Privacy in Hybrid and Online Courses: Is Anyone Thinking It Through?

We have previously noted on the blog that there have been demands for "hybrid" options on courses, i.e., courses that would be both in person and on Zoom or some other remote platform. Apparently, there will be moves in that direction although not mandated (or really possible) for all courses:

From the Bruin: UCLA administration agreed to most of the demands of the student leaders who organized the 16-day sit-in protest occupying Murphy Hall that took place in early February. UCLA community members staged a sit-in demonstration in front of Chancellor Gene Block’s office in Murphy Hall starting Jan. 31 to demand hybrid learning options and more support for marginalized student groups. The advocacy was organized by the Disabled Student Union, Undergraduate Students Association Council and Mother Organizations coalition. The sit-in ended on Feb. 16.

University leaders met in person with students throughout the protest to discuss the 40 requests they made, UCLA spokesperson Bill Kisliuk said in an emailed statement. University leaders did not agree to require that all instructors offer hybrid learning options. The Academic Senate sent the DSU a letter explaining that it could not do so due to academic freedom, a university policy that guarantees that instructors can control the content of their classes. Kisliuk said in an emailed statement that the campus currently lacks the capacity to live stream and record all classes and that classroom attendance policies are under the jurisdiction of individual instructors themselves, rather than university administration.

However, the university agreed to several DSU demands, including hiring Zoom assistants and additional Center for Accessible Education staff, writing letters to faculty in support of live-streaming lectures and supporting the creation of a Disability Cultural Center, Kisliuk said. The university will also hire an Americans with Disabilities Act compliance officer through the UCLA Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, he said...

Full story at https://dailybruin.com/2022/03/15/ucla-administrators-agree-to-several-sit-in-demands-from-student-organizations.

At around the same time the Bruin article was being published, yours truly - who was teaching in winter quarter - received an email from the IT folks who are running the new Bruin-Learn/Canvas system noting that his course was "published" (public) and so could technically be viewed by anyone who had the URL. The email indicated that if any student component was recorded and on the course website, it could violate certain federal rules unless the students consented. 

I don't want to go into the details but I questioned this objection, noting a) that only persons who had the actual class URL could see the "published" course and that the URL could not be found by just Googling the course, b) that, in any case, even someone who had the URL could not see the video contents without being able to log in using a Bruin account, and c) that in any hybrid or online situation, in practice there is nothing to stop anyone viewing the course from also recording it. Of course, with regard to "c," you can announce that the rule is not to record and hope that the rule will be followed, but an online viewer can be anywhere and is not in control of the instructor. (For that matter, even someone sitting in a regular, in-person classroom can easily record at least the audio component of what is going on surreptitiously by switching on a smartphone or other device.) 

Yours truly received back a message saying issues such as those mentioned above are being investigated. That's fine, but the reality is that a policy of encouraging hybrid or online courses cannot be compatible with a policy of total privacy.

A door cannot be both open and closed at the same time.