After rocky start, local school districts working to make distance learning run smoother Tuesday

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. - School districts across central Florida are hoping distance learning runs smoother Tuesday after it got off to a rocky start on the first day.

Several school district officials said IT employees are working on servers and portal issues to ensure students and teachers will be able to log onto the distance learning programs. While many were able to log-on without any problems Monday, several people got a white screen that said, “This page isn’t working.”

Orange County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Barbara Jenkins said when faced with a computer issue the first thing people should do is restart the computer.

“When in doubt, turn the computer off and turn it back on. It reboots the system. Several times, that will be the solution.”

RELATED: Florida schools to remain closed through end of April with remote learning in place

Dr. Jenkins said systems are being overloaded because middle, high school and college students across the country are using some of the same programs for online learning. At its peak Monday, OCPS saw 80-thousand log-ins to its distance learning program. 

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“It feels like another first day of school,” Dr. Jenkins said about the first day of distance learning. “We need just a little bit of patience around log-ins and any kind of tech glitches. Principals get information. Teachers relay to principals those concerns and our tech staff is on it.”

Dr. Jenkins said if the problem is on the student’s computer IT employees will be able to help fix it. “We have the ability to grab that desk top remotely through our tech specialists who are working from home who will also go back schools to pick up lap tops that need to be prepared.”

Students in central Florida will be learning from home through April 30th.