POLICY ON THE PRIVACY OF STUDENTS ENROLLED IN ALTERNATIVE DELIVERY METHOD COURSES

 

WMU protects the privacy of all students, adhering to the same privacy standards for online students as it does for students studying on the campus.

 

WMU issues a unique user ID and password to each student upon enrollment and each college employee upon date of employment. The user ID is required for both students and faculty to access the MOODLE course management system for all courses, including distance learning courses (MOODLE stands for Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment).  MOODLE is a secure environment where faculty members post course materials, assignments and exams, provide chat and discussion forums for their courses, and where students participate in forum discussions, chat sessions, upload assignments, and take quizzes and exams. The privacy of individual students’ assessments and grades is maintained within the course management system.

 

Anyone using MOODLE is required to have a unique user ID and password to access any course management resources.  Faculty are restricted to accessing information associated with the specific courses they teach.  Students are automatically enrolled in courses through a batch process run by the administrative team in May, June, July, August, and January each year and identified by their unique user ID and password.  Students are restricted to faculty-published information in courses for which they have enrolled and student-group related activities in a given course.  Guest access to courses is not allowed.   Course and user profile information is not visible to anyone without an account.  Authorized Moodle users cannot view the profile information of other users unless those users give permission.

 

Secure Login and Password: Each distance learning faculty and student enters his/her user ID and password into Moodle to gain access to authorized Moodle learning environment resources. This combination of user ID and password identifies faculty and students to the system on each course visit. All users should understand the following:

 

• All parties accept responsibility for the security of their personal passwords.
• Private student information is separated from others’ within the course management system and protected from outside intruders through limited student group permissions.
• Private faculty information is protected from student views within the course management system and from outside intruders through typical faculty group permissions.