An identity management architecture to enhance security for both students and the institution in secondary level schools : privacy and security issues in a virtual learning environment

Abstract

With the digital age, the educational community has felt that it should also make use of ICT for learning. It is a renowned fact that today's youth are highly influenced by media. Such youths can be described as Digital Natives as they are born in a technological world. This has also influenced the way how they learn. Also, they have different views on issues such as privacy and security. The study focuses on how different users look at privacy and security issues. Particularly different Identity Management techniques are assessed. The study involves an extensive research on privacy, security and Identity Management techniques. The study also focuses on Virtual Leaming Environments as they are an effective platform where the whole scholastic community can communicate. For the purpose of the study, a key was chosen to be used for authentication purposes within a school system. This involves setting up a system where users could log in to and access school's services. For the purpose of the study, only the service of a VLE is active but could be easily amended to access other services. The system is then designed and the implementation process also involved thorough testing. When a prototype was developed, a group of 15 users were chosen to test the system themselves. During user testing, an interview was carried out to get the feeling of the users themselves about the different aspects of the system. One has to keep in mind that the study is not aimed to provide the solution to identity management but a possible solution as the context within which the system would be implanted should be thoroughly assessed. The aim of the study is that, in the implementation of an eLearning solution where schools may provide different services, security and privacy should be cared about. Such issues should be part of the system as early as the planning and design stages and also throughout the whole implementation.