Skip to content

Governance & Policies

Sites@Duke Express is managed by a team of staff with representation from the Office of Information Technology (OIT) and the Duke Learning Innovation. OIT’s Duke Web Services is the service owner.

Information and feedback in support of the governance process is gathered in several ways:

Timeline for changes to Sites Express

Feedback from the governance process is used to make adjustments and improvements in the overall Sites Express service. We make changes to Sites Express every Thursday, including updating core, themes, and plugins, and performing domain mapping.

Acceptable Use

All users of the Sites Express service agree to follow Duke’s Acceptable Use Policy. Duke employees who use the service also agree to follow Duke policies on the use of computing and electronic resources, the standard of conduct, and non-solicitation.

Copyright

Users of the Sites Express service grant to Duke and its agents a non-exclusive license to use all content posted in blogs and sites hosted in the tool. The writer of the page, blog entry, and/or comment retains the copyright to that content.

Privacy

Duke NetID and OneLink accounts and passwords are specific to the individual and may not be shared with others.

Sites Express is only appropriate for public data. Any data considered restricted or sensitive should not be added to a Sites Express website. While website and page visibility options are available, they are not a guarantee of any data privacy.

Blog users in academic courses who do not wish to blog using their real identity may arrange with the course instructor to use a pseudonym.

Comments

All sites in the Sites Express service must have comments moderated (i.e. reviewed prior to publication). Sites will be set up with moderation enabled, and site owners are responsible for ensuring that moderation and discarding of spam comments takes place.

Scope of Service

Sites Express provides a pre-configured environment with a robust set of themes and plug-ins that site owners can use to create their own web space. Sites Express is not a custom development environment, which means that users may not install their own themes or plugins or obtain access to the back end of the service. The Sites Express team provides technical assistance with the basic service, but does not provide web design consultation, in-depth personalized training, or assistance with custom CSS or other design and development tasks. Other assistance may be available; please review our Help section for more information.

Access to create sites is available to individuals with official Duke faculty, staff, or student status. Others may participate in a site when invited to do so by the site owner but do not have access to create sites.

Terms of Service

Sites Express is provided to members of the Duke community at no charge. There are two primary uses of this service: for official courses (which includes automated connections to course rosters) and non-course uses. A standard set of configuration options are available. Data retention policies (which determine how long content remains on the Sites Express system), such as Duke’s Data Retention Guidelines, do apply.

The Duke Data Classification Standard defines three classes of information: Sensitive, Restricted, and Public. Each classification tier requires a specific level of technical and procedural security controls. The Sites Express service is an appropriate location only for Public data, and all users of the service agree to only publish Public data on it.

Copy of Terms of Use and Privacy Policy Agreement for Instructors for course use

NOTE: This is a copy of the information that is provided to instructors when they first create a site.

Before anyone can start using this service, an Instructor must read and agree to the following Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, including any future amendments.

I understand that all comments must be moderated by me or my designate prior to publication (if they are enabled at all).

I understand that use of Sites@Duke Express requires adherence to Duke’s acceptable use guidelines and that access may be revoked for any site/blog participant (whether from Duke or from outside of Duke) who does not follow these guidelines.

I understand that as the site/blog owner, I have sole responsibility for informing participants in this site/blog about the nature of its availability – i.e. whether it is generally available, viewable by authorized users, etc.

I understand that I will be added to a mailing list in order to receive periodic notifications of upgrades and major changes to Sites@Duke Express. Membership on this list is required as long as I am the administrator for at least one site/blog in Sites@Duke Express.

I understand that use of Sites@Duke Express is subject to university data retention policies, and that associated site/blog may be removed or archived by the university at a later time in accordance with published, formal guidelines.

I understand that 5 years after site/blog creation, I will receive email prompting me to renew my site/blog. If I or another administrator of my site/blog don’t follow the renewal process before the expiration date, I understand that my site/blog will be deleted.

I understand that these Terms and Conditions may be modified at a future date in accordance with the Sites@Duke Express governance procedures.

By selecting “I agree” you are indicating that you have read and agree to the above Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Copy of Terms of Use and Privacy Policy Agreement for Owners of Non-Course Sites

NOTE: This is a copy of the information that is provided to Duke faculty, students, and staff when they first create a site for non-course use.

I understand that all comments must be moderated by me or my designate prior to publication (if they are enabled at all).

I understand that use of Sites@Duke Express requires adherence to Duke’s acceptable use guidelines and that access may be revoked for any site/blog participant (whether from Duke or from outside of Duke) who does not follow these guidelines.

I understand that as the site/blog owner, I have sole responsibility for informing participants in this site/blog about the nature of its availability – i.e. whether it is generally available, viewable by authorized users, etc.

I understand that I will be added to a mailing list in order to receive periodic notifications of upgrades and major changes to Sites@Duke Express. Membership on this list is required as long as I am the administrator for at least one site/blog in Sites@Duke Express.

I understand that use of Sites@Duke Express is subject to university data retention policies, and that associated site/blog may be removed or archived by the university at a later time in accordance with published, formal guidelines.

I understand that 2 years after site/blog creation, I will receive email prompting me to renew my site/blog. If I or another administrator of my site/blog don’t follow the renewal process before the expiration date, I understand that my site/blog will be deleted.

I understand that these Terms and Conditions may be modified at a future date in accordance with the Sites@Duke Express governance procedures.

By selecting “I agree” you are indicating that you have read and agree to the above Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.