Do you refrain from using your phone and email accounts for the fear that their usage is 
violated under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) compliance requirements? Fortunately, banning all kinds of communications tools is not what FERPA is for, but has been sadly used as a “Banhammer” most of the time. FERPA definitely is one of the most misunderstood regulations in today’s educational issues and trends.
FERPA is a federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. It applies to all schools that receive funding from the U.S. Department of Education. Many people assume that FERPA requires student coursework to be kept private and thus the use of social media in the classroom is prohibited. It is incorrect. It does not prevent teachers/instructors from asking students to create public content that are a part of the course requirements.
But what do FERPA compliance requirements stop students/instructors from doing? The simple answer to this question is that FERPA compliance applies to only that information that is possessed by the institution or its board of education. Now this is a very crucial point when faculties instruct students to post on blogs, social media sites or any other sites not affiliated to the university. Such an activity would not be in violation of FERPA because such posts is not received by the university and thus not in its custody (at least till the time they are copied or reviewed by the faculty members).
If you need to have a proper understanding on what kinds of educational issues and trends need FERPA compliance and need to get the FERPA policy guidelines, here are some suggestions that are sourced from various universities where the instructors stress on incorporating social media in the classrooms:
- It is important for students to understand that when they post some information on social media platforms that are out of their university’s purview, the material may be viewed by others.
- Personal information of students may not be required to be posted on public sites.
- The grades or comments made by the instructor(s) on the specific material shouldn’t be made public. However, ‘peer-graded’ work or grades provided by other students on any such articles can be publicized according to FERPA.
- Students under the age of 18, need to ask for the consent of their parents before posting work in public, while it is clearly not a regulation according to law.
FERPA in no way forbids instructors from using social media in their classrooms, however, common guidelines should be followed so that students and their privacy are protected. If you want to know more about FERPA compliance requirements, train your teachers and staff, and want to protect your institution from social media liabilities, you may be interested in joining the training session FERPA and Social Media: Ethics, Legalities and More by expert speaker Timothy Gilsbach at AudioSolutionz, the country’s leading source for industry information, knowledge and training. The training session will review the benefits and possible pitfalls of a growing trend in educational entities to use social media as a teaching tool and what should be done to use this tool while limiting potential violations of FERPA.
