Personal data collected from learners needs to be conducted with a specific cause that can be easily articulated to users in order to be compliant with growing data privacy standards such as GDPR. Most user data falls under a few loose types/purposes:
Label | Definition | Example |
Essential data | Information that is required for the site to function. May be used for other purposes, but form the bare minimum for a learner profile. | Email address |
Demographic data | Information that allows those users to be categorised according to real-world data | Age, gender identity, location |
Personality data | Information that allows greater understanding of the user’s personality and goals to fundamentally improve the learner experience and community | Learning goals, bio |
Activity data | Information that allows review of activities undertaken by the user | Certificates earned, activity log |
Connective data | Information that connects the user to the context of a wider organisation or profiles external to the platform | School district, company, social media links |
In addition, this data requires different levels of access and protection to remain secured:
Admin-only: Full access, not visible to course staff, but visible to platform-level staff, such as support staff and site administrators
Could potentially be expanded/differentiated for learning program managers
Course staff-only: Access given to users who have course staff-level access to a course where the learner is enrolled
Connected learner-only: Access given only to other learners who share a connection, such as a course or organisation link (such as being part of the same school or company)
Learner-only: Access given to all authenticated users
Public: Visible to all who access the page, regardless of authentication status or role
The ideal learner profiles would allow the following types of information to be captured from learners by default:
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