Activate your Google Groups class email list

https://it.wisc.edu/news/getting-started-with-class-email-groups/

You can do this at the start of the semester, even if you never plan to use it. Your class communications should come through Canvas Announcements, but if that’s down, this is a great backup. Here is the KnowledgeBase document on this service — https://kb.wisc.edu/helpdesk/104230

Check for Active Outages

outages.doit.wisc.edu

This should be your first action before responding to any student(s). Is there a service outage at the campus level? Is there a network disruption in the WSB or in the dorms? If so, you can communicate that to the students and include a link to the specific outages page so they can check the progress on the issue.

Rule out laptop issues

Let’s say there isn’t a service outage message. We recommend that students (and instructors) try the following:

1. Restart your laptops/computers and make sure that the latest updates are installed. A fresh restart with updated software will clear the RAM cache and address some other performance issues that slow down a system.
2. Once restarted, the student should check internet connectivity with a variety of websites and include sites that exist within the wisc.edu domain. If I’m able to get to a site like CNN.com just fine, but I can’t get to my.wisc.edu, then that tells me that my laptop is working and that the problem is localized to a campus server.
3. Try different browsers to access sites. It may be that a browser is incompatible or needs an update to connect to a particular site.
4. Clear your browser cache and cookies. This prevents you from using old/outdated versions of websites – see https://kb.wisc.edu/12384
     

Submit a Support Request

DoIT Help Desk — https://kb.wisc.edu/helpdesk/ Students should connect with the campus Help Desk services. Instructors can also send a message to support@wsb.wisc.edu and teaching@wsb.wisc.edu if desired. It’s good for us to be aware of campus-level issues as they may be happening, even if we don’t oversee the hardware or software to resolve the problem.

Make plans for any impact the disruption has on your students

You may need to extend due dates or give other considerations to your students because of this disruption. Please contact teaching@wsb.wisc.edu if you have any questions or want to talk through an idea.

Already impacted by a Canvas outage?

If your Canvas course was impacted by the November 10, 2024 outage, you may be able to access a copy of your Canvas back-up copy. Visit the Canvas Back-up webpage for steps to restore your Canvas course.