Students report that PAnet 2.0, Andover’s digital platform, experiences a multitude of crashes and lags during periods of high traffic use.
Andover’s current digital platform, PAnet 2.0, first emerged in 2021, replacing the original Blackboard-based PAnet, which had been in use since 2005. Although many students do not frequent the site often, preferring Canvas for getting information and keeping track of events, some have reported crashes and heavy lag while attempting to access BlueLink and PAnet.
Ashley Choi ’26 spoke about how regularly she uses the two sites. She talked about her experiences with BlueLink, mentioning how the website frequently crashed during times of high student use.
“I use BlueLink a lot more often. I use it daily to check my schedule. I use PAnet less frequently. I mostly use it to check the course offerings in the Dean of Studies Office [and] to check the Paresky [Commons] menu. The one thing is that on BlueLink when there’s an update or grades are posted, it often crashes and is inaccessible for a good period of time,” said Choi.
Avoiding any possibility of lags and glitches, Shota Lai ’28 took a screenshot of his schedule and set it as his phone’s wallpaper, so he could quickly check necessary information without needing to log into the system repeatedly. He talked about the importance of having easy access to his schedule during his first weeks on campus.
“Instead of having to log back into the system every time to check my schedule, I took a screenshot of my course schedule and set it as my phone wallpaper. This way, I could easily check which rooms I needed to go to without opening the app or logging in again… It was hard to remember where all my classes were. Having the room numbers on my wallpaper meant I could quickly glance at my phone and figure out where I needed to go next, which saved me a lot of stress during those first few weeks,” said Lai.
Azzaam Abdur-Rahman ’27 expressed his irritation whenever one of the platforms breaks and noted the added pressure that the crashes add to students navigating scheduling during the start of school. He mentioned how BlueLink crashes had started to become an expected occurrence when schedules are released.
“I find [crashes] incredibly frustrating, especially considering that schedules are typically released right before classes start. It leaves students with very little time to plan their week and prepare for the semester. The whole point of releasing schedules early is to allow us to make adjustments if needed, but when PAnet crashes, it defeats that purpose. You’re left scrambling at the last minute, which adds unnecessary stress,” said Abdur-Rahman.
However, Nicholas Zufelt, Instructor in Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science, did not have any technological issues while using either platform. Zufelt specifically highlighted the convenience of BlueLink for faculty members.
“I really enjoy using BlueLink. For the most part, faculty use it to look up student schedules, so I use it when I am working with my advisees, and I will pull up their course schedules when they have questions. I also use the unofficial transcript part to look backward and find out if students meet certain prerequisites and so on,” said Zufelt.
BlueLink and PAnet have undergone significant changes since 2021. However, members of the Andover community recognize the possibility of development to both platforms. While Zufelt did not have any technological issues, he proposed several possible PAnet upgrades.
“PAnet could continue to improve. A pet peeve of mine is that you cannot edit your own homepage, especially in terms of personalizing the webpage such as rearranging or removing information. It also does not have a useful mobile app. The app we currently have is simply a document viewer, but we were promised a mobile app when the Academy purchased PAnet. So hopefully that will be addressed,” said Zufelt.
In response to students’ inquiries of website crashes and further technology issues, Dr. Erin McCloskey, Associate Director of Technology for Office of Information Technology (OIT), advised the community to be aware of the Help Desk, located in Elson 230, where members of the Help Desk can assist the community with technology issues.
“We have been investigating and will have more to share in upcoming weeks about our plans for system upgrades. In the meantime, OIT encourages all members of the community to report technology issues to the Help Desk… Members of our community can walk in to report an issue and receive help and/or make an appointment for later,” McCloskey wrote in an email to The Phillipian.
