodle being prone to crashes, Canvas is also quite frustrating.

What is Moodle? What is Canvas?

Moodle and Canvas are the two most commonly used learning management systems in foreign universities, available as both websites and mobile apps. Both serve as platforms for communication and learning between teachers and students at the university. Students can use these two platforms for a wide range of academic purposes: downloading course materials needed for classes, accessing recommended academic readings, supplementary resources uploaded by teachers, assignment tasks, engaging in online discussions with teachers and peers, checking grades, viewing specific arrangements for exams, essays, and presentations, submitting essays, PPTs, and assignments, receiving notifications from the university and teachers, accessing online learning videos and audio clips, and completing online assignments. The functionalities are quite extensive.

In short, students must learn how to use Moodle and Canvas. Of course, each university chooses a different system—most universities, in addition to using Moodle or Canvas, have also developed their own campus portals. These portals handle matters such as students’ academic progress, personal information, tuition fees and scholarships, printing student certificates, checking graduation details, changing majors, selecting elective courses, university events, and guiding students on using campus facilities.

Shishengmiao’s reminders:

1. Log in to your Moodle and Canvas regularly when you have free time, or check your university email every day. Teachers may upload learning tasks, course materials, notifications about classroom changes, or updates to exam/essay submission deadlines. Shishengmiao has set up mandatory notifications for university emails.

2. Do not wait until the final deadline to submit essays, PPTs, or other assignments—system crashes are most frequent on the last day. Shishengmiao once encountered a system crash while submitting an essay and was extremely anxious. Fortunately, the system was restored a few hours later, and the essay was submitted immediately. Since then, Shishengmiao has always submitted assignments ahead of time.

3. Download all current semester’s course materials in advance. Professional course materials and supplementary learning resources are usually uploaded by the university upon registration. Timetables are also arranged in advance, including dates for holidays such as Christmas. In addition to downloading course materials, Shishengmiao also takes screenshots of the timetable—this way, even if you cannot log in to the system, you can still check the screenshot for class schedules.

4. If you encounter a system crash and cannot submit your assignment, wait for an hour or two and try again. If it is the final deadline, contact your teachers and the university’s IT department immediately. Generally, the university will either restore the system promptly or extend the assignment submission deadline during such times. While the system is being repaired, you will continuously receive emails from the university apologizing for the inconvenience and updating you on the repair progress. Remember to check these emails.

As shown in the figure below, the University of Nottingham extended the original assignment deadline by one week. Shishengmiao reminds everyone to still submit ahead of the new deadline!

5. Shishengmiao’s special reminder: Submitting assignments during off-peak hours is the safest option. At some universities, if the system gets stuck while you’re submitting your essay due to a high volume of submissions, it may seem like your essay has been successfully submitted—but in reality, you haven’t received a confirmation notification from the system. Even if the interface shows the assignment as submitted and prevents re-submission, you need to refresh the page after some time and try submitting again until you get the successful submission feedback. Otherwise, if your submission fails for this reason, you will definitely fail the course—because the university will regard it as your responsibility, not a system issue. If you refresh the page later and still can’t re-submit (since the first unsuccessful submission is occupying the slot), contact your teacher and the IT department immediately, as this is an individual issue with your account/interface.
6. Don’t take chances and procrastinate on writing essays or other assignments just because the system sometimes crashes. If the system is fixed instantly, or if it’s only slow for a few minutes or hours instead of crashing completely, you’ll be in big trouble