Online usage bogs server

A dramatic increase in enrollment for online classes resulted in a “meltdown” of the Dallas County Community College District's eCampus system, according to some faculty on campus.

The increase crippled the eCampus system, and students and faculty reported difficulty logging into the system. When they could log in, pages often took minutes to load, if they loaded at all, many said.

Emilio Ramos, director of the LeCroy center, which houses the District's Distance Learning servers, said that the dramatic increase in online enrollment was unexpected

. “In the spring, we had roughly 20,000 students using the eCampus system” said Ramos. “This fall, that number increased to close to 60,000.” A 15 percent rise was all LeCroy expected, he added.

Jim Casey, interim dean of educational and administrative technology at NLC, said that a perfect storm hit the system. “The growth came much quicker than they anticipated. There were servers that were going to be bought this fall and put into place, but that was a little too late,” he said.

Shirley Thompson, a North Lake faculty member who also serves on the Distance Learning Advisory Committee, said she felt a great deal of sympathy for students.

“I have about 100 students online, and when you see the delays or a test that doesn't open, it makes your stomach hurt because it is happening to your students,” said Thompson.

In an e-mail sent to the entire district on Sept. 18, Ramos reported that the system seemed to be functioning after new hardware was installed. “The issues during peak hours have been resolved and we are starting to place our attention on being ready for spring '07,” he said.

Those plans include installing a new server system, which will be monitored by Dell, Blackboard and CISCO engineers until they are satisfied that it will support the load placed on it by students and faculty.

Thompson feels the actions taken by the staff at LeCroy and the District have been adequate.

“Once they knew what the problem was, I think there has been a very responsible effort to try and fix it as quickly as possible,” she said.

Some believe the rise in online enrollment was the result of the college's push during the summer to increase enrollment. This year is a base year for the college that, according to Christa Slejko, vice president of business services, determines the funding for the next four years.

“The enrollment on the 12th day of class is our snapshot day,” said Slejko. “However, we are also held accountable in other ways for student retention and continuity.”

Brian Koontz, a faculty member in the Business and Technology department at North Lake, said he felt like the situation could have been anticipated and avoided. “It seems like there was a lack of communication on the part of the people who made that decision and the communication with LeCroy to let them know we were making this big push,” said Koontz.

However, Koontz feels the problem stems from the way the system is set up and not because of the increase in student enrollment. “I predicted this would happen for a long time,” he said. “I've been in the [Internet and technology] industry for 10 years, and there's not a corporation in existence that puts all their eggs in one basket like this,” said Koontz. “But, here we're gonna put all our servers under one roof. That's just not done.”

Because of the base year, there was concern that enrollment might drop due to the eCampus crash, but unofficial numbers from North Lake's Office of Planning and Research indicate that, by the 12th class day, enrollment actually increased slightly.