LAST UPDATED November 10, 2022

At CourseKata, we are committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains the types of information we collect on our website, located at coursekata.org, and through our CourseKata Statistics and Data Science curriculum materials (collectively, “CourseKata”). It further explains how we will use, disclose, and protect your information. By visiting CourseKata, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy, please do not use CourseKata.

CourseKata is hosted in the United States. http://CourseKata.org rests on a cloud-based web server hosted by our third-party service provider, Amazon Web Services (AWS), a subsidiary of Amazon. AWS hosts your data in servers located in the U.S. We also use Google Cloud Platform (GCP), a subsidiary of Google to run our JupyterHubs. When you use the CourseKata JupyterHubs, your data will be run and stored on GCP, who also hosts your data in servers located in the U.S.

If you are a teacher with students enrolled in a course in which CourseKata is installed, you represent and warrant that you are authorized to allow your students to use the curriculum and for CourseKata to collect the information described below.‍

Information Collected by CourseKata

Information You Provide

When educators (e.g., instructors, administrators, researchers) register for a CourseKata instructor account, we ask them to provide certain personal information, such as their first and last name, their email address, primary institution, institution type, and primary department.

For students to use CourseKata, they must provide us with their first and last name and an email address. A survey embedded in the course collects information for research purposes, including demographic information. Completion of every item on the survey is not required to use the curriculum.

The CourseKata Statistics and Data Science program will prompt students to indicate their attitudes towards statistics and coding, for example, by asking them to select whether or not they like statistics while using the program. Users may also provide feedback on CourseKata or report a problem.

‍Program Information

CourseKata receives certain information from students as they interact with the materials, such as their responses to questions asked, the timing of those responses, and their time spent and engagement with the course materials.

Site Usage Information

When students use CourseKata, our servers automatically collect certain site usage information associated with their computer. Site usage information is non-personal information that includes, but is not limited to, browser type, operating system, IP address, and the domain name from which they accessed CourseKata. It may also include information such as the date and time they accessed CourseKata, how much time they spent on CourseKata, the pages they visited, and other “click-stream” data.

We use cookies to collect the Program and Site Usage information described above. A cookie is a small data file that may be sent by a website or application and stored on the hard drive of the student’s computer. A cookie stores information about the student’s browser that allows us to recognize their browser when they return and to remember their preferences. Students may reject cookies, but by doing so, they may not be able to use CourseKata. By using CourseKata, you agree to the use of cookies.

CourseKata does not track its users across third-party websites and does not respond to Do Not Track (DNT) signals. Third-party websites are not able to collect personally identifiable information about activity on CourseKata.

We use third-party service providers (i.e., Learnosity and New Relic) to assist us in collecting and understanding Program Information and Site Usage Information information.

How We Use Your Information

Information You Provide

The information educators provide when registering for CourseKata is used to create an instructor or a researcher account. This allows instructors to log in and create a class for their students and allows researcher access to de-identified course information. All instructors and researchers must abide by our terms of use agreements, copies of which can be found at coursekata.org/privacy/instructor-agreement and coursekata.org/privacy/researcher-agreement.

CourseKata may use email addresses used to create instructor and researcher accounts to send these users information regarding their CourseKata account. We may also use instructors’ and researchers’ email addresses to send newsletters and other communications; instructors and researchers may unsubscribe at any time.

Students’ names and email addresses are used solely to facilitate a teacher, school, or district’s identification of their students using CourseKata materials. We do not save names and email addresses in any data files accessible to anyone other than CourseKata administrators.

When users provide feedback or report a concern, we use their information to respond to their request or fix the issue.

When students indicate their attitudes towards statistics and coding, we use the responses to help us understand and improve the effectiveness of our Services. We do not modify individual student content based on the responses.

Educators remain in control of the personal information they provide to us about themselves. This means that educators can review, revise, or delete their own personal information as described below.

Non-personal information, such as grade level and other demographic information, is used in aggregated, anonymized reporting to help us better understand how the program is used and to improve the program.

We do not allow any advertising on our site.

Program Information

We use personally identifiable Program Use Information to provide educators with information regarding their students’ usage and performance on CourseKata, and to provide students with information about their own progress

In addition, we may use aggregated, anonymized Program Use Information to improve and demonstrate the efficacy of CourseKata. CourseKata team members may access only de-identified information.

CourseKata may field test new application functionality, content, and features as part of its commitment to continuous improvement. This means that educators or students may experience some variations in the user experience.

Site Usage Information

We use Site Usage Information to administer the site and program, monitor and diagnose problems with it, remember users when they return so that information does not have to be resubmitted, users' progress can be maintained, and to improve our program.

How We May Share Your Information:

We do not ever sell or rent users’ personal information.

We will only share personal information in the following circumstances:

• When we believe in good faith that disclosure of user’s information is necessary to protect our rights and those of others, to protect users’ safety or the safety of others, to investigate fraud or to respond to a government, judicial or other legal request or to comply with the law.

• In connection with an organizational change, such as a dissolution, provided that users’ information will remain subject to the terms of this Privacy Policy.

Your Access and Opt-Out Rights

Educators may review or change the information they have provided about themselves within their account settings.

Educators may choose to opt out of email messages and newsletters from us. To opt out, simply click on the “unsubscribe” button that appears on emails. Regardless of your subscription setting, CourseKata may send you transactional emails concerning the administration of your account, including notice of material updates to its Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Students may opt out of allowing their data to be used in research, and can change their mind on this at any time via the relevant page in their course materials. A copy of this opt out page is available here: coursekata.org/privacy/student-agreement.

If you are a parent or legal guardian of a minor child, you may also have the right to access certain information about your child. To do so, we request that you contact your school or district, which may access your child’s information through their classroom portal.

Data Retention

Students and teachers may request deletion of their account data by contacting us at info@coursekata.org.

We retain aggregated, anonymized information for some of the purposes described in “How We Use Your Information,” above.

Security

We maintain reasonable administrative, technical and physical safeguards to protect the security, confidentiality and integrity of our users’ data. CourseKata has multiple security measures in place to protect against the loss, misuse, or alteration of information under our control. These include encryption of data in transit and at rest, use of two-factor authentication for administrators to access the system, regular software security updates, periodic risk assessments, and remediation of identified security vulnerabilities in a timely manner.

However, please be aware that no data transmissions over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. Consequently, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit or otherwise provide to us and you do so at your own risk.

Users are responsible for maintaining the strict confidentiality of their account password, and for any activity that occurs under their account credentials, whether or not authorized by them. We do not have access to passwords; they are saved only by the LMS and communicated via the LTI protocol. We expect users to notify us of any unauthorized use of their account or any suspected breach of security. CourseKata will comply with all applicable laws in the event of an unauthorized disclosure of personal identifying information.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

CourseKata may amend this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will notify instructors by updating the date of this Privacy Policy and posting it on this page of our site. We will also notify instructors of any material changes to this Privacy Policy via email.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us: info@coursekata.org 

Headings

The headings identifying the sections and subsections of these terms of use are for reference only and do not define, modify, expand, or limit any of the terms or provisions herein.