The re-engineer of e-learning procedures to effectively protect students’ personal data

CONTEXTThe past few years, and especially the current year, after the outbreak of COVID-19, most of the educational institutions suddenly passed into the digital era. In order to contain the contagion, many countries have implemented restrictive measures to reduce gathering and formations of crowds. Schools are also affected and had to reduce their classes or close entirely. One can only imagine the impact when, at the peak of the crisis, almost 1.6 billion children in 195 countries worldwide could not use their classrooms.The total closure of schools in some countries is impacting over 60% of the student population. Even in those countries that have implemented only localised closures, it has still impacted millions of students. In order to support continuity in education, the European Commission is supporting the Member States by listing a range of online platforms and EU-funded projects. Initially, educational organizations were using online platforms just as an auxiliary tool in the educational process. Nevertheless, after the outbreak of the COVID-19, almost all the educational organizations forced to digitalize every aspect of their operation, without proper examination of the effects in the protection of students’ fundamental rights, such as the protection of their personal data. In some cases, schools, universities, and educational organizations have replaced the traditional way of teaching with the use of existing or new e-learning platforms. In some cases, educational organizations or individual trainers have used even Social Media platforms (such as YouTube, Facebook or Instagram) in order to deliver online courses through the pandemic. Zoom’s security scandal proved that in some cases the use of online platforms carries risks for the users (educators and students). In addition, the digitalization of every operational aspect in educational organizations, as a consequence of personnel teleworking policies, created a huge amount of personal data that transmitted and stored online. Taking into consideration all the above, we underline the security gap that exists for the protection of individual’s personal data. The proposed project plans to encourage the use of digital means in the educational system of EU countries while suggesting a holistic approach to the protection of personal data. Our main goal is to create a roadmap for GDPR compliant technological solutions in the field of digital education and at the same time, to train the users of these platforms (especially teachers / trainers) in order to respect the EU privacy legislation and avoid data breaches. The main scope of the project is not to identify the technological security gaps of the platforms, but to underline the importance of the human factor on the use of such applications.OBJECTIVES- Encouraging and facilitating the lawful use of digital technologies in the educational procedure- Protecting individuals’ fundamental rights and particularly their privacy and personal data, enhancing at the same time the use of e-learning methods, in order to facilitate the educational procedures in Europe- Promoting the development of innovative teaching and assessment methods- Enhancing teachers’ initial education and continuous professional development- Improving the accessibility of students to the educational procedurePARTICIPANTSThe partnership comprises 6 partners from 5 countries covering software and IT experts with profound experience in the development of ICT tools to deliver training, consultancies which areexpert in emerging technologies, instructional design and e-learning, educational organisations with direct access to final beneficiaries of the programme and vast dissemination potential, and a Legal Firm with major expertise in the GDPR Framework and National Data Protection Laws in the EU and internationally.TARGET GROUPDirect:- Teachers/School’s administrative staff- Students (13-16)Indirect:- Parents, educational community (trainers/academic staff)- IT companies, consulting and compliance-centred SMEs in Data Protection fieldACTIVITIESThe partnership will design, develop, test, implement and disseminate an innovative training program facilitated by three tools, the e-Privacing Roadmap, the e-Privacing Guide and the Online Portal. The assessment of the content will include direct contact with the target group through cycles of training activities. Beneficiaries will continuously give feedback to the project team about their experiences regarding the topics that the project covers, their relevance and the delivery of the training resources. This not only will increase the motivation of the involved persons but will also provide the necessary crosslinks between theory and practice.RESULTS- e-Privacing Roadmap to Data Protection- e-Privacing Training Course- e-Privacing Guide for Teachers & Students- e-Privacing Online Portal- e-Privacing Academy