Concern grows about privacy of students taking free, online courses

Concern about how privacy of people taking free, online courses is protected is mounting.
According to a recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, the U.S. Department of Education wants colleges and the technology companies they work with to protect student data, but it has no power to protect those taking free, online courses.
These courses – MOOCS, or massive open online courses, are not covered under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, known as Ferpa, which dictates how colleges must protect “education records” of their students, the Chronicle reported.
“Data in the higher-education context for MOOCs is seldom Ferpa-protected,” Kathleen Styles, the Education Department’s chief privacy officer, said Dec. 2 at a symposium on student privacy.

Two well-known MOOC providers—edX, founded by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Coursera, the Silicon Valley company founded by Stanford University professors – do not agree on whether Ferpa applies in free, online courses, the Chronicle stated.

Both platforms collect data about students, as well as their “clickstream” habits.

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