Scholars Online Site Terms of Use

Membership Activities and Responsibilities

All members agree to the terms of use for the site (below) and for the Moodle. Individual users including students will be asked to accept the Moodle policy before gaining admission to the Moodle.

Students

See Student Member Activities and Responsibilities for Scholars Online policies on the responsibilities and privileges of Student members.

Parents

See Parents Member Activities and Responsibilities for Scholars Online policies on the responsibilities and privileges of Parent members.

Parents should also be aware that

Teachers may at their own discretion set attendance requirements as conditions for successful completion of their own courses. Parents should become aware of these requirements before scheduling vacations or other activities that prevent student attendance, and should notify the teacher as soon as possible if situations occur that may legitimately prevent a student from attending, such as illness or family emergencies.
If we determine that examination conditions as set by the teacher for access to materials during tests, or proper monitoring of tests conditions, have not been met, we may require you to secure an independent proctor at your own cost before accepting future test content for grading.

Alumni

See Alumni Member Activities and Responsibilities for Scholars Online policies on the responsibilities and privileges of Alumni members.

Site Policy Terms of Use

Scholars Online Website Content: Ownership of Materials

Basic idea: Your administrators, teachers, parents, and students have worked hard to create site content that identifies the community, provides security for the safety of all members, and supports your educational progress. Please respect their work, and that of others, and do not steal or plagiarize it, misrepresent it, or attempt to destroy it.

Legalese: All text, graphics, user interfaces, visual interfaces, photographs, logos, music, artwork, and computer code exclusive of the Moodle (collectively, "Content") including but not limited to the design, structure, selection, coordination, expression, "look and feel", and arrangement of such Content contained on this Site is owned by Scholars Online corporately or its individual contributing members, and is protected by copyright and other intellectual property right laws.

In accord with the Fair Use laws, you may download one copy of the materials at Scholars Online for your personal, non-commercial home use, provided that you retain all copyright and other proprietary notices. Otherwise, unless permission is explicitly granted by notice on individual web pages, you may not copy, reproduce, republish, post, publicly display, encode, or distribute content in any way without prior written consent of the copyright owner, whether Scholars Online or an individual member. In downloading materials from contract teacher sites, you must follow the policies required by the individual teacher.

You may not attempt to monitor the site, attempt to gain access to any materials, including information kept on the site about other members, through means not provided at the site. You may not test the Site's vulnerability.

If you contribute to course descriptions, chats, bulletin boards, reviews, white papers, or other Scholars Online website content exclusive of work done in fulfilling course requirements, you represent and warrant that you own or control all of the rights to such content, or are citing another's work within the guidelines for academic review, properly identifying the original author. In posting material at Scholars Online, unless otherwise indicated, you grant Scholars Online a nonexclusive, royalty free, perpetual, irrevocable right to publish such material in its original form and display such content via the Internet anywhere in the world. Scholars Online will not republish this information in any other form without your consent, except as necessary for normal backup and restoration of its website.

The Moodle: no, we don't own it.

The MOODLE course management system is an Open Source software package used in accordance with the GNU General Public License. In accepting access to our Moodle installation, you agree to abide by the Public License and use the Moodle only for educational purposes.

Scholars Online Website Content: Issues of Appropriateness

Basic idea: Members of Scholars Online respect each other's dignity and rights, including the right to privacy, and treat each other with Christian charity and patience. We understand that Scholars Online has certain legal constraints as a corporation under the laws of the State of Washington and as a 501(c)(3) non-profit charity as defined by the United States Internal Revenue Service. We realize that the Scholars Online site and Moodle, although publicly available, are limited resources dedicated to academic pursuits and the socialization necessary to create a cooperative learning environment, and use these resources carefully.

Legalese: Members may post reviews, comments, and bulletin board discussions and take part in chat sessions, submitting suggestions, ideas, comments, questions, assignments, and examination materials, so long as the content is not illegal and does not encourage illegal activities with the intent to commit them, and is not obscene, abusive, harassing, insulting, vulgar, sexually explicit, threatening, bigoted, hateful, racially offensive, defamatory, an invasive of privacy, infringing on intellectual property rights, or otherwise injurious to third parties. Content may not consist of or contain software viruses, official political campaigning, commercial solicitation, chain letters, mass mailings, or any form of spam.

Email addresses obtained through correspondence with other Scholars Online members may not be distributed, sold, or used for political or commercial mailings without the recipient's prior consent.

You acknowledge that all material you may submit to bulletin boards, chats, or messages, is public, and understand that such forums are not for private communications.

Scholars Online reserves the right to remove, without prior notification, any material submitted or posted to its website that it determines violates these terms.

Links to other sites

Basic idea: Content at the Scholars Online site links to other, independent Websites, such as Amazon.com in support of the bookstore, and the Moodle organization site to provide documentation for use of the Moodle. Further, teachers may develop their own sites on servers external to the Scholars Online server, or direct students to review content of third-party sites to supplement their educational curriculum. While we make a reasonable effort to limit direct links to appropriate sites, we cannot be responsible for all content at these sites. If you have questions about the suitability of such links, you should contact Scholars Online or the teacher (if the link is from the teacher's site).

Students may also post links as part of their assignments, and in their entries to the public bulletin boards. If you have questions about the suitability of such postings, contact the Moodle Administrator.

Legalese: Scholars Online is not responsible for the content of third-party sites linked to their website, either by the corporation materials posted there, by teachers in the course of their instruction, or by members in submitting contributions to courses, chats, bulletin boards, reviews, or white papers. Members agree to make their own judgment regarding interacting with third-party websites linked to the Scholars Online website either directly or indirectly, or used by teachers in the normal course of instruction.

Site security and Identification

Basic idea: Your username identifies you as the owner of your account and its information, and makes you responsible for any activity carried out by someone who logs in with that identifier. Your email address identifies you as the author of any information sent to Scholars Online from that email address. Since we depend on email and other forms of electronic communication, it is necessary that you use the username and email addresses as entered in your Scholars Online account for any "official" communication.

Legalese: You may not use anyone else's username or password to log into the Scholars Online Account Management Center or the Moodle without the express permission of the account owner, and you must identify yourself in participating in any communication activity (chat, bulletin board, message, file upload). You may not use another member's email address to send information to Scholars Online, its teacher contractors, or members, without identifying yourself.

You may not pretend that you are, or that you represent, someone else, and you may not manipulate normal identifiers such as email headers or network addresses in order to disguise the origins of any messages or transmittals that you send to the site.

Termination of access

Basic idea: We understand that occasional discipline problems or communication confusion can arise, and we will try to work with you to resolve any such situations. However, we still have to provide a safe environment for our students and teachers, and secure the classrooms from unnecessary interruptions by some users.

Legalese: Scholars Online may without prior notice terminate your access to the site if we determine that you have violated these terms of agreement or other agreements or guidelines associated with your participation in courses offered through Scholars Online.

Modification of the terms of use

Basic idea: We've written these terms to be as flexible as possible but still protect our members from deliberate misuse of the site's resources. As we gain experience, or the laws change, we may need to revise the terms of use. While we will make an effort to inform current members of such changes through our normal channels of communication, you need to check the terms occasionally on your own initiative.

Legalese: Scholars Online reserves the right to modify, add, or remove portions of these Terms of Use at any time. It is your responsibility to check these Terms of Use from time to time for changes. Your continued use of the Site following the posting of changes will mean that you accept and agree to those changes.

Scholars Online is fully accredited through the Middle States Accreditation Commissions on Elementary and Secondary Schools.

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