Diverse students' perspectives on privacy and technology integration in higher education

Abstract

The rapid increase and use of educational technologies have a significant impact on students' privacy, personal information and metadata in higher education. The past two decades have also witnessed the process where information about students is stored and handled outside premises and control of learning institutions. The personal information about students and their activity while they interact with learning management systems (LMS) and online learning tools is increasing and is stored in cloud computing platforms, software‐as‐a‐service providers and other vendors. There are reported cases where students' personal data and information have been leaked, with possible privacy violations. Although this issue affects all students, it is important to understand the perspectives of culturally diverse students on the balancing of personal data/information and the use of technology integration in higher education. The purpose of this research was to investigate diverse students' perspectives on privacy, control of personal information, confidentiality and technology integration. The study also aimed to examine the challenges and experiences of loss of control over personal data and metadata encroachment, and protection of privacy in online education. Data were collected following a qualitative research design. Forty in‐depth and semi‐structured focus‐group interviews (26 female and 24 male students) from four academic disciplines (Education, Social Sciences, Business, and Health Sciences) in a public university in the United States were obtained and analysed following a constant comparative analysis approach. Findings show evidence of fear and anxiety about data encroachment, challenges from bureaucratic procedures and lack of educational awareness, privacy concerns about LMS and social media. These results contribute to a new understanding regarding diverse students' knowledge, challenges and experiences on how to balance privacy, confidentiality and technology integration in higher education. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Considering the increasing Internet world, where new technologies and mobile computing are interwoven in the use of digital technologies and access to information, balancing students' privacy and technology integration is essential in providing students assurance of their data security and privacy. Few studies have explored diverse students' perspectives on privacy and technology integration that include control of personal information, confidentiality and technology integration. Further, there is a dearth of studies on the challenges and experiences of diverse students regarding the loss of control over personal data and metadata encroachment, and protection of privacy in online education. Although rapid digitalization sparked studies about privacy and data usage, such as the perception of privacy breaches for the purpose of COVID‐19 pandemic control, few studies have also raised privacy issues related to student data usage in higher education institutions (HEIs) in the post‐COVID‐19 context. To realise justice technology integration and data usage in HEIs, students' perspectives on privacy should be examined. What this paper adds The results show the following: fear and anxiety about data encroachment, challenges from bureaucratic procedures and lack of educational awareness, privacy concerns about LMS and social media. The result from this work also illustrates that it would be hard for students to evaluate their privacy risk due to lack of educational opportunity to balance privacy and technologies usage, and the blurred boundaries between LMS and third parties including social media in technology integration. Implications for practice and/or policy The paper identifies how the rapid increase and use of educational technologies have, in many ways, influenced diverse students' personal information and metadata in higher education. The paper makes detail recommendations on how HEIs can address the issue of balancing privacy and technology integration as an essential strategy by providing students assurance of their data security and privacy.