STUDENT IDENTIFICATION VERIFICATION POLICY

Effective Date: September 1, 2013

1. Policy

North American University (NAU) Student Identity Verification Policy describes the procedures and methods of verifying and protecting Distance Education student identity. This policy applies to all credit-bearing distance education courses or programs offered by the North American University (NAU), beginning with the application for admission and continuing through to a student’s graduation, transfer, or withdrawal from study.

2. Reason for Policy

The purpose of this policy is to ensure that NAU operates in compliance with the provisions of the United States Federal Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) concerning the verification of student identity in distance education.

The HEOA requires that institutions offering distance education or correspondence courses or programs have processes in place through which the institution establishes the identity of the student who registers in a distance education course or program is the same student who participates in and completes the course or program and receives the academic credit. In verifying the identity of students who participate in class or coursework the institution, HEOA requires that institutions use one of the following three methods:

• A secure login and pass code;
• Proctored examinations; and
• New or other technologies and practices that are effective in verifying student identification.

3. Procedures

Secure Login and Passcode: North American University utilizes a secure login process to determine that the student who registers in a distance education course is the same student who participates in, completes, and receives credit for the course. NAU delivers distance learning courses over the internet utilizing J1 eLearning as the online course management system . Upon admission, new students receive a unique user ID and a unique user-determined password to access J1 eLearning. User accounts are stored inside NAU Active Directory. J1 eLearning uses Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) authentication method that recognizes only if credentials are stored in the Active Directory in order to protect and verify user identity. No ‘Guest’ or any other third-party accounts are allowed to log in to J1 eLearning system.

Students are not allowed to change their user ID for any reason. The password must meet following complexity requirements to enhance security:

• Passwords must have a minimum of 7 characters.
• Not contain the user’s account name or parts of the user’s full name that exceed two consecutive characters.
• Contain characters from three of the following four categories:
  • English uppercase characters (A through Z)
  • English lowercase characters (a through z)
  • Base 10 digits (0 through 9)
  • Non-alphabetic characters (for example, !, $, #, %)
• Complexity requirements are enforced when passwords are changed or created.
• Passwords must be changed at least twice a year (maximum password age is 200 days, minimum password age is 1 day).
• Passwords must be changed significantly and cannot repeat more frequently than every two years (Past 5 passwords are kept in the system).
• Passwords that are written down or stored electronically must not be accessible to anyone other than the owner and/or issuing authority.
• Passwords must not be shared unless explicitly permitted by the issuing authority.

The delivery of instruction and all user activities including viewing course content, assignments, quizzes, and discussion forums require every user to login into J1 eLearning.

Proctored Examinations: Faculty is required to use proctored on-campus examinations to provide verification of student identity in assessment and evaluation. Students must present a valid photo ID (described below) to confirm their identity at each on-campus testing session. The course instructor or any other faculty member can only proctor the on-campus examination.

Acceptable forms of photo ID:

• Unexpired U.S. passport book or passport card
• S. Citizenship Certificate or Certificate of Naturalization with unidentifiable photo (N-560, N- 561, N-550, N55G, N-645, N-570 or N-578)
• Unexpired U.S. military photo ID card for active duty, reserve, or retired personnel
• Unexpired foreign passport, visa (valid or expired), and I-94
• State issued Driver License or photo ID

Personally identifiable information collected by the university may be used, at the discretion of the institution, as the basis for identity verification. For instance, a student requesting that their learning system password be reset may be asked to provide two or more pieces of information for comparison with data on file, or to come to the NAU IT office in person with a valid photo ID or verification. In addition, the NAU self-service portal requires that the students create three secure questions and answers to be used in the event that students need to change/reset their password on or off campus by their own. NAU self-service portal can be reached at: Password Resets If students are not able to reset their password by their own, they can request password reset via email, phone call, submitting a help ticket, or in person with a valid photo ID or verification. Students are responsible for providing their complete and true identity information in any identification verification process. All J1 eLearning users are responsible for the protection of their unique username and password as well as prevent disclosing such data to unauthorized party.

4. Who Should Read This Policy

All graduate students, faculty, and administrators

5. Related Documents and References

None

6. Contacts

Distance Education Office

Email: elearning@na.edu

Room: 223 MB

Phone: (832) 230-5555 Ext: 307

IT Department

Email: support@na.edu

Room: 215 MB

Phone: (832) 230-5541