The OECD is committed to protecting the personal data it processes, in accordance with its Personal Data Protection Rules.

The OECD Platform for Innovative Learning Assessments (PILA) is a non-for-profit initiative to provide free, technology-enhanced assessments that empower autonomous learning, targeted instruction and innovative research. This project is managed by the PISA innovative assessments team in the Directorate for Education and Skills, OECD, in collaboration with a US-based non-governmental organisation (NGO), Know Learning.

PILA is a tool that teachers use to support their students’ learning of 21st competences through engaging, open assignments. The information gathered in PILA is also used by researchers to develop innovative digital learning experiences and assessments.

In 2022, PILA will conduct pilot studies with several schools in different countries (e.g. Singapore, Ireland) to improve the content of assessment tasks and functionality of the platform more generally, as well as to understand the extent to which learning assessment platforms, like PILA, provide useful insights to teachers and can support personalised learning trajectories. Student data that are collected during the PILA pilot studies include the response and process data from the cognitive assessments, as well as contextual information from a short questionnaire. Schools and teachers can use this information as an additional resource for understanding their students’ ability to learn and apply competencies measured in PILA (e.g. computational problem solving). Researchers, including the OECD, will use the pseudonymised information to improve the design of the task, and to inform reports on the use of digital technologies in the classroom.

For the pilot studies, students will be asked to work through two 50-minute assessment experiences, a 30-minute background questionnaire and tutorial and finally, a 30-minute test on their knowledge in the target domain (e.g. computational problem solving). The assessment experiences will involve several immersive, open tasks in the target domain. In 2022, the various assessment experiences will measure either computational problem solving or systems thinking, in addition to several facets of self-regulated learning (e.g. how students use learning resources and adapt to feedback). The PILA background questionnaire will comprise several questions on prior experience with coding and use of learning technologies. The standardised computational thinking test will include a short series of validated items from existing instruments in the field.

The PILA assessment experiences are carried out on the Know Learning platform and stored securely by the OECD’s contractor, Know Learning, in secure databases that are hosted on the Google Cloud Platform. Student responses to the assessment, computational thinking test and the questionnaire will be pseudonymised through a simple zero knowledge system described below. Pseudonymisation means that personal data can no longer be attributed to a person without additional information (the additional information in this case would be the login information for a teacher’s account on PILA, since they are the only ones who can identify which of their students did what when logged in to their account).

• A teacher will first need to create an account on the PILA website, which will require them to first enter the access code and password that are communicated by the OECD, and then to create an account using the single sign on (SSO) via Google. The OECD recommends that teachers use their email associated with their educational institution (you do not need a Gmail account to participate). 
• The teacher will then create a session by selecting an assessment experience for their students to work through. When teachers create a new session, they will be prompted to enter a list of student names that can access the session in a format, such as “class + first name + last initial”. Each entry in this list is encrypted using the teacher’s master key, which will never leave their machines, and will never be sent or stored in the PILA servers/databases.
• To begin the session, the teacher will send the same link for the assessment experience to all students. When the students open this link in their computer browser, they will be automatically logged in to an anonymous user account with a unique ID that will be used to collect all interaction data.
• To ensure data from one student can be aggregated over multiple sessions, the student must enter their name in accordance with the teacher’s format to begin the session. Their name will be automatically encrypted using their teacher’s master key. Only an encrypted version of the student’s name will ever be saved in the PILA database and only the teacher will be able to decrypt it in their dashboard view using the embedded, digital master key.
• As a rule in this phase of PILA, a session history for up to 2 years  will be provided via the teacher account, after which point the sessions will automatically be deleted by the system.

All the information students provide will be treated and stored securely and confidentially, in accordance with applicable legislation and the OECD Personal Data Protection Rules. The database will store participant responses to the assessment and questionnaire, but will never collect nor store any personal information that would allow an external person to identify a student. The data will be kept in secure, cloud-based databases indefinitely for research purposes. The data collected over the course of the study may be released in the form of a pseudonymised dataset only to researchers whom the OECD grants access. The results of analysis conducted on PILA data may be disseminated beyond the participating schools as aggregated information, from which it will not be possible to directly identify any single individual.

Under the OECD Personal Data Processing Rules, participants have rights to access and rectify personal data, as well as to object to its processing, request erasure, and obtain data portability in certain circumstances.

In addition, students and parents/guardians should note that:

• Participation in PILA is voluntary.
• A student or parent/guardian has the right to withdraw from the pilot study at any time in the course of the exercise.
• A student or parent/guardian has the right to request to remove or amend any of the information they have provided up until a certain point in time of the data processing process.
• A student or parent/guardian has the right to file a complaint with the teacher or principal of the school participating in the pilot studies.

For students/parents/guardians to exercise these rights in connection with PILA, please contact the school principal or teacher. For any requests to remove or amend any of the information they have provided in the context of the pilot studies, the school principal or teacher are responsible for communicating any requests and the personal identifier of the student to the PILA team at the OECD (edu.pila@oecd.org). The PILA team at the OECD will work with the back-end developers, Know Learning, to ensure the removal of said data to the extent possible within the PILA system and its databases. 

If you have further queries or complaints related to the processing of your personal data, please contact the OECD’s Data Protection Officer (dpo@oecd.org). If you need further assistance in resolving claims related to personal data protection you can contact the OECD’s Data Protection Commissioner (dpc@oecd.org). Students may also have the right to file a complaint to their national supervisory authority.