1.) Directly related to a student; and
2.) Maintained by an educational agency or institution or by a party acting for the agency or institution.[2]
FERPA FAQ
Does FERPA prevent instructors from assigning students to create public content as part of their course requiremsnts?
No.
"FERPA was never intended to place students into the box of a physical or online classroom...
Rather FERPA requires schools to maintain control over certain student records(Fryer, 2009). These records include medical information, social securiy numbers, and grades."[3]
Does FERPA forbid students from sharing information?
No.
FERPA does not prevent an instructor from assigning their students to create public content as a part of the course requirements, such as creating a Google Site or posting a video onto Youtube or Vimeo.
Social media submissions are not FERPA protected because they are not considered received, and consequently not in the custody of the college. As well, they are typically not yet graded or reviewed by the faculty (and thus not under FERPA).[4]
Does FERPA view ungraded student assignments educational records?
No.
An educational record does not include ungraded student work until grades are recorded by school personnel.[5]
Do UH FERPA Guidelines forbid student use of third party sites, such as Google Sites, YouTube, or similar social media sites?
UH provides guidelines for following Federal FERPA regulations. Guidelines specifically address student records such as "grades or scores" and "papers with names and grades". Guidelines do not address student use of third party sites. Nor, do they address the sharing of ungraded student work.[6]