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Privacy Considerations in Online or Hybrid Teaching

You may want to record class sessions. However, this must be done within FERPA guidelines and should be done transparently and with student agency. This page provides some effective privacy practices to aid your teaching in online, hybrid, and in-person environments.

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.

Student Privacy

Be aware that you must align with the Recording Courses and Student Privacy information from Academic Affairs.

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 Privacy and Security Resources

Data breaches, privacy violations, and hacks are a part of our reality. As more of our activities take place online and 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 your online identity. These links will take you to our Online Privacy and Security guide:

Patient Privacy and HIPAA

For recordings and video conferencing involving observing clinical sessions, telemedicine activities, discussing patient information, etc., please refer to subject-specific HIPAA guidelines, and check the Recording Courses and Student Privacy information in the Academic Affairs FAQ.