Handbook of Information Security, Volume 1, Key Concepts, Infrastructure, Standards, and Protocols

Security in E-Learning

Edgar R. Weippl, Vienna University of Technology, Austria

Introduction

E-Learning

Security

Organization of This Chapter

Security Risk Analysis

Scope and Importance

Standard Method

Case Study: Tutorial and E-learning Module

From Requirements to Designing and Implementing Solutions

General Discussion

Secrecy of Uploaded Data (Preventing Unauthorized Views)

Privacy of Usage (Tracing Users)

Case Study: Moodle

Outlook: Security in M-learning

In-Class Teaching

Notification Services

Registration Service

Field Data

Solutions for Authentication

Conclusion

Glossary

Cross References

References

INTRODUCTION

This brief introductory section begins by defining the term e-learning. I then provide a brief overview of security issues relevant to understanding the subsequent sections. The last subsection explains how the rest of this chapter is organized.

E-Learning

E-learning has been a buzzword for quite some time and is recently gaining even more importance. In this chapter, the term e-learning encompasses both Web-based distance education and Web-sites supplementing in-class teaching. Such course sites typically offer downloads of additional reading, online forums, journals, quizzes, and so on. The chapter does not explicitly cover non-Web-based forms of e-learning such as computer-based training (CBT) on CD-ROMs.

Research in e-learning is multidisciplinary, combining very different research areas. Some publications focus on the teaching process and pedagogical issues; ...