Students at Quincy University in Illinois are facing disruptions because the university’s Moodle system is nonfunctional at times. The outage has sparked frustration among students, who expect reliable access to the platform, especially given the significant tuition costs they pay each month.

On top of that, the Moodle app has also been defective. Many students have experienced the app only working once or twice, and for some students, the app does not work at all. Moodle is a free platform for the university to use.

One student who has faced a lot of disappointment with Moodle is Logan Mulch. Mulch is a dual credit student and soon-to-be freshman at QU. Mulch will become a full-time student in January 2025.

“It is just really unnecessarily stressful,”

Logan Mulch said.

Mulch mentions that his four classes in Moodle would disappear sometimes. Along with his classes getting erased Mulch experienced all of his test results and a midterm exam getting deleted.

This incident made Mulch go to the Information Technology Service to get his tests and exams restored. Even after the first restoration, the issues with Moodle came back a couple of times for Mulch.

“It is just really unnecessarily stressful, like college can be a lot within itself but then having to worry about do I have actual grades in there. Can I sign in tonight to work on homework? It has just been unnecessary stress,” Mulch said.

Moodle would also swap Mulch’s QU student email with his personal email, preventing him from logging into the platform.

Another student who has also experienced trouble with Moodle is Marina Oberschmid. Oberschmid mentions that in one of her classes, assignments would not show up in her Moodle, this would make Oberschmid miss due dates on assignments even after checking if there were any assignments due.

“It has made me feel depressed and sad,” Oberschmid said.

Oberschmid also points out that if professors would use Moodle as the only platform it would be more systematic for everyone. Since professors have academic freedom, they can choose any platform they prefer to teach their students.

“I think Moodle is a platform that is not that organized and structured. I think Moodle would be a great platform if every teacher would use Moodle probably and put assignments and due dates on it,” Oberschmid said.

QU could consider reducing these problems by changing to a platform like Canvas. Canvas, a popular online platform with an app, is currently the most widely used platform for schools.

“I definitely think upgrading to something that is more beneficial both for students and teachers would be really incredible. I do understand though that like with it being more expensive that may lead to the tuition being more expensive, but at this point, it might be worth it because you kinda need a platform that works, ” Mulch said.

A recent survey shows that at least 14 out of 25 students would prefer using Canvas. Students are frustrated because Moodle is not used correctly by professors. Moodle is confusing to operate, and it does not notify if an assignment has been updated, graded, or posted. Students should ensure that their notification button is turned on to receive messages from professors.

Also, 25 students have felt frustrated at some point with Moodle. The survey also shows that the Moodle app does not work for 18 out of 25 students.

Susan Grant is a text specialist who works with faculty and students on technology. Moodle has been at QU since Grant started working at the school nine years ago.

The reason for the problems with Moodle was because of moving the server in IT to a server onto US Moodle who is hosting the server now.

“My hope is that it is going to be better now that it is on a different server,” Grant said.

Grant mentions that the Moodle app should be working again on iPhones and androids. Oberschmid said the problems should have been fixed months ago rather than waiting until the end of the current semester. In addition, students haven’t been informed that the mobile app is working.

“It took them a while, but now the mobile app is working,” Grant said. Students have not been informed or made aware that the Moodle app is working, so they are not using it due to lack of communication believing it to be nonfunctional.

A document outlining future Moodle implementations, which could address some of its issues, is shown below.