At Rice University, we are concerned with your individual privacy and are very aware of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).  The nature of an e-portfolio is twofold: showcase and assessment. In order to showcase your work it needs to be available online. Of course you should be very careful what you type in your portfolio because it is available for everyone to see. Do not include your address, phone number, social security number or any other personal information that you do not wish others to see. After careful study, we believe that a conflict of interest does not exist between the language e-portfolios and FERPA. The privacy setting that we suggest you choose is the second one on the list under the “privacy” settings: “I would like to block search engines, but allow normal visitors.”

We prefer that you take advantage of all the possibilities that e-portfolios may offer you. However, we understand there may be special circumstances in which a student does not want his or her e-portfolio available for everyone to see. Therefore, a procedure is in place to ensure your privacy, if you so choose.

The e-portfolio WordPress software has in place a security feature which would allow you to create this portfolio to share only with your professor.  In this manner, students are still performing the task assigned in the class but will not have their e-portfolio available online for others to see. If you do not want your e-portfolio to be seen by other people online you must enable this privacy feature by following the instructions below:

• Click on “site admin” in your e-portfoli
• Click on “settings” on the bottom, left hand control bar
• Click on “privacy” on the drop down menu
• On the privacy page you will see the 6 choices listed below
• Check the fourth choice : I would like my blog to be visible only to registered members of this blog.
• Next you need to register your professor as a member of your blog so that he/she has access to your e-portfolio.
• You also need to add your classmates as members if you want their comments on your blog and especially if it is a requirement of the course to comment to blogs and have comments posted on your own blog