Students and faculty logged on to the Canvas application early in the morning on Monday, Oct. 10, only to find that the entire app had shut down due to an AWS outage. 

According to the AWS website, AWS, or Amazon Web Services, is an internet cloud that hosts websites and applications worldwide. When the AWS outage happened, Canvas wasn’t the only app affected. According to Forbes, several others, including Snapchat, Fortnite and Roblox, were left with limited functionality.  

At Wayne State College, however, the biggest effect was undeniably the loss of Canvas. Practically every class on campus makes use of the application to keep track of assignments, take attendance and post announcements. With the app out for almost a full day, students across multiple departments expressed frustration with the situation. 

“The Canvas outage caused confusion about my chemistry lab,” Mariya Corner, a medical laboratory science major on campus, said. “Everything was up in the air. Assignments, lab manuals, everything… I thought assignments would be canceled.” 

Kore Quimby, a theatre arts major, said their day was less affected by the outage.  

“Personally, I haven’t had a problem with the outage, because most of my classes were either in-person or wasn’t a big issue for me. But it was frustrating,” Quimby said. 

“I take an online class, so it was very stressful to not know what my next assignment was, or when it was due,” Gracie Neth, a Spanish education major with an endorsement in geography, said. “Thankfully, most of my professors were very accommodating.” 

The Canvas outage ground some activities on campus to a halt, but students bounced back quickly after the application was made available again, late on the night of Oct. 20.