Tracker: data protection and management issues

This page exists to clarify data ownership and responsibilities.

Data will be collected from participants in the Jisc Student Digital Experience Tracker (the tracker) through the BOS system, which is owned and managed by Jisc. This data will be jointly owned and managed by Jisc and participating institutions.

While tracker surveys are live, only the participating institution will be able to log into the ‘analyse’ area and access the data. No other organisations including Jisc will be able to do this (unless for some reason they have been given your access details).

When trackers surveys close on 30th April 2018 Jisc will gather the data into benchmarking groups. Jisc will then be able to access response data for all the questions provided by us: we will not be able to access data for any questions added by participating institutions on the customisable page 9, nor any student identifier data that may have been used (the BOS team will remove this before passing to our analysts).

All data supplied in this survey and during associated sign-up processes will be held or computerised by Jisc in compliance with the current data protection legislation. It will be used for the purpose of analysing responses overall to inform our research and development and not for marketing. Jisc’s policy on data protection and management can be found here.

The tracker team and other Jisc employees may use the aggregated data from the tracker in the following ways:

  • We may download aggregated data into other systems for analysis.
  • We will produce public reports and presentations based on aggregated data and its analysis. Individual participants and participating institutions will never be identified in these reports.
  • We may at times invite participating institutions to present and publish alongside us and to share their aggregated data at their discretion and in accordance with their own data protection and management policies.
  • Institutional details will be safeguarded and will not be divulged to any other individuals or third party organisations for any other purpose whatsoever without written consent.
  • At no time will individual students’ responses ever be shared or made public, or any aggregated data shared that might allow individual students to be identified.

Participating institutions are free to download their own participants’ data, at which point it must be held and managed according to that institution’s own data protection and management policies. Institutions should ensure their own data protection policies and practices are fit for purpose: guidance is available here.

We recommend that in communicating with students about the tracker you should frame and share a data protection statement similar to this one:

This survey is being carried out by [institution name] in conjunction with Jisc. We will ask you questions about your course and your experiences of digital learning, but the questions will not identify you personally. We promise to use the data to help improve your digital experience. We will also share the data with Jisc, anonymously, as part of a wider national study.