John Mitchell : 2013 Security Workshop

The current revolution in online learning has let millions of people sign up for free online courses developed by leading universities. This will change education at all levels, on and off campuses. The revolution leverages advances in networking, web platforms, interactive video, social networking, automated assessment, and peer evaluation. As we build new web systems to support rapidly changing pedagogical approaches, we face a number of interesting security and privacy challenges. These are fundamental: student records are confidential and personal; social networks reveal personal, confidential information; course material may be owned, shared, licensed, and recombined; and extensive data collection and analysis are central to evaluating and improving our educational offerings. In this presentation, we’ll look at some of the ways that online learning is evolving and some of the security and privacy challenges we face.

John Mitchell is Professor of Computer Science, Vice Provost for Online Learning, and the Mary and Gordon Crary Family Professor in the School of Engineering. His organization on campus supports the instructional design, production and delivery of online teaching and learning material. As a result of his seed grant programs, Stanford funded over 30 experimental faculty activities in 2012 to develop and deploy new online activities in on-campus or externally available courses. As a professor of computer science, Mitchell's research interests include computer security, privacy, programming languages, mathematical logic, and web technology.