LSE Moodle Terms of Use

Version: 2020-09-07

Summary of changes from previous version:

• Inserted references to Lecture Recording Policy

• Inserted references to Intellectual Property Policy

• References to "Learning Technology and Innovation" replaced with "Eden Centre for Education Enhancement"

• Inserted new paragraphs 3.i. and 3.j.

Moodle is an interactive Virtual Learning Environment (“VLE”) used for the purposes of teaching, training, research, coursework or associated administration. It offers file sharing, assessment and communication tools to users. The School provides these services subject to the following rules and guidelines. These guidelines should be used in conjunction with the School policies. In particular, your attention is drawn to the following:

• Calendar: Programme Regulations, Course Guides, School and academic Regulations

• Conditions of use of IT facilities at LSE

• Information Security Policy

• Data Protection Policy

• Copyright guidelines

• Ethics Code

• Lecture Recording Policy

• Intellectual Property Policy

• All procedures relating to misconduct (herein referred to as "School Policies").

In the event of any conflict between this document and School Policies, the terms in the relevant School policy will prevail. Any questions regarding Moodle usage should be directed to the Eden Centre for Education Enhancement (eden.digital@lse.ac.uk). These guidelines are applicable to all users with access to the School’s Moodle service. As such, a user includes all LSE employees, lecturers, students and guests (“a User”).

1. USE OF MOODLE

   1. When using Moodle, or any connecting services, each User must:

      1. Respect the rights of others

      2. Remember to logout at the end of each session

      3. Comply with current and future legislation including:

         • The Data Protection Act 1998

         • Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988

         • Computer Misuse Act 1990

         • Telecommunications Act 1984

         • Protection from Harassment Act 1997

         • Counter Terrorism and Security Act 2015 Prevent Guidelines

   2. Each User is responsible for ensuring that their use of Moodle complies with School policies and the terms of use. By using the School’s Moodle services you agree to be bound by these terms of use, which shall take effect immediately on your first use. If you do not agree to be bound by all the following terms, you should cease using Moodle and notify the Eden Centre for Education Enhancement.

   3. The School may revise these terms of use without notice by posting the latest version of these terms of use onto Moodle. Your continued use of Moodle will be deemed acceptance of the updated terms or amendments.

   4. Users accessing Moodle from non-School owned equipment (such as mobile phones or personal laptops) and users accessing Moodle from outside School premises (such as their home or workplace) are bound by the same terms of use.

   5. In accordance with the Conditions of use of IT facilities at LSE, use of Moodle must be for the purpose of teaching, training, research, coursework or other authorised use.

2. SECURITY

   1. Access to course information and resources on Moodle are controlled by user permissions. You should log into Moodle with your own LSE network user account and never allow another user to access Moodle under your network account.

   2. Some courses on Moodle may require and additional course-specific password (enrolment key) to gain access. Users should never disclose an enrolment key to anyone as would allow access by an unauthorised user.

   3. You should never attempt to access any password protected Moodle area unless you are a member of the course and have been given permission to do so.

   4. Activities on Moodle are fully audited. Records are kept of when users access courses and resources along with a log of all communications such as forum posts, assignment submissions, etc. These records are available to lecturers for course evidence, but may also be used as a point of reference for any matters arising, such as accounts of harassment, bullying or the transmitting of inappropriate material.

   5. Users should not post personal or sensitive information to any part of Moodle including to their profile, blogs, or any course activities. Information sent through Moodle may be read by other Users.

   6. When course materials are placed onto Moodle, you acknowledge that you are making it available for download, and therefore the School cannot guarantee that such resources will not be seen by/distributed to third parties. Please note that the majority of courses on Moodle are open to the wider LSE community

   7. Users might provide links to websites on Moodle in the hope that they are useful. The content of these messages may originate outside LSE. The school cannot accept any responsibility for the contents of external websites

   8. Access to Moodle will be withdrawn when a User is no longer employed by/studying at the School. Please note that third parties may have limited access to Moodle.

3. CONTENT

   1. By uploading content to Moodle, you acknowledge and accept responsibility for ensuring that content does not infringe confidentiality, copyright or the intellectual property rights of others (including colleagues)

   2. You agree that you will not upload any material which would breach the School’s Policies or add links to any web pages that host such material.

   3. Users taking part in online course activities (including assignment submission, contributions to discussion forums or online collaborative projects etc.) are prohibited from transmitting any words or pictures which are libellous, insulting, abusive, or would otherwise contravene the Disciplinary Procedure for Students

   4. All work submitted electronically by students should be their own. Copying others work, cheating, collusion, plagiarism, and attempting to obtain unfair assessment advantages are in violation of the School’s Policies.

   5. Moodle courses should reflect current learning provision. Moodle courses may be removed without warning if:

      1. The creator has not accessed the area since it was created;

      2. No resources and/or activities have been added to the course;

      3. The courses has no recent access by students.

   6. Where there is more than one contributor, you must use reasonable endeavours to work together to update Moodle. Please note that the School does not accept any responsibility where changes are made without informing colleagues.

   7. Moodle contains documents created with a variety of software. Where possible we encourage you to upload resources in commonly used formats (such as Portable Document Format) to offer wider compatibility. We cannot support students with problems opening files externally if they are caused by incompatible software and/or hardware.

   8. Many files linked from Moodle (such as videos) are quite large and best viewed over the School network. We cannot guarantee quality of performance or be responsible for connection issues when downloading or streaming these materials externally.

   9. All information and works on Moodle is intended for the benefit of registered students of LSE. As such, LSE reserves the right to restrict third party access to the platform.

   10. The copying, reproduction, circulation and publishing of any information or work that has been uploaded to, or linked from, Moodle is prohibited without the express consent of the owner/s of the information or work, who in most cases will be one or more of LSE, a member of its staff or student body, or a visitor to the School. Without prejudice to any other rights or remedies, the owner/s of any information or work shall be entitled to equitable relief (including without limitation injunctive relief) in any instance of this term being breached.

4. DATA PROTECTION

   1. Users of Moodle must agree to:

      1. Not share their username or password with anyone else and not use the username and password of other users.

      2. Keep physical access to Moodle secure. For example, not login to Moodle and leave the computer unattended.

      3. Not knowingly post material which contains viruses or other programs which may disrupt the School’s systems

      4. Ensure their computers and mobile devices are kept fully up to date with Operating System and application security patches, and that they have up-to-date virus protection on their computers to help prevent the infection or distribution of viruses.

      5. Understand that the School will not take responsibility for any loss of information which has been posted on Moodle once users cease to be formally associated with the School.

5. DATA STORAGE

   1. Moodle is a platform for making files, resources and activities available to students throughout their course. It should not be used as a general storage area. Files that are not required for the delivery of a course should be stored in your network area or on your own disks. Where collaboration is required between lecturers, then your network shared area or another collaborative tool such as Sharepoint should be used.

   2. It is recommended that you keep original copies of work you upload onto Moodle. The School accepts no liability for lost or corrupt data that has been stored on Moodle. Whilst the server is routinely backed up for the purposes of disaster recovery it is the responsibility of the user to ensure that they have copies of any important data, including uploaded resources, submitted assignments, etc.

   3. All student data and submitted work are purged from the server at the end of August ready for the next academic year in line with the Moodle end of year arrangements.

6. DISCIPLINARY ACTION

   Should a user contravene these terms of use or any other School Policies related to the use of Moodle, the offence will be logged and appropriate action will be taken, from a temporary restriction of services up to and including permanent removal of services and further disciplinary procedures.

7. INFORMATION ABOUT US

   LSE Moodle is operated by the London School of Economics & Political Science (the “University”, the “School”, “we” or “us”) whose registered address is Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE.