Guide to Hybrid & Online Teaching at JMU

With the move to remote teaching and learning, there is greater potential to record class sessions and make content available. However, this must be done within FERPA guidelines and should be done transparently and with student agency. This guide will provide some effective practices to aid your work.

Lecture Recordings and FERPA

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) (20 U.S.C. § 1232g; 34 CFR Part 99) is a Federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. FERPA does not prohibit lecture recording of classes, but does require certain protections be in place.

• If a faculty member wants to record their lectures and make them available to the students in that section they can do so without violating FERPA, assuming the recording is available in a secure environment like Canvas.
• Faculty should not upload recordings of a class session where the students are visible in the recording, either by name or by image, to a public site like YouTube.
• Faculty who wish to record lectures for use in later semesters may do so by recording the course in such a way that the students' identity in the course is never revealed.
• JMU has additional resources on FERPA regulations.
• The Department of Education has provided information on FERPA during COVID-19.

Student Privacy

As we infuse more courses with technology, there are many tools available to facilitate teaching and learning. Many of these offer recording options. Even if you plan to use Canvas to store the recordings, students should be made aware that recording is taking place.

The use of public sites like YouTube for student-created videos as a required part of coursework is strongly discouraged. These videos persist long after the class is over and may persist in other venues even if the file is deleted from the platform.  

Additional resources on student privacy during COVID-19: https://ferpasherpa.org/

Additional Privacy and Security Resources

Data breaches, privacy violations, and hacks are a part of our reality. As our lives are increasingly lived more fully online, and as technology advances at a dizzying pace, it is imperative that we understand how to protect ourselves, our data, and our reputations online.

Here are some concrete steps you can take to protect and control your online identity. These links will take you to the Online Privacy and Security guide.

• Basics of staying safe online, including some simple tips everyone should follow, guides to secure different types and brands of devices, and what to do if you find you've been hacked or your identity has been stolen
• Learn about how you're being tracked online, what data is being collected about you, and how you can limit this tracking and collection
• All about passwords! Learn how to choose secure passwords, use a password protection service, and test the strength of your passwords
• Social Media: how to lock your accounts down, take control of the data you provide each network, and give your online presence a professional makeover.
• Advanced security tools such as encryption services, Virtual Private Networks, Tor browsers, and other apps and services
• You have legal rights related to online privacy and security in the United States!

Find more topics in this guide on the A-Z Page List or in the menu.