Terms and conditions for free courses

1. Introduction

The following terms and conditions apply to enrolment for University of Derby Free Courses, also known as Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). 'Free Courses' means any non-credit bearing course on offer by the University of Derby via its Free Courses platform Brightspace.

2. How to view our rules, regulations, policies and procedures

Please contact us if you are unable to access any document related to the Free Courses or if there is anything in the document that you are unsure about and want to discuss with us before you register. We recommend that you download and save a copy of these Conditions for future reference.

3. Your contract to register as a learner

a) Who we are

Our registered address is University of Derby, Kedleston Road, Derby, DE22 1GB. Our VAT number is GB678841283. The University is a registered charity.

b) Entire agreement

You will be registered on the course shown in your free courses enrolment confirmation email. You will be sent this once you have successfully enrolled on your chosen Free Course, this together with all other policies and procedures which are referred to in them is the entire agreement between us. If, at any time, any University of Derby employees or agents have agreed anything inconsistent with these Conditions, the terms in this agreement will always take priority.

c) Additional conditions

The University of Derby may impose conditions on your study or vary the terms on which you study and your access to services, notwithstanding anything in this agreement or the rules, regulations, policies and procedures if, in the opinion of the University, it is reasonably necessary to do so in order to comply with its duties to protect the health and safety of learners, staff, contractors and members of the public, its duties with respect to the safeguarding of young persons or vulnerable adults or in order to comply with its obligations under the Equalities Act 2010 or any other statutory duty or obligation.

d) Application of English law

These Conditions, the free courses enrolment confirmation email, and the rules, regulations, policies and procedures which are referred to, are governed by English law.

4. Your course

a) Enrolment

The University of Derby will register you as a learner of the University to study a free course if it is satisfied that:

b) Learning materials and course resources

You will be registered on the course shown in your free courses enrolment confirmation email. You will be sent this once you have successfully enrolled into your chosen free course. You will be able to access your course as soon as we have confirmed your enrolment and the course has started.

The enrolment is limited: You will be notified of the final date you have access to the course for your course, which will be not less than 6 months from the date of your enrolment, by which time you must have completed the learning and assessment activities.

If you have completed the learning activities and assessments before the end date of your course, the learning materials, course resources will continue to be available to you for the remainder of your course. The learning materials and course resources will cease to be available to you after the course end date, whether or not you have completed the learning activities and assessments by that date.

c) Cancelling your course

If you wish to change your course before you have completed your enrolment please make the changes before you proceed. To exercise your right to cancel, you must inform the University of Derby of your decision to cancel by making a clear statement by email.

Full details of how to do this are set out in the confirmation email and in the attached Cancellation Procedure. If you cancel your course you will no longer have access to the learning materials and course resources and you will not be able to participate in any learning or assessment activities.

d) Exceptional circumstances

The University will take all reasonable steps to provide the educational services that you have registered to receive. There may be circumstances outside of our control where we are unable to provide those services in full or in part for reasons such as fire, flood, pandemic, terrorist acts or industrial disputes. The University of Derby is not liable for any disruption to or cancellation of any course or any part of a course due to such circumstances. Where those, or similar, circumstances arise we will minimise disruption so far as we are reasonably able and, wherever practicable, will provide you with reasonable alternative arrangements to continue with your studies.

5. Privacy notice

The information that you supply will be held and processed in line with the Data Protection Act 2018 and GDPR.

The personal information which you have provided is shown on your profile page within the free courses platform, D2L (Brightspace). It will not be used for any other purpose.

The University of Derby has a Data Protection Policy. When you register to study with us you are agreeing to the personal information that you have supplied to us being used and processed in accordance with that policy. This may include using your personal information, together with the records we will keep of your participation in learning activities, to provide support to you. We consider your disclosure of such information and your acceptance of these Terms and Conditions of enrolment as explicit consent to use this information for this purpose.

We use the information that we hold in our records to process your enrolment, to keep in touch with you and to provide services, so it is important that it is correct. It is your responsibility to keep your personal information up to date and to notify us of any changes or errors. You must notify us within a reasonable time if you change your name, the country where you are resident or ordinarily resident, or any of your contact details.

We retain this data for your time as a learner; after 6 years it is deleted securely. As a data subject you can withdraw that consent at any time by contacting gdpr@derby.ac.uk.

The Data Protection Officer (DPO) for the University can be contacted via gdpr@derby.ac.uk.

Further information on how we handle your information and details of our DPO can be found in our privacy policy.

6. Complaints

The University of Derby takes complaints regarding their free courses provision very seriously. If for any reason, you feel that you have a sufficient complaint and that you'd like to log that complaint with the university. In the first instance we ask that you make direct contact via email (onlinelearning@derby.ac.uk) to the University with an explanation of your complaint in full. The University would then review your complaint and make direct contact with you about it. Whilst the complaint is under review, we recommend that you do not take legal action against the University of Derby until the review has been completed.

7. How we will communicate with you

a) Your email address

You must provide us with a valid email address, which we will use to correspond with you. You must inform the University of Derby of any changes to your preferred email address.

b) Communicating with you by email

It is your responsibility to check your email regularly. You will be sent important information about your enrolment as a learner by email. It is also your responsibility to manage any filters on your account to ensure that email from the University of Derby is sent into your 'Inbox' and not to a 'spam' or 'junk' email folder. You should ensure that your inbox has an adequate amount of space to receive messages from the University of Derby.

c) Recording telephone calls

The University of Derby may monitor and record phone calls between you and the University to make sure that we have carried out your instructions correctly where appropriate and to help us improve our services through staff training.

8. The University of Derby's right to cancel your enrolment

The University of Derby may cancel your enrolment at any time if:

a) We find that you have given us information which is untrue or misleading
b) You break any of the conditions set out in this document (or any of the other rules and regulations referred to in it)

Please note that we may also seek prosecution if you have supplied fraudulent information.

If the University of Derby cancels your enrolment for a course we will not send you any further materials or information and you may not participate in any learning or assessment activities after the date of cancellation.

9. Contact details

University of Derby
Kedleston Road
Derby
DE22 1GB
United Kingdom

Contact us by email: onlinelearning@derby.ac.uk
Contact us by telephone: +44 (0)1332 594005