The controversy surrounding Tom Hoban, a sociology professor, over his use of MySpace as a teaching tool for a distance education course is resolved after an agreement between Hoban and University officials.

Hoban was using a MySpace profile as an official class Web site, but after the meeting Friday, the agreement University officials and Hoban made is he can continue using MySpace for individual assignments but has to switch the official course Web site to Web CT.

“In a way, I can sort of fine tune this to continue working with MySpace,” Hoban said.

According to Hoban, the University also has a license to Web CT and therefore, professors cannot use competitive products on campus for their courses.

Senior Vice-provost Katie Perry, Associate Dean and Director of Academic Programs of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Ken Esbenshade, Sociology and Anthropology Department Head Edward Kick, Senior Associate General Counsel David Drooz, College of Humanities and Social Sciences Dean Toby Parcel, Vice-provost for Distance Education and Learning Technologies Tom Miller and Undergraduate Academic Program Dean Thomas Conway attended the meeting Friday.

One of the issues Drooz raised at the meeting was the issue of students’ privacy under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which some of the administrators feel is at stake when students use MySpace.

“Dr. Hoban agreed to take measures that would satisfy this federal law,” Drooz said in an e-mail after declining a phone interview. “He will seek FERPA releases from students in the current course and make alternative arrangements that will protect privacy for those who do not wish to provide a release.”

University officials acknowledged the concern that they didn’t want any type of class roster to be available online for public viewing.

“With the way the Web site works, by setting it up as the course space and putting the University label on it that way, anybody from outside the University looks at it and has access to the names and profiles of people in that group,” Conway said.

Hoban said he did try to protect the students’ privacy, but there were some things he overlooked.

“Walking out of the meeting today, that was the issue that got me the most … the issue of student privacy,” Hoban said. “I think all of us have the same desire and that’s to protect student safety and privacy.”

Hoban said he realized he had to provide alternatives for students who did not want to use MySpace.

“The point is if there is a valid concern that some students don’t want to use MySpace because of security, I have to be very cognitive of that and offer an alternative,” he said.

According to Hoban, his first step to complying with FERPA was to make the class profile on MySpace private.

“I have now set it to private, but might like to put it back in the public view at some point if it makes sense and you guys agree (i.e. sign form),” Hoban said in an e-mail to his students Friday. “My reason for choosing MySpace is that it fosters partnerships among students, as well as opportunities or easy engagement with the rest of society.”

Another issue administrators brought up at the meeting was the fact that MySpace is a commercial Web site with advertisements, Hoban said.

“An official N.C. State Web site or N.C. State course cannot have advertising as per policy,” Hoban said after the meeting Friday. “It shouldn’t be seen as an N.C. State- sanctioned Web site.”

According to the University regulation on computer use policy, there is a ban on paid advertising and that was one of the issues raised from Hoban’s use of MySpace, Drooz said.

“This is really a matter of University policy, not law,” Drooz said in his e-mail. “Dr. Hoban did not dispute that it’s an issue of concern when a course Web site directs students to commercial promotions. As the current course is well underway, the provost’s office decided to tackle this problem in the future.”

Hoban said that issue was one he had not considered.

A third issue that the administrators discussed at the meeting with Hoban was the issue of compliance with disability laws.

“This does not appear to be a legal issue in the current semester as no students have requested disability accommodation,” Drooz said in an e-mail. “In the future, there will be a better effort to design accessibility into online course materials.”

Hoban said despite the aforementioned problems, he is glad he continued to pursue the issue.

“Overall, I’m glad I kept pushing it because it had a good effect of expanding horizons of what things like MySpace are for the positive,” he said.

Hoban said the University is currently in a time of learning and doesn’t know what to expect from the new technologies and innovations that are developing.

“There’s really not as much precedence,” Hoban said.

Kick approved Hoban’s idea to use MySpace as a teaching tool during the summer according to Hoban, but the use of MySpace became an issue later.

“This is one of those ideas that when we sat down and talked about, we started to see potentials that we all wished we had sat down and talked about before the course was advertised,” Conway said.

Hoban said he and the University are satisfied with Friday’s decision.

“I didn’t do anything wrong, but there might have been areas where I’ve been careless,” Hoban said.

According to Hoban, he is not going to stop trying to find new, creative and innovative ways to teach — but at NCSU, he cannot do it alone.

“I’m not teaching in the spring and this has taught me to think long and hard before I try anything innovative again,” he said.

Hoban still plans to pursue MySpace University, a system where MySpace users are able to take non-credit courses. He said he is also planning further innovative projects with other universities, including establishing a youth center in Chatham County.

“This is all [going to] happen — just not with N.C. State,” Hoban said.