Concordia Educational Technology Guidelines for Faculty and Students (the “Guidelines”)

Concordia embraces the use of new and innovative technologies in education and in its interactions, including those technologies developed by third parties. Educational software or services developed and owned by third parties, including those linked to textbooks, in-class surveys, lecture capture, virtual classrooms, course assignments and quizzes can be invaluable tools for the development and teaching of courses. It is important to note that a Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) must be conducted whenever a third-party technology uses, shares, or stores Personal Information (as defined below). The third party must also sign an agreement with Concordia University following the successful completion of a PIA. The PIA and agreement are required no matter the price of the third-party technology, even if the technology is free to use.

These Guidelines aim to respect Quebec’s privacy laws, and the rights of individuals to protect their privacy (including their image) and their intellectual property, while taking into account the importance of pedagogical innovation and technology. It is therefore necessary that users of educational technology, whether they are faculty, students or guests, respect the Guidelines that follow.

Concordia-supported Technologies

The following Guidelines pertain to specific educational technologies. Multiple Concordia-supported technologies (i.e., software licensed by Concordia) have already been vetted for compliance with the University’s high security and privacy standards through the PIA process as needed and may now be used throughout the University. For a comprehensive list of technologies that fit into this category, please visit the Centre for Teaching and Learning’s site.

1.     Personal Information and Image Rights for Third-Party Technologies:

Participants in Concordia activities (including students and guests) using third-party technologies may not be obliged to reveal Personal Information about themselves and others. “Personal information” is information that allows a person to be identified directly or indirectly (e.g., name, email address, student number, etc.).

A PIA must be conducted whenever a third-party technology uses, stores, or shares Personal Information. Student Personal Information should never be provided by an instructor or other University employee to those external to the University without the successful completion of a PIA and a written agreement between Concordia and the software or service provider.

Third party technologies – When using third-party technologies (tools such as, e.g., Adobe Connect, Google Docs, iClicker, Padlet, Kahoot, Perusall, Peerceptiv, Poll Everywhere, Kritik, Mentimeter; or social media, e.g., Facebook, Instagram, Slack, etc.) as part of a course:

·       All third-party technologies must be assessed to determine whether a PIA is necessary (i.e., whether the software, platform, or service uses, stores, or shares Personal Information). To begin the process, please complete the Privacy Impact Assessment for software use. Please note that if a PIA is required for the third-party technology, the PIA process can take up to 6 weeks for completion.

·       Following the successful completion of a PIA, Concordia must have a written agreement with the software or service provider.

·        Instructors should inform students of their intention to use third-party technology as part of the course in their course outline. Standard wording is available in Appendix A.

·        Should a student not be comfortable with an external service’s privacy policy, terms of service or with providing Personal Information to an external party, alternate options, which must not penalize the student, and which do not imply the provision of Personal Information by students, should be made available. If they want to avail themselves of them, students are responsible for discussing these alternate options with their instructors and for working with their instructors to find mutually acceptable solutions.

Filming – students may choose not to have their image recorded as part of the course. This does not apply to the use of teleconferencing when it is not recorded. Recordings of class activities that contain images of students may only be shared by instructors for the purposes of course delivery and development at Concordia.

·        If in-person courses are recorded, students must inform their instructor that they do not want to be recorded and their instructor should take reasonable steps to comply. When possible, students who do not wish to be recorded should not sit in the view of the cameras that are recording and should take care to not stand in front of the cameras. It should be noted that it may be impossible to avoid incidental filming of students.

·        If video recording is used for virtual classrooms or teleconferencing, students may choose whether or not they want to withhold their image from being displayed. Students may not be penalized should they choose not to have their image recorded. In cases where this prevents participation in course activities, alternate means of participation by the student may be required by the instructor.

Pseudo-data – students may opt to use pseudonyms, email proxies and the University’s VPN service (to protect name, email address and IP address, respectively) when registering and identifying themselves using educational technology. Students are responsible for ensuring that their instructors are informed of their pseudonym and any other relevant pseudo-data prior to using it.

2.     Intellectual Property:

Ownership of intellectual property is governed by the applicable collective agreement, the Policy on Intellectual Property, VPRGS-9, the Policy on Copyright Compliance, SG-2, and the Copyright Guidelines for Instructors, and any applicable laws, including the Copyright Act, RSC 1985, c C-42.

It is the responsibility of anyone presenting work (e.g., images, text, sounds, software) using educational technology to ensure that they respect applicable intellectual property policies and laws, including, but not limited to, the Policy on Intellectual Property, VPRGS-9, the Policy on Copyright Compliance, SG-2, and the Copyright Guidelines for Instructors, and the Copyright Act, RSC 1985, c C-42.

Except as required pursuant to applicable Concordia policies and collective agreements, participants in Concordia activities (including students and guests) may not be obliged to transfer copyright, ownership of intellectual property, or rights to use their own work.

3.     Guest Lecturers:

These Guidelines apply to guest lecturers as well.                                 

If a guest lecturer is invited to participate in a classroom lecture that will be recorded, the inviting instructor shall provide a copy of the present Guidelines to the guest lecturer and shall ensure that the guest lecturer signs the “Guest Lecturer Recording Consent and Release Form”. The completed form shall be collected by the course instructor and sent to the Office of the Provost, Innovation in Teaching and Learning for archiving where it will be conserved for three (3) years.

4.     Retention of and Access to Recordings:

Recordings should only be saved on University approved servers, and should only be accessible to individuals who have a secure access to those servers and who have a legitimate reason to view the recordings.

Recordings of courses or other academic or extracurricular activities should only be used for the purposes for which they were intended when they were created. For courses, only instructors are authorized to share links to these recordings and sharing should be limited to academic purposes.

Usage of services, including the viewing of the recordings by all users (instructors and students) may be tracked by Concordia or by the third-party software providers (approved through a PIA) for statistical and administrative purposes. The information gathered is available only to the instructor and authorized personnel of Concordia and/or of the third-party software provider.

Concordia may save recordings in accordance with its retention rules.

To report any technical issues with the use of Concordia’s educational technologies please contact the IITS Service desk @ ext. 7613 or email help@concordia.ca. Students with questions should refer to their course instructors. For support related to teaching and learning for course instructors please email teaching@concordia.ca. For questions about copyright please contact copyright.questions@concordia.ca.

Appendix A

Standard Wording for Inclusions in Course Outlines

As applicable, once an assessment of the need for a PIA has occurred and, if needed, the PIA has been approved and the third-party has signed an agreement with Concordia University, please include this wording for the use of third-party software, websites and/or tools in your course outline:

Students are advised that external software, websites and/or tools (“Third-Party Technology”) will be used in the course. If this Third-Party Technology uses, stores, communicates or discloses personal information, it has gone through a Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) in accordance with applicable privacy laws, and Concordia University has signed an agreement with the third-party. Use of any Third-Party Technology is voluntary. Students who do not agree with the use of Third-Party Technology should identify themselves to the course instructor as soon as possible, and in all cases before the DNE deadline, to discuss alternate and mutually acceptable modes of participation.

If applicable, please include this wording for the use of third-party technology to record a course in your course outline:

Note that, as a part of this course, some or all of the lectures and/or other activities in this course may be recorded. Recordings will be focused on the instructor and will normally exclude students. It is possible, however, that your participation may be recorded. If you wish to ensure that your image is not recorded, speak to your instructor as soon as possible.

Also, please note that you cannot share recordings of your classes and that the instructor will only share class recordings for the purpose of course delivery and development. Any other sharing could result in a violation of the law and applicable University policies, and may be subject to penalties.