Grades changed during glitch in University of Maine at Augusta course portal were authorized, review finds - Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel

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AUGUSTA — All assignment grades that were changed during a glitch in an online course portal used by the University of Maine at Augusta were authorized, an internal review of the incident has found.

University officials reported previously a “limited number” of grades were altered in late November, when students were mistakenly granted administrative access to their course materials on the Brightspace Learning Management System.

An investigation into the incident by David Demers, chief information officer for the University of Maine System, has confirmed the changes did not stem from students acting unethically during the nearly two days the system was affected.

“The final forensic analysis now confirms that no unauthorized grade changes or changes in any Brightspace course shells occurred,” according to the report UMaine System officials released last Thursday.

Margaret Nagle, spokesperson for the UMaine System, said when the glitch occurred, grades with “unknown origins” were flagged for investigation.

“Parsing through log files revealed that changes were a result of legitimate course activity,” Nagle said Monday, “and were not a result of using elevated privileges to manipulate scores.”

The glitch happened entirely within the Brightspace Learning Management System and was reported by one of the 242 students affected Nov. 24.

Demers found that 80 students in 92 different courses accessed Brightspace when the system was experiencing this issue. The glitch began at 8:30 p.m. on Nov. 23 and was rectified by 1 p.m. on Nov. 25, he said.

UMaine System officials said 2,463 UMA students are enrolled in the 92 courses affected by the glitch, and the system alerted those students their information could have been seen by other students. Officials said no personal information could have been seen — only a student’s ID, name or email.

When officials found out about the glitch, they said it came from an issue with the software that synchronizes course rosters between MaineStreet and Brightspace, and was not an incident of hacking.

UMA enrolls almost 6,000 students and is the third-largest university in the UMaine System. It was the only campus in the system to experience the glitch.

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