Student Conditions of Use of East Surrey College Network



Student Conditions of Use of East Surrey College Network

Please keep this sheet for future reference

Introduction

The Computer Network is provided for the use of students at the College to support and enhance the delivery of the curriculum. Every full-time and part-time student (offsite learners by request of the tutor) is allocated their own log-in ID, email account, password and network disk space. Off site learners can also have by request of the tutor.

All use of the college IT equipment is subject to the user agreeing to these conditions.

Computer Network

Conditions of Use

1. Students must not attempt to penetrate any of the college IT security systems.

2. Students must not try to permanently change the configuration of any computer without the express permission of a member of the IT Services team.

3. Users must not copy software from the network in violation of College licensing agreements.

4. Users are responsible for maintaining their secure login password. They must not divulge it to others.

5. Users must never attempt to gain access to other users’ files by using others’ passwords or by any other means.

6. The computers are for curriculum use only. Saving or playing games on college PCs is prohibited.

7. Eat and drinking and use of mobile phones in computer areas is prohibited.

8. Users must not use the network to send instant messages to other users.

9. Students must not load any executable programs from disk or Internet on to computers or the network.

10. The deliberate introduction of viruses or other damaging software is a serious offence. Please use virus checking software provided on the network to check any USB keys brought in from home. If you find that you have a virus please get help by contacting ICT Services at once.

11. At no time may the College computing or telecommunications facilities be used for the storage, display or transmission of material, in any format, that is abusive, racist, pornographic, or terrorist in nature.

12. The College reserves the right to monitor any data stored on its equipment or transmitted to or from its site. Users should not attempt to password-protect or encrypt any data as it will be assumed to be suspect.

13. When a student leaves the college their account be deleted; they should copy files they need before they leave.

14. The College takes no responsibility for data stored on the network or data lost due to computer failure. We do, however, take every precaution to maintain network data integrity including taking nightly backups.

Internet

All the College computers are set up to allow access to the Internet. The Internet can be a valuable tool for research and communication, but it can also be a time and resources waster and does have some risks.

Conditions of Use

1. Internet access during the College day is for curriculum-related work only. Access to Chat lines and social networking sites are filtered.

2. Any defamatory text, images or other content about any member of the College (staff or student), or that brings the College name into disrepute, posted on any Internet site is not permitted and may lead to disciplinary procedures. This also applies to anything posted from home.

3. Instant messaging software such as MSN must not be used.

4. Internet users should log out and give way to students who need to use the computer for other work such as coursework at busy times.

5. Copying text, images or other material from the Internet may breach the Copyright, Design and Patent Act. Please check with the owner before copying or publishing such material.

6. Streaming of video or audio material that is not curriculum-related is prohibited as it may slow down Internet access for all other users of the system.

7. Beware of other Internet users; they are not always who or what they seem. Do not send any personal information or arrange meetings with people you don’t know.

8. Any user who finds a possible security lapse on any system is obliged to report the event to the ICT Servicedesk.

9. No user may use College facilities knowingly to download or distribute illegal software or material.

10. The College Internet access is filtered to block undesirable sites, but if you do come across unsavoury material quit from that area at once and inform the ICT Servicedesk. The downloading, viewing, storing or transmission of any racist, pornographic, terrorist or abusive material will be treated as gross misconduct and dealt with appropriately.

Email

Introduction

Email is taken to include any passing of information from one person to another using electronic communications equipment such as computers linked via a local area network or the Internet. These conditions cover email hosted at the college or any other email (e.g. Hotmail) accessed from within the College.

Email Correspondence

It is important to emphasise that a carelessly worded email may be regarded as a legally binding document if there is sufficient detail and enough evidence of agreement.

Conditions of Use

1. The allocation of email accounts within the College is deemed to be a privilege and not a right.

2. Users must never use email to:

a. Send messages that may disparage or harass others on the basis of gender, race, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation or national origin. This includes material in the form of offensive jokes.

b. Send unsolicited mail (junk mail) within or outside the College. This includes emails to large groups of users without good reason.

c. Impersonate another user whether that user is inside or outside the College.

d. Engage in commercial or political activity unrelated to the business of the College.

e. Receive or disseminate pornography.

f. Engage in gambling or participate in chain letters.

g. Send confidential or proprietary information about the College, its staff or its students.

h. Send statements that are defamatory or information that is false concerning the College, its staff, students or any activities that are carried out at the College.

i. Receive or distribute copyrighted materials without proper authorisation and/or payment of applicable fees to the owner of the intellectual property rights of copyrighted materials.

j. Receive or distribute software or executable programs without verifying their operational integrity.

k. Send or receive encrypted messages (except for secure transactions) without written permission from the Vice Principal of Finance and Resources.

3. Any attachments should be saved to disk (on your Y drive) and virus checked.

4. The College reserves the right to monitor and log any user’s email in accordance with the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000.

5. Users must be aware that email messages carry the same legal weight as paper-based letters and must assume that they may be stored and could be used in evidence at a later date.

6. Personal correspondence should not be read or written during working hours or when the computer is needed for College work.

7. Users must realise that shared disk space is limited and mailboxes, including email messages, have storage limits imposed on them.

8. The users’ Deleted Items folder will be cleaned every night of messages that are over one week old.

9. When a student leaves the college their account will be closed and their emails will be deleted.

10. While every effort will be taken to ensure that the system is reliable the College will not be responsible for occasional interruption to the service or lost messages.

11. Students may redirect their e-mail to another e-mail address e .g. Hotmail, AOL, Yahoo etc, but they do so at their own risk. The College will provide a method that allows students to forward their College e-mail to another e-mail address but having e-mail redirected does not absolve the student from the responsibilities associated with communication sent to his or her official College e-mail address. The College will not be responsible for the handling of e-mail by outside vendors. Staff must correspond with students via the College e-mail system only and not with any external e-mail address. Students must use the College e-mail system when e-mailing College staff. Staff receiving non College e-mails purporting to have been sent by a student should be treated with caution.

Consequences

The breaking of any of these Conditions of Use may lead to a suspension of your access to the College network. More serious offences will be dealt with at the highest level and could ultimately lead to suspension or expulsion from the College. Contravention of the Misuse of Computers Act, the Obscene Publications Act, or the Race Relations Act would make the person responsible liable to criminal prosecution.

These conditions are laid down to help all the students at the College to use its computer equipment in a constructive way to enhance their learning and personal development. ICT Operational Manager 13 July 2009

Guidance for Good Practice

Security

▪ Passwords are the last line of defence against misuse of the systems.

▪ Do not write your password down. Remember do not disclose your password to any other person.

▪ A secure password is one that is not easy to guess; passwords should not include “common words” but should contain a mixture of letters (both upper and lower case) and numbers.

▪ It is essential to log out of your account when you finish a session.

▪ Ensure that you are aware of the appropriate method of saving your work.

E-mails

▪ The informal nature of e-mail can sometimes lead to insufficient consideration of its content

▪ E-mails should be drafted with care. Response to an e-mail should not be sent in haste, anger or hostility. If in doubt, do not send.

▪ Keep them short, clear and relevant.

▪ E-mails can be retrieved after they have been deleted or sent and can be treated as a permanent record and could be used in court proceedings.

▪ E-mails are written documents and derogatory remarks may constitute libel.

▪ E-mail is an insecure system. Anything highly confidential should be sent by conventional mail.

▪ Avoid unnecessary copies.

▪ Make hard copies of e-mails you need to retain for record keeping purposes.

Measures to Minimize Contracting Viruses

▪ Avoid opening unexpected messages from known or unknown senders.

▪ Do not install free software, shareware, freeware or any other software.

▪ Take care in downloading from the internet.

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