Policies

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Terms and Conditions

Terms of Use

These terms define the basis on which this website is provided for your use.

This website is operated by Scholar as a trading arm of Heriot-Watt University whose registered address is Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom, EH14 4AS.

Please be aware that, from time to time, we may need to amend these Terms and Conditions.

If you have any queries, please email us at info@scholar.hw.ac.uk.

Access and Registration

Where appropriate, you must obtain and pay for all telecommunication services, computer equipment or other electronic devices and software necessary to connect to and use this website. Such services, equipment and software will not be provided by us and you will need to provide these from other suppliers. We do not have any control or responsibility for such suppliers.

We provide some of this website on an open-access basis but you will need to be registered with an organisation that has paid a subscription fee in order to use most areas. We reserve the right to refuse registration applications or access to the website to, for example, prevent fraudulent usage, inappropriate usage etc.

To access the website and resources, we may issue you with a username and/or password. These are for your use only. You must not share your password with anyone else or allow anyone else to log in to Scholar posing as you. You must not use anyone else's passwords. You must inform us if you think your passwords are no longer confidential. If you do, or if we have grounds to think it necessary, we may issue you with a replacement password.

You agree not to abuse the access/registration process. Maintaining the security and integrity of the website is necessary to enable our users to use it safely and effectively.

This website may not be available at all times. It will be inaccessible during maintenance periods and may, from time to time, be subject to emergency maintenance. It may also be unavailable for other reasons that may or may not be outside our control.

Please read our Privacy Notice describing the information related to you that we collect and use to provide you with Scholar services.

Disclaimer

Whilst every effort has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the content in these pages, Scholar wishes to emphasise that the contents contained within this area are regularly reviewed and are naturally subject to change from time to time. Although we take reasonable care with the website content, we cannot guarantee that the website is free from content errors or typographical errors. We will, however, use reasonable care in attempting to correct any problems once we have become aware of them. If you are in doubt about the accuracy of the content please contact us at info@scholar.hw.ac.uk or validate any specific information with a third party.

Scholar makes no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, with respect to this website or its contents or its links and accepts no legal liability for errors or omissions contained therein. In no circumstances (as permitted by law) shall Heriot-Watt University be liable for any losses, damages or claims arising or suffered as a result of any use of this website, its contents or its links.

The content of the website may include descriptions of certain practical and/or scientific experiments. Please note that the experiments shown or described should only be carried out in a controlled environment by, or under the guidance of, qualified teachers, tutors, lecturers or technicians. Any experiments at your school or college must be carried out in line with school or college health and safety policies. Teachers and lecturers must ensure that any practical experiments or demonstrations have been fully assessed for risk in accordance with the health and safety policy of their school, college or Education Authority. Scholar accepts no responsibility or liability for any practical work undertaken by teachers, lecturers or students.

This website contains content that we believe is relevant to the subject or subjects covered and is suitable for use in schools and colleges. There may be cultural sensitivities in certain countries or for certain individuals that would make the use of some of the content inappropriate. The responsibility for ensuring that the content is suitable for the users to view is that of the subscribing organisation. We take no responsibility for the cultural appropriateness or otherwise of the content on our website.

Copyright

All materials including, without limitation, website design, text, graphics, images, software compilations, underlying source code and software (including applets) on this website are the copyright of Heriot-Watt University or the relevant providers. Individuals are allowed to browse, download or copy such materials under the limit of "fair dealing" in quantity and quality and for personal reference only.

Except as stated above, materials should not be reproduced without permission or licence from Scholar.

You must not undertake, or attempt to undertake, any mass, automated or systematic extraction of website content. You must not incorporate, or attempt to incorporate, website content within paper or electronic resources without written permission from us. You may not sell, or attempt to sell, any part of the content or otherwise re-distribute it. We reserve the right to prohibit or restrict the manner in which other websites link to, or frame, or re-present any or all of the website content.

All legal and intellectual property enquiries should be directed to at info@scholar.hw.ac.uk.

Liability

The website content is provided for educational purposes only.

We shall not be liable, and shall not compensate you, for any loss or damage you may suffer unless we have failed to carry out our obligations under these Terms and Conditions to a reasonable standard, or have breached any duties imposed on us by law, including if we have caused death or personal injury by our negligence, and that failure is not attributed to: (a) your own fault, for example, your failure to abide by recommendations previously advised by us; (b) a third-party unconnected with our performance of this agreement, for instance, problems due to communications network performance, congestion, connectivity or the performance of your computer equipment or device; or (c) any other events that neither we nor our suppliers could have foreseen or forestalled even if we have taken reasonable care.

Accordingly, we will not be responsible for loss or damage to your computer hardware or device or software or other personal property or any other losses which you suffer as a result of the content of the website, including content on experiments or demonstrations, unless this is due to our own neglect or failure to take reasonable precautions and such losses are reasonably foreseen. We recommend that you (a) take care to verify the suitability and compatibility of your computer systems prior to use; and (b) take reasonable precautions to protect against harmful programs or devices including through installation of anti-virus software.

This is an educational website and, as such, we shall not in any event be liable for losses related to any business such as lost data, lost profits or surpluses or business interruption.

Scholar is an educational resource designed to support learners working towards SQA qualifications however it remains the responsibility of the schools and colleges to ensure that candidates are adequately supported in their preparation for exams. Scholar shall not be liable for any claims relating to poor performance in external examinations or assessments based on any perceived inaccuracies in, or omissions from course content.

Termination

If you wish to terminate your registration for this website at any time please contact us at info@scholar.hw.ac.uk.

Unless you and we agree otherwise e.g. within the terms of a subscription arrangement, we may terminate the provision of this website to you at any time. We shall make reasonable efforts to give you prior notice if we do so, but this may not always be possible.

Enforcement

If you are in breach of these Terms and Conditions and we do not take immediate action against you, we reserve the right to take action against you at a later date if, for example, you commit a further breach of the Terms and Conditions.

If any provision of these Terms and Conditions is, for any reason, held to be unenforceable, illegal or invalid in some other way, the unenforceable, illegal or invalid provision will not affect the remainder of these Terms and Conditions, and they will continue in full force and effect.

We will try to resolve any disagreements quickly and efficiently. If you are not content with the way we deal with any disagreement we may agree to refer the matter to arbitration but you and we are not restricted from bringing legal proceedings. These Terms and Conditions are governed by the relevant Scottish law and you and we agree to only bring legal actions about these Terms and Conditions in a Scottish court.

We intend to rely upon the written terms set out in these Terms and Conditions as the entire understanding between us relating to your use of the website. If you and we agree any changes, please make sure you request that these are confirmed in writing.

Only you or us have the right to enforce any provision under these Terms and Conditions.

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Privacy notice

Introduction

We could not provide our online courses and educational materials and services to you without collecting, holding and using your personal data. This guide explains what we do with your personal information and why.

This page provides information on:
  • Who the Data Controller is
  • Why we collect and use your personal data
  • Who your information may be shared with and why
  • How long we keep your personal data

Who is the Data Controller

We provide Scholar services under contract with the Data Controller.

If you attend or work at a local authority school, the local authority is the Data Controller for personal data we hold about you.

If you attend or work at an independent school or at a college, the school or college is the Data Controller.

As a Data Processor we hold your personal data securely and restrict access to personal information to people who need to use it in the course of their duties. When collecting and processing information about you, we must comply with the UK Data Protection Act, 2018 and the UK General Data Protection Regulation.

What personal information we collect and use

We collect and hold personal information in all formats for the purposes set out in this guide.

If you are a student we will hold a record of:
  • personal details (first name, last name and your Scottish Candidate Number);
  • education details (your school or college and the classes you are in);
  • your progress through the course materials;
  • the answers you have provided to questions;
  • how you got on in end of topic tests.
If you are a lecturer or teacher, we will hold a record of:
  • personal details (first name, last name);
  • teaching details (your school or college, the classes you teach and whether you have principal teacher;
  • a contact email address.

Why we collect and use your personal data

We collect and use your data to allow us to provide online courses and other education services.

If you are a student, we collect and use your data to:
  • enrol you in appropriate online courses;
  • provide you and your teacher/lecturer with information on your progress;
  • provide you and your teacher/lecturer with formative assessment data;
  • provide your Data Controller with aggregated data on how well Scholar is being used;
  • help us to improve the educational services we provide;
  • deal with queries or complaints promptly and fairly.
If you are a teacher/lecturer, we collect and use your data to:
  • enrol you as the teacher/lecturer for classes;
  • provide you with information on the progress of your students;
  • provide you with formative assessment data;
  • contact you by email for password recovery purposes or when the password changes;
  • send you a welcome message when you are enrolled in a new annual cohort;
  • provide service updates to you on any changes to the course materials or the features offered by the Scholar virtual learning environment;
  • help us to improve the educational services we provide;
  • deal with queries or complaints promptly and fairly.
In addition, if you are the Scholar Contact at your school, we will also use your data to allow us to:
  • facilitate the distribution of student and staff account details.
Users may receive automated emails from Scholar providing the essential functions required by our users. Examples of such automated emails include:
  • a welcome message confirming that an account has been activated;
  • an email confirming a password reset;
  • an email to confirm a change of email address.
Scholar uses Flowmailer to send automated emails and you may wish to read their compliance and security policies.

How long we keep your personal data

We will unrecoverably delete your information from all operational and disaster recovery data within 6 months of the termination of the Scholar subscription that controls your data. While a subscription is in place to control your data, we will keep your information for up to 30 months after your Scholar account expires.

Your rights

You have the right to:
  • find out, from the Data Controller (your local authority, independent school or college), what personal data we process about you and obtain a copy of the data, free of charge within one month of your request. There may be a charge for additional copies of the same information;
  • ask for inaccurate or incomplete data to be corrected.
If you think we are acting unfairly or unlawfully you can: Under certain conditions, you also have the right to ask the Data Controller (your local authority, independent school or college) to instruct us to:
  • restrict the use of your data e.g. if you have raised issues about the accuracy or use of your personal data, until we have investigated and responded to your concerns;
  • erase your information;
  • comply with your wishes where you have previously agreed to us processing your data for a particular purpose and have withdrawn your consent to further processing;
  • provide you with a portable electronic copy of data you've given us.

Data Protection Officer and contact details

If you have any questions about what we do with your personal information or your rights under privacy laws, you can contact the data protection officer for your:
  • Local authority (if you are a student or staff member at a state-funded school)
  • School (if you are a student or staff member at an independent school)
  • College (if you are a student or staff member at a Further Education College)
If you are unsure who your data protection officer is, please contact us at info@scholar.hw.ac.uk.

Find out more about your rights under privacy law

In our Data Protection Policy and our webpages.

Find out about our Information Security policies and procedures.

On the website of the UK Information Commissioner's Office.

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Social Media Policy

Details of Scholar news and service updates are provided on the public website, including new course developments, notifications about the status of Scholar services and news of upcoming events etc. This information will also be re-published via popular social media platforms, providing a choice of outlets and a more open means of communication and social engagement with our user base.

This Social Media Policy page explains how we hope to make use of the additional benefits that social media platforms provide and how we will manage our presence on these platforms. Additionally, we will adhere to the guidelines and terms of service for each site.

We monitor our social media accounts regularly during core office hours (weekdays 9:30am-4:30pm) and to a lesser extent outside of that time. Unusual office closures will be announced in advance. We aim to reply to questions posted on our Facebook page, Tweets sent to @ScholarUK or using one of our Hashtags (e.g. #ScholarUK) as soon as possible, but please contact us at info@scholar.hw.ac.uk if you have an urgent, important or confidential enquiry.

Facebook

‘Like’ our Facebook page for the opportunity to discuss your thoughts and experiences using Scholar with us, but remember that any comments posted on our page have the potential to be seen by all Facebook users so please think before you type.
Terms of Service

Instagram

Follow our Instagram account to keep up to date with Scholar. We follow educational Instagram accounts but do not follow personal accounts belonging to students. We do not use Instagram’s messaging feature.
Terms of Use

Twitter

Follow our Twitter updates to keep up to date with Scholar and for selected Retweets about relevant subjects. We mainly follow Twitter accounts that belong to educational practitioners and technologists, and we are particularly interested in receiving feedback from students and staff that use Scholar. Whilst we do not follow personal Twitter accounts that belong to students, we do encourage them to follow us and we are happy to answer their questions. We will generally try to establish a dialogue when we find Tweets about Scholar-related issues and queries even if they are not directed specifically towards us.
Terms of Service

YouTube

Videos demonstrating how to access and use Scholar are available to view on our YouTube channel. All videos are the copyright of Scholar (all rights reserved) so please get in contact with us if you would like to use any of the content in your own publications.
YouTube Community Guidelines

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What is a cookie?

Cookies are text files containing small amounts of information which are downloaded to your device when you visit a website. Cookies are then sent back to the originating website on each subsequent visit, or to another website that recognises that cookie. Cookies are useful because they allow a website to recognise a user’s device. You can find more information about cookies at:

Cookies do lots of different jobs, for example letting you navigate between pages efficiently, remembering your preferences, and generally improving the user experience. They can also help to ensure that adverts you see online are more relevant to you and your interests, although Scholar does not currently feature any advertising.

The cookies used on this website have been categorised based on the categories found in the ICC UK Cookie guide. A list of all of the types of cookies used on this website by category is set out below.

Types of cookies used by Scholar

Category 1: Strictly necessary cookies

These cookies are essential in order to enable you to move around a website and use its features, for example the ability to access pages located in secure areas. Without these cookies you would not be able to login to Scholar.

Category 2: Performance cookies

These cookies collect information about how you use a website, for instance which pages you go to most often and whether you encounter any error messages. These cookies do not collect any information that identifies you. All of the information that these cookies collect is aggregated and is therefore anonymous. It is only used to improve how a website works.

Scholar makes use of Google Analytics to continually assess device usage and page visits. For information on Google Analytics and its use of cookies please see the following links:

Category 3: Functionality cookies

These cookies allow a website to remember any choices you make (such as your username, preferred language or the region in which you are located), providing enhanced, personalised features. These cookies can also be used to remember any changes you have made to the text size, fonts and other customisable parts of a website. They may also be used to provide services you have asked for such as watching a video. The information that these cookies collect may be anonymised. They cannot track your browsing activity on other websites.

Consent

By using Scholar, you agree that we can place the three categories of cookies as described above on your device.

Withdrawal of consent

You can withdraw your consent at any time by deleting and disabling the cookies on your browser. For further information on how this can be done for your browser please see the relevant documentation:

Please note that blocking all cookies, including cookies that are strictly necessary, may prevent you from logging into Scholar and making use of its features.

If you have any questions regarding our Cookie Policy then please contact us at info@scholar.hw.ac.uk.