Legal Issues
Andrew Charlesworth, Centre for IT and Law at Bristol, is leading the support given to the JISC MLEs in Lifelong Learning Programme. He has grouped the issues under the following headings.
- Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)
Original material that has been produced by your learners is covered by intellectual property rights, and so will be owned by the learner. This has implications for how your institution uses such material, for instance publication and showcasing.
- The Data Protection Act (DPA)
The data held in the e-portfolio is subject to the DPA and it is important to check that your institutional notification does cover the new uses of the data. Your Data Controller will be able to help with this. If you do not have a person with that title there will be a named individual who has that responsibility within your institution.
This area is especially important when several institutions are working together and sending/receiving data from each other. In this instance you need to consider Joint Data Controller Agreements, Data Processor Agreements and Data Sharing Agreements.
- Ownership of the System
This question may arise if the software has been produced by employees of the institution. In this case it is the institution that owns that software.
- Stewardship
This term relates to the assumption of responsibility for the proper management of learner data and arises in the question of 'who owns the e-portfolio?'
- Guidance to Learners re: publishing and plagiarism, inflammatory/obscene material
Your institution should consider publishing guidance to learners (and to staff) concerning publishing on the Web using the institution resources. Rules and sanctions need to cover such issues as inappropriate material, breach of copyright and breaches of intellectual property rights. With regard to this it is recommended that you carry out a risk assessment exercise. Further information is available from the Risk Management infoKit.
