From: Vicki Walton

To: Academic Department Heads; adaa@lists.ncsu.edu; Deans' Council; Vice ...

Date: 10/24/2006 2:41 PM

Subject: Electronic Hosting of NC State Courses

CC: Executive Officers' Group

Please distribute the following message to all faculty and teaching assistants in your units. Thank you.

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As NC State increasingly relies on electronic means for teaching and learning, it is essential that we do so in compliance with applicable laws and university policies. To this end, I am requesting that all NC State credit courses that have an online presence be hosted on servers within the ncsu.edu domain.

The university provides two primary online environments for hosting our courses, WolfWare and Vista (WebCT). It is recommended that these environments be utilized for the hosting of NC State courses whenever possible. For courses hosted within the ncsu.edu domain but outside of the context of WolfWare or Vista, the faculty member responsible for the course must ensure that the software and servers hosting the course are compliant with all applicable laws and policies. The laws and policies pertaining to the electronic provision of NC State courses are as follows:

Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973

North Carolina General Statute § 168A-7

NCSU REG 04.25.05 – Web Page Accessibility

NCSU REG 02.20.1 – Academic Accommodations for Students with Disabilities

NCSU POL 08.00.1 – Computer Use Regulations

NCSU REG 11.00.1 – Family Educational Rights and Privacy (FERPA or Buckley Amendment)

NC State course websites may link to and utilize electronic resources and materials hosted outside of the ncsu.edu domain as relevant to the course. However, all websites must comply with FERPA, which means that personally identifiable “education records” may not be accessible to anyone other than the instructor, other NC State officials with a need to know, and their agents (e.g., third party contractors like WebAssign). “Education records” are almost every type of record (1) about a student or former student, and (2) maintained by someone acting on behalf of NC State. Examples include

n student test scores or grades;

n assignment submissions, class discussions or comments (where recorded), or other materials produced by students in which the student can be identified; and

n names of students or other identifying information that is linked to non-directory information such as the course(s) the student is taking

Education records may be shared with others pursuant to voluntary written consent from the student, or to a limited extent among the students enrolled in an online class (see http://www.ncsu.edu/legal/legal_topics/student_privacy.php).

The faculty member in charge of the course is also responsible for making a good faith effort to ensure that any external links from an NC State course meet the accessibility requirements specified by the NC State Web Page Accessibility Regulation.

Larry A. Nielsen

Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor