Penn State University

Confidentiality Statement

The Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence (SITE) fosters innovation and enables use of effective practices in teaching, course design, and curriculum development to improve learning across the university. To that end, SITE must create a trustworthy environment for those it serves and has established professional practices that ensure confidentiality. These practices are integral to the profession and consistent with the Ethical Guidelines for Educational Developers from the national professional society for faculty development.

SITE’s commitment to confidentiality encompasses the following practices:

  • SITE services and activities are considered voluntary.
  • SITE provides feedback and results only to the instructor, even if they are initially referred to us by an administrator.
    • SITE will not report to others about our work with an instructor.
    • SITE will provide confirmation of participation only to the instructor.
  • Feedback gathered or given by SITE faculty consultants is intended to be developmental (formative).
    • Instructors are free to refer to their work with SITE in any way they choose.
    • SITE faculty consultants will review student feedback or observe a course only at the invitation of an instructor.
    • SITE feedback to an instructor should not be required or used as a summative evaluation in annual review, promotion, tenure, or re-appointment processes.
  • SITE collects information about individuals for internal purposes only. We include only aggregate information in SITE reports, such as counts of participants. SITE may report number of participants by academic unit (campus, college, division, or department) or instructor rank or title. We do not report individually identifiable information.
  • SITE event participants are encouraged to speak openly and have a reasonable expectation of privacy without fear that their words will be misused. As such, SITE does not permit proxy attendance, recording, or AI notetaking during its events. Participants with accommodations are exempt from these restrictions.
  • SITE relies on and engages in education research in accordance with federal, state, and institutional IRB policies that protect the confidentiality of subjects.
Penn State University