General Terms and Conditions of Use

Preamble

These General Terms and Conditions of Use are meant to define the terms, conditions, requirements and procedures under which France Université Numérique (hereinafter “FUN”) provides web content management and  hosting services on its www.fun-mooc.fr  internet website (hereinafter the Site). As used herein, and particularly in the “Privacy Policy” and “User’s Charter” set out below, “we” and “our” refer to FUN and the FUN website, and “you” refers to the Site user.

By accessing this website, you agree to fully abide by these General Terms and Conditions of Use. Any user wishing to access the Site must have first read and understood these General Terms and Conditions of Use, including the User’s Charter, the Privacy Policy and legal notices and disclaimers, all of which the user agrees to observe without reservation.

Object and Purpose

FUN provides an online platform which hosts MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) created by higher education institutions, research organizations and FUN partners based in France and throughout the world. By registering for an online course offered on the Site, you join a worldwide community of learners. FUN endeavors to provide you access to top-quality online courses and learning materials offered by higher education establishments and FUN partners, wherever you are located. Furthermore, by registering on the Site, you agree, unconditionally and without reservation, to observe and abide by the General Terms and Conditions of Use, the User’s Charter and the Privacy Policy. Accessing and/or using the Site constitutes your acknowledgment to comply with these General Terms and Conditions of Use, User’s Charter, and the Privacy Policy, without limitation or qualification.

If you do not understand these terms and conditions, or do not agree to be bound to them, you are advised to not use the FUN online website www.fun-mooc.fr.

Accordingly, FUN reserves the right to deny access or to exclude without prior notice any user who does not observe the General Terms and Conditions of Use, the User’s Charter or the Privacy Policy, in which case FUN shall accept no responsibility or liability for any loss, damage, action or claim arising out of or otherwise in connection with such denial of access or exclusion; and FUN also reserves the right to delete any comment or contribution which is deemed to constitute a violation of French law or is the subject of a third party claim.

FUN reserves the right to alter or modify the General Terms and Conditions of Use, the User’s Charter, the Privacy Policy, and the legal notices and disclaimers without prior notice, all while remaining in compliance with the provisions of Law n° 78-17 of 6 January 1978 on French Data Protection and Freedom of Information. Any such alteration or modification shall be immediately effective upon displaying or posting it on the present web page. Notice regarding the updating/modification date shall also be posted on the website. Accordingly, you are advised to regularly check for the latest, updated versions of the aforementioned provisions. Permission to use the Site is contingent on an express agreement between the user and FUN.

User’s Rules of Conduct

As a user of the Site, you are liable for any information that you publish on the Site, as well as for the manner in which you use the Site. Publications include all content contributed, posted or displayed by you or by other users on the Site. Such user-related content is understood to mean any texts, photographs, videos, or discussions that are transmitted, communicated, or otherwise presented on interactive spaces (forums, wikis, social networks), and work submitted as part of course assignments (including peer assessment assignments). In that regard, FUN hereby informs you that, as a general practice, FUN does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, thoroughness or authenticity of the comments displayed on the Site by other users. You acknowledge and agree that you will use the Site while acting in compliance with these Terms and Conditions of Use, User’s Charter and Privacy Policy.

FUN expressly prohibits you from using the Site or its contents to engage in any cyber-criminal act, including but not limited to breaches of privacy, integrity and availability with respect to Site access, Site content, Site data and Site computer systems.

Accordingly, you agree to abide by prevailing rules of conduct for computer and network use, notably by refraining from intentionally engaging in any activities that constitute or may give rise to:

• Identity theft;
• Stealing passwords from other users;
• Modifying, altering or destroying data that does not belong to you;
• Monitoring or inspecting data belonging to other users, without their authorization;
• Connecting to or attempting to connect to an account without proper authorization;
• Letting someone use your user name and/or your password;
• Diverting one of the Site’s functions or features, causing it to deviate from normal use;
• Damaging, disabling, overcharging, impairing or disrupting the server or the network.

This list is subject to expansion in conformance with prevailing laws, rules and regulations.

You further agree to abstain from attempting, by any means whatsoever, unauthorized access to the Site and unauthorized collecting of any data that is stored on the Site, its servers or on associated computers, through any means not intentionally made available to you through the Site.

In addition, you agree to observe all applicable laws, rules and regulations in force prohibiting you from making any comments or depictions that are:

• racist, xenophobic, sexist, anti-Semitic, LGBTphobic, negationistic, revisionist, pornographic, pedophilic, child pornographic in nature, or otherwise defamatory, sexually orientated or obscene;
• abusive, vulgar, defamatory, or which infringe upon a person’s right to privacy, and, more generally, violate anyone’s personality rights;
• of such a nature as to undermine someone’s human dignity;
• of such a nature as to incite violence, suicide, terrorism, or the use, manufacture or distribution of unlawful substances;
• likely to incite crimes or offenses, and particularly crimes against humanity;
• deemed to infringe third-party intellectual property rights (notably copyrights pertaining to texts and photographs) or image rights (relating to the publication of a person’s image without their consent) whenever you have not received permission from authors and/or rights holders;
• deemed to entail the publication of deliberately fraudulent, false, or misleading content;
• deemed to entail the publication of content promoting for-profit services.

This list is subject to expansion in conformance with prevailing laws, rules and regulations.

The Site contains information provided by users or via hypertext links to other websites that are not edited or monitored by FUN but have been supplied or offered by third parties. The existence of a link on the Site toward an external website should not be construed as a validation or endorsement of the external website or its content by FUN. It is solely your responsibility to verify and use any such information with discernment and a critical mind. The reasonableness, timeliness, accuracy or completeness of such information has not been verified by FUN. Accordingly, FUN expressly declines any liability in that regard.

You agree, furthermore, to:

• Respect the intellectual property rights pertaining to content featured on the Site, as well as any and all third-party intellectual property rights, in accordance with the terms of use specific to each course offered on the Site;
• Respect the private life of other users and, more generally, abstain from interfering in their rights;
• Preserve the confidentiality and security of private data regarding users of the Site;
• Not collect by any means user-related data, including e-mail addresses, without the concerned users’ consent.
• Not engage in any form of cheating aimed at artificially enhancing your assessments or results;
• Not attempt to artificially enhance or lower the assessments or results of others;
• Abstain from divulging or publishing answers to exercises used to evaluate learners.

If a user breaches any of the aforementioned rules, FUN reserves the right to block the infringing user’s access to Site services, in whole or in part, temporarily or definitively, without liability and without need to give notice to the user.

FUN also reserves the right to remove, in whole or in part, contents, information and data of any kind, which the user has placed online on the Site.

Use of the User Account 

To take full advantage of the activities offered by the Site, you must provide a full name, a user name, an e-mail address, and a password, for the purpose of creating a user account. Upon creation of your account, you may be required to provide additional, optional information.

It is your sole responsibility to keep your login IDs (usernames) and passwords secret and non-accessible to third parties. If that information is lost or stolen, or if you suspect that a third party has gained access to your profile, you must promptly inform FUN via the Site’s contact page.

You agree to supply accurate information corresponding to your current situation and status. You also agree to maintain such information up-to-date.

You also agree not to create or use a false identity with the intention of misleading others.

FUN agrees to protect the confidentiality, privacy and security of your private data, in conformance with the Privacy Policy.

Rules of Use for Site Contents 

The contents (texts, courses, photographs, videos, etc.) featured on the Site are for strictly personal use only.

Unless the terms of use applicable to online courses stipulate otherwise, you are prohibited from reproducing and/or using the brands, logos and distinctive signs presented on the Site, as well as being further prohibited from modifying, assembling, decompiling, assigning, sub-licensing, transferring, copying, translating, duplicating, selling, publishing, exploiting and distributing or issuing, in whole or in part, in any other format, the information, texts, photos, images, videos and data featured on this Site. Failure to comply with these mandatory conditions renders you and all other offenders liable to the civil and criminal penalties or sanctions imposed by French law.

Rules of Use for Content Featured in Online Courses Hosted by FUN 

You agree to abide by the terms of use specific to each online course hosted on the Site. Such terms of use are delineated specifically for each course and are detailed on the presentation page for each course. Such terms of use are fully set out at the time of your registration for an online course hosted on the Site. If no such details are provided upon your registration for an online course, you may access or use the contents for strictly personal purposes only, and must obtain the permission of use from the relevant authors and explicitly mention them by name.

Rules of Use for Content posted by you as part of your registered online courses hosted by FUN

Before posting/publishing any content, you must ensure that you have requisite rights and permission, including all copyrights or other intellectual property rights, pertaining to your contribution and/or comment, particularly regarding their reproduction and dissemination on the Site. Moreover, you agree to use your utmost diligence to observe third-party rights (copyrights, trademark rights, or personality and image rights).

Whenever you post content for your online course, you agree to allow such contents to be reproduced and disseminated potentially worldwide, though solely for the purposes of the online courses, unless the terms of use for the courses in question stipulate otherwise.

Use of brands and logos

The brands and associated logos appearing on the Site are protected by trademark. Consequently, they are the exclusive property of the issuing organizations and institutions. As such, none of these distinctive signs or variations thereof may be used, except with the prior consent of the pertinent organizations and institutions.

Responsibilities

User Responsibilities

All hardware and software necessary to access and use the Site are at your own cost, expense and responsibility. Consequently, you are responsible for ensuring the proper, continued operation of your hardware and Internet access. To that end, you must take all corrective and/or preventive measures as may be necessary to protect all data, software and/or computer systems against potential contamination or spread of computer viruses. You are solely responsible for the use of content made available through the Site. Any actions or decisions that you take based on such information are entirely your responsibility. You assume full liability or responsibility for accessing contents posted on the Site and FUN shall bear no liability for any loss or damage to data resulting from downloading or using content posted on the Site.

You agree to be held solely and fully responsible and liable to FUN and, if the situation warrants, to any concerned third parties, for any direct or indirect damage of any kind arising from or in connection with content transmitted or posted on the Site or via the Site, as well as for any breach of these General Terms and Conditions of Use, User’s Charter and Privacy Policy.

FUN’s Responsibilities 

Under normal circumstances, the Site is accessible 24 hours a day every day of the week, except during service interruptions due to scheduled maintenance or unscheduled emergency maintenance or due to the occurrence of a *force majeure* event. Insofar as it is bound to perform its services on the basis of a best efforts obligation, FUN assumes no liability for any loss or damage of any kind resulting from the unavailability of the Site.

FUN shall use all reasonable means available to provide quality access to its users, without being bound by any obligation to achieve such result.

Moreover, FUN assumes no liability for any failure or dysfunction affecting the network or the servers or any other event deemed to be beyond FUN’s reasonable control, preventing or impairing user access.

FUN reserves the right to temporarily interrupt, suspend or modify access to all or part of its Site without prior notice, for maintenance purposes or for any other reason, without liability or compensation to you.

Except in the instance where FUN had been duly informed of the existence of illegal content, as defined under applicable law, yet failed to act promptly to remove it, FUN cannot be held liable for posting such contents.

FUN bears no responsibility for contents provided by organizations and institutions for inclusion in online courses hosted by the Site.

Also, under no circumstances may FUN be held liable for relationships existing between users and online courses hosted by FUN.

Jurisdiction and Governing Law

These General Terms and Conditions of Use, User’s Charter, and Privacy Policy shall be governed by and interpreted according to French law. The provisions of each have been written in both English and French languages. Both versions shall be equally valid and effective but, in the event of inconsistency between the two versions, the French version shall prevail.

As a user of the Site, you agree that any dispute and/or claim arising out of the interpretation or performance of these General Terms and Conditions of Use, User’s Charter, and/or Privacy Policy, pertaining to the operation of this Site, shall be submitted exclusively to the French court with jurisdiction over the registered office of FUN, including in the event of summary judgments, the introduction of third parties or multiple defendants.

General conditions to get a badge on the FUN MOOC platform

For some courses and at the request of the course’s educational team, FUN delivers open badges. An open badge is issued to recognise competencies, skills, achievements, participation or contribution of the learners.

Technically, a badge is a digital picture (available in PDF, Web format, or added to an Open Badge Passport) which contains metadata that informs who has issued the badge (institution and platform) to whom (beneficiary) and on what basis.

The badge contains the following information:

• Name and surname of the person receiving the badge
• Name of the institution issuing the badge
• Criteria for awarding the badge
• Proof of attribution of the badge
• Educational objectives of the course
• Any other information relevant to the couse team

On each course, the pedagogical team sets the criteria for obtaining a badge. Depending on the type of badge, you may either get it automatically or ask for it by filling a specific form. The procedure is specified by the course team. In any case, the badges issued on the FUN MOOC platform are endorsed and recognized by FUN and the institution that has created the course. In order to get an open badge for a course, you acknowledge that you have been informed that:

• FUN uses the services of the Open Badge Factory platform managed by Open Badge Factory Oy, a company based in Finland;
• You agree that FUN transfers to Open Badge Factory, for the sole purpose of creating and delivering your badge, the following personal information :
  • Name and first name
  • Email address
• The data collected by Open Badge Factory will be stored on servers based within the EU / EEA. Open Badge Factory commits itself not to transfer personal data outside of EU/EEA and to implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect personal data.

Open Badge Factory will send you badges by email; a link will allow you to share them on social networks.

Terms and Conditions of examination for the fee-paying certificate 

To earn a verified certificate, three types of examination may be available, at the discretion of the MOOC course staff: 
A - Face-to-face examination 
B- Turning in papers and deferred corrections 
C - Remote Examination proctored by ProctorExam 
These three types of exams are fee paying. 

In case A: face-to-face examination

A face-to-face exam will be scheduled by the MOOC teaching team. In order to set up this exam, you agree with the transfer of the data listed below to the organizing institution: First Name, Last Name, FUN Username, Email Address.

This data is transferred to set up the exam and will not be evaluated in any other way except for statistical purposes about the exam participation rate. The data will not be retained over 3 years and will be deleted at the end of this period. 

In case B: - Handing in papers and deferred corrections 

The MOOC teaching team will set you one or more assignment(s) that you will have to turn in. These assignments may have to be turned in online, outside of the Site. In order to set up this exam, you agree with the transfer of the following data to the organizing institution: First Name, Last Name, FUN Username, Email Address. 

This data is transferred to set up the exam and will not be evaluated in any other way except for statistical purposes about the exam participation rate. The data will not be kept over 3 years and will be deleted at the end of this period. 

In Case C: Remote examination proctored by ProctorExam

By participating in the remote exam proctoring service, you acknowledge and agree that you have been informed of the following :

• proctoring is performed by ProctorExam, a company headquartered in Amsterdam (Netherlands) with which FUN has entered into a service contract;
• your personal data (identity and email address) shall be processed by ProctorExam;
• ProctorExam will ask you to install an extension to your Internet browser
• ProctorExam will authenticate your identity and verify that your computer is located in a secure testing environment;
• All data collected will be stored on ProctorExam‘s servers located in Germany. Pursuant to the terms of the service contract entered into with FUN, ProctorExam agrees to take all necessary measures to protect the data collected.

Effective Date: October 28, 2013

Most recent update: December 1, 2022