Learning management systems (LMS) are commonly used in many universities. Teachers develop many courses in these pedagogical environment. Ten years ago, these online courses where widely open, to encourage teachers and students to make the move. But today, teachers tend to diffuse anything anyway and due to wide capabilities of search engines, this may rise legal problems. In this communication, we explain how we dealded with these worrying questions in our institution. Our LMS administrators team worked with lawyers to propose terms of use and privacy policy. We also create a section for legal issues in our online manual. This paper illustrates some the legal questions using concrete live case studies that raises in online courses. In particular, we explain how to transpose the fair use citation exception for education in an LMS. We also make some recommandation for teachers to avoid plagiarism of their own productions. We discuss the good gestion of students private datas, such as emails, phone numbers and especially grades. We finally present the precautions to take when diffusing people photos or videos, or possibilities you have to preserve diffusion of images of yourself. This paper gives a summary of the main legal information to remind to all LMS user. It refers to belgian laws and is enlarged to european legislation. Strategies may be used and transferred to other regions.

1. From copyright to privacy law,
through right of personal portrayal,
how to respect legal issues in online
courses ?
Isabelle Motte
EDULEARN, 2/7/2013, Barcelona
Licence Creative Commons by-nc-saLicence Creative Commons by-nc-sa

2. Already LMS user ?

3. LMS administrator ?

4. Heard talk of term of use
conditions for your LMS ?

5. Once upon a time at UCL ...
2000 2001 2004 2007 2013
2 10
1000
2000
3700
Number of online courses among years
About
30000
students
Birth
of Claroline
LMS

6. Once upon a time at UCL ...
2000 2001 2004 2007 2013
2 10
1000
2000
3700
Number of online courses among years
Public courses by default
Private courses by default
Legal
issues
About
30000
students
Birth
of Claroline
LMS

7. The LMS legal issues serial ...

8. The LMS legal issues serial ...
(by an LMS administrator)
(by a lawyer)

9. The LMS legal issues serial ...
(by an LMS administrator)
(by a lawyer)
Reference to belgian and european legislation

10. Je vais utiliser
un livre comme support,
ce sera plus simple.
Je vais utiliser
un livre comme support,
ce sera plus simple.
May I distribute some book extracts
in my online course ?

11. Je vais utiliser
un livre comme support,
ce sera plus simple.
Je vais utiliser
un livre comme support,
ce sera plus simple.
May I distribute some book extracts
in my online course ?
Copyright issue

12. ● You may ALWAYS make short citations ;
● In a public online course, you ALWAYS
have to ask for the author's agreement ;
● In a private online course you may
reproduce copyrighted work IF
1) course is part of an official degree program,
2) source informations are mentioned.
(Fair use exception for education)
● BE CAREFULL if courses are paying !
Distributing third party resources

13. Je me demande combien peuvent
se vendre tous ces support ?
Je me demande combien peuvent
se vendre tous ces support ?I could make money while selling
all these course materials ...

14. Je me demande combien peuvent
se vendre tous ces support ?
Je me demande combien peuvent
se vendre tous ces support ?I could make money while selling
all these course materials ...
Copyright issue

15. Distributing works made my own ...
● At the numeric area, plagiarism is much easier
than at the paper area ...
● But the Web is not a no-right land :
On the web, what is not explicitely
authorized is forbidden !
● Are student aware of that ?
=> You have to give licence to your works.

16. Distributing works made my own ...
Prevent plagiarism :
● Restrict online course access (use a registration
key, restrict access to a specific students list, ...),
● Give an explicit licence for each course material.
● Give an explicit licence for the materials on the
online course entrance page :
ex1 : « This course resources are copyrighted. All
rights are reserved. »
ex2 : Use Creative Commons Licences
http://creativecommons.org/choose

17. Vous recevrez
vos cotes via un tableau
diffusé à tous avec
nom, prénom, NOMA, ...
Pas question !
Pas question !
You will receive your exam grades
through a spreadsheet distributed to
all students with your name, surname,
matricul number, birthdate, ...
Out of the question !

18. Vous recevrez
vos cotes via un tableau
diffusé à tous avec
nom, prénom, NOMA, ...
Pas question !
Pas question !
You will receive your exam grades
through a spreadsheet distributed to
all students with your name, surname,
matricul number, birthdate, ...
Out of the question !
Privacy issue

19. What are the measures to take while
distributing informations about persons ?
● Persons agreement is needed about collected
data AND about the distribution conditions
(public / private).
● In online courses, personal data are emails,
matricul numbers, grades, phone numbers,
address, bithdates and all informations that
may be linked to a person.
● Public and private online courses : same rule !

20. What are the measures to take while
distributing informations about persons ?
● Some data called « sensitive » may never be
distributed : race, political opinions, religious or
philosophical convictions, trade union affiliation, health,
sexual life, suspicions, judicial proceedings, penal or
administrative sentences.
=> if you share authentic personal medical or
legal files with students, do not forget to erase
any personal information !
● Professors have to make these rules respected
in their online courses.
=> be specifically carefull in online forums !

21. He did not connect
to the LMS for 3 months !
There as been a technical
problem with the work.
Sure ?

22. He did not connect
to the LMS for 3 months !
There as been a technical
problem with the work.
Sure ?
Privacy issue

23. Are we tracked on the LMS ?
And elsewhere ?
Data collecting and respect of privacy law ...
● collected data and treatments on these data have to be
reasonably balanced,
● « sensitive » data may not be collected,
● user as to be informed (often a checkbox « You
accept ... »),
● user may access data, ask for correction and delition,
● administrators ensure data confidentiality (security).
=> on the LMS, you need a privacy mention
and elsewhere, read the privacy mention !

24. Euh ...
Que pensez-vous du
décret Marcourt ? Mais je veux
pas passer à la télé !
Euh ...
Que pensez-vous du
décret Marcourt ? Mais je veux
pas passer à la télé !
Euh ...
What do you think
about EDULEARN meeting ? But I don't wanna
be televised !

25. Euh ...
Que pensez-vous du
décret Marcourt ? Mais je veux
pas passer à la télé !
Euh ...
Que pensez-vous du
décret Marcourt ? Mais je veux
pas passer à la télé !
Euh ...
What do you think
about EDULEARN meeting ? But I don't wanna
be televised !
RIGHT OF
PERSONAL
PORTAYAL

26. What are the measures to take while having
persons images ?
● Person agreement is needed on collected
images AND on the distribution conditions
(public / private) ;
=> it is better to have written agreement.
● Inform about your project, your scenario
and it is better to present some drafts
(information, access and opposition right).
● This holds on Facebook ;-)

27. Recommandations for LMS
administrators
● Make LMS users accept Term of Use
Conditions that makes them responsible for
contents distributed in online courses ;
● Make LMS users accept a Privacy Mention
where all collected data are cited ;
● Make LMS users informed about these rules
(through your LMS manual).
=> this helps much to respect laws in LMS

28. Recommandations for LMS
administrators
● Make LMS users accept Term of Use
Conditions that makes them responsible for
contents distributed in online courses ;
● Make LMS users accept a Privacy Mention
where all collected data are cited ;
● Make LMS users informed about these rules
(through your LMS manual).
=> this helps much to respect laws in LMS

29. Main ideas :
- copyrighted works : in private courses only ;
- prevent plagiarism : give an explicit licence ;
- students have right to privacy in an LMS ;
- image of persons : agreement is needed.