Support for Online Students in China

buellj
Community Contributor

Hi All,

Seattle University is expanding online course offerings, particularly during the summer. We have a number of international students who return home and report issues with accessing Canvas in the People's Republic of China. Sometimes it seems that they are not able to access Canvas at all, but most reports seem to indicate issues with 3rd-party applications such as embedded YouTube videos, LTIs, etc. In the past students have reported some success using VPN software but it appears that the state has announced that it cracking down on VPN usage. A couple of questions come up:

  1. Does your institution have an official policy regarding support of online students in China? For example, if a student is unable to access course content are they able to get a refund? Do you warn or restrict students when they register for courses?
  2. What issues have your students experienced, and which Canvas or 3rd-party applications seem to be most affected? What work-arounds have been successful?

I saw this thread but am hoping to get more information and a sense of school policies around this. Thanks in advance for your help. 

John