Abstract
To explore various stakeholders’ understanding of student privacy and how protections for it are enacted on their campus, we conducted interviews with 27 faculty, instructional designers, and academic librarians at Very High Research Activity universities across the United States. Although there were no interview questions concerning the pandemic, participants noted an increase in awareness of student privacy issues as a result of moving instruction, instructional design, and library services into a completely online environment. Findings show diverse, complex student privacy landscapes on American campuses. Most participants did not perceive themselves as having agency in student privacy decisions on their campuses suggesting that these faculty, instructional designers, and academic librarians can improve communication among themselves and work together. More broadly, the findings suggest that governance structures could be improved to develop a more inclusive culture of student privacy.
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Notes
The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education categorizes an institution in the Very High Research Activity (also known as an R1 institution) category if it “awarded at least 20 research/scholarship doctoral degrees during the update year and also institutions with below 20 research/scholarship doctoral degrees that awarded at least 30 professional practice doctoral degrees in at least 2 programs. Excludes Special Focus Institutions and Tribal Colleges and Universities. The first two categories [R1 or R2] include only institutions that awarded at least 20 research/scholarship doctoral degrees and had at least $5 million in total research expenditures (as reported through the National Science Foundation (NSF) Higher Education Research & Development Survey (HERD)).” See: https://carnegieclassifications.acenet.edu/carnegie-classification/classification-methodology/basic-classification/.
The Qualtrics-based consent form is available in the team’s research repository at https://osf.io/fptc9.
The interview protocol is available in the team’s research repository at https://osf.io/95nr8.
The data management plan is available in the team’s research repository at https://osf.io/8rxkv.
The comprehensive dictionary is available in the team’s research repository at https://osf.io/dzevk.
The privacy dictionary is available in the team’s research repository at https://osf.io/at7ud.
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This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (LG-18-19-0032-19). The views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this conference proceeding do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
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Jones, K.M.L., VanScoy, A., Harding, A. et al. Changing student privacy responsibilities and governance needs: Views from faculty, instructional designers, and academic librarians. J Comput High Educ (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12528-023-09395-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12528-023-09395-w