If you require students to register at third-party sites, especially if grades are stored on the third-party server, students must use aliases if that publisher has not signed a FERPA-compliance agreement with AU. The following on-line vendors have signed appropriate agreements with AU:
- Cengage (includes Aplia)
- Lyryx Learning INC
- Interactive Point of View
- John Wiley & Sons
- WebAssign
For faculty using third-party on-line material, such as publisher websites: AU now has an easy means of assigning aliases.
SmartAlias, an application developed by Dr. Daniela Marghitu, Michael Fuller, and Ben Brahim, is now functioning through a link in Blackboard. Students will use a link in Blackboard and be assigned an alias. They will register at the third-party site with their aliases and an e-mail address other than their Auburn e-mail. They will access that site with that alias throughout the semester and grades will be stored for that alias.
SmartAlias also includes forms that allow instructors to match and to reveal alias information using .csv files from the vendor and the Blackboard grade book. Faculty will access the instructor forms from the link on the Blackboard Teach Tab. Included on the Instructor page of Smart Alias is a link to video instructions for using the instructor match grades for by aliases to the User ID information in the Blackboard grade book and how to upload those grades.
Faculty will need to add a link to the SmartAlias system in their Blackboard courses; instructions for adding the link can be found here: http://www.auburn.edu/img/alias/instructors.html.
Faculty should feel free to include this link to instructions for students in their Blackboard courses as well: http://www.auburn.edu/img/alias/students.html.
