Hey Derek — sorry for my late reply on this; I need to turn on notifications for comments on Digital Campus. You’re right, of course — FERPA covers “educational records” (I think that’s the phrase), and it’s really a broad interpretation of FERPA to say that online student work is included in “educational records.” But sure, some university officials do make that interpretation, and then they write a university policy about it that you’re supposed to follow. I think it was at NC State, unless it was at UVA, where I was sternly advised to get student release forms for online work. At some point someone definitely trained me to do that, but maybe I should become a conscientious objector.

It is also true that I’ve had a few students who don’t really like doing online work, though I’m thinking mainly of blogging. Some definitely want it taken down when the class ends, and I do think they should have that right. Even for Wikipedia and other places where students can use a pseudonym, I do think that if I’m going to require them to do public online work for a grade, I want to make sure they’re really okay with it.

I’ve heard university officials (and EDUCAUSE for that matter) argue that Amanda’s interpretation of FERPA is the correct one, but I’m not convinced that they’re correct. Certainly there’s nothing wrong with getting student consent, but I’m not sure it’s necessary.

Also, it’s unclear to me if a writing assignment in a class is even covered by FERPA. An instructor’s grade on that writing assignment definitely is covered by FERPA, but the student work itself? I guess if that work makes it clear that a given student is enrolled in a given course, then it would be. Enrollment information is indeed part of the educational record as defined by FERPA.

http://timesync.gmu.edu/wordpress/?p=1084