The Definitive Guide to Slow Internet – The #EdTech Blog @ncpa

Since the beginning of virtual school, students have submitted at least 188 tickets to the IT helpdesk. Of those tickets, the largest single source of problems (56 tickets; 31%) is students’ slow home internet connections. China’s limited overseas connectivity causes slow home internet connections – essentially, there is an internet traffic jam between China and the rest of the world.

China’s internet traffic jam is so bad that Microsoft has published an article about it.

While the IT helpdesk can’t disperse this traffic jam, the helpdesk has found common workarounds that help students to submit their work. Click Continue reading below to see the full list.

Activity	Students Need to	Teachers Need to
Asking for help	E-mail helpdesk@ncpachina.org Include screenshots showing the error or problem Include the name of the class, teacher, and assignments Say what steps you followed before you encountered a problem Include a timeline of the problem: was it a one-time problem or a repeated problem? Respond to all helpdesk e-mails. Tell us whether helpdesk guidance worked or not	Ask students to e-mail helpdesk@ncpachina.org OR e-mail helpdesk@ncpachina.org and CC the student. Include screenshots showing the error or problem Include the name of the class, teacher, and assignments Say what steps you followed before you encountered a problem Include a timeline of the problem: was it a one-time problem or a repeated problem?
Student can’t load Canvas webpage	Try before 9am Use Firefox or Chrome Try China Unicom instead of China Mobile and China Telecom Clear browser cache	Ask students to e-mail the helpdesk, which will help determine if it is definitely a slow internet issue and will dispense recommendations as appropriate
Student can’t submit an assignment or complete a quiz in Canvas	Try before 9am Use Firefox or Chrome Try China Unicom instead of China Mobile and China Telecom Clear browser cache	Double-check assignment availability times and whether you’ve restricted file types in Canvas Use Canvas Assigment’s “Website URL” as the submission option—so students can submit a link for a OneDrive file Not allow uploads directly to Canvas for assignment submission (i.e. don’t have students upload .docx, etc.)
Student can’t upload a video to Stream, Flipgrid, or Canvas	First, do ALL of these: Make videos smaller (<=480p) using Handbrake before uploading. Try before 9am Use Firefox or Chrome Try China Unicom instead of China Mobile and China Telecom Clear browser cache Do not upload to Canvas Then, do ONE OR MORE of the following: Install the OneDrive app on your computer to sync your files to OneDrive. Then, put your video in your OneDrive folder. Finally, share a link with your teacher. Upload to Bilibili and then share the link Upload to Microsoft Stream	Offer multiple ways to submit videos. Using the Canvas Assignment’s “Website URL” as a submission option is ideal, since it allows students to just paste a link to their video, wherever it’s hosted.
Student can’t watch a video in Stream, Flipgrid, or Canvas	First, Try before 9am Use Firefox or Chrome Try China Unicom instead of China Mobile and China Telecom Clear browser cache Then, do ONE OR MORE of the following: Install the OneDrive app on your computer to sync your files to OneDrive. Then, sync your class Team. Finally, ask your teacher to post the video to your class Team	First, Make the video smaller (<=480p) using Handbrake before uploading it Upload videos to Microsoft Stream. Avoid uploading directly to Canvas Then, do ONE OR MORE of the following: Post a copy to your class Team. Ask students to sync the Team, which will download a copy automatically to their computer. You can also get a link to share in Canvas Ask your TA to help you post the video to Bilibili E-mail a OneDrive/Sharepoint link to your video to helpdesk@ncpachina.org and ask them to upload it to Qcloud for you
Outlook or Teams opens slowly	For Teams, use the desktop, iOS, or Android apps – NOT the web browser For Outlook, use Apple’s Mail.app on your Macbook or the Outlook iOS or Android apps – NOT the web browser	For Teams, use the desktop, iOS, or Android apps – NOT the web browser For Outlook, use Apple’s Mail.app on your Macbook, the Outlook desktop app, or the Outlook iOS or Android apps – NOT the web browser

When students e-mail the helpdesk with a slow internet problem, we ask them for screenshots to help determine whether their issue is definitely caused by slow internet. We then offer the standard list of workarounds, depending on which task is being affected. If the issue is caused by something more than slow internet, we contact them on Teams and/or schedule a call to help them troubleshoot.