BPP College of Professional Studies Virtual Learning Environment Code of Conduct

Introduction

BPP College of Professional Studies (‘The College’)’s Virtual Learning Environment (‘VLE’) is part of the College’s information systems. This Code of Conduct is applied in conjunction with the College’s IT Regulations, Copyright policy, Data Protection policy, and General Academic Regulations. Staff use is governed by the Employment Handbook.

General Principles

This code of conduct refers specifically to the College's VLE but the general principles involved apply to all electronic communications systems supplied by the College and apply to staff and students alike.

The College's general rules and regulations, as well as the IT Regulations apply to all VLE users.


Using the VLE

1.  The College’s VLE not only contains learning and teaching materials and links to outside resources, but is also a communication system. These communication facilities include discussion boards for asynchronous communication as well as chat for synchronous communication.

2.  All VLE users should be aware that comments made in any of the interactive areas reflect not only on themselves but also on BPP College of Professional Studies as an institution. The VLE's communication facilities should not be used to bring the College into disrepute.

3.  Virtual communication and discussion are taking place in a social environment. Normal rules of social interaction apply and the remoteness of the recipients must not be used as an excuse to behave in an anti-social manner and post unacceptable messages. Examples of such anti-social behaviour include:

  • Harassment or intimidation of another user.

  • Person to person aggression in asynchronous or synchronous communication (e.g. discussion boards or chat).

4.  Contributions to discussion boards and synchronous chat are regarded as the intellectual property of the authors. If they are to be quoted by another person in a publication (electronic or printed) acknowledgment must be given. Work undertaken by members of staff in the course of employment are owned by the College.

5.  Where the contribution of any user of a discussion board or synchronous chat incorporates material of which that user is not the author, proper acknowledgement to the author of that material shall be given in the contribution.

6.  Users should not contribute to a synchronous or asynchronous discourse unless their contribution furthers the aims of that particular discussion forum or chat session and is in the spirit of the discourse.

7.  Personal comments about other users and their views should not be placed in any synchronous or asynchronous communication areas that are viewable by other users.

8.  Copying private messages to another person without the author's explicit permission is a breach of confidentiality.


Code of Conduct

When using the VLE's communication facilities you should:

  • Respect other people's views and beliefs.

  • Post comments appropriate to the particular discussion.

  • Remember that you are conversing with real people.

  • Enjoy your interaction with fellow students and your tutors in a friendly and intellectually stimulating environment.

When using the communication facilities you should not:

  • Post anything illegal, obscene or offensive.

  • Copy or forward email or any other private messages without permission.

  • Behave in an impolite manner.

Comments and enquiries

The College aims to make the VLE accessible to as many people as possible, including people with disabilities. If you have any comments or suggestions as to how we may improve the VLE to make it more accessible to you, please contact the Knowledge Services team.