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The Evolving Definition of "Student": Identity Management

at Duke University

Klara JelinkovaDirector, Computing Systems

Office of Information Technology

Lynne O’BrienDirector, Academic Technology and

Instructional Services, Perkins Library

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Presentation Overview

• Brief introduction of Identity Management at Duke

• New landscape in learning

• Case studies and IT responses

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Identity Management at Duke

• Historically based on Systems of record– Student – HR System

• Needs - teaching and learning– Group management (class lists)– Affiliates

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Populations

• Students– SISS

• Faculty and Staff– SAP

• Affiliates– Handled by a special process

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IdM increasingly complex at Duke because:

• Strategic plan emphasizes interdisciplinary work, global connections

• Growing use of group work and project based learning means courses include more than students & professors

• Research groups span institutions and countries

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Technology systems need to:

• Be able to interact with people outside of Duke in order to achieve university goals

• Respond to way people do their work and interact

• Be secure and protect intellectual property

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Driver: Course management system

• Online discussions with outside experts• Non-course reviewers of student papers

and projects• Non-Duke guest content providers• Etc.

Increased use of Blackboard for courses led to increased need for non-course members to have access to the course site.

In Black and White Professor Tim Tyson

http://cds.aas.duke.edu/south/

• Addresses strategic goal of student-community engagement

• Raises challenges for identity management related to the course

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Initial strategies

• Add people into student information system as special students (but many participants aren’t really students at all)

• Create Blackboard-only accounts

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Challenges

• Planning to upgrade Blackboard and move to Shibboleth authentication

• What to do with Blackboard-only accounts

• 4128 Blackboard-only accounts

• 3560 Bb-only accounts with at least one valid enrollment in a course or organization

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Non-traditional Student Working Group

• Campus wide initiative sponsored by Jim Roberts (Executive Vice Provost) and Billy Herndon (AVP, Administrative Systems)

• Managed by Sue Jarrell (Associate Director Student Information Systems) and Anne Marie Alexander (Sr. Manager, Electronic Access Services)

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Non-traditional Student Working Group

• Many stakeholders and Systems

• Elements of Solution– Governance– Standards– Systems of Record (SoR)– Self-Service Account creation

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BlackBoard only users - SoR

• Licensing issues

• Process

• Institutional commitment and record management

• Data management

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CIT Identity provisioning

• Resolution closer to the business process

• CIT mastering identities

• Accounts separate from traditional institutionally sponsored NetIDs

• Separate level of assurance

• Separate ID lifecycle

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• Courses• Research program• Interdisciplinary• Multi-institutional

• Faculty member in Center for Latin American and Caribbean studies

• Professor of Sociology• Researcher in Social

Science Research Institute

Gary Gereffi

http://www.soc.duke.edu/NC_GlobalEconomy/index.shtml

http://www.ssri.duke.edu/index.php

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Active collaboration across:

• Faculty, staff and students at Duke, in multiple departments, centers and schools

• Members of local community

• Businesses in NC

• Other Universities in U.S. and abroad

• Grant agencies

• Government agencies

• Not limited to a semester

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Blackboard is not enough(and Bb-only accounts won’t do)

Use of data from licensed library resources

Research projects linking students & businesses

Web 2.0 tools to encourage collaboration and input

Public and private websites for group projects

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Responding to the challenges

• Short and medium term– CIT managed identities

• Open Source services (wiki example)– Shibboleth– Institutionally sponsored as well as CIT

mastered accounts

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Long Term

• Long Term Federations – InCommon– NC Educational Institutions

• Considering extending identity services beyond Duke

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Lessons Learned

• Collaboration between Office of Information Technology and Center for Instructional Technology has been useful (need both functional requirements and technical solutions)

• Need to find balance between meeting people where they are and exerting control (e.g. non-institutional tools)

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http://cit.duke.edu/help/consult/web20.html

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Continuing Challenges

• IdM (collaborator IDs, student)• Tension between need for privacy and security

and desire for openness (need both within the same project)

• Policy issues are tricky• Identity and access• Projects last but people come and go - who

owns things when people leave?• Who owns the materials on a project team or in

a course site taught by multiple instructors?