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UPDATE: Unisa students granted extensions after assignment portal bombs
Unisa confirmed late last night that all first semester assignments will be extended.
Photo for illustration: iStock
University of South Africa (Unisa) students took to social media in a desperate plea to gain access to the online portal used to submit their assignments.
For almost a week, students have struggled to submit their work, and with deadlines looming and almost no communication from the institution, the frustration is palpable.
Technical difficulties
First year BA Environmental Management student Paula Schreuder said she received an SMS last Wednesday notifying her of “intermittent challenges” on the 2022 “myModule sites”.
Since then, no further communication has been received.
Senior Unisa media officer Edgar Rathelele told The Citizen on Monday that to his knowledge, the portal had only been giving issues over the past two days.
He confirmed at the time Unisa was aware of the issue, but that he still awaited feedback from technical teams on when issues would be resolved.
Schreuder speculated it was likely an influx of traffic due to failed attempts at submitting work that was bogging the system down.
She said it took hours for her to submit an assignment, which she only managed to do by refreshing the portal until someone else’s connection failed.
Many of the modules are also fully online, including study materials. When the portal is down, no online resources can be accessed, which means students also cannot study in advance.
Some assignments also have time limits, adding further pressure for students to submit on time.
March and April is crunch time for students to submit assignments before exams start.
“People have missed deadlines, and there is no communication regarding extensions.”
Unisa project team apologises
In a statement published on Tuesday night, Unisa explained the unavailability of the myModules 2022 was due to the implementation of a new learning management system.
It was hoped in the implementation the new system would resolve challenges experienced with the old portal.
“While the new system was stressed tested to afford the University confidence in its optimal performance, we are now faced with challenges associated with new system implementations.
“The frustrations felt by students and academics, due to the unstable system performance, are well understood and recognised. The project team expresses its sincere regret and profusely apologises for the current situation.”
As such, assignment extensions have been extended until the portal is fully operational.
Unisa acknowledged students may not have had access to online study material leading up to assignment submission, said some students did not have access to their module sites due to late registration, and conceded assignments that were fully online could not be completed offline.
Connectivity interruptions also affected the submission of complete assignment responses.
“While the project team is working to restore myModules 2022 sites to full functionality, all these and other matters will also be attended to.
“The due dates for all Semester 1 assignments will be extended, in a staggered manner, to ensure that the academic assessment strategy is implemented as intended.
“Extended assignment submission deadlines will be communicated to students through their myModules 2022 sites, once the system is fully operational.
“We apologise again for the inconvenience caused.”
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