Terms and conditions for IfL members' online community

Last updated: March 2011

About the online communities

The online communities have been developed to support your teaching and training practice, including subject or vocational areas. The online communities are also designed to enable you to connect with other IfL members with similar professional development interests in order to share best practice.

These are the terms and conditions (hereafter referred to as “the terms”) of the Institute for Learning (IfL) online community. The terms may be subject to change.

Participation in the online communities

Access to the online community is available only to current members of IfL. Members may only access the online community via the IfL website.

As hosts of the online community, IfL does not accept responsibility for any content that is posted by or on behalf of its members that breaches the terms, or for any loss or damage resulting from a breach of these terms or other activity in the community. IfL is therefore exempt from any claims and liabilities (including legal fees) that may arise from a breach of these terms.

The IfL Code of Professional Practice applies to your involvement in online communities - in particular the behaviours of professional integrity and responsibility. Inappropriate activity on the online community may result in the relevant member being banned from participating in or viewing the online communities, pending referral if there is an alleged breach of the Code.

Online community participants are represented on the online communities using a user ID (using the first name and first initial of surname) that is generated by personal details recorded in My Pages on the IfL website. Other users may not use this to reveal the identity of the user. IfL reserves the right to identify users via the user ID in the case of a breach of the terms.

A breach of the following terms and conditions would be classed as inappropriate activity.

As online community participants, you agree not to:

  • post content that is offensive, obscene (including offensive language), unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, libellous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically, sexually or otherwise objectionable;
  • post content that would bring the teaching and training profession into disrepute or would unjustly or unknowingly damage the professional reputation of another;
  • post content that would damage the standing and reputation of IfL as the professional body for teachers and trainers, the membership, qualifications or professional status, or undermine or misrepresent the views of your professional body;
  • post content that breaches copyright other intellectual property rights of another individual or organisation;
  • share your access details with non-members for the purpose of posting messages to the online communities;
  • collect or store personal data about others posted on the online communities without their express permission;
  • upload any content that could potentially disrupt the running of the online communities including software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, damage, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment;

Your privacy

IfL will treat any data posted on the online community in line with the IfL Data Code (PDF) and Privacy Policy (PDF). Personal data will not be shared with a third party except in the case of a breach of the terms above and as required to investigate relevant complaints. Content posted on the online communities and the relevant user ID may be reproduced in other IfL publications or on the IfL website

If you object to any content posted on the online communities, please report the relevant contributor to: webmaster@ifl.ac.uk

The online community is owned by The Institute for Learning (Post Compulsory Education and Training), Company No. 4346361. Registered Office: First Floor, 49-51 East Road, Old Street, London N1 6AH.

IfL's online community is managed through SocialGo online software.