Following technical glitches that caused issues with logging in on the first day of distance learning, Fairfax County Public schools announced Tuesday night that some classes will be delayed Wednesday.
Teacher-led instruction at the middle school and elementary school levels will be delayed two hours on Wednesday to allow for teachers to activate “enhanced security upgrades,” the school system tweeted Tuesday night.
High school office hours will begin no earlier than 10 a.m.
Students and parents trying to log into Fairfax County Public Schools’ distance learning platform Tuesday faced some connection issues.
FCPS tweeted around 9:40 a.m. Tuesday that they were aware of the login issues and were working with their system vendor, Blackboard, to resolve any problems.
FCPS Blackboard 24-7 Learning is currently experiencing login issues across the system. Blackboard is working to correct the problem. We apologize for the inconvenience.
— Fairfax Schools (@fcpsnews) April 14, 2020
As of 12:15 p.m., Fairfax County Public Schools said they believe the login issues have been resolved.
“FCPS will continue to monitor the situation and remedy any potential future issues as quickly as possible,” the school system said in an email.
Some in the Twitter thread didn’t seem terribly upset by the login problems. One user replied to the verified Blackboard account with: “nah take ur time”
Others in the Fairfax County Public Schools thread offered workarounds for those experiencing issues.
Correct. Blackboard Collaborate Ultra, the virtual classroom links, are working with no issues.
— Heather Phillips (@hfphillips1) April 14, 2020
FCPS students from pre-K to 12th grade were all slated to start distance learning Tuesday.
“This morning, our learning management system vendor, Blackboard, is having log in issues,” an FCPS spokesperson told WTOP in an email.
“We are asking our teachers to stay connected to students and make every effort to keep them engaged in learning during this difficult time. Over the past weeks, we have seen a tremendous response from our teachers who want to support our students in every way they can. Hopefully, today’s connectivity issues will be short-term and things will smooth out shortly,” the spokesperson said.
According to FCPS, their technology team has organized laptop distribution for middle school and elementary school students who did not have a device at home. So far, they say they’ve distributed 14,000 laptops.
