Reading up on any new online software for your classroom, school, or district, you’d be remiss if you did not ponder cybersecurity. How do you know your students’ privacy is protected? Is your privacy protected? Will your school district allow you to download this new application? As a team of former teachers and administrators, we know this is at the front of your mind as you consider using Learnics.

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Research on learning analytics in K-12 education is becoming more present and must be separated from the research on learning analytics for higher education due to additional privacy measures for minors (Kovanovic et al., 2021). Across the available research in K-12 learning analytics, privacy is a top concern. In a recent multi-year study with teachers aimed at using learning analytics in the classroom, the most significant finding was the need for transparency in terms of data (Ahn et al., 2021). There is also the issue of what it could do to education down the line if we solely look at learning analytics and ignore the outside variables influencing a student (Beerwinkle, 2021). In summary, learning analytics must be implemented with intention, and teachers need transparency about what data we collect and how we use it.

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If you have uncertainty about the data we collect, your questioning proves you are responsible in the digital age. We have a short and sweet outline of our full Privacy Policy below to assure you that your and your students’ confidentiality is maintained while using Learnics.

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• What data do we collect? When you and your students sign into Learnics, we collect Google Classroom information from your email address to assign you to the correct user group on our end. For students’ activity data, we solely collect the URLs they visit and a time stamp to measure their time on the URL while they are actively logging their activity with Learnics. For teachers’ activity data, we solely use classroom and assignment data for Learnics-specific assignments to ensure the students’ data is visible to the teacher. Learnics adheres to all federally mandated requirements outlined through the U.S. Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”) and Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).
• What do we use it for? Learnics only uses your data to operate all of the visible functions of Learnics. We do not sell or share your data for marketing purposes, nor do we store your data in our own records beyond the Learnics assignments.‍

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• Where is the data stored, and who else can see it? The data you share with Learnics is saved in the secure Learnics Database and is linked with the teacher user. Only our software developers have access to the Learnics Database. Linking an assignment file from Google Drive requires Google Drive file access, so you will be prompted to accept that permission. This permission gives Learnics access to only the file(s) you choose to add to the assignment. Learnics will never access the contents of any documents or store any documents. Only the teacher, Google, and the Learnics Database store the data associated with the Learnics assignment. 

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• What should you do if your district will not let you access it? While this is largely on a case-by-case basis, we are here to help! If you are receiving an initial block to download, we recommend reaching out to your IT or Educational Technology department and referring them to our Privacy Policy for approval. If they need additional information, please contact us at support@learnics.com. We are happy to set up a call to discuss it further and provide additional technical details for our app.

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References

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Ahn, J., Campos, F., Nguyen, H., Hays, M., & Morrison, J. (2021). Co-designing for privacy, transparency, and trust in K-12 learning analytics. In K-12 Learning Analytics. In LAK21: 11th International Learning Analytics and Knowledge Conference (LAK21). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 55–65. https://doi.org/10.1145/3448139.3448145 

Beerwinkle, A. L. (2021). The use of learning analytics and the potential risk of harm for K-12 students participating in digital learning environments. Educational Technology Research and Development, 69, 327-330.

Kovanovic, V., Mazziotti, C., & Lodge, J. (2021). Learning Analytics for Primary and Secondary Schools. Journal of Learning Analytics, 8(2), 1-5. https://doi.org/10.18608/jla.2021.7543

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