FERPA Regulation of Classroom Video Recordings

Section 7: Academic Procedures

Overview of FERPA and Student Personally Identifiable Information (PII): FERPA protects the personally identifiable information of students. If a class recording includes student participation in any way that makes it possible for the viewer to identify the student, that portion of the recording is considered to be part of the student education record and is subject to FERPA regulation.

Access to recordings made for a specific course.

• Recordings with student participation can be posted to a Learning Management System course as long as access to the recording is limited to students enrolled in that class. Discovery uses a direct link to the recordings on the Panopto server, and by default only students enrolled in the course have access to the recording. Obtaining written consent is not needed in this situation.
  
  
• Use of social media to store class recordings is discouraged as access might not be limited to students enrolled in the specific course.

Sharing recordings with classes or groups beyond the original class.

• If the recording includes only the instructor or voices of students that are not personally identifiable, FERPA regulations do not limit its use.
  
  
• If the recording includes student participation in a way that makes it possible to identify the student, the recording must not be shared outside that specific class unless one of the following criteria has been met:
  • All personally identifiable student content has been edited from the recording.
  • A FERPA consent has been obtained from the specific students if the personally identifiable student content has not been edited from the recording.
    
    
• If broader use of a class recording is desired, faculty members may want to plan the recording so that students are not shown in the video or referred to by name. One option for lecture-style classes is to first record the lecture and then afterward engage in unrecorded student questions and class discussion. This discussion time could also be recorded and then edited from the recording before sharing with other classes.

Statement for Syllabi

The following statement should be in all course syllabi:

Class sessions may be recorded and made available to allow students to review content outside class time. Access to the recordings is generally limited to students in the same class. If recordings are shared with students in classes outside the original course, the recordings must be edited so that students are not personally identifiable, or students may be requested to sign a consent form at the time of recording.

CONSENT TO SHARE RECORDINGS

Student Name: ___________________________________

NU ID Number: ___________________
Date: ___________________

Course Name: ______________________________________

Course Code/Section: _________________________

Professor: _________________________________________

Semester: _________________________

I give permission for recordings where I may be personally identified as a student to be shared with others for instructional and educational purposes only.

I understand that:

1. I have a right not to consent to the release of recordings where I can be personally identified.
2. I have the right to revoke this consent, in writing delivered to my professor, although any subsequent revocation of this consent shall not affect recordings previously shared by Northwest University prior to the receipt of my written revocation of consent.

By my signature below, I acknowledge and agree to the above terms.

______________________________________ ____________________

Signature of student                               Date