Re: FERPA and E-mailing grades

[Nathan Zierfuss <nathan.zierfuss () ALASKA EDU>]

I have to agree with Dean. I'm not convinced FERPA prohibits providing
students grades via email. In fact some CMSs can be configured to
automatically email or text students their grades when the grade-book is
updated. I use this feature and suspect most students do.

My experience has been our institution is struggling with not being the
source of a digital identity for students that we used to be and coming to
trust the one students have established for themselves prior to entering
university. I believe FERPA requires us to validate who we are
communicating with but not to secure the communications methods they elect.

Has anyone explored identity validation via credit report questions similar
to what banks do when you open an account online and accepting gmail,
yahoo, ect. as a students email address rather then issuing them a new one?

Nathan

On Fri, Jan 6, 2012 at 6:44 AM, Dean Halter
<Dean.Halter () notes udayton edu>wrote:

> I agree that course management systems and ERPs are better ways of
> accessing/providing this information.  That said, I'm not sure that FERPA
> prohibits use of email to provide grade information.  Whether internal or
> contracted w/ a provider (Google, for example, is a "school official" per
> contract within Google Apps for Edu), I believe you should be able to use
> email as long as the solution is "secure."  Making sure faculty and staff
> address the information from and to university provided accounts is as
> important as the technical transport and storage.  Students, on the other
> hand, should be able to forward or share their mail if they choose.  Very
> interesting conversation and I appreciate everyone’s insight.
>
> Dean
> ___________
> Dean Halter, CISA, CISSP
> IT Risk Management Officer, UDit
> University of Dayton
>
> "Security is a process, not a product."  Bruce Schneier




-- 
Nathan Zierfuss, CISSP, Information Security Officer
-
Technology Oversight Services, University of Alaska
910 Yukon Dr. Suite 105, PO Box 755320
Fairbanks, Alaska 99775-5320
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Phone: 907-450-8112  Fax: 907-450-8381