Policy 3.8 - Student Identity in Distance Education Policy

Date: September 15, 2025

Supersedes:
May 19, 2025

Purpose

This policy is needed to comply with the US Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Education Regulation 34 CFR 602.17(g) and the Higher Education Opportunity Act; specifically Public Law 110-35.

A growing number of courses and programs at SUNY Schenectady utilize an online or mixed-modality approach to student learning and accrediting agencies require postsecondary institutions that offer distance education to have processes through which the institution establishes that the student who registers in a distance education course or program is the same student who participates in and completes the program and receives the academic credit.

Policy

SUNY Schenectady’s policies and procedures for addressing identity verification of online students is an integral part of its policies on academic integrity. The College’s policy on academic integrity defines cheating, plagiarism, and forgery and delineates the consequences of violating the policy. Submitting another student’s work or having another individual complete assignments, assessment, or tests in either online or seated courses is a violation of the academic integrity policy.

Methods used to ensure Student Identity Verification

Along with submitting applications that include identifying data, students matriculating into the College are given access upon acceptance using their assigned SUNY Schenectady email address and secure password. This secure login is a student’s only means of access to the learning management system (LMS) and the College’s network.

After a student account is created we then use Multifactor Authentication (MFA) to ensure that users are who they claim to be when remote. The use of Microsoft Authenticator allows for enhanced security. MFA will prompt users for additional verification methods beyond a password, such as a code from a phone or authenticator app.

Students are registered in their online courses through Banner, which imports the registration information directly into the LMS without any action on the part of students, faculty, or staff beyond the regular registration process. Only duly registered students and the instructor of record appear on the roster of any online course. Furthermore, every action within a course site registers on the extensive tracking features of the LMS, which track each user in terms of time and duration of the action and part of the site involved, even if there is no posting by the student.

Supplementing these technical means of verifying student identity and activity are high degrees of student and faculty interaction that characterize typical online instruction. Students introduce themselves during class discussions online, and often write multiple posts weekly, including responses to one another as well to the instructor’s assignments and discussion questions. Students may also maintain class chats, written journals, blogs and/or wikis individually or in group work and may complete other assigned papers and assignments. Such interactivity creates a high degree of familiarity between the faculty member and student within each course. Other tools used include, but are not limited to: the use of e-portfolios; the use of student photos and/or videos during classes or discussions; work in groups and teams; plagiarism checkers (to ensure work submitted by the student is the student's own); synchronous ("real-time") conferencing (by both voice and video); and asynchronous conferencing (by both voice and video).

Not all of these tools and practices are included in all online courses.

In all cases, the means of ensuring the verifiability of student identity in online instruction meet or exceed those used in in-person instruction.

Student Privacy Methods

Student records are kept within our Student Information system (Banner), which utilizes secure sockets layer communication (SSL) and is accessible only on campus or from off campus via VPN (Virtual Private Network). Staff are provisioned with accounts that provide access to information they need. Issues such as provisioning other access to information is vetted through the Office of Information Technology.

Students have access to their own records through Banner Self Service and can view some grading information in the Learning Management System (LMS). Students can change passwords online through the email system or via a request to the Information Services Helpdesk.

Notification regarding extra costs related to Identity Verification

SUNY SCCC does not currently ask students to incur any costs related to identity verification.

Written procedures indicating offices responsible for the consistent application of Identity Verification

The offices of Student Affairs, Academic Affairs (including the Office of the Registrar), Admissions, Institutional Reporting, and the Information Services Helpdesk are responsible for the consistent application of Identity Verification. Representatives from the offices meet on a regular basis, as needed, to review and look for improvement in the processes as both policy and technology changes.