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Educational Resource Access Manager (ERAM)
The Educational Resource Access Manager, or ERAM, is a free of charge service offered by the French Ministry of Education and operated by RENATER in primary and secondary schools in France. ERAM enables pupils to access resources by relying on single sign-on on their virtual learning environment (VLE).

The project was launched in 2017, in 9 regional education authorities and 82 middle and high schools. The implementation accelerated ever since, with more than 14,000 schools using ERAM in September 2021.

ERAM provides a simplified legal framework for schools, aiming at simplifying access to digital resources while guaranteeing the protection of the pupils' and teachers' personal data

Scope and objectives of ERAM
ERAM acts as an intermediary between virtual learning environments (VLEs) and educational publishers. The interface aims at developing the use of digital educational resources within a simplified legal framework guaranteeing the protection of pupils’ and teachers’ personal data in France.

ERAM is operated by RENATER.

ERAM simplifies access to educational resources via a unique connector which anonymizes data used to identify users, by preventing them from being used for other purposes than public interest. ERAM is thus the cornerstone of the digital ecosystem of education.

ERAM is in keeping with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) enforced on May 25, 2018. Some of the key principles of the GDPR are to be found in ERAM, such as the accountability of data managers and the design of services following a logic of protection of personal data and privacy by design.

In France, the issue of personal data protection in the field of education used to be out of any specific legal framework. ERAM is thus a significant achievement in terms of protecting pupils’ personal data. In the context of fast development of textbooks and digital resources, the French National Edition Union (SNE) recently emphasized the importance of implementing a framework to protect pupils’ personal data: “Data goes through several systems. This is why we draw the attention of regions to organize collectively and in a secure way data processing in keeping with legal provisions, as is allowed by ERAM.”

Functioning
ERAM is a single point of contact for all VLEs. •	Schools assign resources to pupils and teachers via ERAM •	VLEs are connected to ERAM to make it possible to connect resources to pupils •	Educational publishers provide instructions to integrate resources on ERAM

Pupils and teachers whose school is using ERAM can access resources using a single username and password, directly via their VLE. The process is transparent for users, who only see resources that have been assigned to them. ERAM therefore acts as a security filter by facilitating and securing access to digital educational resources. To do so, it relies on single sign-on standard techniques such as CAS and SAML. It also uses resource description standards, both international (ARK) and national (ScoLOMFR).

Besides, ERAM allows pupils’ data portability, in the event of a change of school and/or VLE.

A technical support, GAR Ninja, is currently developing to help educational publishers in their integration to ERAM for September 2019.

Background and schedule
In May 2014, the project is presented to the French academic representatives for information technology and communication industry for the education (IATICE). It is settled that “ERAM would allow, by bringing actors together, to create a global legal framework and a technical support for schools.

The Plan for Digital Education is launched the following year, in May 2015. ERAM is presented as one of the cornerstones of the digital ecosystem of education.

In May 2016, the French Ministry of Education seeks the advice of the National Commission on Informatics and Liberty (CNIL) on the basis of the 1978 law “Information Technology and Liberties.”

The implementation of ERAM starts with a pilot phase in September 2017. The CNIL advocates for the development of ERAM, by making it mandatory for schools which have the means to afford it. The decision concerning the implementation of ERAM is published on December 18, 2017.

During this pilot phase, 82 middle and high schools volunteered in 9 regional education authorities and 10 VLE projects. ERAM first addressed secondary schools, before including primary schools and agricultural training schools. The deployment, started in January 2018, is still in progress to cover all primary and secondary schools in France.

In May 2019, more than a million pupils and teachers in 1,925 schools of 15 regional education authorities and 13 VLE projects are connected to ERAM. This deployment also concerns all mobile device uses.

On the side of educational publishers, the latest figures predict 56 editors connected to ERAM, with more than ten in the process of integration for the 2019 school year.

In September 2019, 4,000 schools will have access to ERAM, which represents approximately 2,5 million pupils whose personal data will be protected.

ENTREE, federated authentication system in the Netherlands
Since 1999 in the Netherlands, the organization Kennisnet has developed ENTREE, a secure and unique authentication system relying on single sign-on, which is comparable to ERAM. It is structured in the form of a federation of actors (VLEs, editors, schools…). Any member of the federation can be an access point, and ENTREE certifies to every other member the identity of the user.

In 2012, there had been 3 million connections to ENTREE, and 65% of secondary schools were compatible with the tool, as well as most educational publishers and several government sites.

UNI-Login, personal data protection solution in Denmark
Denmark has implemented UNI-Login, a unique identifier enabling pupils, their parents and teachers to securely access resources and other online educational services. This solution allows authentication, verification of rights and redirection from virtual learning environments of most Danish schools.

A range of private solutions in the United States
In the United States, companies offering solutions similar to ERAM have emerged over the past few years:

•	The solution developed by Clever, implemented in 20 regional education authorities and 60,000 American schools for a total of 3,1 million regular users (according to the figures communicated by the company). Its single sign-on interface enables pupils and teachers to access resources and applications adapted to their use. •	The management tool for teachers developed by LearnPlatform, used in 50 schools spread in 43 states, concerning approximately 100,000 teachers. It enables teachers to share resources and good practices with their peers, to organize and analyze their classes in order to enhance their teaching practices and to take stock of digital resources available for their pupils.

•	Highlight is a personalized learning platform developed by Education Elements that provides data analysis tools and access to educational resources relevant to school curricula. The platform offers a single sign-on system with a number of resource providers.

•	Xchange is an educational platform developed by Edutone that provides access to online services and learning applications. Xchange also automates data lifecycle management to improve web security.

•	K12itc offers primary and secondary schools personalized technical solutions such as the single sign-on system. Users can access multiple services with a single username and password, which helps reduce the risk of forgetting their credentials.