Tag Archives: EDUCAUSE

Changing Perspective: Using Student Voices to Advance Learning Technology

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At today’s Friday Focus on e-Learning, we took a moment to reflect on the 2012 ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology. This is a replay of a Feb. 2012 session from the EDUCAUSE Learning Institute (ELI) conference, of which UTHSC was a virtual participant.

Since 2004, ECAR has surveyed undergraduate students annually about technology in higher education. In 2012, ECAR collaborated with 195 institutions to collect responses from more than 100,000 students about their technology experiences. The findings are distilled into the broad thematic message for institutions and educators to balance strategic innovation with solid delivery of basic institutional services and pedagogical practices and to know students well enough to understand which innovations they value the most.

Access a wealth of information about the 2012 and prior years’ ECAR Study reports here.

Various bits & pieces:

  • 74% of students say they’ve taken a course with one or more online components
  • 16% of students say they skip classes when course lectures are available online
  • 54% of students say they are more actively involved in courses that use technology
  • 55% of students say they wish their instructors used more simulations/educational games
  • 57% of students wish instructors would use more online open educational resources
  • 86% of students own laptops
  • 62% of students own smartphones
  • 33% of students own desktops
  • 15% of students own tablets
  • 12% of students own e-Readers

Important to do from a mobile device:

  • 66% access course website or syllabi
  • 64% using course or learning management systems

Platforms students are using:

  • 77% laptops; 20% macs
  • 44% iphone, 46% Android
  • 57% iPad

75% of students say that technology helps them achieve their academic outcomes

importance of various devices to academic success (the top 3):

  • laptop 85%
  • printer 84%
  • thumb drive 68%

Percentage of students who use the resources now as compared to 2010:

  • 7x as many students using e-portfolios
  • 5x as many students use web-based citation/bib tools
  • 3x as many students used e-books

Technology literacy isn’t innate

  • 66% of students surveyed in the US say they agree/strongly agree they’re prepared to use technology upon entering college/university
  • 64% say it’s very/extremely important to be trained
  • most students say that they get info from instructors on how to use technology

57% of students say they like to keep academic and social lives separate

53% of students say to use F2F interaction more

Key Findings for 2012

See the report for a full list key messages, findings, and supporting data.

  • Blended-learning environments are the norm; students say that these environments best support how they learn and best engage them.
  • Students want to access academic progress information and course material via their mobile devices, and institutions deliver.
  • Technology training and skill development for students is more important than new, more, or “better” technology.
  • Students use social networks for interacting with friends more than for academic communication.

ECAR Recommends these Actionable Results

See the 2012 report for a full list of actionable results.

  • Look to emerging or established leaders (other institutions, other countries, other industries) for strategies to deliver instruction and curricular content to tablets and smartphones. Learn from their exemplary strategies for IT support and security with student devices as well as planning, funding, deploying, and managing instructional technologies, services, and support.
  • Prioritize the development of mobile-friendly resources and activities that students say are important: access to course websites and syllabi, course and learning management systems, and academic progress reports (i.e., grades).
  • Bridge the gap between the technologies that have seen the greatest growth (e-portfolios, e-books/e-textbooks, and web-based citation/bibliographic tools) and students’ attitudes about their importance. Focus training/skill-building opportunities for students, professional development opportunities for faculty, and support service opportunities on these emerging technologies.
  • Use e-mail and the course and learning management system for formal communication with students. Experiment with text messaging and instant messaging/online chatting, and don’t focus efforts on using social networks and telephone conversations to interact with students.

EDUCAUSE Learning Institute (ELI) 2013 – join us to learn more!

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The last session of ELI 2013 was delivered by Robbie Kendall-Melton, the Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs: eLearning at the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR). She was a dynamic speaker who kept engaging the audience with all her apps and mobile devices. She had mobile devices no one had heard of!

At the conclusion of her session, she pointed the group to the TBR’s emerging technology website. From there, you can explore the Education & Workforce Mobile Apps Resource Bank, register to receive email notifications of new apps that match your key variables of subject, device, and level, and explore a variety of other resources related to mobilization and emerging technology.

Want to become part of a mobile learning special interest group? Sign up here. Access a variety of mobile-related information and apps.

For UTHSC faculty, we’ll be hosting Friday Focus on e-Learning and reviewing several of the recordings from the ELI 2013 session. For the next 3 Fridays, here’s the schedule (click the title to read more about each session/presenter):

There’s something for everyone in the ELI 2013 archive. From MOOCs to badges to mobile learning and more, plan to join us for a lively discussion on Fridays from 1-2pm!

Below is a great infographic from OnlineDegrees.org (spotted on the TBR’s website) about the mobile lives of college students. Any of this ring true to you?

2013 Profile of the Mobile Lives of College Students

Mobile Lives of Online College Students

Graphic attributed to OnlineDegrees.org.

Information from Privacy & Security Risks in Higher Ed EDUCAUSE Data Privacy Month webinar

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As the 2nd webinar in Data Privacy Month, this EDUCAUSE webinar focused on Privacy and Security Risks in Higher Ed on January 10, 2012. Learn more about Data Privacy at educause.edu/policy/dataprivacy

The archived recording, slides, and transcript of the webinar that launched data privacy month is available here: http://www.educause.edu/policy/dataprivacy

The webinar archive from today’s session is located at http://www.educause.edu/Resources/PrivacyandSecurityRisksinHighe/243679

Solove founded TeachPrivacy that provides education, training, and advice to help schools protect privacy, minimize data security breaches, and deal with online social media issues. Check out the quick video about TeachPrivacy and Education here.

Today’s presenter is one of the world’s leading experts on privacy laws and the Founder, TeachPrivacy, http://teachprivacy.com – Professor Daniel J. Solove – George Washington University Law School

Privacy goes way beyond FERPA. It also includes alumni data, donor data, employee data, cyberbullying, electronic devices, confidentiality, websites, computer use policy, data retention, surveillance, online gossip, data security.

Handling FERPA is just one part of a much larger set of issues when it comes to privacy.

Can a single policy address all the privacy concerns? Solove says it should be looked at holistically to have everyone on the same page; it’s the most effective way (having a unified holistic program throughout the entire institution); the challenge is how institutions of higher ed are structured.

Federal Privacy laws relevant to schools:

  • FERPA
  • computer fraud and abuse act
  • communications decency act
  • gramm-leach-bliley act
  • no child left behind act
  • title IX
  • clery act
  • electronic communications privacy act
  • HIPAA privacy rule

The above are just the federal laws – but there are also a variety of state laws that are applicable, depending on where the institution resides.

Privacy problems in higher ed

  • fragmented protections
  • undetected problems
  • lack of coordination
  • lack of oversight
  • lack of training
  • lack of student education and awareness

http://www.symantec.com/content/en/us/about/media/pdfs/symantec_ponemon_data_breach_costs_report.pdf
The above link takes you to a report entitled “2010 Annual Study: U.S. Cost of a Data Breach – Compliance pressures, cyber attacks targeting sensitive data drive leading IT organizations to respond quickly and pay more.” It is a benchmark study of 51 U.S. companies about the financial impact, customer turnover and preventive solutions related to breaches of sensitive information with a March 2011 publication date; Copyright Symantec

From the above report: “The average organizational cost of a data breach this year increased to $7.2 million, up 7 percent from $6.8 million in 2009.”

privacy = nontechnical aspects of security (how are people trained; what are the policies for different things)
security = technology
Solove views data security as a subset of privacy
data security = protecting information from being lost, stolen, or improperly accessed
privacy = how data is managed or used or stored

Why does privacy matter?

  • legal compliance
  • reputation
  • financial costs of incidents
  • student well-being
  • employee well-being
  • donor and alumni well-being
  • time and resources
  • soured relationships

You can have the best technology for security, but the human element can quickly cause a breach – carelessness (for example)

Training and Education needs:

  • Privacy and Data Security Awareness
  • FERPA
  • Online Social Media
  • Privacy in the Digital Age

He mentioned a book, and said it was a very interesting and informative read, entitled “Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World’s Most Wanted Hacker” written by Kevin Mitnick – here’s a link to an excerpt
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/08/kevin-mitnick-excerpt/

He believes that people who have access to or who could take copies of lots of data should be required to undergo specific training.

Student Privacy in Peril: Massive Data Gathering With Inadequate Privacy and Security
Posted: 12/19/11
http://huffingtonpost.com/daniel-j-solove/student-privacy-in-peril-_b_1156907.html
Solove comments on a breach of privacy in the Department of Education servers that allowed the social security numbers, bank routing numbers, and borrowing history of thousands of college students to be exposed and open to anyone on the Internet for a period of time. In this article from the Huffington Post, Solove comments that:

…the Department of Education’s mishandling of personal student financial data in this latest data breach proves that we should be wary of how the Department will utilize this type of data in the future. Maybe it is time to reevaluate the ED’s rush to have enormous quantities of student data collected and disseminated. There are certainly problems with our educational system, and there is nothing inherently wrong with wanting to gather more data about this system. But it is irresponsible to do so when the ED and the other entities that collect and maintain the data are ill-equipped to safeguard privacy and provide appropriate data security. The entire FERPA legal structure is inadequate. Before racing to gather so much personal data, ED should ensure that the appropriate privacy and data security reforms are in place to protect that data. Otherwise, in its zeal to solve some problems with the educational system, the ED might be opening up an enormous and greater problem, putting all students at serious risk.

An audience member in the session commented about “You are what you tweet” reputation management sessions by Amber MacArthur
Article: http://www.fastcompany.com/1805231/u-r-what-u-tweet-5-steps-to-a-better-personal-brand

In honor of Data Privacy Month, you can download Matt Ivester’s book (lol…OMG!) for FREE! Just visit this link between 12:01 am on Jan. 27th and 11:59 pm on Jan. 30th. http://bit.ly/AFe8pr
Matt Ivester is the speaker for the January 30 session.

Cartoon: Big Data

Image attribution: Image copied by C Russell 20120111 // Photo of Cartoon: Big Data // Photo provided by Space & Light http://www.flickr.com/photos/t_gregorius/5839399412/  // Some rights reserved by Space & Light http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/deed.en

Join UTHSC’s IT Security Group & EdTech Team for Data Privacy Month Webinars

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January 2012 is Data Privacy Month and a time you can learn more about privacy issues. The UTHSC Information Technology Security Group and the Educational Technology Team invite you to join us for a series of 4 webinars on this topic from EDUCAUSE and the Higher Education Information Security Council.

Weds, Jan 4, 12-1pm, GEB A304, Data Privacy for Higher Education [Register here]

Speakers: Jolynn Dellinger (Program Manager, NCSA), Merri Beth Lavagnino (Chief Privacy Officer & Compliance Coordinator, Indiana University), and Nat Wood (Assistant Director for Consumer & Business Education Bureau of Consumer Protection, FTC)
Moderator: Diana Oblinger, President and CEO, EDUCAUSE

For several years EDUCAUSE and the Higher Education Information Security Council have been promoting October as National Cyber Security Awareness Month. Beginning in 2012, we will begin a similar campaign that will recognize January as Data Privacy Month. As institutions of higher education seek to improve information security and protect personally identifiable information, there is a growing need to raise awareness of privacy issues among our students, faculty, and staff. Privacy topics range from institutional adoption of Fair Information Practices to individual behaviors that impact privacy in settings such as use of mobile devices, social media, or online commerce. This webinar will introduce the new privacy awareness campaign, highlight federal government efforts, and describe higher education programs and initiatives.

Tues, Jan 10, 2-3pm, GEB A304, Privacy and Security Risks in Higher Education [Register here]

Speaker: Daniel J. Solove, John Marshall Harlan Research Professor of Law, George Washington University Law School
Moderator: Tracy Mitrano, Director of IT Policy, Cornell University

Privacy is a major and often underappreciated risk area for institutions of higher education. Many data security breaches, for example, are not the result of high-tech hacking, but of low-tech blunders made by faculty and staff – lost USB drives or laptops, data improperly placed on unauthorized servers, etc. Beyond data security, schools face liability for breaches of confidentiality, failure to share personal information when necessary, failure to address cyberbullying and harassment, and improper surveillance. Professor Solove will provide advice for how institutions of higher education can reduce the risk of having a privacy fiasco by discussing a series of case studies involving topics such as confidentiality and people in distress; outsourcing; data security; and online social media.

Recommended links:

TeachPrivacy website (includes videos and other materials)

Privacy Risks Video

Weds, Jan 25, 12-1pm, GEB A304, A Balancing Act: Student Privacy and Student Data in the Electronic Age [Register here]

Speaker: Kathleen Styles, Chief Privacy Officer, Department of Education
Moderator: Rodney Petersen, Senior Government Relations Officer & Managing Director of Washington Office, EDUCAUSE

Mon, Jan 30, 12-1pm, GEB A304, Protecting Personal Data: What Every Student Needs to Know About Online Reputation Management [Register here]

Speaker: Matt Ivester, founder of JuicyCampus and author of lol…OMG!
Moderator: Merri Beth Lavagnino, Chief Privacy Officer and Compliance Coordinator, Indiana University

Data Privacy Day is actually January 28, 2012. It’s an annual international celebration designed to promote awareness about privacy and education about best privacy practices. Visit some other great resources:

Come join colleagues to learn more about Data Privacy and staying safe!