Abstract:

E-Learning instruction has been expanding in the past years, but it increased still more during the COVID-19 pandemic when educational institutions were pushed to continue teaching remotely. This change from classical to virtual classrooms occurred suddenly and most of the online platforms used for online communication between students and professors were not prepared for teaching. These virtual environments collect, share, and store personal data about the students and teachers. In most cases, the online platform did not notify the user on how their personal data is used and it is a violation of the data privacy and security regulations. Protecting the personal data of students is a tough responsibility for schools and universities, even more, when the student is a minor and the school needs parental consent. Several data privacy and security regulations exist, for example, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union, Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), Protection of Pupils Rights Amendment (PPRA), Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) and some US state regulations. The fundamental purpose of this paper is to discuss the most important aspects of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which is the most robust data privacy and security regulation, compare it with the most significant United States data privacy regulations to analyze how the regulations affect E-Learning systems specifically the Online Laboratory Management Systems (OLMS).

Keywords:

Data privacy and security, e-learning Systems, Online Laboratory Management Systems.