Student Privacy in Online Courses

York Technical College has a written policy for protecting the privacy of online students.

FERPA

All employees of the college are required to maintain appropriate student privacy in accordance with FERPA requirements. Faculty instructing online courses are provided with information and expectations related to privacy considerations specific to online instruction. The College has established FERPA Guidelines for Distance Education and Online Platforms, which are specific to distance learning, the learning management system (LMS), and other instructional online platforms utilized in instruction of distance education courses. Read more about FERPA here. 

Verification of Student Identity

At the time of application to the College, each student is issued a unique identification. This student identification becomes part of the unique identifier (user ID) for the student. The user ID, along with a personal passcode, is required for students to access the learning management system, D2L Brightspace. The D2L system provides a secure environment for faculty members to post assignments and exams while ensuring privacy of individual students' assessments and grades. To ensure that the student who registers in an online course is the same student who participates in and completes the course, and receives the credit, the College issues each student an initial secure login and passcode. This secure login is protected by multi-factor authentication (MFA), and as such, students will be required to respond to MFA initial set up questions and complete the MFA process when they access YTC systems.