Student personal information

Instructors have access to several forms of student personal information in Brightspace, including (but not limited to) names, emails, ID numbers, and grades. While the same information is accessible in other systems (namely BrockDB), Brightspace has options for easy sharing that should be approached with caution.

The majority of this information is readily available to an instructor through a site’s Classlist, which is hidden by default from student view in Brock’s instance of Brightspace for reasons of personal privacy.

Some student information should never be shared and steps should be taken to ensure that no sharing happens without consent. None of Brightspace’s collaborative features (Discussions, Groups, Assignments, etc.) show student contact information, but be mindful when facilitating group work or encouraging discussion and pay attention if gathering names and contact information to share.

Consent

Students should be made aware of what personal information the instructor wishes to share, and to whom. There should also be a chance to give or revoke consent before this information is shared. Instructors must then work with students to create alternative pathways to allow the student to complete the related work.

Educate students on privacy best practices

Educate students about protecting their own privacy. Encourage them to be mindful of their environment when attending online classes (e.g., what’s visible in the background, who might overhear them) and to avoid sharing sensitive information in public chat forums.

Class recordings

If the class sessions are recorded, inform students in advance and obtain their consent. Some platforms allow you to record only the instructor’s screen and voice, excluding student video and audio. Make sure to provide an alternative to students who are uncomfortable being recorded.

More information is available in our guides for Teams recordings.

Limit data collection

Only collect and use the minimum amount of personal data necessary. Avoid asking for personal information beyond what’s needed for the class and make sure any personal data shared for assignments or discussion remains relevant to educational purposes.

Strive to share the least amount of information possible to complete a task.

Share course materials securely

Use secure file-sharing options (OneDrive or SharePoint) if working beyond access-controlled environments like Brightspace when sharing reading materials, assignments, or other resources. Avoid using third-party apps that may not meet Brock’s privacy standards (all third-party integrations that appear in Brightspace do meet these standards).

Artificial intelligence

Generative AI tools like ChatGPT work by gathering and storing data that they are provided. Care must be taken to ensure that student information (personal or intellectual property) is not shared in this way.

If prompting a Gen AI tool, be sure to provide the minimal necessary information and strip away all mention of personally identifiable data, photos, videos, recordings, and communication. Generalize any class information and use only hypothetical scenarios.

The Centre for Pedagogical Innovation has resources dedicated to guidance on Generative AI.

Reasons for sharing student information

There are several common reasons that necessitate the sharing of student contact information, including group work and project planning, class discussion, peer evaluation, and study groups. Many of these goals can be achieved through a prompt for introductions in the Brightspace Discussions area, or a Course Teams channel, and/or coordinated through the Groups tool. There are benefits to encouraging this to happen externally and in private too.

Keep in mind this information exchange would typically happen in-class and between students, where both parties have consented to sharing said information. Providing a list of names and emails, for example, automatically ignores that step.

Instructors may sometimes wish to share student grades as a means of celebration, encouragement, or discussion. This is not recommended beyond informal or anecdotal mention, but care should be taken to anonymize any data before sharing. While Grades can be exported with identifying information removed (see below), the Assignment and Quiz feedback areas cannot be made presentable in any way.

In rare cases, there are better ways to redistribute information

There are situations where an instructor will need to distribute a limited amount of student information to support the learning outcomes of the course. The best way of creating a text list of all student names and email addresses is through Grades and not Classlist in Brightspace. Instructions for doing so are outlined below.

Sharing student information in Brightspace

1. Select Grades on the course navbar.

2. Select the grey Export button in the top-left of the Grades area (in the Enter Grades tab).

3. From the Export area, instructors can select what information gets exported to an Excel file. It is possible to exclude all actual grades at this step.

4. Once the desired options are set, select Export to Excel at the bottom of the page to generate a spreadsheet file for download.

5. Further deletions can be made in Excel (“Hiding” in Excel is not a privacy control).