| The disruptive technology of massive open online courses (MOOCs) offers users access to college level courses and gives MOOC providers access to big data concerning how their users learn. This data, which is often used for educational research, also includes users' personally identifiable information (PII). The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA) protects PII and the educational records of students who attend traditional educational institutions, but the protection of this legislation is not currently extended to MOOC providers or their users.;A legal analysis of FERPA demonstrates analogous relationships between key statutory definitions and MOOC users, providers, and their datasets. By imposing the k-anonymity and l-diversity standards, this replication study of Daries et al.'s (2014) work attempts to de-identify MOOC datasets in accordance with C.F.R. Title 34 Part 99 Subpart D §99.31 (b)(1) and (2) to exhibit how to redact these datasets to be FERPA compliant and still maintain their utility for research purposes. This study also seeks to determine if this de-identification method can be standardized for universal use across MOOC providers.;The replication study, coupled with the legal analysis, suggest FERPA may not be the proper statute to regulate the privacy protections MOOC providers afford their users. Rather, the U.S. Department of Education and Congress should promulgate policy that outlines the minimum privacy standards MOOC providers and other disruptive technologies afford their users. Future research will aid in determining best practices for de-identifying MOOC datasets. |
