Thanks everyone for the replies. I'd have to do this on a local server. Ironically, there is a somewhat draconian Australian law that is a consequence of the Australian-US trade agreements that probably make it illegal for me to keep data on foreign servers, but no doubt my university would not like it either. I'll have a look and see if it is manageable. The real issue is writing the content from scratch.
Andrew On Thursday, 25 August 2016 02:07:29 UTC+10, leif wrote: > > Dima Pasechnik wrote: > > Hi Simon, > > the question is delicate; I know that in UK there is a number of > universities using SMC for teaching purposes. > > As well as in some other countries (William can give details on this, I > suppose); as well, some MOOCs probably use SMC. And, finally, Andrew, the > original poster, is in Sydney, Australia. > > > > IMHO your university is unclear in its position; first of all, one has > to define what "personal information" means. > > Two lawyers, (at least) three opinions. Especially in such cases. > > I guess they -- understandably -- also want to avoid any chance of > getting sued, but I'd personally agree with them here (putting > restrictions on any kind of data which *might* look like personal > records). > > > > They might be right in saying that an official exam, and its records, > cannot be held on > > overseas computer systems. > > Again guessing, but I bet their statement includes "cloud" services in > general, a fuzzy (marketing) term at least meanwhile implying > anti-transparency (w.r.t. where data is transferred to, stored, and > processed), and vulnerability. > > > > How about GCE servers located in EU? > > Is it legal? This way data does not leave the EU (probably, I don't know > for sure). > > Again a grey area, as AFAIK in the past the U.S. government at least > tried to force U.S. (parent) companies to hand out data physically > located elsewhere, such that they tend to get into the dilemma of > violating either U.S. or European (or other national) law, not to > mention alleged practice of some agencies. > > > > In UK surely students can be asked to do coursework (we do not have any > official continuous assessments, so I guess quizzes would be just fine, > too) on SMC, nobody will blink at it. > > For less critical data (such as ordinary exercises), it would IMHO be > sufficient / safe enough to let the students sign an agreement (or some > privacy declaration), provided they still have the option to e.g. submit > their work / results by other means [without getting discriminated in > some way in case they do]. > > But it's probably already too difficult to in legal sense correctly > formulate such documents -- especially when it comes to "cloud" > services... ;-) > > (How proper "anonymization" would perhaps in addition have to happen is > just another controversial aspect I'd say.) > > > -leif > > > On the other hand, I cannot copy their academic records and other things > like their home addresses, anywhere outside the University, and even so > only under a number of conditions. > > > > Dima > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sage-support" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to sage-support+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to sage-support@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/sage-support. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
