Full policy

Accessibility of web pages

We aim to ensure all our online material is accessible to users with a variety of needs and across a variety of devices.

For support if you experience any problems accessing the VLE and/or other materials contained within, please log your problem on our eLearning helpdesk at http://www.ice.cam.ac.uk/about-us/elearningsupport

Online security

As an authorised user (course participant or tutor) you are responsible for the security of your username and password.

Please do not share your username and password with others to allow them entry to this site.

You may use the site only for lawful purposes. You must not use the site:

• In any way that breaches any applicable local, national or international law or regulation
• In any way that is unlawful or fraudulent or has any unlawful or fraudulent purpose or effect
• For the purpose of harming or attempting to harm minors in any way
• To send, knowingly receive, upload, download, use or re-use any material that does not comply with Content Standards (see below)
• To harass others
• To transmit or procure the sending of any unsolicited or unauthorised advertising or promotional material or any other form of similar solicitation (spam)
• To knowingly transmit any data, send or upload any material that contains viruses or any other computer code, programs or files designed to destroy, interrupt or limit the functionality of any computer, computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment.

Making contributions

The VLE is designed to be a place for you to contribute to discussions, ask questions, and provide help and advice to fellow students. Please respect the views of others and, where you disagree, do so politely and in the spirit of academic discourse.

Any abusive or offensive posts may be deleted and may be subject to the disciplinary process outlined in the student handbook. If you spot anything that could cause offence, you should point it out to the original poster (who may be unaware of the offence) or your tutor.

Contributions to forums are the intellectual property of the contributor and should be acknowledged wherever quoted or referred to by other course participants within the course. Contributions made within the VLE should not be copied or quoted or referred to outside of the VLE without the express permission of the author.

You are also bound by the rules for appropriate use imposed by the University's Information Strategy and Services Syndicate.

Content standards

These Content Standards apply to any and all material which you contribute (“Contribution”) to this Site, which includes any interactive services or features associated with it, such as the Discussion Forums.

Contributions must:

• Be accurate (where they state facts)
• Be genuinely held (where they state opinions)
• Comply with applicable law in the UK and the law of the country from which they are posted

Contributions must not:

• Contain any material that is likely to offend, provoke or attack other contributors to or users of the VLE
• Contain any material that is defamatory of any person
• Contain any material that is obscene, offensive, abusive or hateful
• Promote sexually explicit material
• Promote violence or contain a statement or describe or encourage activities that could endanger the safety or well-being of others
• Promote discrimination on the basis of age, sex, sexual orientation, disability, race, religion or nationality
• Infringe any copyright, trademark or other intellectual property right of any person or organisation
• Advocate, promote or assist any unlawful act or illegal activity
• Be made in breach of any legal duty owed to a third party such as a contractual duty or a duty of confidence
• Be threatening, harass, abuse or invade another’s privacy or cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety to any person
• Be used to impersonate any person or to mispresent the contributor’s identity or affiliation with any person or organisation
• Contain any material that contains viruses or any other computer code, programs or files designed to destroy, interrupt or limit the functionality of any computer, computer software or hardware, or telecommunications equipment.

Submission of course work

All students are normally expected to submit work for assessment via the VLE. Work submitted for assessment will be processed by Turnitin, an electronic plagiarism detection service. Further information is given in the Student Handbook.

Storage of user contributions

The VLE is a constantly changing site as new contributions are added. Back-ups are taken for the purposes of disaster recovery but it is not always possible to recover a copy of the site at a particular moment in time.

Copyright regulations

Staff, tutors and students are reminded that copyright subsists in learning materials and the works from which they are taken.

The Institute of Continuing Education at the University of Cambridge is the owner or licensee of learning materials published on this site, and copyright laws and treaties around the world protect the materials.

Only students registered on a course of study with the Institute of Continuing Education at the University of Cambridge may use the materials unless otherwise stated.

Subject to legal statutory exceptions, the learning materials may be accessed, downloaded and a single copy printed in an unaltered form for your personal study that is not for a direct or indirect commercial use. Any content downloaded or printed may not be sold, resold, licensed, transferred, copied or reproduced in whole or in part in any manner or in any media to any person or organization (including sending by email or attachment, posting on an intranet or the Internet on any site) without the prior written consent of the copyright owner(s) as identified.

Any materials or content may not be used for any other purpose than intended without the prior written consent of the copyright owner/s as identified.

You may not use any illustrations, photographs, video or audio sequences or any graphics separately from any accompanying text unless otherwise stated.

The Institute of Continuing Education at the University of Cambridge has made every reasonable effort to locate, contact and acknowledge copyright owners and wishes to be informed by any copyright owners who are not properly identified and acknowledged in these learning materials so that we can make any necessary corrections. Please refer to the Notice and Takedown Policy below.

Recordings - Student Information

You can view the full Policy on Recordings of Teaching Materials and Lectures here.  We hope that students will support our endeavours to provide recorded teaching material and recordings of teaching sessions. 

Where teaching sessions are recorded, you will be provided with access to the recording, which you may use only for your own private study or non-commercial research.  Access to recordings will be managed by your course and may be of time-limited duration.  You may not share or disseminate the recording or material from it, including excerpts, in any format or media.  Breaches may be subject to disciplinary action.   

Your consent is not required for every type of teaching session, but for any teaching session where your contribution is mandatory or expected (for example, supervisions or small-group discussion sessions), we must seek your consent to be recorded.  This consent may be given verbally or in writing; you may be given the University’s Lecture Capture Consent Form: Students or you may be asked at the start of the session. 

By giving consent, you agree to the following: 

1. I have been given information and a link to the University’s Policy on the Recording of Teaching Materials/Lectures, and other Teaching, Learning, and Assessment Activities.  
2. My personal data (including my image, voice, opinions, etc.) will be recorded and managed in line with the University’s Statement of Records Management Practice. Full details about how your data is managed is available in the relevant privacy notice on the Information Compliance website. 
3. I understand that I am not obliged to give this consent, and have the right to withdraw my consent after it has been given.   

If you do not agree to the statements above, please notify your session leader immediately.  If you do not consent, or if your consent is later withdrawn, the recording may not be made available unless your contribution can be removed. 

Your consent is not required when your contribution is optional, not expected, or otherwise not required in order to meet the learning objectives of the session, provided that you have been notified that: (a) the session will be recorded, and (b) that you have the right to request that you are not recorded, and to seek guidance on how to ensure this is the case.  This may entail either being seated in a particular part of the room, or turning off your camera/microphone for virtual sessions.  Students are advised to approach the relevant session leader in good time prior to the session, to ensure that they may be advised appropriately.  

Further guidance and support:  

• Cambridge University Student’s Union 
• Student Advice Service 
• University website on Lecture Capture 

Limitation of liability

Learning materials may contain advice, opinions, statements or other information by various authors or organisations. As with any university-level course, you are expected to approach materials with a level of critical engagement.

Where the learning materials provide links to other websites and resources provided by third parties, those links are provided for information only. The University has no control over the contents of those sites or resources or their privacy/data protection policies and accepts no responsibility for them or for any loss or damage that may arise from your use of them.

Notice and takedown policy

If you are a copyright owner and are concerned that you have found material in these learning materials for which you have not given permission, or is not covered by a legal statutory exemption, please contact us in writing stating your contact details and the bibliographical details of the material:

Upon receipt of notification the Institute will acknowledge receipt of your complaint by email or letter and will make an initial assessment of the complaint.

Upon receipt of a valid complaint the material will be temporarily removed from the Institute of Continuing Education VLE pending an agreed solution.

Privacy policy

The Privacy Policy for the Institute of Continuing Education at the University of Cambridge is available at https://www.ice.cam.ac.uk/info/privacy-policy and applies to this site.

Please note: the information entered into your Personal Profile will be available to other students and the tutors on your course(s). External Moderators and Examiners and other administrative and academic staff of the Institute may be granted access to individual courses at the discretion of the Institute.

Data held by the VLE

Data held by the VLE includes your name, email address, username (crsid or email address), and course information.

Moodle logs contain detailed information about user activity within each course, including the date and time of when course-specific information was viewed and/or updated, the address of the machine from which the access was made, the browser identification information and information about the referring web page. Logs are used to create summary statistics which may be made publicly available. Summary statistics do not include personal data.

Information about contributions to courses, including contributions to chat rooms and discussion forums, ownership of resources, assignment/file submissions, text matching scores and evidence of participation in other Moodle-based activities is held within the Moodle system.

Information and data related to users, including grades, feedback comments, scores, completion data, access rights and group membership is also recorded.

Additional personal data may be held within individual courses, either within documents/resources uploaded to the course, or within activities within the course. Other than contributions to chat rooms and discussion forums which are submitted by individuals in a personal capacity, course maintainers are responsible for the information held about you that may be uploaded onto such courses.

How the VLE uses your personal information

The VLE records and uses your personal information to:

• Provide you an account on, and identify you within, the VLE
• Provide you access to courses/sites within the VLE
• Provide you the ability to upload, amend and delete certain information within the VLE
• Provide you access to the information, resources and activities uploaded to the VLE
• Control access to different parts of the system
• Help support VLE users
• For system administration and bug tracking
• Report on course, resource and activity access, activity completion, course completion and course data (such as grades, scores, submissions and content uploaded)
• For producing usage statistics for management and planning purposes

Individual courses within the VLE may collect additional personal information in order to:

• Provide services to the users
• Facilitate and support business processes
• Support users in their use of the VLE

Who has access to VLE data

The ICE Technology Enhanced Learning Team and the Moodle systems team at the University of Cambridge University Information Serices (UIS) have access to all information stored within the VLE for the purposes set out above.

All course administrators and maintainers have access to the personal information of the other users of that course.

Access to Moodle logs is restricted to authorised staff at ICE and UIS.

Relevant subsets of this data may be passed to computer security teams at the University Computing Service (e.g. CamCERT) as part of an investigation into computer misuse.

Where VLE information is shared

The VLE shares your personal information with other systems within the University

Certain data may be shared with the Text Matching Service (Turnitin) and Lecture Capture Service (Panopto). Their privacy notices are:

Text Matching Service (Turnitin):  Turnitin Privacy and Security notices and Turnitin User agreement

Lecture Capture Service (Panopto): Panopto Video Platform Privacy Policy and Panopto Terms of Service

VLE data retention

Information and data uploaded to the VLE, including accounts, courses and about contributions to courses, including contributions to chat rooms and discussion forums, ownership of resources and evidence of participation in other VLE-based activities may be retained indefinitely.

VLE data is backed up at a facility managed by UIS. The backups are held for the purpose of reinstatement of the data, e.g. in the event of failure of a system component.

Cookies

Cookies are small text files that can be used by websites to make a user's experience more efficient. We use cookies to manage your use of this site (Moodle cookies) and to analyse how you use this site (Google Analytics cookies), in order to better understand your needs and improve the site. We do not collect or store personal information and we do not use cookies for identification or for any purposes other than those described here. By using this site you agree to allow us to place the cookies described here on your device. For further information about cookies, including how to control or delete them see http://www.aboutcookies.org/

Moodle

The VLE sets two cookies, MoodleSession and MOODLEID_

Cookies are small files which sit on your computer and record specific interactions between you and this website, and in some cases, other websites. This information is sometimes shared with the University of Cambridge, and in other cases, third parties. Below is more detail about the cookies we use, what they record and who the information is shared with. You are of course free to disable cookies.

Further information can be found on the University’s cookies webpage.

In addition to the cookies listed on the cookies webpage, Moodle will set the following cookies:

MoodleSession

This cookie provides continuity and maintains your login from page to page. When you log out or close the browser this cookie is destroyed (in your browser and on the server)

MOODLEID_

This cookie records the username you log in as when you visit the site, and allows the username field to be automatically filled in the next time you visit

X-Mapping-xxxxxxxx

This is a Strictly Necessary cookie used by the UIS network Traffic Manager device to route data and page requests to the correct server

Google Analytics

Google Analytics stores information about what pages you visit, how long you are on the site, how you got here and what you click on. Google Analytics sets the following cookies:

Name	Typical Content	Expires
_utma	Randomly generated number	2 years
_utmb	Randomly generated number	30 minutes
_utmc	Randomly generated number	when you close your browser
_utmx	Randomly generated number	2 years
_utmz	Randomly generated number (e.g. direct or via a link, organic search or paid search)	6 months

NB To enable your computer to accept cookies from this VLE while retaining a block on other sites, you may need to adjust the settings on your internet browser. See http://www.aboutcookies.org for more detailed guidance.

General

Nothing in these conditions of use is intended to nor shall it confer any benefit on a third party whether under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 or otherwise.

The University's failure or delay to exercise or enforce any right in these conditions of use does not waive the University's right to enforce that right.

If any of these conditions of use should be determined to be illegal, invalid or otherwise unenforceable by reason of the laws of any country in which these conditions of use are intended to be effective, then to the extent and within that jurisdiction in which that condition of use is illegal, invalid or unenforceable, it shall be severed and deleted from these conditions of use and the remaining conditions of use shall survive and remain in full force and effect and continue to be binding and enforceable.

Jurisdiction

These conditions of use and all questions of construction, interpretation, validity and performance under these conditions including non-contractual disputes or claims shall be governed by English law and subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.

Support

For all VLE queries and support please use the Technology Enhanced Learning Helpdesk at http://www.ice.cam.ac.uk/about-us/elearningsupport

Contact details

Revised: September 2023

Full policy

Using this VLE

We want as many people as possible to be able to use this environment and take part in the activities. For example, you should be able to:

• change colours and contrast levels using the accessibility menu
• access advice on making text larger in your browser from the accessibility menu zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen
• listen to most of the VLE using a screen reader
• navigate most of the VLE using speech recognition software navigate most of the VLE using just a keyboard
• easily perceive text and icons in most of the VLE due to high colour contrast

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

The accessibility of this VLE

We know that some parts of the VLE are not fully accessible:

• video content may have poor-quality or missing captions
• there are documents (such as PDFs, spreadsheets, Word documents, presentations, etc.) that may not be fully accessible, e.g., to screen reader software or keyboard- only access
• some courses may be hard to navigate
• you cannot modify the line height or spacing of text
• in places, the contrast between colours is not accessible tool tips will not be read out by screen reader software popup content is not read out by screen reader software
• in some parts if the system, aria labels and headings are missing

Accessibility of Turnitin:

Turnitin feedback studio turns submissions into an image PDF, which makes them inaccessible to people using screen readers when uploading an assignment in Turnitin, you may not be given an indication of how far along the upload has progressed.

What to do if you can’t access parts of this VLE

If you need content in an alternative format, such as accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, you can contact your course organiser or course administrator.

For technical or system issues, please contact the Technology Enhanced Learning Team via our Helpdesk.

Technical information about this VLE’s accessibility

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Issues with technology

• it is not possible for users to modify text spacing or line height
• the text shown in the popup window when the mouse pointer is hovered over the '?' symbol is blurry if the browser screen resolution is greater or smaller than 100% (in Chrome browser only)
• the left hand navigation bar flickers as you move the mouse on and off the scroll bar to move up and down the content
• there is no text indicating the purpose of the accessibility menu, help, private files, or favourite star icons
• the colour contrast of the server name in the footer is too low
• help information is presented in tool tips which are not read out by screen reader software
• the system uses some popups which are not read out by screen reader software
• the system lacks some aria labels and headings used by screen readers
• some buttons include text without the accessible name (label, alternative text, aria-label, etc.) in the visible text
• the focus highlighting does not move correctly across the top custom menu where dropdown menus are present

We’ve assessed the cost of fixing these issues and believe doing so now would exceed what the University of Cambridge can reasonably bear, when weighed up against the benefit it would bring to people with a disability. We will make further assessments pending the development of a new Moodle that will host only teaching and learning (T&L) content. This is scheduled for launch in 2020.

Issues with text and content

Issues with PDFs and other documents

Many of our older PDFs and Word documents don’t meet accessibility standards - for example, they may not be marked up so they’re accessible to a screen reader, may lack headings, or other navigation aids.

Course creators and individuals uploading content to Moodle are responsible for the quality of the documents, including their accessibility to the widest possible range of users. The TEL team does not advise that documents or PDFs published before 23 September 2018 are fixed for accessibility issues if they’re not essential to providing teaching and learning services. This includes material in the Course History platform. Course and document creators are encouraged to make use of the university training on creating accessible digital content to help benchmark and improve document quality.

Additionally, the TEL team is working on methods to analyse the quality of content, where known and feasible. We are evaluating commercial mechanisms which will assist content creators in checking accessibility issues. We anticipate that this evaluation will take place as part of the process of commissioning a new Moodle that will host only teaching and learning (T&L) content. This is scheduled for launch in 2020.

Issues with images, video and audio

• there is no alternative format for time-based media for video and audio content
• there are no captions routinely provided for video or audio content

We are currently evaluating how best to provide a captioning service to content creators, and anticipate that this evaluation will have progressed by January 2020.

Issues with interactive tools and transactions

• colour text in the Atto rich text editor (e.g, the text editor built into Moodle activities) allows selection of colours where the contrast is too low
• it is possible to make multiple entries to the forum activity if the 'Post to forum' button is clicked more than once
• on the participants page, the filter dropdown disappears when the user scrolls down (in Internet Explorer only)
• in the flexible sections course format, expanded sections show as links, but they do not lead anywhere
• Turnitin converts submissions into an image PDF
• there is no tool tip on the assignment upload icon in Turnitin, which lacks a title attribute
• the upload icon for Turnitin submissions is a spinning wheel, rather than a 'percentage complete' indicator
• colour contrast is too low in the weekend dates in the calendar block, and the highlighted topic in the collapsed topics course format

We’ve assessed the cost of fixing these issues and believe doing so now would exceed what the University of Cambridge can reasonably bear, when weighed up against the benefit it would bring to people with a disability. We will make further assessments pending the development of a new Moodle that will host only teaching and learning (T&L) content. This is scheduled for launch in 2020.

Contacting us

For technical and system issues, or feedback, please contact the TEL team via our Helpdesk, or at the following:

ICE - TEL Team
Madingley Hall, Madingley
Cambridge
CB23 8AQ

elearning@ice.cam.ac.uk

For content issues, please contact your course organiser or course administrator, and request assistance.

How we tested this website

During the development of the Cambridge Moodle theme in 2018, the T&L and User Experience teams at UIS conducted user testing. The work assessed WCAG 2.0 checkpoints for A-AAA standard (approximately 80 points in total), and fixed issues that were found.

The Cambridge Moodle instance was also tested by a number of participants who use Assistive Technologies (voice recognition, screen readers and contrast changes), in collaboration with the UIS User Experience team and the Disability Resource Centre. In general, all participants found the Moodle interface clear to navigate and a positive experience, with 72% finding the site easy to use. Of the interface improvement recommendations, all are under review or have been implemented. Repeat testing is scheduled for the summer of 2019.

We are in the process of auditing key Moodle pages using accessibility assessment tools, such as WAVE and aXe.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We have scheduled and implemented a series of improvements, for example:

• to the colour contrast of text, background, and buttons
• to tool tips
• with aria labels for the breadcrumb menu for keyboard navigation
• for the tab order for the custom menu

Additionally, we have:

• removed empty spaces
• implemented the Accessibility menu
• supplied login instructions on the login page
• stopped scaling pushing the accessibility menu off the page
• remedied quiz feedback using colour-only to convey information

A log of unresolved issues is maintained and regularly reviewed.

At regular intervals in the year, we monitor improvements to core code, the CSS theme, and third party plugins released by developers and Moodle.org, such as during minor point and major system upgrades.

We are aware that the uploaded content is unlikely to meet WCAG 2.1 AA standards in the majority of cases. The University of Cambridge is working on methods to analyse and update content where known and feasible.

Revised: September 2023