Canvas shuts down leaving students in limbo

Canvas, a learning management system widely used in high schools and universities across the U.S., went offline around 4:50 p.m. following an attack from a hacker group claiming to have compromised identifying information of 275 million people across 9,000 institutions. ShinyHunters, the hacker group, said it would release intelligence May 12 at midnight unless Instructure, Canvas’ parent company, pays a ransom.

Miami University is not listed among the hacked universities, according to the list released by the ShinyHunters group. Miami’s Information Technology Services department sent a university-wide email after 9 p.m. saying it was unclear if the shutdown was related to the hack, and the Office of the Provost will communicate information on exams and final grades in the event Canvas remains offline.

The shutdown comes as Miami students prepare for finals in the coming week. Several students said the Canvas outage meant they couldn’t access study resources like study guides and in-class lecture slides.

Lily Diehl, a junior finance and business analytics major, said she wasn’t able to access the instructions or rubric for a final project she was working on.

“We came [to Armstrong Student Center] to study for finals, and so I think the pressure is on,” Diehl said. “Normally, we would expect this to get handled pretty quickly with previous issues with Canvas, but now … we don’t have a really clear outlook on to when the situation will be fixed, and so there’s a lot of anxiety.”

Allison Kacmarcik, a junior human capital management and leadership major, said she worried about how professors would adjust if the shutdown was prolonged. She said past Canvas shutdowns have been easier to navigate because they typically happen over shorter periods of time.

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“I think, like in other other times, it's been down for like, a day or something, teachers are very lenient,” Kacmarcik said. “But with it being finals ... if you are, like, finishing it up last minute and submitting it last minute, you can’t, and I don’t know how much leniency we’re gonna get with that.”

Sophomore smart manufacturing engineering major Kemberly Aaron said she noticed Canvas was offline after she left her last class and went to study for her calculus test. She missed a day of class earlier in the week and wanted to review the homework, but couldn’t access it without Canvas.

“If it’s like, if [Canvas] opens up the, like, crack of dawn, or early, I’m going to want to study something that I haven’t gone over, and I know my homework is due at 8:30, so I’m kind of worried about that, because I can’t get through to it unless it’s through Canvas,” Kemberly said.

Not every student felt the impact immediately, however. Maggie Fox, a senior creative writing and sports leadership and management double major, said she was taking a nap when the site went dark. She didn’t know there was an issue until she clocked into her job at the front desk at Armstrong and began talking with her coworker.

Although she didn’t notice it at first, Fox said she’s frustrated by the shutdown because she had projects and papers and she can’t look at assignment instructions or submit assignments. At the same time, Fox said the site being down has been a minor relief.

“It feels like there’s not that presence that's like, staring over your shoulder,” Fox said.

By Friday morning, Canvas came back online for most users, according to Canvas' tracker.

mahones5@miamioh.edu