Supported Services

The systems and services supported by E-Learning Support (ELS) within the University of Florida Information Technology (UFIT) are provided for the use of the University community.

All users of ELS are expected to be aware of and abide by:

• The UF Privacy Policy
• The UF Acceptable Use Policy
• The UF Intellectual Property Policy
• The UF Copyright information
• The Instructure Privacy Policy
• Users should also be aware of the requirements of federal and state laws such as FERPA and HIPAA governing the protection of information in ELS. Brief online training in each of these laws is available at the Privacy Office web site.

Our Committment to Data Security

The University of Florida is dedicated to preventing unauthorized data access, maintaining data accuracy, and ensuring the appropriate use of information. We strive to put in place appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial safeguards to secure the information we collect online. These security practices are consistent with the policies of the university and with the laws and regulatory practices of the State of Florida.

Confidentiality

HIPAA-protected data may not be uploaded into e-Learning. Any documents or files containing HIPAA-protected data must be “de-identified” according to Federal Statute and UF policy before being uploaded to e-Learning. [Click here for the UF Health Information Operational Guidelines and more details]

The University of Florida and e-Learning Support Services maintain strict confidentiality and security of records in compliance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), in addition to other federal and state laws. These laws pertain to the security and privacy of all records that contain information that could reveal private information about a faculty member, staff or student at the University of Florida.

Employees including faculty and staff are authorized to access certain private information as a condition of employment to the extent necessary to perform their duties. Those with access to private data are required to a) protect against unauthorized access to that information, b) ensure the security and privacy of such information, and c) disclose any anticipated threats or hazards to such information. You must be very careful not to release this information to the public or to other individuals, including other university employees, who have not been authorized or who do not have a legitimate institutional or business need to know. Any questions regarding release of such information to another person should be directed to your supervisor or their designee.

Unauthorized access includes:

1. Access to student, employee or university information not necessary to carry out your job responsibilities.
2. Non-business or non-institutional access to the records of a student or employee.
3. Release of student or employee information to unauthorized internal or external users.
4. Release of more student or employee information to an authorized individual/agency than is essential to meeting the stated purpose of an approved request.

Information may not be divulged, copied, released, sold, loaned, reviewed, altered or destroyed except as properly authorized by the appropriate university official within the scope of applicable federal or state laws, including record retention schedules and corresponding UF policies.

As an employee of the University of Florida, you must abide by the rules, regulations, policies and procedures of UF as well as federal and state laws applicable to your position at the university. UF may at any time revoke employee/volunteer/student/third-party access, other authorization or other access to confidential information. Additionally, failure to comply with any of the acts, rules, regulations, UF policies and corresponding procedures may result in disciplinary action, including termination of employment. Criminal or civil penalties may also be imposed, depending upon the nature and severity of the breach of confidentiality.

Privacy

The e-Learning website and services supported by e-Learning are governed by the UF Privacy Policy. However, specific e-Learning services track additional use and user information necessary for effective functioning and support for those services.

The web site elearning.ufl.edu uses Google Analytics to gather aggregate information about browser types and versions of site visitors. This information is used only in its aggregate form, to help us further refine our web site design. The remote host name is collected from each site visitor, and is used only to provide statistical data, specifically, the percentage of “hits” from the UF domain vs. the percentage of “hits” from outside the UF domain for this web site. The pages accessed by each visitor are recorded and preserved in an aggregate form to provide us with information about the relative usage of the pages in our web site. The web page that referred the site visitor to this UF web site is also recorded, and used to improve overall site navigation.

E-mail messages sent to the e-mail contact for this web site will be answered by that account holder or forwarded to another individual at UF to be answered. E-mail messages sent to the e-mail contact for this web site and copies of replies sent by this e-mail contact may be kept and reviewed to help ensure the relevance of information presented in this web site and the usefulness of the replies from the e-mail contact.

Students and instructors that log in to E-Learning classes have more detailed records. Once logged in with a GatorLink ID (GLID), the browser, browser version, remote host and GLID will be tracked throughout e-Learning class activities. All actions taken by that GLID in an ELS class are logged and accessible by the e-Learning Course instructor and the e-Learning System Administrator (at the request of the e-Learning Course instructor or in the course of diagnosing a technical difficulty).

e-Learning courses are archived both incrementally and as an entire system on a regular basis. These archives are kept on tape backup or other local storage for at least three years. Archived course archives are accessible by the e-Learning System Administrator and the backup system administrator, and will be accessed only in the event of a request from the instructor of that course, appropriate university administration, law enforcement or in the course of diagnosing a technical difficulty.

e-Learning Support Services does not sell, rent, or lease its customer lists to third parties. Likewise, e-Learning Support Services does not gather or disclose sensitive personal information, such as race, religion, or political affiliations, without your explicit consent.

Disclaimers

Courses and sites in e-Learning may include un-moderated forums containing the personal opinions and images of the students, faculty, and staff who have access to post. The content of these courses/sites, nor the links to other web sites, are screened, approved, reviewed, or endorsed by the University of Florida or UFIT. UF, UFIT, and ELS are not publishers of any of the content of the courses/sites, or of any content that may be available through links to and from them, and is acting solely as an internet service provider as provided by 47 U.S.C. 230(c)(1).

All materials in these courses/sites are the opinions of the specific author and are not statements of advice, opinion, or information of UF, UFIT, or ELS.

Although e-Learning Support’s web pages and courses within the e-Learning System provide links to other Web sites, ELS specifically and UF generally are not responsible for the confidentiality practices or the content of such external Web sites. If you link to another site, you are no longer on a site covered by this Statement.

Rules for Online Conduct

You agree to use the Sites in accordance with all applicable laws. You further agree to post materials responsibly, recognizing that certain comments or materials may be actionable under current UF policies including:

• Content that defames or threatens others
• Statements that are bigoted, hateful or racially offensive
• Content that discusses illegal activities with the intent to commit them
• Content that infringes another’s intellectual property, including, but not limited to, copyrights, trademarks or trade secrets
• Material that contains vulgar or obscene language or images
• Advertising or any form of commercial solicitation

Copyrighted material, including without limitation software, graphics, text, photographs, sound, video and musical recordings, may not be placed in a course/site without the express permission of the owner of the copyright in the material, or other legal entitlement to use the material.

UF faculty, staff, and students using ELS should also be aware of University rules governing Disruptive Behavior (6C1-1.008) which includes:

• (1)(q). Actions or statements which by design or intent amount to hazing, put others in reasonable fear of imminent physical harm, or create a hostile environment in which others are unable reasonably to conduct or participate in University work, education, research or other activities.
• (2). Members of the University community are encouraged to communicate effectively. This is often (but not always) fostered by respectful conduct and speech. However, the language used by the featured speaker or an attendee at such an open public event is a personal choice, pursuant to First Amendment speech rights within designated public fora. This provision does not protect speech that, alone or in combination with any conduct, is obscene or constitutes or is likely to provoke violence, an unsafe condition, an illegal action, or conduct that violates another provision of the University’s regulations.

Finally, you agree that you will not access or attempt to access any other user’s account, or misrepresent or attempt to misrepresent your identity while using the Sites.

Limitation of Use

You may use courses/sites for legal purposes only. Furthermore, you agree that, if a third party claims that any material you have contributed to a course/site is unlawful, you will bear the burden of establishing that the material complies with all applicable laws. Although UF does not monitor the content of the courses/sites, UF has the right to remove material from the courses/sites, block access, or take other action with respect to the Material in its sole discretion, although UF is under no obligation to do so. You may not use UF computing resources, including ELS, to disseminate unsolicited advertising or promotional material of any kind.

Monitoring

Content presented within e-Learning is generated by faculty, staff, and students and is not monitored for compliance with applicable rules or policies; however, E-Learning Support (ELS) staff may be tasked to search for such content in response to official investigations authorized by appropriate UF authorities.

Review

This policy shall be reviewed by UFIT ELS at least annually and at other times as needed. Any proposed changes will be reviewed and approved by ITAC-AT. Users of systems and services supported by ELS shall be notified of changes by announcements post on the e-Learning web site.

Contact

If you have any questions or comments about this privacy statement, please feel free to contact E-Learning Support at helpdesk@ufl.edu.