1.
Mapping MOOC
providers’ response to
consent
Mohammad Khalil
Delft University of
Technology, NL
Paul Prinsloo
University of South
Africa, SA
Sharon Slade
Open University,
UK
Consent

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Hello!
@
L@S 2018 - London

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28.06.2018 search
MOOCs are Important

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81,000,000*
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* Class Central 2017

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Data CC0

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“Any information relating to an identified
natural person such as name, location data,
identification number… -GDPR
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““Personal data about learning behavior may be
viewed as particularly sensitive…..combined with
data analytics, they might also be used to predict
professional future and career opportunities (p.2)”
– International Working Group on Data Protection
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•
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What is Consent?
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10Image credit: http://www.thisistheatre.com/londonshows/consent.html

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The Study Questions:
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Q1: How is ‘personal data’ defined, is ‘sensitive data’
acknowledged?
Q2: Is student consent addressed?
Q3: Is student data ‘used’ to personalize or intervene?

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How did we approach the
questions?
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10 million* students 1750+ courses
25 million* students 2500+ courses
7 million* students 640+ courses
1 million* students 110+ courses
* Figures might change

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Unit of Analysis

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Documents analyzed
-Terms of Use
-Privacy Policy
-Terms of Use
-Privacy Policy
-Terms of Service
& Honor Code
-Privacy Policy
-Accessibility &
inclusion, Cookie,
Data protection,
Terms and
Conditions, Research
ethics
Total: 37k words, 120 pages

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Text Analysis
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Information, personal, privacy, access, consent, data, collection
US providers:
FutureLearn:
Information, cookies, policy, research, consent, data, personalised
Iversity:
Google, Facebook, data, analytics, media, privacy

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Proportion Comparison

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Providers r
edX ↔ Coursera 0.519
edX ↔ iversity 0.449
edX ↔ FutureLearn 0.383
Coursera ↔ iversity 0.384
Coursera ↔ FutureLearn 0.470
iversity ↔ FutureLearn 0.522
P-value <.001
Providers r
edX ↔ Coursera 0.902
edX ↔ iversity 0.204
edX ↔ FutureLearn 0.529
Coursera ↔ iversity 0.263
Coursera ↔ FutureLearn 0.571
iversity ↔ FutureLearn 0.484
P-value <.001
Terms of Use
Privacy Policy

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• ‘Photo’ was mentioned in edX
• The only provider that mentioned ‘sensitive data’ is Coursera
• Intervention was not found in any of the policies nor in TOC
• ‘individualization’, ‘recommendation’, ‘personalization’, ‘adapt’ were used as a
broad equivalent to interventions
• ‘agree’, ‘opt in/out’, ‘accept’, ‘authorize’ were used as synonyms for consent

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Qualitative Analysis
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In terms of Personal Data
All MOOC providers use name, email, forum posts, shared and generated content,
and IP as personal data.
edX defined PI as “any information about yourself that you may provide to us”.
DOB, occupation, patterns of learning, 3rd party info, etc. are collected and may be
used.
Coursera includes the above-mentioned data + sample of typing patterns, login
from third party website information.

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Use of student data were given as: course improvements, authentication,
research purposes, progress and completion, & third party sharing.
In terms of Personal Data
iversity focused more on mining the linkaged data from Facebook.
FutureLearn appears to collect less personal info than the US provdiers.
FutureLearn gives you the right to opt out from being tracked by the Google
Analytics service.
Overall

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Opting not to provide certain information prohibit you from using MOOC services
In terms of Consent
If you do not agree, then please do not access, browse, or
register for the site - edX
Coursera offers students to opt out of using personal data

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The extent to which use of data leads to personalization is not always made clear
In terms of Intervention
Non-course specific data like Facebook likes remains unclear!

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GDPR

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Niall Sclater

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“
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Conclusion
Operational use of student data has largely not been considered
Opting out remains severely constrained
Initial consent does not provide a blank cheque to harvest personal data

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Thank you!
Mohammad Khalil
m.f.d.Khalil@tudelft.nl
Paul Prinsloo
prinsp@unisa.ac.za
Sharon Slade
sharon.slade@open.ac.uk
@
@
@ L@S 2018 - London