Zoom Setbacks As Students Log On For Remote Learning

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Some schools across the area began class virtually, but experienced real problems Monday.

Many that use the video chat service Zoom found trouble connecting.

CBS 2's Jeremy Ross has more with the impact around the Chicago area.

A spokesperson said some users were unable to start and join Zoom meetings, webinars or manage aspects of their account on the Zoom website. The company sincerely apologized for any inconvenience.

An inconvenience hitting older and younger students.

Like many, Jacob Ramos is going to school virtually at home, connected by Zoom. But on Monday, his father Noah said class wasn't always in session.

"My son goes to school in Lisle. I was wondering if it was something on my end," Ramos said. "It's a hit or miss. Like, I was having issues with my son having classes for today."

"Eventually we were able to connect, but that was towards the end of class, and we didn't have a lot of time to go over everything," said Cristian Gutierrez, who added that his first day of classes at City Colleges of Chicago was impacted.

Districts like Barrington sent out web-based learning alerts. Internet site down detector reported problems for Zoom beginning around 7:00 a.m. then peaking just before 9:00 a.m. then slowly coming back online by the afternoon with frustration from young and older students trying to learn from the safety of home.

"It was basically just a big error screen every time I entered the correct password," said Gutierrez. "When we were finally able to connect, it was a lot of apologizing. Not a lot of teaching and people were very stressed."

Ramos and others gladly accept the tech troubles of home learning, when they consider the health risks of in-school education and COVID-19. But some are asking do schools have a back-up plan for their virtual education plans?

"Maybe Zoom is not the only way. Maybe we explore different options it might be better and more efficient," said Gutierrez.

There are a handful of other video chat alternatives if you're not sold on Zoom.

CBS 2 reached out to other districts. CPS didn't say whether it had a backup plan but said it will be using Google Suite.