With the course management system Moodle, the University Computer Centre (URZ) provides a teaching and learning platform to members of teaching staff and students at the University of Greifswald. The software can be used to organise classes, for communication between participants and self-study. Correspondingly, every class has Moodle course rooms that can be filled with content for use in the classes.
The learning management system Moodle can be used by both teachers and students, subject to these terms of use. The e-learning platform can only be used if you have granted your consent to the processing of your data. You will not be faced with any disadvantages if you do not grant your consent; however, it is not possible to register for Moodle without granting consent. Consent can be withdrawn at any time with effect for the future by submitting a corresponding declaration to the Moodle administration. If you withdraw your consent, you will lose access to Moodle.
User group
If you would like to take active part in Moodle courses, you must register for Moodle. Registration occurs the first time you log into Moodle. The university email address that every student receives on enrolment and other members of the university community receive upon request for a user account, is used for communicating with Moodle. Lecturers must submit a request to URZ to be able to create and add to courses in Moodle. External users, who are not members of the university community, will be added to the University of Greifswald’s Active Directory upon request for a user account via the account management and can then register for Moodle when they log in for the first time.
Course rooms
Lecturers can provide access to their courses to everyone who is registered in Moodle, but they can also set up a password to limit access to their courses to the group of students for which they are intended. The passwords to the courses are only issued by the lecturers or persons commissioned by the lecturers to do so. In case of misuse, it is possible for the passwords to be changed. The allocated username and corresponding password may not be passed on.
Lecturers can give roles with lower permissions to other users registered in Moodle.
It is only possible to save and restore courses without participants or participants’ contributions.
The settings of the University of Greifswald’s central learning management system Moodle are not suitable for holding online examinations.
When using the activities “Choice” and “Feedback”, lecturers must inform students that their names shall be visible, setup the activity in anonymised format and/or, if applicable, enable an anonymised choice.
Observance of copyright law and other legal obligations
Every user is obliged to observe legal provisions, in particular the protection of personal rights, copyrights, ancillary copyrights, and trademark rights. Every user is responsible for the materials that they add to the learning management system Moodle from their own or external sources, including RSS feeds. The copyrights of all information and materials added to the learning management system Moodle, of documents created by users, or external files, must be recognised and observed by every user. The University of Greifswald is not liable for users’ infringement of rights.
Further information and advice on copyright issues related to e-learning can be found here (de|you will need to log in and register!). In case of doubt, you should always involve the University of Greifswald’s Legal Services Office before uploading external materials to Moodle.
Voluntary use
The use of Moodle is voluntary.
Processing of personal data
We process personal data that is collected when you visit this website in accordance with the valid data protection regulations, in particular the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Landesdatenschutzgesetz - DSG M-V (State Data Protection Act).
The person responsible pursuant to the General Data Protection Regulation and other national data protection laws of the member states and other data protection regulations is:
University of Greifswald
Legally represented by the Rector
Prof. Dr. Katharina Riedel
Postal address:
17487 Greifswald
Address:
Domstraße 11, Entrance 2
17489 Greifswald
Tel: +49 3834 420 0
Fax: +49 3834 420 1105
rektorin[at]uni-greifswald[dot]de
Legal basis
If the University requests consent for the collection of personal data from the data subject, Art. 6(1) Item a GDPR shall serve as the legal basis. If processing is required to preserve a legitimate interest of the University and if the interests, fundamental rights and fundamental freedoms of the person affected do not outweigh the previously mentioned interest, Art. 6(1) Item f GDPR shall serve as the legal basis for the processing.
Log files
The following data is stored in log files every time a visitor accesses this website for reasons related to data security and statistics purposes:
• IP address,
• Time website was accessed,
• User agent (browser and operating system),
• Visited pages or content and
• Referer URL, if provided (page visited previously).
Our legitimate interest for the necessary processing of data in these purposes is also covered by Art. 6(1) Item f GDPR. The data will be stored for a maximum of 7 days, after which it will be stored in anonymous form.
Log files (after logging in)
The following personal data is processed for the purpose of user administration, user authentication and the holding of virtual classes: The first time you log in, i.e. register for Moodle, your user credentials (your URZ account/Uni ID), your surname, your given name(s), and your university email address will be added to the Moodle database. This data is compared by the respective authentication system with the University of Greifswald’s Active Directory to check the user’s authorisation to use the learning management system Moodle. The transmitted data is already stored by the University of Greifswald and mandatory for the use of Moodle.
Your role (e.g. lecturer or student) as well as the above-named data can be viewed by lecturers, non-editing teachers and other participants. You can adjust the visibility of your email address in your user profile: you can hide the address, or make it visible for all participants of the courses you are attending or for all users. Your email address in your user profile is always visible to administrators and lecturers.
Details of your town/location and country is requested by the system, but is not mandatory for using Moodle. You can therefore provide fictitious details here. The description and other data is not required in order to use Moodle, however, you can add additional information about yourself, or a photo to your user profile. Personal data stored in Moodle, as well as contributions within individual activities, may only be transmitted to other computers, servers, or to other files outside of the programme for purposes related to the respective class. It must be ensured that no third parties gain knowledge of this personal data and that the details are deleted completely if it is no longer necessary for them to be stored.
Log data collected in the background when using Moodle, including the time, IP address, full name, action and object information reflect the time at which components of the teaching offers and profiles of other users were accessed, if applicable, also, whether set tasks have been completed or whether contributions have been made to an activity. Each data subject sees the recorded log files for their own data. The data is only made available to the lecturers in aggregated and anonymised form, and anonymous usage statistics are compiled.
Cookies
When you visit this website, so-called “session cookies” will be sent to and stored on your device. Cookies are small text files that are used to make the internet more user-friendly, efficient and secure. They do not damage your computer and contain no viruses. Session cookies are usually deleted automatically after leaving the website. You can deactivate the storage of cookies by changing the corresponding settings in your browser. Please note that deactivation can mean that you may not be able to use all of the functions of this website to their full extent.
Data security
Only registered users can work in Moodle. Communication with the learning management system occurs via an encrypted and authenticated connection. The course rooms themselves are protected from being indexed by search engines. A backup with a fixed storage period is created to restore the system if necessary.
Administration
Administrators have access to all of the data created in the learning management system Moodle. They may only use the data within the limited scope of their work tasks. During the administration process, no personal data is passed on to third parties, not even in anonymised form. Legal obligations to transmit data remain unaffected.
(No) Announcement of examination results
As a general rule of principle, it is not permitted to announce examination results or marks in Moodle. Instead, these must be announced to the Central Examination Office, which in turn takes care of the individual announcement of the results in digital format via the “Self-Service Portal for Students and Lecturers” that occurs in line with data protection regulations.
This principle does not apply to marks for coursework, which does not necessarily belong to the coursework required by the study and examination regulations. In such cases, the announcement of examination results via Moodle is not a data protection issue as long as this occurs in individualised form (e.g. via the internal assessment system).
Instructions for integrating the above-named assessments in the Moodle assessment system can be found here (de|you will need to log in and register!).
Posts/comments, assessments, tracking of completion
During the use of Moodle, further data is created within the courses, such as contributions or comments on the individual activities and their assessment by lecturers or non-editing teachers. The contributions and comments on activities are visible to the course participants and the lecturers’ guests in the course. Assessments are only visible to the individually assessed participant, the lecturer and the non-editing teacher. Contributions and comments on activities, as well as assessments, are usually blocked when the participant deregisters from the course. The contributions remain active in activities in which blocking would destroy the context, e.g. in forums, chats, in glossaries and wikis. These contributions/comments and assessments will not be deleted permanently in Moodle until the course is deleted. In activities that require the tracking of completion, the course lecturers are able to see the users’ individual level of completion of the related materials and activities.
Chat
The chat makes it possible to communicate with other users in real time. Messages that you enter in the chat are visible to all course participants with the date and time of the entry, your name and your photo, if you have saved one in your profile.
Forums
Forums allow course participants to communicate asynchronously. Contributions are visible to all course participants and marked with the date and time of the contribution, your name, and your photo, if you have saved one in your profile.
Blogs
Blogs - except for personal blogs - can be read by all Moodle participants. These can be used for exchanging information and opinions on the course, but also on general topics. Contributions are visible to all Moodle users and are marked with the date and time they are posted, your name, and your photo, if you have saved one in your profile.
Messages
Messages can be sent to any Moodle participant, independently of the course. Moodle provides an address book for sending messages that only displays the names and not the email addresses or any other details of the Moodle users. However, the address book does not display all of the names in a list, instead, the user must enter the name of a specific recipient in a search box. On registration, the name of every Moodle user is added to the address book. To enable joint notifications, lecturers have access to a list of all of the names of their course participants.
Glossary and wiki
Entries to the glossary and wiki are visible for all other Moodle users and are marked with the date and time they are posted, your name, and your photo, if you have saved one in your profile.
My files/calendar
Information and files saved in the calendar or in “my files” are only visible to the respective user.
Transmission of data/external services
External information does not have to be referenced and made available solely via links to third-party services, it is also possible, for example, to embed image files, iframes or similar from other web offers (e.g. video portals, RSS feeds, language courses) directly in Moodle. In such cases, your browser may transmit data to the third-party system.
Deletion of data
Personal data on the profile page will be deleted at the end of the semester in which a student deregisters from the university. You can delete profile data that you provided on a voluntary basis to enhance your profile at any time. The lecturers can delete a course at any time. This will also lead to a deletion of student contributions within the course. Contributions and comments in forums, wikis and in the glossary, as well as files that have been made available are still accessible to other users after deactivation of your Moodle account until the corresponding course or the corresponding activity has been deleted. Log data is permanently deleted after 180 days, roughly the length of one semester.
Rights
You are entitled to withdraw your consent for the collection of personal data at any time and without having to provide reasons, with effect for the future, by writing to the University of Greifswald, Domstraße 11, 17489 Greifswald, or via email to moodle[at]uni-greifswald[dot]de.
You also have the right to receive information upon request and free of charge about your stored personal data, its origin, recipient, the purpose and length of data processing. Furthermore, under certain circumstances, you have the right to the correction, limitation of the processing (e.g. blocking), deletion and data portability of your data. In addition, you also have the right to submit a complaint to the responsible supervisory authority for data protection, if, in your opinion, your details are not being processed in a lawful manner.
For questions pertaining to data protection, please contact the University’s official Data Protection Officer:
René Schülke
SIS - Schweriner IT- und Servicegesellschaft mbH
Eckdrift 93, 19061 Schwerin
Tel: +49 385 545 5203
datenschuetzer[at]uni-greifswald[dot]de
University Computer Centre (URZ)
Felix-Hausdorff-Straße 18
17489 Greifswald
Tel: +49 3834 420 1420
Fax: +49 3834 420 1401
Last revised: Thursday, 5 October 2023, 12:15