What is CourseFeed?
CourseFeed is a Facebook application (or widget) that let’s students get alerts from leading online learning management systems (LMS). Students can interact with other students in their courses, receive updates when new announcements and content are posted, and view announcements and links to content files.

What is ClassTop?
ClassTop, Inc. is the parent company to CourseFeed and is recognized as a leader in the field of e-learning technology. For more information on ClassTop please visit: www.ClassTop.com

CourseFeed isn’t available at my school. How can I get it?
If CourseFeed isn’t available contact your system administrator or the department over online learning and ask them to request CourseFeed. You can always use CourseFeed to

Does CourseFeed require students to give out their usernames and passwords?
CourseFeed is available in two versions. Functionality for the two versions is equal but schools administrators determine which version to use based on school policies.
1. A building block version that seamlessly integrates alerts from your school’s LMS with Facebook without requiring student credentials.
2. A screen-skimmer version that requires no building block but does require student’s credentials

Does CourseFeed allow anyone in Facebook to see course-related content?
No. CourseFeed only displays accessible course content to enrolled students. CourseFeed does not allow others (even Facebook friends) to see course content.

What information does CourseFeed access from my school’s LMS?
CourseFeed is limited to only access course-related information on behalf of its users. CourseFeed does not access course-related or personal information about students who are not CourseFeed users.* CourseFeed does not access information from any other school system that may or may not be integrated with your schools LMS. CourseFeed accesses:
- User name and LMS id
- Names of courses you’re enrolled in
- User email address (if available in order to send course-related alerts and updates)
- Course content such as announcements, course roster (only if available), and links to content items. CourseFeed does not download files from the LMS.

All data accessed by the CourseFeed building block is protected under the ASP Hosted Software License Agreement.

Does CourseFeed save or store files that are posted to the LMS?
No. CourseFeed only presents links to content items. To access content files users must click on the CourseFeed link, log into the school system, and click to download content files. All content files are downloaded by students directly from the school’s server.

If my school doesn’t show the Course Roster to students, will it show in CourseFeed?
No. CourseFeed is limited by the rights your institution grants you based on your learning management system configuration and enrollment. If any functionality is blocked to you by your school that functionality will be blocked in CourseFeed.

How does CourseFeed protect secure information?
CourseFeed recognizes the trust placed in us as a 3rd party application and does all in its power to protect the information entrusted to us. By adopting industry standard security protocols CourseFeed provides a safe and secure environment for students to interact, collaborate, and stay up-to-date on their courses. Please review our Privacy Policy and Security Policy for more information.

What is the CourseFeedGateway user account for?
When CourseFeed is deployed as a building block to a school’s learning management sytem a “CourseFeedGateway” user account must be setup. The CourseFeedGateway user account needs no rights in the system (other than existing) and does not need to be enrolled in any courses. The only function of the CourseFeedGateway user account is to call and run the CourseFeed building block.

What happens if the CourseFeedGateway user credentials are compromised? Does it have access to all course content?
No. By itself the CourseFeedGateway user account has no rights or access to any data in the system. If those credentials are compromised the user has less rights than even a student. When calling the building block the CourseFeedGateway presents a secure digital signature to gain access. Without the digital signature the building block cannot be called.

Does CourseFeed allow others to see my email address?
No. CourseFeed does not allow users to see each others email addresses. CourseFeed does allow users to communicate with each other and invite classmates enrolled in their same courses to use CourseFeed. When users communicate or send invites to classmates to use CourseFeed an email is sent on that users behalf either from CourseFeed or the school. This capability mirrors the functionality LMS users already have to send email to classmates even when they cannot see their email address.

When I invite fellow classmates to add CourseFeed can they view my Facebook profile?
CourseFeed does not use Facebook’s email feature when you choose to notify classmates and therefore it does not affect who can or can not view your Facebook profile. All privacy settings in Facebook remain untouched.

I got an email invitation to use CourseFeed. How’d I get that?
If you received an invitation to use CourseFeed it is because someone in your class sent you the invitation. Your school allows classmates enrolled in the same course to send email to each other even when email addresses may not be visible. CourseFeed enables students to send invites through this same functionality to students who are enrolled in their courses.

Does CourseFeed infringe on FERPA?
UPDATE: When CourseFeed is made available a school or institution representative agrees to the ASP Hosted Software License Agreement. This helps ensure FERPA compliance under that agreement and student data is protected as in any other hosted service agreement.

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) (20 U.S.C. § 1232g; 34 CFR Part 99) is a Federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. The law applies to all schools that receive funds under an applicable program of the U.S. Department of Education. For more information on FERPA please see - http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html

FERPA is designed to protect students by limiting the University with regard to information it can share about students. When a school makes CourseFeed available access to student information is only granted to CourseFeed for those students that have accepted CourseFeed’s terms and conditions, absolving the University from any liability related to FERPA. When a student installs CourseFeed the student, independent of the University, chooses to grant CourseFeed access to his or her own educational information for the purpose of displaying that information to the student only, where the student chooses (in this case Facebook). Students have the right to share their own information with whomever they choose. CourseFeed is 100% transparent about what types of student information it accesses on behalf of its users.

Under FERPA universities are allowed to disclose directory information at their discretion. Directory information includes: student first and last name, email address, phone number, physical address, date of birth, photograph, major field of study, dates of attendance, grade level, and others.