Higher Ed Opportunity Act (HEOA)

The Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) requires that institutions offering distance education or correspondence courses or programs have processes in place to ensure that the student registering for a course is the same student who participates in the course or receives course credit. The Act requires that institutions use one of the following three methods:

• A secure login and pass code

• Proctored examinations

• New or other technologies and practices that are effective in verifying student identification

Secure Login and Pass Code

The University of Richmond (UR) meets these requirements by assigning a secure login and password to each student. All students registering for a course through our administrative system are assigned unique identification numbers, which correspond with a specific username for each student. Each student establishes his or her own password using the Password Policy, available on the Information Services website (is.richmond.edu). As part of this policy, all students are required to change their password once each year.

In addition, the UR email policy requires all faculty communication with students regarding UR business be conducted via the official UR email account, which also requires a secure login. Review the Official University Communications policy on the Information Services website (is.richmond.edu).