Elearning design and privacy

What does the exploration of topic of privacy tell me about elearning design?

Some key points from reading:

Decew says that it is not possible to give a definition of privacy because of the diverse interests that it may cover. She believes that individuals should be able to choose when they forfeit their privacy without losing the benefits that technology brings.

Depending on the learning environment, anonymity and lack of personal data may help to create equality, especially when there are cross culture relationships to be built. (Chester and Gwynne, 1998)

Epling (2003) when talking about nurse education raises a very good point about the fact that the more collaborative and learner centred the design, the harder it is to create any kind of surveillance of the learner. Here they talk about the tensions between opening up online learning freedom and discussion and the need for teachers to see and take control of the learning. With learner centred design you cannot track a learners contemplation and analysis. Here a good point is raised that any tracking that is not about the learners’ interest, has the possibility to breach data protection.

A very full discussion is had by Jerman-Blaisic and Klobucar(2005), about the need for the elearning industry to adopt some standardised approaches to privacy. They talk about the potential of privacy threats by access to data through cookies, third party monitoring and data disclosure. Here they suggest that an appropriate privacy policy needs to be adopted and communicated that ensures the learner data is protected and that they are in control of their privacy giving within the learning environment.

Malhotra comments on digital information in an ecommerce environment. Even here, back in 2004, it seems that there had been little by the way of framework development to control this, and that people often have different opinions over what is acceptable or not. Here it is suggested that the approach should be about definition of what is being collected, control of this data and a transparency/ awareness of the privacy policies so individuals can make their choices.

Has technology changed are perception of privacy is what Sparck Jones(2003) asks. Here the definition is about an individual knowing what information different people have about them, and the fact that technology can often blur this knowledge. We cannot get away from the fact that what people see and know about us is different from the past, and education is necessary, as perceptions will not change if people are ignorant or ignore the risks.

Perfect privacy is when no one has any information about me, no one pays any attention and no one has any access to me – a state that is impossible (Gavison 1980).

When designing elearning these things need to be taken into account. Depending on the experience different amounts of information will be needed. A one off experience does not need to track data as much as a learning management system may, in order to facilitate and understand the ways that people learn. Compliance learning for example, involves a necessity for some learner data to be shared. Whatever approach is decided, those involved in the process need to know what and how data is recorded, the security systems in place and need to agree to any use of their data. If designing learning for an institution or organisation one also needs to take into account their own privacy policies and philosophy, and ensure they are upheld.

Reading

Chester, A. and Gwynne, G. (1998) ‘Online teaching: encouraging collaboration through anonymity’, Journal of Computer-mediated Communication, vol.4, no.2; also available online at http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol4/issue2/chester.html (Accessed 2 December 2010).

DeCew, J. (1997) In Pursuit of Privacy: Law, Ethics, and the Rise of Technology, Ithaca, NY, Cornell University Press.

Epling, M., Timmons, S. and Wharrad, H.J. (2003) ‘An educational panopticon? New technology, nurse education and surveillance’, Nurse Education Today, vol.23, no.6, pp.412–18.

Gavison, R. (1980) ‘Privacy and the Limits of Law’, Yale Law Journal, vol.89, no.3, pp.421–71.

Jerman-Blažič, B. and Klobučar, T. (2005) ‘Privacy provision in e-learning standardized systems: status and improvements’, Computer Standards and Interfaces, vol.27, no.6, pp.561–78.

Malhotra, N.K., Kim, S.S. and Agarwal, J. (2004) ‘Internet users’ information privacy concerns (IUIPC): The construct, the scale and a causal model’, Information Systems Research, vol.15, no.4, pp.336–55.

Spärck Jones, K. (2003) ‘Privacy: what’s different now?’, Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, vol.28, no.4, pp.287–92.