Moodle Policy

Terms of Use

Bryn Mawr College’s Library and Information Technology Services (LITS) department maintains a local installation of Moodle, a learning management system designed to facilitate teaching, learning, communication, and information-sharing among students, faculty, and staff. All users must follow the terms of Bryn Mawr College’s Acceptable Use Policy when using Moodle; failure to do so may result in the penalties outlined in that policy.

Data Collection and Privacy

This policy complements, but does not replace, the College’s general Privacy Policy. As with other College websites, LITS collects non-personal information about the computer, mobile device or other devices you use to access Moodle, such as IP address, geolocation identifiers, unique device identifiers, browser type, browser language using Google analytics to help us understand usage and maintain the site. In addition, Moodle collects and stores three types of personally identified data related to individual users:

• User-Generated Content, defined as files, messages, text or Activities (e.g., quizzes) that a user uploads to or creates within Moodle.
• Usage Data that Moodle generates as individual users interact with the site. Time-stamped user activity logged in this manner includes, but is not limited to: logging into/out of Moodle; viewing courses; viewing, downloading, and uploading files; and viewing and submitting posts, messages, assignments and quizzes.
• Student Learning Data, which includes Usage Data that Moodle generates as students engage in quizzes and lessons (e.g., the number of attempts made on a question, whether attempts were correct or incorrect, etc.) and the scores, grades, and feedback that instructors or graders assign to students through Moodle.

All Moodle users can view and manage their own User-Generated Content and can view all Usage and Student Learning Data collected about them.

Moodle users are enrolled in “Courses,” or sites created for academic or organizational use. and may have access to additional Course-specific Content and Data, depending on their Roles in those Courses:

• Users with an "Instructor of record," “Other editing teacher” or “Non-editing teacher” role in a Course can view all Usage and Student Learning Data related to that course, including time-stamped activity logs for all participants and student coursework, grades, and feedback. Teachers control what User-Generated Content can be uploaded to or created within their Courses and who can see that Content.  
• Users with a “Registered Student” or “Auditor” role in a Course can view and post User-Generated Content to the extent allowed by Teachers. They can only see their own Usage and Student Learning Data.
• If a Teacher makes a Moodle Course guest-accessible, then people who are not enrolled in the course (including people outside of Bryn Mawr College and the Tri-Co) will be able to view any course content that Auditors and Registered Students can see, but they will not be able to contribute their own content. Usage Data collected on guest users is not personally identified.

IMPORTANT: “Registered students” and “Auditors” have identical permissions in Moodle. However, only Registered Students are officially enrolled in academic courses. Instructors of record and Other editing teachers are welcome to enroll participants in any Moodle course as Auditors to give them student-level permissions, but this DOES NOT enroll them in the course for academic credit. To receive academic credit, students must also enroll through Bionic or the Registrar’s Office; if they have done so, they will appear in the Bionic course roster and should be listed as “Registered students” in Moodle.

A small number of Library and Information Technology Services (LITS) staff are authorized to serve as Moodle system administrators (Admins). Moodle Admins can access all User-Generated Content, Usage Data, and/or Student Learning Data stored within Moodle.

Moodle Admins only use User-Generated Content, Usage Data, and/or Student Learning Data pertaining to individual, identified users to the extent needed to:

• Keep the system running,
• Help individuals troubleshoot and fix technical issues,
• Provide the Honor Board or the Offices of the Undergraduate Dean, the Dean of the Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research, or the Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences with data and information needed to adjudicate questions of credit and academic integrity.

Moodle Admins may compile, store, and share aggregated, anonymized Usage Data and Student Learning Data as needed for the purposes of educational research or College business as long as that data cannot be traced to identifiable individuals.

All use of data collected and stored on Moodle, including use by Admins, is governed by the terms of Bryn Mawr College’s Data Handling Policy. Failure to observe these terms can result in the penalties described in that policy.

FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) law also governs the use of student educational records collected and stored on Moodle, such as grades or student coursework. More information about the rights and responsibilities created by this law and related College policies.

Record Retention

LITS will retain academic Course sites on Moodle servers for at least three years from the end date of the course. Faculty or departmental administrators can request longer storage for courses that are routinely taught less frequently. LITS will retain all other Course sites for three years after the course was last accessed or until all enrolled users have left Bryn Mawr College, whichever comes first.

IMPORTANT: LITS cannot guarantee that individual users have access to Courses or course content for the periods specified above. Students, faculty, and staff lose access to Moodle when they graduate or leave the College. Users with a Teacher role can also hide or delete Courses and course content under their control. LITS strongly recommends that all users export Content they need to keep at the end of each semester and store it outside of Moodle. Teachers can also use the Course Back-Up feature to create copies of entire Courses that they can download for long-term storage outside of Moodle. Downloaded Moodle content should be handled and stored in a manner consistent with Bryn Mawr’s Data Handling Policy, particularly if it contains student educational data.