Skip to main content

Consent and data storage

This article explains how student consent relates to evaluation storage and ValidBound secondary use. It applies to instructors and institution reviewers.

Policy summary​

UseRequires affirmative student consent?
Hosted instructional storageNo — evaluations are stored for course use
Instructor / unit-admin in-app view and CSV exportNo
ValidBound LLM training / R&D export (deidentified)Yes (consent_given = true, 18+)

Decline, under-18, or no response: instructional storage and instructor/admin use still apply; ValidBound excludes those records from LLM/R&D exports.

SpeechGradebook is designed for educational use with FERPA-oriented controls. Evaluation materials for a course are stored in hosted systems for instructional use by the instructor and authorized unit administrators. Separately, students who are 18 or older may consent so ValidBound may use deidentified or aggregated evaluation content for product improvement (including private model improvement).

What happens when you evaluate​

When you run an evaluation for a rostered student:

  • Results are available to you immediately after processing.
  • Results are saved to hosted storage for instructional use when the course and student enrollment can be resolved (not gated on R&D consent).
  • Local-only storage may still occur temporarily if enrollment cannot yet be linked; those evaluations sync when the course/student is available in the cloud.

Instructors generate a per-course consent link under Settings → General → Consent Management, then send consent requests by email from the consent table (instructor email client via mailto, or server SMTP when configured). See Generate consent links.

Students open the link from their email and complete the form without signing in to SpeechGradebook. Status updates automatically in the consent table.

Student-facing information​

See Student consent overview for language you can share with students.

Related: FERPA and student records · Privacy Policy