User Agreement for ILIAS:

Purpose

1. ILIAS is a virtual learning environment (VLE) provided by the Centre for Information Technology and Media Services (hereinafter referred to by its German acronym ZIM) and has both public and restricted areas. Its purpose is to support study and tuition, research, science and technology transfer at the University of Passau.
2. More specifically, the virtual learning environment ILIAS is intended for
   • students to view and implement the learning materials made available on the platform and to use the learning, working, communication and collaboration features that ILIAS provides.
   • lecturers to upload such resources into the VLE.
3. In some cases, students may be permitted to upload select teaching materials onto ILIAS. Authorisation to do this is granted by the administrator of the relevant area.

Access and registration

1. Students and members of the University of Passau as well as authorised external users may use the server and its contents free of charge.
2. All University of Passau students and other members as well as external cooperation partners and external students attending cross-university courses are eligible to access the platform.
   • To log in to the system, members of the University of Passau use the ZIM credentials they are provided with by ZIM on joining the university.
   • Accounts for external users (members of other universities or, as the case may be, cooperation partners) can be requested from ZIM (support@zim.uni-passau.de) through cooperating members of the University of Passau.
3. All users undertake not to disclose or otherwise share their access details with third parties, particularly login name and password. Users are liable for any misuse of their account attributable to neglect on their part.
4. The accounts of University of Passau members are deleted 5 years after expiration of the ZIM credentials. As a rule, the accounts of external users are activated for a limited period of time and likewise deleted five years after expiration of their credentials. Account deletion is always performed at the end of a given month. Users may put a request to ZIM for early deletion of their accounts.
   
   Deletion of the account results in the complete removal of all personal data (e.g. personal profile, course and group memberships, learning progress). Any objects and text contributions created by a user or users prior to account deletion (e.g. in wikis or blogs) are anonymised. This does not apply to forum postings, however.
   
   Users are urged to back up any files they may require themselves prior to expiration of the ZIM or external credentials.

Terms of use (Authorisation of use)

1. All users must ensure that the personal e-mail address they provide is always valid and operational and check their inbox regularly for messages.
2. Users agree not to knowingly upload any content that may disrupt the system (e.g. malware).
3. Moreover, users are not permitted to use the ILIAS system to send out advertisements and/or marketing messages.
4. Lecturers and persons with area administrator rights have sole responsibility for the events and the content they offer on ILIAS and agree to ensure appropriate and legally compliant provision of such events or content.<
5. If any of the terms set forth above are breached, users will be obliged to indemnify the injured party for any resulting damage. Moreover, as soon as ZIM becomes aware of any such breach, it may bar the person committing the breach from accessing ILIAS permanently or for a limited period of time. Before any final decision is made, the user concerned must be heard and the administration consulted. A suspension is limited to 72 hours or the time needed to repair the damage done.

Copyrights and applicable law

1. In accepting this agreement, users expressly acknowledge that all rights in the materials provided on ILIAS are owned by the copyright holders or, as the case may be, by any other third party identified. Users undertake to comply with the copyright laws. Any use of the materials made available outside of the course, e.g. reproduction, publication, sale or transfer to third parties, requires the respective copyright holder's prior consent. This does not apply to the unavoidable creation of automatic temporary copies by the browsers used and the print-out of content for personal learning purposes.
2. Lecturers are obliged to make sure that they have the authorisation to pass on the materials provided to the various groups of people. They have sole responsibility for ensuring that provision of such materials is legally compliant.
3. In addition, users must agree not to violate applicable law. In particular, they undertake:
   • not to commit any criminal act, particularly
   • not to harass or insult other users,
   • not to post slanderous or threatening content,
   • or not to send such content to other users,
   • and not to breach regulations for the protection of minors.
4. Lecturers are themselves responsible for securing and archiving examination-relevant data, contributions and submissions.

Privacy

1. Personal data are stored exclusively for the purpose of giving users access to ILIAS for study purposes and for purposes of training or further education and to support the individual learning process. In no event will ZIM disclose personal data to third parties for promotion and marketing purposes or in any other manner.
2. Users are prohibited from uploading personal data to objects outside their personal workspace (e.g. wiki or blog contributions).
3. The following personal data are stored in ILIAS and can be viewed by the administrators of the individual areas:
   1. Personal inventory data
      • personal details such as
      • username
      • family name
      • given name(s)
      • matriculation number
      • e-mail address
      are transferred by the central authentication service of the University of Passau to the ILIAS installation and cannot be edited locally by the users. On request, users may add further information to their profile at their own discretion. Users decide whether they want any information other than their name and username published in their personal profile.
   2. Personal learning progress
      Furthermore, the learning progress of each group and course participant is recorded with a view to improving the support that teachers provide learners. Every member may view their own learning progress. The following data may be viewed by anyone with administrator and tutor rights:
      • current status of individual learning objects
      • first and last access to learning objects
      • number of accesses to learning objects
      • total duration of access to learning objects
      Only the responsible teachers are given access to the activities performed by members via the system (learning modules completed, test results, submitted exercises etc.).
      
      The responsible teachers decide for each learning project whether learning progress is to be recorded. If users do not allow other users to view their profile, only the administrators of the learning objects used will have access to any learning progress data that may be required. The exact list of the recorded data may be requested from the respective course administrator.
   3. Log data and access statistics
      All user activities on ILIAS are logged. As a result, the date and time, the internet protocol address of the assigned terminal device and the ILIAS page visited are documented and stored.
      
      By accepting this User Agreement, users consent to having the aforementioned personal data analysed for statistical purposes and, as the case may be, published in anonymous form.
   4. 'Active users' list
      To facilitate communication between users, the 'Active users' list indicates which users are currently logged in. The same applies for learning group members and participants in individual courses.
4. Users may request information on the data stored by ZIM and the purpose of such storage any time. Furthermore, users are entitled to have any data stored by ZIM corrected, blocked and deleted under certain circumstances. Such requests should be addressed to support@zim.uni-passau.de and include the ZIM username as well as the user's full address.

Disclaimer and warranty

1. ZIM is the provider of the ILIAS Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) within the meaning of § 10 German Telemedia Act (Telemediengesetz).
2. In this capacity, ZIM is in effect not responsible for any third-party content that it stores, transmits or to which it grants access on the ILIAS VLE on behalf of users.
3. The above does not apply if ZIM, in its capacity as service provider, becomes aware of unlawful activities or information and fails to act promptly to remove or block access to such information.
4. ZIM accepts no responsibility for content referred to by direct or indirect links (hyperlinks) and content over which ZIM has no control.
5. No warranty is made as to the currency and completeness of the content provided on the learning platform.
6. ZIM is entitled to alter or disable parts or specific functions of the services it provides at any time. By the same token, ZIM may restrict the use of and access to the ILIAS VLE as well as the duration and scope of use at any time. However, ZIM undertakes all efforts to keep outages as brief as possible and to ensure that all features are available at all times.

About this Agreement

1. The present terms of use can be viewed online on the ILIAS learning platform at the University of Passau and must be accepted by all users before they log in for the first time. In accepting this User Agreement, users accept the validity of each individual provision. The validity of each individual provision is not affected by the validity of any other individual provisions.
2. ZIM is entitled to amend any section of this agreement at any time. Such amendments become effective as soon as the change is implemented by ZIM. Following each amendment, every user is asked to accept the provisions of the User Agreement anew the next time they log in. By continuing to use the ILIAS system, users accept the amended Agreement and are bound by the provisions of the amended Agreement.
3. Users have the right to revoke their consent to this Agreement at any time. The authorisation to use ILIAS lapses as a result of such revocation.

Severability

1. If provisions of this Agreement (in part or individual formulations) do not comply, no longer comply or do not completely comply with the applicable laws, the content and validity of the remaining parts of the document will remain unaffected.
2. The ineffective provision will be replaced by an effective and enforceable provision whose purpose most closely approximates that of the original provision.