LSU students expressed frustration with professors for waiting until the last minute to upload their Moodle pages and contact them before the first week of classes this semester through Twitter. 

Nearly 80% of 159 LSU students reported experiencing the same problem this semester, according to a Twitter poll. 

Some students said they still didn’t have necessary information about their classes the night before the first day of class.

Professors usually email their students and introduce themselves at least a few days before the first day of class. When students still hadn’t been contacted Sunday night, many went to Twitter to find answers.

Political science and international studies junior Abbie Grace Milligan said she has experienced this problem in previous semesters, but that it’s never been this bad or as universal of an experience at LSU. 

“I am a student that likes to be prepared for their classes before they begin and at least like to have had time to read the syllabus,” Milligan said. “Since all my classes this semester are online again, this was extremely frustrating because Moodle is often the only communication you have in online classes.”

The problem wasn’t limited to undergrads, as psychology graduate student Amari Bellard said none of her classes were on Moodle until the day before classes. 

“I had no idea what books or anything that was needed or if they were online or in person,” Bellard said. “When I went to class the first day I had to email the teacher when I got to the classroom because no one was there. Turns out the class was moved and no one told me.”

Bellard described the situation as “a mess.”

Mass Communication Professor Robert Mann said it takes him less than an hour to set up a Moodle page for a course, leading him to believe there must have been some technical issues with Moodle this semester, rather than professors being unprepared. 

“The University in the last few years has gotten really serious about calling out faculty members who don’t do their course adoptions early,” Mann said. 

The College of Art and Design sent an email to its students Jan. 10 explaining that numerous software problems caused problems for professors trying to upload their Moodle pages the week before classes started. 

“We’re hoping that now the registration system is closed for the weekend these pages will all get updated,” the email read. “But because a couple of our faculty retired over the holiday we’ve had to shuffle some instructors as we added others to courses for the spring. This MAY mean that some of the recently assigned faculty haven’t yet been able to access Moodle themselves.”

Vice Provost for Academic Programs and Support Services Matt Lee and LSU Media Relations Director Ernie Ballard said they were unaware of the issue.

“We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused students,” Ballard said. “With a number of people on campus still working remotely and changes that were made to the spring academic calendar, everyone has had to make adjustments and be flexible, but it is our understanding that there has been no issues like this since classes began for the spring semester.”

Lee said he did not know what exactly happened.

Students also complained about classes from last semester still being listed under the “my courses” tab on Moodle. 
Although LSU’s Twitter account said students should contact ITS Service Desk, the Service Desk said they could not remove student students’ fall courses from Moodle–rather, it’s the responsibility of professors to remove their courses at the end of the semester. 

Mann, however, said he’s never had to remove courses at the end of the semester and that he thought courses went away automatically when a new semester started. 

It remains unclear why so many students experienced confusion about their classes at the beginning of the semester. 

Milligan said she believes LSU is not giving professors the resources they need to be prepared for classes or professors don’t care enough. 

“Either way, there isn’t enough accountability by LSU and individual colleges to make sure that professors are prepared for classes on Moodle and in other ways,” she said. “It’s not fair when students are held to a standard they can’t even meet because their professors are not prepared.”