Southeastern Technical College Privacy Statement for Distance Education
All students enrolled at Southeastern Technical College (STC), regardless of the mode of instructional delivery (traditional, web-enhanced, hybrid, online, or teleconferencing), are protected by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA). As published in the STC Catalog and Handbook, FERPA was designed to protect the privacy of educational records and to establish the right of students to inspect and review their non-privileged educational records. The act also provides guidelines for the correction of inaccurate or misleading data through informal and formal hearings.
Southeastern Technical College also adheres to written procedures of the Georgia Virtual Technical Connection (GVTC) to protect the privacy of students who participate in distance learning activities. Students are informed of this protection via the GVTC website and the Online Course Orientation Manual available to students through Blackboard. STC does not offer correspondence education courses or programs.
Since an online environment creates a record of student activity, it is subject to FERPA privacy rights, unlike verbal exchanges in a physical classroom. Because of the nature of distance education, academic administration may have access to student work such as:
- The academic administration and STC Blackboard Point of Contact staff have access to all online courses and the completed course documents to carry out their job duties.
- When students submit information electronically (via Blackboard), the information is accessible to the faculty teaching the course.
- Some students may submit information electronically via their student email account (OwlMail). The student email account is a College-provided student email system with a secure logon environment. The identity of all students is verified through the use of a secure and unique nine-digit student identification number. This identification number is utilized as part of the student's username when accessing the student email. Additionally, STC utilizes Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates to establish an encrypted link between the web server and the client's browser. This link ensures that all data passed between the web server and web browser remain private and integral. SSL is an industry standard and is used by millions of websites in the protection of online transactions with users.
- In all online courses, discussion postings and some student work are accessible to students in the class. Postings and student work do not contain grades viewable by other students.