Terms and conditions

Terms and conditions of use of the LSIS learning platform (LLP)

Data protection

The Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS), as data controller, will process personal information provided by you to keep you informed about its services and to give you the opportunity to be involved in evaluation/ improvement of its programmes.

Your personal data will be held on a database by LSIS and its appointed agents involved in the delivery of its programmes and will be processed in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998.

LSIS may contact you, directly or via agents, by mail, email or phone to send you details of its services and of future events or activities related to LSIS Programmes. By providing LSIS with your mailing address, telephone number and email address, you consent to being contacted by those methods for these purposes unless you opt out by choosing the relevant options when self-registering or by editing your LSIS learning platform user profile.

To access the community based features of this online learning space, including the discussion forums, weblogs and collaborative document creation technology, you will be asked to submit information about yourself which is personally identifiable. Notwithstanding this you can access our home page and browse our site without disclosing your personal data save information collected by cookies that we use (see below) and subject to the terms of our disclaimer.

Disclosure of information

In the unlikely event that a liquidator, administrator or receiver is appointed over us or all or any part of our assets that insolvency practitioner may transfer your information to a third party purchaser of the business provided that purchaser undertakes to use your information for the same purposes as set out in this policy. We undertake not to provide your personal information to third parties save in accordance with this policy. Your information will not be disclosed to government or local authorities or other government institutions save as required by law or other binding regulations.

We may send a small file to your computer when you visit our learning platform. This will enable us to identify your computer, track your behaviour on our learning platform and to identify your particular areas of interest so as to enhance your future visits to this learning platform. We may use cookies to collect and store personal data and we link information stored by cookies with personal data you supply to us. Save for the use of cookies, we do not automatically log data or collect data save for information you specifically provide to us. You can set your computer browser to reject cookies but this may preclude your use of certain parts of this learning platform.

Security measures

We have implemented security policies, rules and technical measures to protect the personal data that we have under our control from unauthorised access, improper use and disclosure, unauthorised destruction or accidental loss.

Users under 16

If you are aged 16 or under, you must get a parent's or guardian's permission beforehand if you wish to use this learning platform and if you are going to provide personal information to us.

Access to information

You may ask us whether we are storing personal information about you by writing to us, stating your full name and your address, at:
Learning and Skills Improvement Service
Friars House
Manor House Drive
Coventry
CV1 2TE

A small administrative charge not exceeding £10 may be made for fulfilling this request. We may ask for proof of your identity before providing any information and reserve the right to refuse to provide information requested if identity is not established.

Equal opportunities

We are wholly committed to promoting diversity and equality of opportunity. Please be assured that all data collected is to ensure that partner organisations offer equality of opportunity throughout our Programmes and no personal information will be made available to any other parties outside our Programmes.

Discussion forums

Your use of any discussion forums constitutes acceptance of the forum terms and conditions.

In these terms and conditions, the terms “we”, “us”, “our” are to be taken as referring to the Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS).

You agree to use these forums for lawful purposes only.

Your participation on these forums is governed by the terms and conditions which appear below. Breaking any of these rules may lead to the immediate suspension of your account and could lead to legal action being taken against you by the authorities or an aggrieved party.

Avoid the inclusion of personal details in contributed material or forum posts. We do not accept responsibility for the consequences of individuals publishing their personal details (including address, place of employment, name of educational establishment, telephone or mobile number, email address, etc) on this learning platform. You are not allowed to publicise anyone else's personal or contact details.

Do not post inappropriate material in the forums or anywhere else on this learning platform or link to such material on other sites. This means material that is:

Unlawful or illegal - this means anything that is contrary to, or forbidden by law. For example, you should not post material that incites people to commit any crime, including incitement of racial hatred, or material that breaks a court injunction (for example, naming an individual or speculating as to their current whereabouts after a court has issued an injunction against doing so).
Vulgar, obscene or abusive - material that is crudely indecent or offensive to good taste, or material that is insulting or scornful. In particular, you should not swear or blaspheme, describe sexual activity in an obviously disgusting manner, or make sexist, racist or ageist remarks.
Threatening or harassing - expressing any threat or possibility of a threat, or engaging in any systematic and/or continued unwanted and annoying actions for whatever purpose, including racial prejudice, personal malice, an attempt to force someone to quit a job or grant sexual favours, or merely to gain pleasure from making someone fearful or anxious.
Defamatory - this means making untrue statements that are capable of damaging the reputation of a person or organisation. You are responsible for any postings which prove to be libellous or illegal.
Pornographic - sexually explicit pictures, writing, or other material whose primary purpose is to cause sexual arousal.
Misleading - material that causes someone to believe what is not true or fail to believe what is true.
Invasive of privacy - material that intrudes or encroaches upon someone's privacy.
Copyrighted - do not post any material that infringes any patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret or other proprietary right of any party, unless you are the owner of thereof or have the permission of the owner to post or transmit such material.
Purporting to be posted by someone else or purporting to be validated or authorised by someone when it has not been - impersonating someone (including other members) is unacceptable, as is falsely claiming third party endorsement for your submissions.
Intended to damage or adversely affect other computers - this refers to any material designed to transmit a virus, worm, trojan horse or other harmful code or having other contaminating or destructive features.

In addition, you must not:

advertise or offer to sell any goods or services for any commercial purpose unless you have our specific written permission
post, conduct or forward any surveys, contests, pyramid schemes or chain letters
download any information file posted by another user of the forum that you know, or reasonably should know, cannot be legally distributed in such manner without our express written permission.

All the above guidance applies to avatars and signature text, as well as forum postings.

You must accept that in uploading any content to this learning platform you are granting us a licence to use it for as long as we wish. You will continue to have ownership of your material and may continue to use it outside this learning platform however you want, but please be aware that by uploading it you are granting us an irrevocable, unconditional, worldwide, royalty-free licence to use it or remove it at our discretion.

You take full responsibility for any use you may make of our learning platform. You agree that we will not be liable for any loss or injury resulting from your use of, or downloading from the learning platform, or for any use made by any third party of information posted by you on the learning platform.

We are authorised by you in our absolute discretion and without notice to you to remove, block or modify your use of this learning platform for any reason we feel constitutes a violation of our policies, whether stated, implied or not. We are also entitled at our absolute discretion to terminate your right to use the learning platform and use such technological means as we see fit to achieve this.

You must ensure that you have suitable scanning software, firewalls and other safeguards in place to protect you from any virus or other contaminant which may affect you directly or indirectly through your use of the learning platform.

Views and opinions expressed by users of this learning platform are the user's own and do not necessarily reflect those of LSIS.

If you wish to make a complaint about the learning platform please contact us.

LSIS is a company limited by guarantee registered in England with company number 2958922.
Registered charity number 1044145.

Contact details

Learning and Skills Improvement Service
Friars House
Manor House Drive
Coventry
CV1 2TE

Code of conduct and content submission guidelines

This document governs the relationship between you and the Learning and Skills Improvement Service for Lifelong Learning when you submit any content for publication on this learning platform. For the purposes hereof, the terms "we", "us", and "our" refer to the Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS).

LSIS is a company limited by guarantee registered in England with company number 2958922.
Registered charity number 1044145.
Contact details
Learning and Skills Improvement Service
Friars House
Manor House Drive
Coventry
CV1 2TE

If you agree to the terms and conditions stated here, please signal your acceptance by checking the "I have read and understood the Terms and Conditions" checkbox below. Otherwise, click on 'Cancel' and leave this learning platform now.

In order to use the community based features of this learning platform, including the community forums, weblogs and collaborative document creation technology, users are required to provide their name, a username, password and email address. We do not accept responsibility for the results of individuals publishing their personal details (including phone number, address or email address) on this learning platform.
Users must not transmit or link to 'Inappropriate Material' via this learning platform. Inappropriate Material is material that under the laws of any jurisdiction is or does any of the following:- unlawful, vulgar, harassing, threatening, abusive, harmful, racist, obscene, pornographic, malicious, profane, libellous, defamatory, misleading, invasive of privacy, discloses private or personal matters concerning any person, sexually orientated, infringes any copyright, trademark or other intellectual property rights, constitutes or encourages a criminal offence, purports to be posted by someone other than the person posting, purports to be validated or authorised by someone when it has not been, contains a virus, worm, trojan horse or other harmful code or contaminating or destructive features.
We provide this learning platform to you solely for your personal, private use. You agree to use any of the community based features of the learning platform only to send and receive messages and material that is legal, appropriate and related to the subject matter of these areas of the learning platform. By way of example, and not as a limitation, you agree that when using the learning platform you warrant that you will not:

(a) defame, abuse, harass, stalk, threaten or otherwise violate the legal rights (including rights of privacy and publicity) of others (whether or not those others are site users);

(b) publish, post, upload, distribute or disseminate or circulate any inappropriate material or views including but not limited to, defamatory, infringing, obscene, or unlawful material or information, racist, sexist or homophobic material or views, and any material which contains viruses, corrupted files, or any other similar software or programs that may damage the operation of a third party's computer or which may reasonably be expected to do so;

(c) post any material that infringes any patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret or other proprietary right of any party, unless you are the owner of thereof or have the permission of the owner to post or transmit such material;

(d) advertise or offer to sell any goods or services for any commercial purpose unless you have our specific written permission;

(e) post, conduct or forward any surveys, contests, pyramid schemes or chain letters;

(f) download any information file posted by another user of the Forum that you know, or reasonably should know, cannot be legally distributed in such manner without our express written permission;

(g) impersonate another person or entity, or falsify or delete any author attributions, legal or other proper notices or proprietary designations or labels of the original or source of software or other material contained in a file that is posted; or

(h) restrict or inhibit any other user from using and enjoying the learning platform.
We are authorised by you in our absolute discretion and without notice to you to remove, block or modify your use of this learning platform for any reason we feel constitutes a violation of our policies, whether stated, implied or not. We are also entitled at our absolute discretion to terminate your right to use the learning platform and use such technological means as we see fit to achieve this.
You hereby agree fully to indemnify us, keep us indemnified and hold us, associated persons and affiliated companies harmless from and against any and all costs, claims, losses, damages and expenses (including, but not limited to, legal fees) sustained or incurred by us and/or affiliated entities directly or indirectly and in any jurisdiction as a result of any use by you of the learning platform.
The information comprised in the learning platform is solely for your personal, non-commercial purposes. By uploading or sending any material to us, whilst you continue to retain ownership of such material and may continue to use the content outside this learning platform, you thereby grant to us an irrevocable, unconditional, world-wide, royalty free licence to use such material or any part of it in perpetuity in any and all media and in any manner we may determine in our sole discretion.
We reserve the right at our discretion and without any obligation to remove, delete, edit, or otherwise deal at our discretion with any material or content uploaded, or otherwise submitted by you to the learning platform including without limitation video, audio, still photographs and artwork, links, embedded content, data, information, software, text and personal information.
We make no promises that the learning platform will be accessible to you or that use of it or any of its features or services will be uninterrupted, quick, secure or error-free.
You take full responsibility for any use you may make of our learning platform.
You may edit or remove your own postings.
Our learning platform is a place for you to share ideas, inspiration and success, and to seek support and information from other users. It is not intended to substitute for membership of a class or pursuit of a course of study and any information must not be taken as accurate unless it has been checked and validated by you independently.
We do not make any warranty nor assume any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness or truth of any information posted on our learning platform by users. Reference to any commercial product does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by us.
You must ensure that you have suitable scanning software, firewalls and other safeguards in place to protect you from any virus or other contaminant which may affect you directly or indirectly through your use of the learning platform.
You agree that under no circumstances shall we or any related person or entity be liable for any direct, indirect, consequential incidental or any other type of loss or injury resulting from your use, or downloading of the learning platform or of any content from our learning platform or for any use made by any third party of information posted by you on the learning platform.
You agree that we are not liable for any loss or injury sustained by you through use of the learning platform whether caused in whole or in part by our negligence.
Views and opinions expressed by users of this learning platform are the user's own and do not necessarily reflect those of LSIS.
All learning platform design, text, graphics, the selection and arrangement thereof are Copyright © Learning and Skills Improvement Service 2009, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Ownership of certain materials on this site has been transferred to LSIS under the terms of Public Sector Information (PSI) licence no. C2006010400. Reasonable steps have been taken to check third party rights and permissions for this work, but LSIS will not be held responsible for any unintentional infringements
The names, images and logos identifying the LSIS, or any third parties are proprietary marks of the LSIS and/or third parties. Nothing contained herein shall be construed as conferring by implication or otherwise any licence or right under any trademark or patent of the LSIS or any other third party.
This learning platform's Privacy Policy also applies to your use of the learning platform, and you should read that document before continuing.
If you wish to make a complaint of a non-technical nature about the learning platform or if you think your intellectual property or other rights have been infringed on the learning platform, you must give us full details by sending an email to enquiries@lsis.org.uk.
If any provision in this Agreement is invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions will continue in full force and effect. This Agreement shall be governed by the laws of England and Wales and any dispute arising out of your use of the learning platform is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.
If you agree to the terms and conditions stated here, please signal your acceptance by checking the "I have read and understood the Terms and Conditions" checkbox below. Otherwise, click on 'Cancel' and leave this learning platform now.
All warranties, express or implied, statutory or otherwise are hereby excluded.

Disclaimer

In these terms and conditions, the terms "we", "us", and "our" are to be taken as referring to LSIS.

LSIS has been set up to spark fresh enthusiasm for innovation and excellence in the further education system. We are leading the challenge to those involved in teaching, learning and training to lift their performance and implement the government's reforms for learning and skills.

We are not responsible for the content of postings or other information provided by members of the public. Any information or advice provided by LSIS is provided in good faith but is not a substitute for appropriate educational or legal advice.

You should not base any decisions on the material that you find on this learning platform without verifying the accuracy thereof independently.

We do not accept any liability to any person in relation to any material provided on this learning platform or otherwise, whether originated by members of the public or us. It is a condition of your use of this learning platform that you agree that you will not make any claim against LSIS or any of its personnel in respect of any content of this learning platform or any communication from LSIS.

Listing or providing a resource should not necessarily be taken as endorsement of any kind by us. We cannot guarantee that links to third-party sites will work all of the time and we have no control over the availability of linked pages. A link does not imply an endorsement of a site; likewise, not linking to a particular site does not imply lack of endorsement.

We shall not be liable for any interruptions to the availability of the learning platform or services provided via the learning platform for any reason but including without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing any outages or unavailability arising directly or indirectly from:

interruptions to the flow of data to or from the internet
changes, updates or repairs to the network or software which we use as a platform to provide the learning platform
the effects of the failure or interruption of services provided by third parties
factors outside of our reasonable control
your actions or omissions or those of any third parties
problems with your equipment and/or third-party equipment