How does identity affect educational institutions?
Whether an educational institution features a physical campus, a virtual location, or both, the institution needs to know who is accessing its services. This need to know affects everything from campus access to computer use to test taking.
When permitted by law, some educational institutions need to prohibit people from accessing its services, including expelled students, fired teachers and administrators, and criminals who pose a danger to the institution.
The identity procedures in use at educational institutions vary widely. Some practice strong identity verification and authentication using biometrics, government documents, and other sources. Other institutions are less careful in their verification and authentication. Determinants of the level of identity proofing include the risks of a security breach, the risks of fraud (such as someone taking a test for someone else), and the size of the institution (home schools usually do not require identity verification or authentication).
When an educational institution requires robust identity verification (oboarding) and authentication, it may use one or more of the following factors:
- Something you know. A password or a personal identification number (PIN).
- Something you have. A debit card (physical or virtual) or a driver’s license.
- Something you are. A biometric feature such as a face, a finger, or a voice.
- Something you do. Some special action that you perform.
- Somewhere you are. Your geographic location.
Additional information on Educational Identity
Here is a sampling of what John E. Bredehoft of Bredemarket has written on the topic of Educational Identity.
(3/25/2025) Verifying That Credential
So I have verified that I am allowed to call myself John E. Bredehoft, CF APMP. It’s allowed:
In the same manner, those who have achieved one of the APMP certifications can append the appropriate certification. In the case of APMP Foundation certification, that means that I can style myself as “John E. Bredehoft, CF APMP.” (Or “John E. Bredehoft, MBA, CF APMP, RSBC” if I want to be thorough. But I probably won’t, since “RSBC” stands for “Radio Shack Battery Club.”)
But have I REALLY verified that I have achieved this accomplishment? (Not the battery club one, the proposal one. Although it would be good to know whether I really have that MBA educational accomplishment.)
More at https://bredemarket.com/2025/03/25/verifying-that-credential/
(2/4/2025) Clean Fast Contactless Biometrics
Fingers and faces can be captured “on the move” in airports, border crossings, stadiums, and university lunchrooms and other educational facilities.
More at https://bredemarket.com/2025/02/04/clean-fast-contactless-biometrics/
(12/23/2024) Know Your Teacher
Another KYx acronym from the educational identity realm: Know Your Teacher. A South Carolina school district didn’t…
More at https://bredemarket.com/2024/12/23/know-your-teacher/
(3/19/2024) Fischer Identity, Baylor University, and IAM
I won’t give away all the information about the Fischer Identity-AWS effort at Baylor—you have to opt in to access a gated case study to obtain that—but I will say that the case study claims a 12-week implementation of an IAM system that stores “several hundred thousand identities.”
More at https://bredemarket.com/2024/03/19/fischer-identity-baylor-university-and-iam/
(1/23/2024) When Educational Identity Practices Don’t Meet the Future of Privacy Forum Pledge
Can a company’s status as a Future of Privacy Forum signatory guarantee that they take all necessary steps to protect educational identity data? Of course not; perhaps there are unknown data protection failures by a signatory, and conversely a company may implement stellar policies but just never bothered to sign on the dotted line.
(10/6/2023) Safety vs. Privacy in Montana School Video Surveillance
When I created my educational identity page, I included the four key words “When permitted by law.” While Montana school districts are currently permitted to use facial recognition and video surveillance, other school districts need to check their local laws before implementing such a system, and also need to ensure that they comply with federal laws such as COPPA and FERPA.
I may be, um, biased in my view, but as long as the school district (or law enforcement agency, or apartment building owner, or whoever) complies with all applicable laws, and implements the technology with a primary purpose of protecting people rather than spying on them, facial recognition is a far superior tool to protect people than manual recognition methods that rely on all-too-fallible human beings.
More at https://bredemarket.com/2023/10/06/safety-vs-privacy-in-montana-school-video-surveillance/
(8/7/2023) Scientific Literature about Biometric Applications in Education
I recently wrote a blog post that addressed educational identity.
It turns out I missed some things.
While searching for a post-COVID article that discussed the use of biometrics in education (to supplement my existing educational identity information), I found an entire scientific paper on the topic.
The paper, “Biometric applications in education,” was shared on the U.S. National Library of Medicine website.
More at https://bredemarket.com/2023/08/07/scientific-literature-about-biometric-applications-in-education/
(7/31/2023) Educational Identity: Why and How Do Educational Institutions Verify Identities?
As you can see, educational identity is not as clear-cut as financial identity, both because financial institutions are more highly regulated and because blocklists are more controversial in educational identity. Vladimir Putin may not be able to open a financial account at a U.S. bank, but I bet he’d be allowed to enroll in an online course at a U.S. community college.
More at https://bredemarket.com/2023/07/31/educational-identity/
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