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Friday, August 17, 2012

FERPA Q&A: Online discussion groups

Question: Can information displayed in online discussion groups be suppressed?

Answer: If students are part of a course that has an online discussion component or uses Google Groups, members can see each other's x.500 information. Some faculty and staff have asked whether displaying this for students who have chosen to suppress this information is a violation of FERPA. It isn't. The 2009 FERPA regulations state that students do not have a right to remain anonymous is the classroom, including online sections of courses or equivalent course components for in-person classes. Students in the class, and the faculty member, must not share information about other students in the class outside the class environment.

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