Centenary College of Louisiana is committed to protecting the privacy of all students, including those enrolled in all distance learning programs. As a condition of retaining its regional accreditation, Centenary College is required to have a written procedure for protecting the privacy of students enrolled in distance and correspondence education courses and programs.

COLLEGE POLICY AND PROCEDURE

1. To protect the privacy of all students, including distance learning students, Centenary complies with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) of 1974, as published in the Academic Regulations Handbook, in the Student Handbook, and through the Registrar’s Office

2. At the time of initial registration, all Centenary students are issued a unique nine-digit student identification number. This student ID becomes the unique identifier for the student throughout his/her academic career at Centenary College. The student ID differs from the student’s social security number, which is never used for academic activity, either online or in-person.

   • The student ID, along with a unique password, is required to access all college resources including BannerWeb, which is the Centenary College web-based information system that students, including students enrolled in distance education courses, use for course registration and to access grades, textbook information, financial information, personal directory information, and more. As an added security measure, the BannerWeb system requires all passwords to be updated approximately every 90 days.

3. Students who enroll in distance learning courses at Centenary College access the learning environment through a course management system (CMS). A course management system is a set of software tools that provides an online environment for course interactions. Examples include BlackBoard and LiveText.

   • Secure login and password: Faculty and students access the CMS using a personal login and password. Upon initial login, all users are required to change their password for an added level of security.

   • In the CMS, faculty are restricted to accessing information within the courses that they teach and students are restricted to faculty-published information in the courses in which they are enrolled.

   • In the secure environment of the CMS, faculty members may post course materials, assignments and exams, and discussion forums for their courses, and where students may participate in forum discussions, upload assignments, and take quizzes and exams. The privacy of individual students’ assignments and grades is maintained within the course management system.