Online teaching: Screens without spies

“Privacy-compliant online teaching is technically possible. You just have to use the right service. Universities have a moral obligation to do so.

The corona virus has also led to distance learning and online events in universities. Unlike in schools, the conditions for this were and are good. Lecturers and students have the necessary digital end devices and use them in teaching. With learning management systems, digital offers are made accessible to students. Online communication via email, messenger or video conference is part of everyday academic life.

Nevertheless, the temporary complete conversion of campus life and classroom teaching to digital communication channels and video formats in March 2020 was a technical overload. Schools and colleges are designed for on-site dialog teaching and learning for educational, social, and psychological reasons. Distance learning is a support construct for those who cannot attend in person for health, work or other reasons. 

 

The transfer of lectures, seminars, laboratories and studios could only be managed quickly with external help and the use of commercial and manufacturer-dependent (proprietary) video software from the United States such as Microsoft Teams, Webex or Zoom.

 

Technically it worked well, but there are legal problems. US companies are subject to US jurisdiction. With the US Cloud Act of 2018, the American government abolished all forms of data protection. It has secured full access to all user and system data generated with US software, regardless of server location or laws in force in other countries. The problem is that neither universities, as contractual partners of these companies, nor users have any influence on whether, where and which data is stored and who has access to it. This goes against the European General Data Protection Regulation, which states that users must consent before their personal data is processed.

Legally compliant teaching materials

According to the judgments of the European Court of Justice on Safe Harbor (2015) and Privacy Shield (2020) and the statements of several German data protection officers, neither MS Teams nor Webex or Zoom can be operated in accordance with European data protection law. In December 2020, Microsoft was the first US company to react to this problem and published a statement on the European Data Protection Board. These are directives that stipulate across Europe that the storage and transfer of personal data is only permitted to the extent necessary to fulfill a previously defined purpose. Microsoft pledged to inform those affected "if Microsoft has been legally obliged by a government order to release data to US security authorities". The company also promised to "take legal action and appeal to the US courts to challenge the government's order to release the data." However, this does not prevent American services from accessing user data. Rather, it shows that American companies themselves are being held hostage by the intelligence services. Anyone who refuses to provide this data loses the basis of business in the United States.

 

Data protection regulations do not protect data (that would be strategies for data backup and data security), but basic rights such as the right to informational self-determination, elementary personal rights and privacy. 

 

Fundamental rights must be respected, especially since there are legally compliant and tried-and-tested solutions that schools and universities were able to use even before the outbreak of the pandemic. These include Big Blue Button, an open source application designed for teaching. The software can be integrated directly as an activity into learning management systems such as Moodle, allowing easy access control and assignment of rights via the school or university account. Interfaces to important learning and content management systems are already integrated. With this tool designed as a digital classroom, teachers can set up rooms themselves and communicate with students via camera and microphone. There are presentation options, screen transfer, a whiteboard as a digital pinboard, a chat function for group and individual messages and so-called breakout rooms for working in groups. There are also options for editing texts together, voting and the like. This allows a variety of didactic methods in the classroom.

 

As with all video tools, the technical infrastructure (processor performance CPU, network connection and bandwidth) determines how many people can participate. Listen, watch and chatting require little line capacity. An audio channel with a microphone for discussion takes up more, while the video transmission and rendering of the videos take up the most line capacity and computing power. The required network infrastructure can be estimated in advance using bandwidth calculation programs. In addition to the number of participants, they take into account the number of activated microphones and cameras.

Since Big Blue Button was originally designed for a school environment, the possible group size was initially a maximum of fifty people. In the meantime, the developers have upgraded and adapted the application for colleges and universities. Version 2.3 addressed up to a hundred participants in a session, with version 2.4 up to two hundred people or more can participate, depending on which functions are activated. For events with a larger number of people, for example, a "radio discipline" is agreed in advance, i.e. only those who are actively participating turn on the camera and microphone.

Universities as pioneers

Broadcast systems, video servers and streaming services are used for major events, such as webcast as a combination of web services and broadcast technology. Access to university-internal and public offers can be controlled by integration into learning management systems or by notification via the website. Mixed forms are also possible, in which speakers and moderators are connected via microphone or camera, while other groups follow the event on the streaming platform as viewers and listeners without the possibility of direct intervention. However, this can be created through a separate channel such as Messenger or Mail.

 

If you look for solutions, you will find ways. Technically, there is no reason to use learning management and video software at universities that disregards European data protection law. Especially since most seminars have fewer than two hundred participants. If necessary, there are German and European service providers who support data protection-compliant implementation, although universities should be able to operate their own Big Blue Button servers in their data centers.

 

In some German states such as Baden-Württemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate or Saxony, universities and schools already use installations on the education servers of the respective states. If this option does not exist, but a school server is already being used by the provider, the school authority should contractually supplement the video conference function with the technical service provider. Depending on the location, there are now also associations such as Cyber4Edu, which provide special offers for schools, or the Computerwerk Darmstadt, a student project of the Universities of Karlsruhe and Darmstadt, which has opened a platform for students with senfcall.de. And even if technical problems should arise in detail: where, if not at the universities, would be the place to develop alternatives?

 

 Universities must convey to the next generation that democratic legal systems and individual fundamental rights are more important than the technical and commercial requirements of data aggregation.”