Copyright
The College complies with and abides by the Use of Copyrighted Works for Education and Research. As a for-profit institution, the College has certain limitations, but acts within good faith and fair use measures. For additional specifics, please refer to the Student and Faculty Handbooks.
Information Literacy
ACE supports all academic programs with digital books, full-text journals, and online multimedia resources through the ACE Library. For ACE online students and faculty, ‘going to the library’ means using this high-tech environment to:
- Search free and fee-based online databases effectively for scholarly information by using a Discovery search.
- Receive assistance from a professional librarian via live chat, SMS texting, e-mail, phone, Canvas inbox messaging, or discussion boards.
- Link full-text publications to a laptop, mobile phone, tablet, or hand-held book reader, if rights to provide digital content are provided by authors or publishers.
- Access interlibrary loan services and/or use local libraries for publications not available in digital formats.
- Evaluate the contents of digital and print publications for authenticity, accuracy, objectivity, currency, and completeness of coverage of the subject.
- Integrate scholarly information into research and writing using information literacy skills for lifelong learning.
- Promote information literacy skills to all children in K-12 schools.
The American College of Education Library provides interlibrary loan service via OCLC WorldShare so that current ACE staff, faculty and students may obtain electronic research materials that ACE library does not own or have access to. This service is governed by the American Library Association’s Interlibrary Loan Code and the US Copyright Revision Act of 1976 (17. United States Code. 101 et seq.) and its amendments.
ACE library utilizes Article Exchange, a cloud-based, document-sharing site that provides a single secure, location where lending libraries worldwide can place requested documents and library users can retrieve articles or book chapters obtained for them via interlibrary loan. The Library subscribes to specialized fee-based databases allowing ACE students and faculty access to full-text books and journal articles. From either the Library links in the LMS or the MyAthens portal, students and faculty can access more than a million citations to digital books, ERIC documents, and full-text journal articles in the field of education with an OpenAthens ID and password.
Information Technology Acceptable Use
All American College of Education students are expected to utilize electronic resources and information technology systems in a responsible, ethical, and legal manner. The College has sole and final discretion over all aspects of this policy, and the College’s systems or services. The College reserves the right to terminate any account or service access without cause or prior notice.
Student Responsibilities:
- Use resources for authorized purposes only;
- Use only legal versions of copyrighted software in compliance with vendor license requirements;
- Protect American College of Education accounts from use by other individuals; and,
- Consent to the monitoring for the purposes of enforcing College policies, troubleshooting network or systems problems, or to aid in the investigation of legal or criminal matters.
The following is a non-exhaustive list of misuse and abuse of the information technology system to assist in identifying unacceptable behaviors:
- Illegal and Prohibited use:
- Use of the College’s communication systems or equipment to post, view, bookmark, or download materials that are indecent, pornographic, sadistic, cruel, or racist in content, or of a sexually explicit or graphic nature, or any material whatsoever that may be deemed obscene or violates existing federal or state law, and/or the College’s Student Conduct policy. The College reserves the right to cooperate with legal authorities in the investigation of any suspected illegal activity.
- Encryption of files and other electronic records in such a way that representative of the College would be unable to access as permitted under this policy.
- Attempting to monitor or tamper with another user’s communications system, or reading, copying, changing, or deleting another user’s files or software without the explicit agreement of the College.
- Copyright Infringement:
- Use of College systems, communications services or equipment in a manner that violates copyrights, patent protection, or license agreements, or use that constitutes an infringement of third-party intellectual property rights in accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA) and other applicable law.
- E-mail:
- Use of Internet or electronic mail files that may cause an overload to the College’s network without making prior arrangements with the College.
- Use of an assigned American College of Education electronic mail to deliver unsolicited commercial emails or unsolicited bulk emails (SPAM) or use of an electronic mail or Internet access for commercial or personal use in any way that does not support academic goals of the College.
- Use of an assigned electronic mail account to send messages to a recipient who has requested prior not to receive, or with unacceptable frequency, or with the intention to intimidate, bully, or harass recipients in accordance with the College’s Student Conduct policy.
- System and Network Security:
- Use of a computer account that has not been authorized to access the College’s systems and/or use of the College’s systems to gain unauthorized access to any computer system.
- Attempts to penetrate security measures or gain unauthorized access to any information facility, whether successful or not.
- Sharing College-assigned user IDs or access codes or permitting unauthorized users or other individual access to the College’s systems or services.
- Attempts to alter, damage, delete, destroy or otherwise abuse any communications service or equipment in any way, including but not limited to physical destruction of College owned property or by the distribution or introduction of viruses, worms, or other harmful software into College systems.
- Configuration of unauthorized proxy servers on any College asset.
If a student is suspected of violating this policy, they will be reported to the College’s Information Technology department for investigation. If a violation is found, disciplinary action will be based on the seriousness of the situation and may include, but not be limited to, documented counseling by a College staff member, suspension and/or dismissal. Users may also be subject to appropriate legal action and/or consequences. In all cases, College officials will act in accordance with College policies and procedures.
Interlibrary Loan
The interlibrary loan service provides ACE faculty and students with the opportunity to have access to electronic materials that are not available through the ACE Library via OCLC WorldShare. Statistics are kept regarding all interactions, and patron privacy and confidentiality is maintained. This service is governed by the American Library Association’s Interlibrary Loan Code and the US Copyright Revision Act of 1976 (17. United States Code. 101 et seq.) and its amendments. ACE library utilizes Article Exchange, a cloud-based, document-sharing site that provides a single secure, location where lending libraries worldwide can place requested documents and library users can retrieve articles or book chapters obtained for them via interlibrary loan.
Library Online Reference
The American College of Education library staff provides online reference services via the “ACE Library Chat” or the “Email a Librarian” link in the LMS and in the Discovery Service results. A response will usually be sent within 24 hours from the email.
Student Email
Student emails provides a benefit to both the College and students by providing an avenue for timely, effective, and streamlined communication. This policy addresses the creation and purpose of email accounts for American College of Education students, the purpose of these email addresses, the acceptable use of student email accounts, monitoring, and the deactivation of these accounts. When implemented, this policy ensures students have access to ACE email accounts and that these accounts are used appropriately.
- Account Assignment: Upon enrollment to American College of Education, every students will be assigned a student email account. This account will be automatically created for students. Additionally, this email address associated with the account will be used as the primary email address for all ACE students once created.
- Account Use: As email is the primary communication mechanism for American College of Education, ACE students are expected to check their student email account on a regular basis for important communications from the College. Students have the responsibility to recognize communications from the College may be time-critical; thus, checking emails regularly is critical for effective communication with the College. Students are also accountable to using their student email accounts in adherence to the information technology-acceptable use policy.
- Monitoring & Privacy: The college reserves the right to monitor and block any and all email communications sent or received through the College email system without prior notice. Because of this, it all email users should exercise extreme caution in using email to communicate confidential or sensitive matters. Students should not assume that emails are private and confidential or that the College will maintain or store back-ups of a student’s email communications in any case.
- Password Updates: One of the ways the College protects its accounts and information systems is by requiring users to regularly update their passwords and use of unique identifier technologies, such as biometrics or token devices. ACE students will be required to update their passwords when notified by the College. If not updated by the deadline, students will be locked out of their accounts. Students should not share account passwords or permit other members of their household or beyond to access the College email system for personal use as user agrees to be held solely responsible for any activity or use of the services on that account.
- De-activation of Accounts: Student email accounts will be de-activated by the College after they leave the college and/or after periods of inactivity. The past ACE students will be notified by the College prior to any accounts being de-activated.
Note: Student email addresses will be provided to ACE students after November 2020. This policy is effective once accounts are assigned.
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