Uploading Material to the Learning Space

Everyone uploading material to Learning Space must ensure that they are legally entitled to do so.

All materials on the Learning Space must be regarded as public documents and freely accessible inside and outside the University. This is because any document may have to be made accessible via a Freedom of Information request, see here for more information. But, more importantly, because any student or staff member might download it and use it in another context and lead to ‘downstream’ claims of copyright infringement against the University. 

When using material from the web, always check the website’s Terms of Use.  This can usually be found at the footer of the home page.  For example on Falmouth University’s own website:

Many Terms of Use will state ‘copyright reserved’ or similar. This does not mean the material cannot be used.  Small amounts may be permitted under what is termed ‘fair use’, ‘fair dealing’ or ‘fair academic use.’ This means that it may be legally acceptable to use small amounts of other people’s work without the need to seek copyright permission.  

There is some flexibility in the case of academic use. It must be used for legitimate academic work and not for profit, the amount used must not be excessive and the source and copyright must be acknowledged wherever possible. As there are no absolute rules, all students and staff need to consider carefully what constitutes an acceptable amount and what represents appropriate acknowledgement.

In brief, the current legislation allows copying of works in any medium provided that:

• It is used solely to illustrate a point
• It is not for commercial purposes and does not compromise the owner’s ability to benefit from the work, e.g. make a profit from the original work
• The amount used must be small and meet ‘fair dealing’ criteria
• It must be acknowledged appropriately For more information on this, please see GOV.UK Intellectual Property Office Exceptions to copyright: Education and Teaching 

Other material may be stated to be ‘royalty free’ or be available under a ‘creative commons’ licence. Whilst these allow re-use without payment, both explicitly create an obligation to acknowledge the source.  They may also place limitations on the extent to which materials may be modified or used for differing purposes. 

Students and staff uploading material to the Learning Space must ensure that they are both aware of and comply with the University’s Academic Integrity Policy.

Your continued use of Learning Space constitutes acceptance of this policy.

GOV.UK Intellectual Property Office Exceptions to Copyright.

Advice to staff who wish to include scanned digital material on Learning Space: Scanning under the CLA Licence and General copyright advice.

If you require further advice, please contact the University’s Information Governance Team, informationoffice@falmouth.ac.uk 

By uploading materials to the Learning Space, you must ensure that:

• You either own the copyright to the materials or believe them to be accessible under 'fair academic use' or 'fair dealing' conditions.
• You have checked the terms of use of any websites from which materials have been taken and have confirmed that all sources have been acknowledged in the appropriate format.
• You have read and understood the University’s Academic Integrity Policy. 

All personal information submitted to the Learning Space is covered by the Data Protection Act, and from 25 May 2018 the General Data Protection Regulation.

All personal information uploaded to the Learning Space will be retained for a minimum of three years so that it can be accessed by students for the duration of their studies, and for quality assurance purposes.  For example, the following information will be retained:

• Contributions to digital activities (e.g. forum posts, workshop activities)
• Assessment submissions
• Assessment feedback

If at any point you think that some of your personal information should be removed from the Learning Space, please contact the Information Governance Team, informationoffice@falmouth.ac.uk

For more detailed information on how your personal information is used, please see the University’s website.

If you need any further information or guidance, please contact the University’s Information Governance Team, informationoffice@falmouth.ac.uk