These guidelines have been established so that everyone can get the most out of authoring/commenting/networking on our core DMU systems like Blackboard and WordPress and also on non-DMU technologies used for University-related activities.
There is a particualr focus on the use of online communication and collaboration.
These guidelines should be read in conjunction with the following 4 documents.
1. The General Student Regulations, especially Chapter 2, para 5.7. [PDF]
“Harassment, including racial or sexual harassment and harassment on the grounds of disability of any student, employee of the University or the De Montfort Students’ Union or any authorised visitor to the University or any behaviour which in the reasonable opinion of the designated senior member of staff or relevant Provost is likely to be regarded as harassment
“In this context harassment means any behaviour or action, spoken or written words, usually repeated or persistent, directed at a specific person, which annoys, alarms or causes substantial emotional distress to that person without any reasonable grounds.”
About your online contributions
Contributions should be professional and relevant to the activity. DMU is committed to providing an atmosphere in which professional dialogue takes place. This means that postings/comments/networking etc. should not be indecent, disruptive, disorderly, threatening or offensive. Equally they must not be fraudulent, deceitful or dishonest.
- Posting: Do not flame in any context, e.g. in a posting or comment. Unlawful, harassing, defamatory, abusive, threatening, harmful, obscene, profane, sexually-oriented, racist, or otherwise objectionable material is not acceptable. Please keep your postings and comments to a reasonable length for the material or activity at hand.
- Privacy: Never reveal personal information about yourself (for example: your telephone number, home address or email address). If you have helpful information to share, it should be relevant to the on-line task in-hand. Email addresses are required, for example, for commenting on blogs on the DMU Commons, and they will not be published/share.
- Copyright: You agree to post only those materials to which you have the copyright or other permission to distribute electronically. Do not violate, plagiarise, or infringe on the rights of third parties including copyright, trademark, trade secret, privacy, personal, publicity, or proprietary rights.
- Take-down: You may not post any defamatory or illegal material of any nature. This includes text, graphics, video, programs or audio. Posting a comment, message or image etc. with the intention of committing an illegal act is strictly prohibited. It is our policy to respond to clear notices of alleged copyright infringement. If you feel that your copyright has been infringed please email the site owner.
- Licensing: the content on DMU sites like Blackboard is licensed under a DMU licence, whilst that on the DMU Commons is licensed under a Creative Commons, Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share-Alike license. Beyond DMU you need to check the licensing terms and conditions when you sign-up to a service.
- Blocking: Don't cross-post comments to more than one thread or discussion or posting etc., or post off-topic messages or adverts for personal gain. This is classed as spamming. Impersonating someone else, or adopting an inappropriate username is unacceptable. Anyone who violates this policy may be blocked from contributing.
- All Rights Reserved: service operators may reserve the right to edit, delete, move, or mark as spam any and all comments, postings etc.. They also have the right to block access to any one or group from commenting or from the entire blog. Check your rights and act accordingly.
About your privacy
- On DMU sites, we will not publish or provide your personal information to anyone. Where registration processes require you to supply us with certain enrolment details, those will only be used to create your account and to validate your access to a site. DMU complies with the 1998 Data Protection Act. You should check the privacy policy of any external service for which you sign-up.