Michael Jortberg
Higher Education Industry Leader
Acxiom Corporation
Identity checking will be a requirement in higher education. Frauds are being committed. A federal law is on the books. The rules are being reviewed. Michael Jortberg discusses the topic with expertise.
Who needs identity checking in higher education?
Any accredited school with a distance learning program will need to review their people, processes and technology. For some schools it's a matter of academic integrity. How do we know each student is doing his or her own work? For others it will be preventing title IV financial aid fraud. Fraudsters have already targeted online schools in student loan scams.
How much identity checking is desired?
For academic integrity, random checks are useful before online exams. There are high-risk situations that require more frequency. Three high-risk examples are password resets, new online enrollments and transcript access. They need identity checking during each transaction.
You believe that a single focus on learner identity is troublesome. Please explain.
Over-reliance on only faculty or only technology won't effectively stop a problem. Take the campus store for example. To prevent theft, management trains staff to spot thieves, to inventory merchandise, and also uses door sensors or security cameras. That's an appropriate mix of people, processes, and technology. The same mix is needed in online learning. Identity verification is just a technology. People and processes are also needed.
What legislation is on the books with identity-related administrative requirements?
The Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 states that distance education programs must insure the student who enrolls is the same student who performs the work and receives the degree.
Yet the law does not place requirements on schools. Please explain.
True. Compliance is the responsibility of national, regional and specialized accreditors. They will be passing the regulations on to each school beginning July 1, 2010. Spokespersons indicate the U.S. Department of Education believes federal aid dollars are at risk. Mary Mitchelson, acting ED Inspector General, is one such. Before the U.S. Senate in October 2009, she said "Our investigative work has confirmed the vulnerability of online education to fraud in the area of student eligibility."
How many authentication methods have emerged into available products?
There are four methods, tow of them old, and two of them new. A user ID grants access to a system, but like a housekey is easily shared if people want to share them. I believe user IDs will go the way of payphones. Proctored exams, even with photo IDs required, are comprehensive, but they are also expensive and difficult to manage among a widely distributed student body. Biometric hardware is one of the two new methods. Biometrics often require staff, faculty and student training. Biometrics usually involve a lengthy burn-in period. And significant expense is involved.
In 2006 and 2007 we worked with individuals from numerous education organizations like WCET, the Higher Learning Commission, and leaders of large distance education organizations to understand their needs. Our objective was to re-package the use of challenge questions which had proven quite successful in other industries.
Why do challenge questions apply well to online students?
They require no training. They are intuitive. They are very inexpensive. An identity system that relies on challenge questions can be operational in a couple hours. In fact, such a sysem is so secure that I can only demo the process to one individual whom I know at a time.