As Brandeis students return to campus for the new semesteIn September, Brandeis implemented the new learning management platform Moodle. LATTE, an extension of an already existing Moodle interface, was nearing the end of its efficiency span and the technology department began looking at other options.

Miles Goldstein ‘25, the current manager of the Information and Technology Services’ student-run Technology Help Desk, helped with implementing the new platform. “It was as painless as a new software launch can be,” he said. “Nothing really changed moving from LATTE to Moodle, the interface is different and a couple of the features were moved around.”

Yet despite the tech team’s confidence in the new platform, students encountered some difficulties at the beginning of its implementation. At the beginning of the semester, when students were given access to the platform, some students discovered there was now an option to view which other courses their classmates were enrolled in.

Jaiden Van Bork ’26 noticed that she was able to access her peers’ schedules. “[Privacy] wasn’t initially a concern, but I noticed that every user in Moodle has a profile that is easily accessed by clicking on their name, and part of [this] profile included a list of course pages that this user was also active in.” She explained that this meant she could click on a fellow student’s profile and “see that they’re also in this computer science class or this biology class.”

According to Ivan Nieves, the Associate Director of the Learning Management System Operations and Implementations at Brandeis, ITS, were initially unaware of the issue. He said, “if such a situation had occurred, it would have been immediately addressed by our technical and support teams to ensure data integrity and privacy were restored swiftly.”

Although ITS was unaware of the problem, the Help Desk did know there was an issue early in the new program’s implementation. “For the first week there was an issue where peoples’ classes were visible to others, but I imagine that was an issue that came from figuring out the configuration of the new system based on feedback. I don’t see any privacy concerns existing because it’s the same Brandeis servers and the same platform,” said Goldstein.

Since the issue resolved itself, there has been little to no concern with the future of students’ privacy on Moodle. “User privacy is always a top priority, from [Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act] compliance, and an ethical perspective aligning with the University’s values.” Nieves said. “ITS has no concerns about the upgrade to Moodle 4. This was informed by an environmental scan of best practices, internal surveys of faculty and staff, and based on financial sustainability.”

As of press time, ITS has not directly addressed students’ claims about privacy.




— The Justice writer Miles Goldstein is employeed by Brandeis Information and Technology Services and did not contribute to this article