Great care should be taken when having students upload materials to websites and when using SNSs
When giving students assignments that are to be uploaded to the Internet or to content management systems other than CoursePower (particularly content such as interviews or personal accounts, etc.), teachers should exercise great caution. The privacy of all individuals involved must be protected and offensive material should not be posted.
The university will not take legal responsibility for offensive materials that are posted by teachers or students in the context of their classes or for privacy violations. Particular caution should be exercised in the use of social networking services (SNS). Teachers should familiarize themselves with the legal issues involved. They will be held personally responsible for any consequences that may arise in connection with materials uploaded onto SNSs that cause offense or damage to students or to the university.
We advise teachers to avoid accepting Facebook friend requests from students or sending invitations to connect as “friends” with them. This may make it difficult to maintain privacy as well as compromise professional relationships. [This guidance does not apply only to Facebook, but to other social networking systems as well.
Some teachers may wish to make Line or Whatsapp groups with their students as an extra channel for academic-related communications. As long as the communication is intended to facilitate the smooth running of the class, students are NOT FORCED to join, and the messages are confined to class-related correspondence, it can be allowed at the teacher’s own risk. Proper precautions must be taken to ensure that students’ private information is not released inappropriately, and that teachers’ sensitive communications are also kept private. Apps that offer point to point encryption–which protects (encrypts) information from the point of capture until it reaches the secure decryption endpoint–should be favored over those without such safeguards.
