Faculty Specifics I have grade books with student Social Security numbers (SSNs) in them. What should I do with them and other electronic files? As a faculty member, you are bound to have past grade books that identified students by their SSNs. By Jan. 1, 2005, any grade books, past or current, that contain SSNs can no longer be maintained on your computer. Your options are to delete these grade books, download them to a CD, print and file in a secure location or convert the SSNs to the new PSU IDs. You should use these same options for any data files that you have containing SSNs on your computer. What about posting grades? Student grades should not be posted by SSNs. Also, in accordance with University policy AD19, the PSU ID cannot be used to display students' scores or grades publicly (neither by the whole number or by just the last 4 digits). In addition to references in University Policy AD19, using any student identifying information to post grades is in violation of the Rules and Regulations of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). How can grades be posted? Instructors can assign a secret code to each student in the class and post grades with this code. The "secret code" created can in no way use any student identifiers, or pieces thereof, such as name, SSN or PSU ID. Codes used to post grades must be random and not correspond to students in alphabetical, SSN or PSU ID order. In addition, eLion is a secured environment. Instructors are encouraged to use eLion to record final course grades. Students can then use eLion to retrieve their final grades. Use of Faculty Developed Web Posting Systems Web sites developed by faculty or instructional staff to report grades to their students must be secure to the extent that each student can see only his/her information. Web sites and all applications used for the purpose of calculating or sharing course grading data must be configured in a manner that prevents direct or indirect access, or downloading of data files containing personally identifiable information. Sharing grading information inappropriately (i.e., other than with the individual student for whom it is intended) is a violation of the Rules and Regulations of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). How will the timing of the conversion affect grading of my classes this fall? The conversion will cause a temporary interruption in both the eLion Fall 2004 grade entry by faculty and the eLion grade inquiry by students. As a faculty member, you will be notified by email when you may begin grading your courses, and will be able to enter grades from that start date until midnight of Dec. 18.  To facilitate the SSN-to-PSU ID conversion, University Administrative Information Systems, including IBIS, ISIS, the Data Warehouse and eLion will be taken off-line for several days, beginning Saturday night, Dec. 18 at midnight. These systems will be unavailable for normal business during the conversion week of Dec. 19 to Dec. 25. ANGEL and email availability will not be affected. Please see the recent communications on this topic. Academic department staff and the Registrar's Office staff will not have access to electronic systems to enter grades during this conversion period. Every effort should be made to record final Fall 2004 grades as soon as possible after final exams this semester. However, if you are unable to enter all of your grades before the eLion interruption, eLion will become available again on or after Dec. 26. At that time, grade reporting will resume as normal; you will be able to complete the grading process and students will be able to view the rest of their course grades. Will there be any difference in what I see pre-conversion and post-conversion on the eLion Grade Entry application? When eLion grading is back online on or after Dec. 26, you will see the last 4 digits of the newly assigned PSU ID, rather than the SSN on the eLion Grade Entry application. If you have difficulty identifying a particular student on the eLion Grade Entry application from your class list or grade book, please see staff in your department for assistance when the University reopens Jan. 3. Is there an easy way for students to locate their PSU ID if they forget it? Yes, the PSU ID will be displayed on the Academic Summary in eLion.      What are my individual responsibilities related to this conversion? These are outlined in the SSN Conversion Checklist for Individuals.

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