The systems linked to Canvas that were temporarily shut down by the CCT after the hack are being restored step by step. Lecturers will regain access before students, giving them the opportunity to check whether the Canvas environment is up to date and ready for student use. Before the CCT shared this news on the intranet, Cursor asked several lecturers how significant the impact of the cyberattack had been for them.

Without Canvas

As ESA manager at the Department of Industrial Design (ID), Annaluisa Franco conducted an impact analysis of what it would mean for education and staff to work without Canvas.

The issues she heard about turned out to be manageable. Franco describes staff and students as resourceful and says they found each other through email and Teams. “The majority of TU/e staff members were able to continue teaching with minimal problems. Many lecturers decided to switch to a Teams environment to continue communicating with their students. Only a few courses that rely heavily on Canvas experienced greater difficulties.”

She is glad the hack did not happen during a deadline or exam week. There were a few midterms and assignments scheduled, but Franco emphasizes that agreement was quickly reached on how ID should handle those situations.

She also praises the centralized communication lines. “Through the intranet, it is clear how communication during this most recent crisis is being centrally coordinated for everyone, with clear information and guidelines to ensure that all staff and students are informed in the same way and that departments follow the same approach.”

On the work floor

Oded Raz, associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering, says he experienced sufficient support from TU/e. “Because of the hack, I had no way to send messages to students and no access to course materials.” His group also found solutions. “We created a Teams channel for the course and uploaded the most relevant course materials there.”

Now that the end of the Canvas hack appears to be in sight, the instructor can breathe a sigh of relief. “If the issue continues beyond this week, it could become more difficult,” he predicted on Monday. Raz has a tip for possible future cyberattacks: “Always make sure you have an offline copy of all course materials.”

That is also the advice of Lenneke Kuijer, assistant professor at Industrial Design. “I truly did not see this attack coming at all, so I didn’t have backups of the assignment descriptions and rubrics. I’ll pay closer attention to that next time, and I’ll recommend it to others as well.”

Communicating

This week, Kuijer encountered problems involving an interim deadline for a bachelor’s elective course. “The deadline was Monday at 17:00, but students were unable to submit assignments through Canvas. They also could not access the most up-to-date assignment description and rubric.” In addition, she herself was unable to continue grading an assignment that students had submitted earlier.

For the elective course mentioned, Kuijer communicates with her students through Canvas, which was now impossible because of the hack. In cooperation with the Central Student Administration (CSA) and the Examination Committee, she found a solution by postponing the deadline until two days after Canvas comes back online. “That also gives students time to check the assignment description and rubric one more time before submitting.”

With the help of an email address list provided by CSA, she was able to communicate that decision to those involved. “Unfortunately, grading will have to wait. Fortunately though, that’s still possible now because it’s not the end of the semester yet.”

Kuijer echoes the positive remarks made by ESA manager Franco. “The information on the intranet was clear as well.”

This article was translated using AI-assisted tools and reviewed by an editor.