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Service Disruptions Due to Heavy Traffic During the COVID‑19 Crisis

March 19, 2020

System Disruptions Now Resolved 

March 20, 2020

I want to thank all of our users (teachers and students) for all your patience yesterday as we worked to upgrade our servers and optimize our performance. We believe the system disruptions that some of you experienced yesterday are now fully resolved, but we will continue to monitor the site and work on additional enhancements and optimizations. Due to so many schools suddenly switching from our print content to our online tools, our servers could not handle the rapid increase in traffic all at once.

I also want to extend a huge thank you to our team who worked around the clock to refactor our database and build the optimization tools. We are so thankful and lucky to have such hardworking and dedicated people working at ESL Library. This is a very difficult and uncertain time for the entire world. Yesterday our staff put aside all of their personal stress they are feeling from the COVID‑19 pandemic and did everything they could to resolve the disruptions as quickly as possible.

 

Working to Resolve the Issue

March 19, 2020

This week, thousands of our customers who normally only use our printable content have had to suddenly shift to our online teaching tools as a result of their schools closing during the COVID‑19 crisis. The massive increase in student traffic on our site has caused our servers to slow down dramatically. We are aware of the issue. We have been working around the clock to optimize our system to handle the increase. We are hoping to have the full optimization resolved soon.

In the meantime, we want to thank everyone for their patience and understanding, and assure you we are doing our absolute best to upgrade our system as quickly as possible.

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Comments (21)

Janis F.(Teacher)

Thank you for adding this message to your site. For new users like me, it's helpful to get this clarification that the site is not normally this slow and that the problems I'm experiencing (getting lessons to students) are not typical. I'll wait a day or two and try again!

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Tara Benwell(Author)

You're welcome. Thanks for your patience! We're grateful for our hardworking tech team that was able to get the site back up and running quickly despite the unexpected traffic.

Zhaokuan Chen(Guest)

ESL library is a great learning tool for us during COVID-19. We can use it to study at home,keep safe.Maybe there are too many people use this website cause it too slowly.I hope it will be change ASAP.Anyway,it is an useful website for us.

Reply to Comment

Tara Benwell(Author)

You're right. We were not expecting so much student traffic. The site is back up and running properly now. We're so happy that English language learning can continue online! We know students miss seeing their teachers face-to-face, though. Stay strong!

Tara Benwell(Author)

Thanks, Zhaokuan! Yes, we were not expecting this sudden traffic from so many students. We're happy our tech team was able to get the site up and running again. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Mittal P.(Student)

We pray to god. Right now the spread of COVID - 19 in the world As soon as it is finished. becouse it hurts a lot of people . We have a lot of trouble staying home and studying online.We do not enjoy learning that way.Condition is improved now our prayers like that.

Reply to Comment

Tara Benwell(Author)

Thanks, Mittal. Having a teacher at your side is such an important thing. We hope this passes quickly so your learning journey can get back to normal. Stay strong!

Maria Pia M.(Teacher)

Thank you so much for the heads up and also for letting us use the online tools.

Cheers

Reply to Comment

Tara Benwell(Author)

You're welcome! We're here to help. Let us know if you need anything.

Annmarie H.(Teacher)

Thank you so much for your efforts! I am an ESL teacher in Chicago for refugee students and I use your printable content regularly. Your offer to allow free digital content is such a gift (I have 90+ students!). This opportunity for our students to stay connected and continue to learn is so important. Thank you again for all your work to get the platform up and running.

Kind Regards from Chicago,
Annmarie Handley

Reply to Comment

Tara Benwell(Author)

Thanks for your sweet message! We love hearing positive stories like this. A big shout-out goes to all of the English language teachers who are doing their very best in this difficult situation. Stay safe!

Daniel B.(Student)

That is good

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Daniel B.(Student)

Well , for me

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Flora G.(Teacher)

If I subscribe now, will I get the service?

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    Tara B(Ellii Staff)

    Hi Flora. Yes, we are extending our extra digital tools to Standard members until at least June 30th, due to the COVID-19 crisis for schools who are in need.

    Cristina K.(Teacher)

    Thank you for having a great website, but don't forget the old ones, they need the website!
    Thank you

    Reply to Comment

    Anthony Abrena(Ellii Staff)

    We are grateful to have such wonderful teachers! Thanks Cristina!

    Merv G.(Teacher)

    Thank you for trying hard to handle a great service and working out the kinks. I have been trying to guide my students as to those possibilities.

    Reply to Comment

    Tara Benwell(Author)

    Thanks, Merv! We'll continue working on any bugs that come up as soon as we hear about them. We were not expecting this major traffic of students, but they will keep us on our toes! Best of luck using the platform.

    Steve F.(Teacher)

    I'm trying to understand if there is a way to broadcast a lesson to students where they can watch it at home. Or do you have to use an app like Zoom or something else? Can you digitally broadcast video/audio along with a lesson?

    Reply to Comment

    Anthony Abrena(Ellii Staff)

    Hi Steve! We currently do not have that feature, however you would be able to do it on a third party service like Google Hangouts.

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