A novel coronavirus pandemic continues to cause a stir. COVID-19 cases are said to be spreading like wildfire and will reach a global peak before everything starts to slow down.
According to the official statement made by the World Health Organization, the pandemic outside China has grown 13-fold, which is a clear sign that academic institutions across the world will have to suspend studies or switch to online instruction.
Meanwhile, dozens of colleges and universities in the US, as well as the 27 EU countries and the UK, have chosen to close in-person classes until late March or early April.
Moving online should be completed within a remarkably tight time frame. Harvard’s going to transition by March 23, and they’re asking students to be fully prepared for remote classes until further notice.
Still, health officials assume that two or three-week shutdowns may not be enough to slow down this pandemic. The most astonishing thing about these closings is that academic institutions are largely unprepared for them. EdWeek has revealed that 41% out of 1,000 district and school leaders surveyed can’t provide e-learning opportunities to every kid for even one day:
Long-term closures could surely cause more disruptions for families, students, and faculty, which is why e-learning providers are stepping in to support social distancing.
The Unicheck LMS partners are also taking action to reinforce their platforms and establish stable online environments for all the distant learners, educators, and IT staff.
We’re all exposed to this pandemic and can hardly predict the consequences. Things that we can do right away must be directed at increasing software capacities and providing maximum support to everyone involved in the learning process.
Serhii Tkachenko, CEO at Unicheck
From our side, we do realize that more instructors and students will need to have instant access to the plagiarism checker.
Since the increase in closures of universities and schools, the Unicheck peak load in February and March has reached the average maximum of May and June, which is a 15% surge. Here’s what we’re doing to get you covered at all times:
- Unicheck can handle the usage increase easily thanks to auto-scalable Amazon Web Services; on top of that, our dev team constantly monitors the Unicheck uptime to ensure you can check as many submissions as required.
- Papers you upload to the system will be checked at a usual speed, so you’ll receive reports with no delays.
- Even though all people on our team are now working remotely, you can reach out to our Support Team 24/7 for any emergencies, or contact your dedicated Customer Success Manager to resolve any issues that might block your work.
- For those of you who require an expanded Unicheck license due to an ever-growing number of online users, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager, or drop an email at support@unicheck.com.
What’s more, for all the institutions that have no active Unicheck licenses, our team will gladly share a free access to Unicheck till June 30.
Please contact us whichever way you find to be more convenient for you:
support@unicheck.com
+1 281 912 0548 (US)
+1 888 231 5356 (US, a toll-free number)
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