SALISBURY — People taking GED classes online through Rowan-Cabarrus Community College are on an involuntary spring break this week.
Paula Dibley, spokeswoman for Rowan-Cabarrus, said Tuesday that a computer error has caused GED students’ data to temporarily disappear from the college’s system.
Online technicians from test creator McGraw Hill Contemporary are working to restore it, she said, and they hope to have the problem fixed by the end of the week.
Dibley said the college apologizes for the inconvenience.
“Unfortunately, when you’re dealing with technology, there’s always going to be a chance we’re going to run into an issue. It doesn’t always cooperate,” Dibley said. “But we do appreciate their patience, and we look forward to getting everything back up online for those GED students.”
The General Education Development (GED) test allows people to earn a nationally-recognized equivalent to a high school diploma. Rowan-Cabarrus offers free preparation classes, both online and in person, to adult students.
The current system outage only affects students who began the online program in January, February and March.
“Those are some of ones who now need to get in the system, but they have been unable to access the materials,” Dibley said. “They haven’t lost their test scores, and they don’t have to re-enroll.”
Students’ progress should be saved, Dibley said, so she expects that there will be “very minimal impacts” from the outage over a few days.
In the meantime, Dibley said any of those students are welcome to come to the college’s north campus in Salisbury or south campus in Concord to take advantage of the GED classes there. There are also seven smaller community locations where classes are available.
For more information about the GED program at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College, visit www.rccc.edu or call 704-216-3510.