Code of Conduct

The University Preparation Course (UPC) Learning Community (“Community”) is a space for learners, partners, and employees to connect and support one another in achieving their learning and life goals.

This Code of Conduct applies to all forum posts and private messages posted herein.

We expect all activity within the Community to follow our Code of Conduct. If you do not follow our Code of Conduct, you or your posts may be removed from the Community.
We may provide helpful information within the Community, though we are not able to respond to every post. Peer responses, while helpful and appreciated, are not communications from UPC, EducationUSA or our partners.
You own the rights to any content you post in the Community. EducationUSA is granted a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license to use any content you post in the Community. By posting to the Community, you grant EducationUSA the right to use any content within the post without restriction or compensation.
EducationUSA is permitted to use any content you post in the Community on our social media channels, in our marketing materials, or in articles about EducationUSA printed or posted by third parties. When using your content in this way, EducationUSA will ask permission before using your image or full name alongside any content you’ve posted and for such use cases, all rights to the final work will be retained by EducationUSA.
Unless otherwise stated, all content posted in the Community is publicly visible and searchable online.
If you delete your Wix account, your private messages will be deleted. Any public posts you have made will be anonymized but the content will remain.

The Community includes people from all around the world and from a wide variety of different backgrounds, religions, and cultural norms. This diversity is one of the things that makes our Community great but it can also make communication challenging.

The purpose of our Community Code of Conduct is to ensure that the Community remains a welcoming, friendly and supportive place for all Community members, regardless of their background.

This is not intended to be an exhaustive list, rather it is intended as a guide for the kind of interactions we want to see in this Community. Ultimately, the Community Managers make the final decision on whether a behavior is acceptable or not.

Respect

The Community includes people from a wide variety of backgrounds and with a range of different skills and knowledge levels. Remember that context can get lost when communicating via text, and when one or more discussion participants is using a language that is not their native language. Strive to make sure your communication is clear and not unintentionally offensive. Emojis can be used to add context but a smiley face cannot make up for a rude post!

Always treat anyone using the courses with respect.
Never make any posts which may upset or offend another person, including sexual images or descriptions, real or implied violence, or profanity.
Never use language intended to attack, accuse, insult, harass, intimidate, oppress, derogate, or abuse another person in our Community.
Unwelcome sexual attention is not acceptable.

Problems, feedback and criticism

We welcome feedback that could be used to make the Community experience better for our learners or partners.

Please use the appropriate channels to provide such feedback or to report problems.
Avoid simply being negative - constructive criticism is valued, unproductive negativity is not.

This Community is focused around learning, so it’s expected that members may make mistakes, get things wrong, or not understand fully. Feedback and critique are an important part of learning so please feel free to provide it when appropriate, keeping in mind the following:

Always critique the actual work or method, not the person behind it,
Never belittle someone for not knowing or understanding something,
Give feedback privately if you think it may be embarrassing for the recipient, and
If someone responds poorly to feedback, don’t force them to take it, just stop interacting.