Terms of Use & Student Policies

This document outlines expected behaviour, policies and standards to ensure you have a positive learning experience. Your rights and responsibilities are covered by a number of official policies and procedures, as well as by standards agreed between you and your teachers.

Your Rights and Responsibilities

Your Rights and Responsibilities are outlined by TAFE NSW policies and apply to online learning in the same way as to any other learning environment at Illawarra Institute.

Most important to remember is:

• Respect for others: use appropriate language, constructive criticism, and support the efforts of others.
• Respect for online spaces and facilities: use appropriate edits, upload only appropriate images and files, and take care not to delete or damage student or staff material on the site.

It is also the responsibility of all staff and students to comply with an Acceptable Usage policy when using internet and email.

• Student Rights and Responsibilities - TAFE NSW
• Internet and Email Services Acceptable Usage Policy - TAFE NSW
• Student Discipline Policy

Copyright & Plagiarism

The internet is open to all to view. However, this does not mean that you can use other people's material as your own or without proper credit to the creator of the material. Using other people's work without acknowledgement may infringe their copyright. Australia has a variety of copyright laws. You can generally assume that any material on the Internet is copyright even if there is no copyright labelling. In some cases there will be labelling such as Creative Commons. You should be careful to respect the copyright requirements at all times. This is a TAFE requirement but it is also a legal requirement wherever you may be employed.

• Intellectual Property Policy - TAFE NSW
• Copyright Amendment (Digital Act) 2000
• Smartcopying Site - National Copyright

Using other people's work without acknowledgement may also be considered plagiarism. This is essentially copying someone else's work and claiming it as your own, including copying text and images directly from the internet. Copying is a serious issue because you are attempting to demonstrate your own competency using someone else's skills. This is not only unacceptable but is detrimental to your own learning and competency. The student handbook provided at enrolment explains your responsibilities in more detail.

Online Safety

The Internet provides opportunities to connect with people and sites all over the world. Many can be trusted but some are not trustworthy, some are incorrect and some may have a high risk. In an online environment you must take responsibility for your personal information and privacy. You should also be critical and evaluate sites and information you find - don't accept what you find on the internet as correct or true without evaluating.

Your own computer could suffer file loss or damage by malicious software (viruses, spyware, etc) when using the Internet. Ensure that you have up to date security software installed.

• Adapted from Northern Sydney and Sydney Institute Guidelines.