Sending Student Videos for exams on USB stick

[RLR]

We need to send off some filmed drama coursework that will be sent to the exam board to externally verify the grades.

 

 

They have said to send them over via Disk or USB stick. They haven't mentioned anything about encryption and don't offer a cloud upload service.

 

How are other schools handling this? I guess the obvious answer is to encrypt the USB stick and give them to password to it?

[LukeRowberry]

Yep, we encrypt the usb and post it and then email the password over.

[subway_lunch]

encrypted for all video's of students going off site for marking

[RLR]

How come exam boards don't seem to put encryption as a requirement? The exam board this is going to is massive with offices all over the world. I don't understand how they can't put in a simple procedure for this kind of stuff. I've passed this over to our DPO and Exams team. I told them to contact the exam board.

[synaesthesia]

Because exam boards are so far behind the times it's almost funny; they're nearly all the same unfortunately

[Disease]

We encrypt the stick, some boards like AQA on slightly ahead of the curve by requesting that all files are encrypted with a predetermined password.

[DrBeaker]

How come exam boards don't seem to put encryption as a requirement? The exam board this is going to is massive with offices all over the world. I don't understand how they can't put in a simple procedure for this kind of stuff. I've passed this over to our DPO and Exams team. I told them to contact the exam board.

I've passed this over to our DPO and Exams team. I told them to contact the exam board.

 

Good idea.

 

If there's an issue with the encryption or they can't access it, I guess that is an IT issue.

Not having any polices in plan FOR encryption of said work IMHO is a management issue, not IT technical.

[RLR]

Good idea.

 

If there's an issue with the encryption or they can't access it, I guess that is an IT issue.

Not having any polices in plan FOR encryption of said work IMHO is a management issue, not IT technical.

 

The teachers are more worried about getting the work marked on time or the exam board not passing on the encryption key to the markers (I guess they outsource the markers). Or markers not being able to understand how to decrypt a device.

[MYK-IT]

Check with your Exams Office / Board, as we have had to do the same for dance videos recently, as some Exam Boards (e.g. AQA) have produced (and sent out) clear instructions as to what format and / or encryption method (as well as school specific password) to use.

 

AQA's guide also specified video format type / resolution.

 

I agree, a cloud-based upload exam board portal would be advantageous (as long as you had good upload speeds!)

[Meldrew]

How come exam boards don't seem to put encryption as a requirement? The exam board this is going to is massive with offices all over the world. I don't understand how they can't put in a simple procedure for this kind of stuff. I've passed this over to our DPO and Exams team. I told them to contact the exam board.

 

Its not the problem of the exam boards. If there's a breach, as the school sent the material, its us that gets the fine. They're not liable, so they don't bother doing anything about it.

 

Meldrew.

[RLR]

Its not the problem of the exam boards. If there's a breach, as the school sent the material, its us that gets the fine. They're not liable, so they don't bother doing anything about it.

 

Meldrew.

 

Yes and no. Surely it's in their interest to have a workflow that will work for all schools. By not doing anything, all schools will submit stuff differently meaning more chance of the exam board running into issues.

 

Also, if it's not the exam boards problem, how come most other systems have a secure way of uploading material.

[DrBeaker]

The teachers are more worried about getting the work marked on time or the exam board not passing on the encryption key to the markers (I guess they outsource the markers). Or markers not being able to understand how to decrypt a device.

 

Which is fair enough, the teachers are there to teach, we're there to support - to a point. Those two are sort of intrinsically linked.

 

In order for the teachers to teach, they need to listen to us on how IT stuff should or is best used. We need to listen to them as to what they want and we'll see how it could be made to happen - sometimes what they want is not always possible. I've worked with people who wanted Ritz-level service on Travelodge prices, simply not gonna happen.

 

Then on the other hand we have support and teachers working together, then sometimes it's the 3rd party, exam board etc that causes the issues.

[crimsonspanner]

Its not the problem of the exam boards. If there's a breach, as the school sent the material, its us that gets the fine. They're not liable, so they don't bother doing anything about it.

Just to add my 2c. It could be argued (rightly in my opinion) that the exam boards and the school are in a joint controller relationship as the exam board will no doubt be using and making decisions on how some of that personal data is processed. This clearly puts a shared interest on both parties. Legal semantics aside, they have a duty to get with the times - something everyone should remind them of at any given opportunity or we will not see change.

 

I think back to my own experience of teachers sending dance videos of 11/12 year old pupils from a girls school in our MAT to an exam board. Sending an unencrypted USB over regular mail with that content on board is simply unacceptable. Add a fretting teacher to the mix who just wants the information submitted on time, and you have a dangerous cocktail. My advice would be encrypt and courier.

Edited April 9, 2019 by MkII