Nursing and pharmacy students may not have to worry about losing their flash drives anymore.
Previously, students who came in contact with personal health information were not allowed to use OneDrive @ UF in an attempt to protect sensitive information. Students, faculty and staff are now able to use this service as long as they follow all of UF’s data privacy rules.
OneDrive @ UF is an online cloud service offered by the UF Information Technology Department, which gives students 1TB of free storage for documents and other files.
Chris Easley, UFIT interim director of enterprise infrastructure and operations, wrote in an email the ban was lifted after discussions with UFIT, UF general counsel and the UF privacy office.
Students are expected to follow the rules and not share health information through this channel, he said.
“UF has an Acceptable Usage policy that must be adhered to and followed,” Easley said.
James Oulman, UFIT senior systems administrator, said students can also access and update files on their laptop, tablet or smartphone as well as through various programs.
“Students also get access to the Office products through PC and Mac, iOS and Android devices,” he said. “And from these applications, they can natively access their OneDrive files.”
Easley said he thinks students and faculty alike can benefit from the service due to its collaboration capabilities.
“Students will be able to collaborate with faculty and other students on project work and share files and information,” Easley said. “They can access their information from any device, from anywhere and collaborate with anyone — all in a UF-vetted and approved environment.”
[A version of this story ran on page 3 on 4/3/2015 under the headline “OneDrive now open to health students”]
