POK - Polimi Open Knowledge

In order to participate in polimi open knowledge (“pok”) courses or access any resources offered by politecnico di milano (“polimi”) at www.pok.polimi.it (“site”), you must first carefully read and agree to these terms of service (“terms”). by accessing and participating in the courses, you have indicated that you have read these terms and agree to be bound by and comply with them. if you do not agree to be bound by these terms, please promptly exit the site.

Polimi reserves the right to modify these terms at any time and will publish notice of any modifications on-line at this site. by continuing to access the site after notice of such modifications has been published, you signify your agreement to be bound by them.

Object and purpose

Polimi provides the online platform POK which hosts MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) created by Polimi, other organizations and POK partners based in Italy and throughout the world. By registering for an online course offered on the Site, you join a worldwide community of learners. POK endeavors to provide you access to online courses and learning materials wherever you are located.

Eligibility

Registration and participation in POK and its online courses is restricted to those individuals over 18 years of age, emancipated minors, or those who possess legal parental or guardian consent, and are fully able and competent to enter into these terms, conditions, obligations, affirmations, representations and warranties herein. In any case, you affirm that you are over the age of 14 since access to the Site is not intended for children under 14. If you are under 14 years of age, do not use the Site. If you have questions about the applicability of this policy, please contact us at pok@polimi.it. Certain courses may also have additional eligibility requirements as specified in the specific course description. If you are not eligible for registration and participation or do not agree to the Terms, you may not use the Site.

Rules for online 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, content in other media formats or discussions that are transmitted, communicated, or otherwise presented on interactive spaces (forums, social networks), and work submitted as part of course assignments (including peer assessment assignments).

Accordingly, you agree to abide by all applicable laws and 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 Site, the server or the network.

You may not use the Site via any automated means, such as a screen-scraper or robot. This is not intended to exclude the use of assistive technology for your own use, such as screen-readers. You agree not to send any unsolicited emails to other Site users. You may not display the Site within a frame on another website, or place pop-up windows or other disruptive technologies over it.

You further agree to abstain from attempting, by any means whatsoever, unauthorized access to POK 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.

You further agree that you will not email or post any of the following content anywhere on the Site:

• content that defames or threatens others;
• harassing statements or content that violates the applicable laws;
• content that discusses illegal activities with the intent to commit them;
• content related to partisan political activities;
• material that contains obscene (i.e. pornographic) language or images;
• advertising or any form of commercial solicitation;
• content that is otherwise unlawful;
• intentionally misleading or inaccurate content;
• content that infringes another's intellectual property, including, but not limited to, copyrights, trademarks or trade secrets.

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

You agree that, if a third party claims that any material you have contributed to the Site is unlawful, you will bear the burden of establishing that the material complies with all applicable laws. Although Polimi does not monitor the content of the Site, Polimi has the right to remove material from the Site, block access, or take other action with respect to the material in its sole discretion.

By submitting or distributing your user postings, you agree to allow such contents to be reproduced and disseminated potentially worldwide, though solely for the purposes of the online courses, unless otherwise specified in the relevant courses.

Recommendations to users

Unless your online instructor indicates otherwise, you are encouraged to:

• discuss general concepts and course materials for each course with the other learners while relying on the collaborative tools available;
• make sure that the full name you give is the one you want to appear on any certificate of accomplishment;
• choose your user name carefully, bearing in mind that it cannot be subsequently modified and that it will be visible to the other participants.

Users’ undertakings

In addition to the rules for online conduct set forth in the Terms and in the privacy policy, you undertake to:

• 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;
• observe the intellectual property rights granted under the user license attaching to each online course featured on the Site.

Content disclaimer

The text and other material on the online courses may include the opinion of the specific instructor and are not statements of advice, opinion, or information of Polimi. If you feel you might be offended by the content of the online courses, you should not continue.

Online courses may also include the personal opinions and other expressions by users who post entries on a wide range of topics. Neither the content of the forums, nor the links to other web sites, are screened, approved, reviewed or endorsed by Polimi.

User accounts

In order to fully participate in all Site activities, you have to sign up for a POK user account (name, username, email address); if you have the credentials to access Polimi online services, please use them to enter the Site via single sign-on.

You agree that you will never divulge or share access or access information to your user account with any third party for any reason.

In setting up your user account, you may be prompted or required to enter additional information. You understand and agree that all information provided by you is accurate, current and complete and that you will maintain and update your information to keep it accurate, current and complete. You acknowledge that if any information provided by you is untrue, inaccurate, not current or incomplete, we reserve the right to terminate your use of the online courses.

Course modification or cancellation

The online courses, including the course materials, may contain errors and omissions. We reserve the right to correct errors or omissions without prior notice. We also reserve the right to cancel, discontinue, reschedule, delay, change instructors or modify any course or service.

You acknowledge that the course content of the online course does not reflect the complete curriculum of a course that may be offered to students enrolled at Polimi.

We will study course participation to learn how to enhance both our course offering and the online learning experience. In the interests of these research studies, you may be exposed to slight variations in the course materials that will not substantially alter your learning experience.

Use of Site and materials

Unless otherwise indicated, the Site and content are the property of Polimi. Except where otherwise specified, user may not copy, reproduce, duplicate, retransmit, distribute, publish, sell, resell, commercially exploit or otherwise transfer any material of the Site or modify or create derivative works of the material of the Site. The burden of determining that use of any information, software or any other content on the Site is permissible rests with user. Some content on the Site is provided by third parties, and the use of that content is subject to rules and restrictions as indicated on the Site. You agree to be bound by all such rules and restrictions.

Certificate of accomplishment

Subject to satisfactory performance and course completion, you may achieve a certificate of accomplishment (“Certificate”) signed by the instructor(s). Polimi reserves the right to determine whether a Certificate will be issued for the online course and the nature of the information to be provided in the certificate. You acknowledge that any certificate will not stand in the place of a course taken at Polimi or an accredited institution or confer any academic credit, grade or degree or indicate enrollment at Polimi. You further acknowledge that instructors of any online course will not be involved in any attempts to get the course recognized by any educational or accredited institution.

Governing law

POK is managed by Polimi, located in Milan, Italy. These Terms and privacy policy shall be governed by and interpreted according to Italian law. The provisions of each have been written in both English and Italian languages. Both versions shall be equally valid and effective but, in the event of inconsistency between the two versions, the Italian version shall prevail.

Disclaimers of warranty/Limitations of liabilities

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. POK assumes no liability for any loss or damage of any kind resulting from the unavailability of the Site. POK bears no responsibility for contents provided in online courses hosted by the Site.

Polimi reserves the right to modify, suspend or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, POK (or any part thereof) without notice.

You agree that Polimi will not be liable to you for any loss or damages, either actual or consequential, arising out of or relating to these terms, or to your (or any third party's) use or inability to use the Site, or to your placement of content on the Site, or to your reliance upon information obtained from or through the Site.

You agree that: Polimi, in its sole discretion, may terminate your use of the Site or your participation in an online course; Polimi shall not have any liability to you for the termination; and that you are not entitled to any course credit or to any student or academic grievance procedures in connection with such a termination.

If you no longer desire to participate in the Site, you may terminate your participation therein upon notice to Polimi pok@polimi.it.

Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold Polimi harmless from any claims, actions, demands, losses or damages, including legal fees, arising out of, resulting from or in any way related to your participation in an online course, use of the Site, placement of any content onto the Site or violation of these Terms.

External links

For your convenience we may provide links to sites operated by organizations other than Polimi (third party sites) that we believe may be of interest to you. Polimi does not disclose your Personally Identifiable Information to these third party sites without obtaining your consent. Polimi does not endorse and is not responsible for the privacy practices of these third party sites. If you choose to click on a link to one of these third party sites, you should review the privacy policy posted on the other site to understand how that third party site collects and uses your personally identifiable information.

The Site may include hyperlinks to sites maintained or controlled by others. Polimi is not responsible for and does not routinely screen, approve, review or endorse the contents of or use of any of the products or services that may be offered at other sites.

Privacy policy

We encourage you to read our privacy policy, updated in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the European Union.

Protecting children's privacy

We do not knowingly collect or maintain Personally Identifiable Information on our Site from persons under 14 years of age, and no part of our Site is directed to persons under 14 years of age. If you are under 14 years of age, then please do not use or access this Site at any time or in any manner. Polimi will take appropriate steps to delete any Personally Identifiable Information of persons less than 14 years of age that has been collected on our Site without verified parental consent upon learning of the existence of such Personally Identifiable Information.

Contacting Polimi

To ask any questions regarding these Terms or to report any malfunctioning, you may contact Polimi at pok@polimi.it.

Effective date: November 08, 2023