Verifying Student Identity in Online Courses Policy

Verifying Student Identity in Online Courses Policy

Approved By and Date:	Board of Trustees	02-20-2014
	Executive Leadership Team	01-02-2014
	ICORE	12-30-2013

Verifying the identity of the student accessing and participating in an online course is fundamental to the integrity of the course as well as the College. In addition, Stanly Community College’s (SCC) accrediting agencies require a consistent procedure to ensure student identity within the online course. SCC satisfies these standards with the use of a unique student user name and password.

Verifying Student Identity in Online Courses Procedures

Approved By and Date:	Executive Leadership Team	01-27-2020
	ICORE	01-22-2020

Each student, upon admission to SCC, is assigned a permanent student number and a unique username. The student number is generated when the student’s application information is entered into Datatel. The Datatel student number is then used by local IT servers to generate a unique user ID that is placed into SCC’s active directory. The username uses a protocol that includes first initial of the first name plus the last name plus the last four digits of the student ID number (e.g., jdoe1234). This unique username, coupled with a student managed password, is used in order to securely log in and gain access to the online course management system as well as the online student service registration and records portal.

SCC also utilizes a single sign-on model of authentication.  Students manage a single username and password and login at a single point of entry to access most services within the college including their student email account and LMS access.  The password for their unique user name is set to force change periodically, and can also be reset by the student automatically through the school website at https://changepw.stanly.edu.  In order to change a password, students must provide either their full student number or the last four digits of their social security number in addition to their username, first name, last name and birth date.

Faculty teaching either an online or hybrid course also have the autonomy to add additional layers of student verification within their courses through the incorporation of components that can include the on-site proctoring of tests, online test proctoring using Respondus LockDown Browser and Respondus Monitor, and synchronous web conferencing tools like Zoom, Skype, and Google Hangouts.

 

Revision: 01/02/2014 (procedures)