ALiEMU User Agreement

Be free to learn!

ALiEMU’s products and services are provided by Academic Life in Emergency Medicine (ALiEM)TM. These Terms of Use (“Terms”) govern your use of ALiEMU’s website, apps, and other products and services (“Services”). As some of our Services may be software that is downloaded to your computer, phone, tablet, or other device, you agree that we may automatically update this software, and that these Terms will apply to such updates. Please read these Terms carefully, and contact us, if you have any questions. By using our Services, you agree to be bound by these Terms.

Using ALiEMU

Who may use our services

When you create your ALiEMU account, and subsequently when you use certain features, you must provide us with accurate and complete information. Any use or access by anyone under the age of 13 is prohibited, and certain courses may have additional requirements and/or restrictions.

Our license to you

Subject to these Terms, we grant you a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, and revocable license to use our Services. You may download content from our Services only for your personal, non-commercial use, unless you obtain ALiEMU’s written permission to otherwise use the content. You also agree that you will create, access, and/or use only one user account, and you will not share with any third party access to or access information for your account. Using our Services does not give you ownership of any intellectual property rights in our Services or the content you access.

Our Courses

New Course Alerts via Newsletter

We will intermittently send you email newsletters of new courses and updates that are available. You can unsubscribe to them anytime.

Course Modifications

ALiEMU reserves the right to cancel, interrupt, or reschedule any course or to modify any course content or the point value or weight of any assignment, quiz, or other assessment. Courses offered are subject to the Disclaimers and Limitation of Liability sections below.

No Academic Credit

Unless otherwise explicitly indicated by a credit-granting institution, participation in or completion of a course does not confer any academic credit. Even if credit is awarded by one institution, there is no presumption that other institutions will accept that credit. You agree not to accept credit for completing a course unless you have earned a Verified Certificate (or other equivalent ALiEMU credential) for that course. ALiEMU, the course instructors, and the associated participating institutions have no obligation to have a course recognized by any educational institution or accreditation organization.

Disclaimer of Student-University Relationship

Nothing in these Terms or otherwise with respect to your participation in any course: (a) establishes any relationship between you and any educational institution or organization with which ALiEMU may be affiliated; (b) enrolls or registers you in any educational institution, or in any course offered by any educational institution; or (c) entitles you to use the resources of any educational institution beyond participation in the course.

Your Content

User Content

The Services enable you to share your content, such as homework, quizzes, exams, projects, and other assignments you submit, posts you make in the forums, and the like (“User Content”), with ALiEMU, instructors, and/or other users. You retain all intellectual property rights in, and are responsible for, the User Content you share.

How ALiEMU and Others May Use User Content

To the extent that you provide User Content, you grant ALiEMU a fully-transferable, royalty-free, perpetual, sub-licensable, non-exclusive, worldwide license to copy, distribute, modify, create derivative works based on, publicly perform, publicly display, and otherwise use the User Content. This license includes granting ALiEMU the right to authorize participating institutions to use User Content with their registered students and on-campus learners independent of the Services. Nothing in these Terms shall restrict other legal rights ALiEMU may have to User Content, for example under other licenses. We reserve the right to remove or modify User Content for any reason, including User Content that we believe violates these Terms.

Feedback

We welcome your suggestions, ideas, comments, and other feedback regarding the Services (“Feedback”). By submitting any Feedback, you grant us the right to use the Feedback without any restriction or any compensation to you. By accepting your Feedback, ALiEMU does not waive any rights to use similar or related Feedback previously known to ALiEMU, developed by its employees or contractors, or obtained from other sources.

Security

We care about the security of our users. While we work to protect the security of your account and related information, ALiEMU cannot guarantee that unauthorized third parties will not be able to defeat our security measures. Please notify us immediately of any compromise or unauthorized use of your account..

Third Party Content

Through the Services, you will have the ability to access and/or use content provided by instructors, other users, and/or other third parties and links to websites and services maintained by third parties. ALiEMU cannot guarantee that such third party content, in the Services or elsewhere, will be free of material you may find objectionable or otherwise inappropriate or of malware or other contaminants that may harm your computer, mobile device, or any files therein. ALiEMU disclaims any responsibility or liability related to your access or use of such third party content.

Copyright and Trademark Policy

ALiEMU respects the intellectual property rights of our users, participating institutions, and other third parties and expects our users to do the same when using the Services. We have adopted and implemented the ALiEMU Copyright and Trademark Policy in accordance with applicable law, including the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Education Quality Assurance & Improvement

ALiEMU is committed to advancing the science of learning and teaching within our digital environment, and de-identified records of your participation in courses may be used for education quality assurance or quality improvement (QA research). In the interest of this scholarship, you may be exposed to variations in the course content. Quality assurance or improvement findings will typically be reported at the aggregate level. Your personal identity will not be publicly disclosed in any findings without your express consent.

Modifying and Terminating our Services

We are constantly improving our Services. We may add or remove functions, features, or requirements, and we may suspend or stop a Service altogether. Accordingly, ALiEMU may terminate your use of any Service for any reason. None of ALiEMU, its participating institutions and instructors, its contributors, sponsors, and other business partners, and their employees, contractors, and other agents (the “ALiEMU Parties”) shall have any liability to you for any such action.

Disclaimers

The services and all included content are provided on an “as is” basis without warranty of any kind, whether express or implied. The ALiEMU parties specifically disclaim any and all warranties and conditions of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement, and any warranties arising out of course of dealing or usage of trade. The ALiEMU parties further disclaim any and all liability related to your access or use of the services or any related content. You acknowledge and agree that any access to or use of the services or such content is at your own risk.

Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, the ALiEMU parties shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or any loss of profits or revenues, whether incurred directly or indirectly, or any loss of data, use, goodwill, or other intangible losses, resulting from: (A) your access to or use of or inability to access or use the services; (B) any conduct or content of any party other than the applicable ALiEMU party, including without limitation, any defamatory, offensive, or illegal conduct; or (C) unauthorized access, use, or alteration of your content or information. In no event shall ALiEMU’s aggregate liability fo all claims related to the services exceed ten U.S. dollars ($10) or the total amount of fees received by ALiEMU from you for the use of paid services during the past six months, which ever is greater.

You acknowledge and agree that the disclaimers and the limitations of liability set forth in this Terms of Use reflect a reasonable and fair allocation of risk between you and the ALiEMU parties, and that these limitations are an essential basis to ALiEMU’s ability to make the services available to you on an economically feasible basis.

You agree that any cause of action related to the services must commence within one year after the cause of action accrues. Otherwise, such cause of action is permanently barred.

Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless the ALiEMU Parties from any and all claims, liabilities, expenses, and damages, including reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs, made by any third party related to: (a) your use or attempted use of the Services in violation of these Terms; (b) your violation of any law or rights of any third party; or (c) User Content, including without limitation any claim of infringement or misappropriation of intellectual property or other proprietary rights.

Governing Law and Jurisdiction

The Services are managed by ALiEMU, which is subsidiary of Academic Life in Emergency Medicine, LLC, located in San Mateo County, California. You agree that any dispute related to these Terms will be governed by the laws of the State of California, excluding its conflicts of law provisions. You further consent to the personal jurisdiction of and exclusive venue in the federal and state courts located in and serving San Mateo County, California as the legal forum for any such dispute.

Excluding claims for injunctive or other equitable relief, for claims related to the Services where the total amount sought is less than ten thousand U.S. Dollars ($10,000.00 USD), either you or ALiEMU may elect at any point during the dispute to resolve the claim through binding, non-appearance-based arbitration. The dispute will then be resolved using an established alternative dispute resolution (“ADR”) provider, mutually agreed upon by you and ALiEMU. The parties and the selected ADR provider shall not involve any personal appearance by the parties or witnesses, unless otherwise mutually agreed by the parties; rather, the arbitration shall be conducted, at the option of the party seeking relief, online, by telephone, or via written submissions alone. Any judgment rendered by the arbitrator may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction.

General Terms

Revisions to the Terms

We reserve the right to revise the Terms at our sole discretion at any time. Any revisions to the Terms will be effective immediately upon posting by us. For any material changes to the Terms, we will take reasonable steps to notify you of such changes. In all cases, your continued use of the Services after publication of such changes, with or without notification, constitutes binding acceptance of the revised Terms.

Severability; Waiver

If it turns out that a particular provision of these Terms is not enforceable, this will not affect any other terms. If you do not comply with these Terms, and we do not take immediate action, this does not indicate that we relinquish any rights that we may have (such as taking action in the future).

Participating Institutions

ALiEMU’s participating institutions are third party beneficiaries of the Terms and may enforce those provisions of the Terms that relate to them.

Notice for California Users

Under California Civil Code Section 1789.3, California website users are entitled to the following specific consumer rights notice: The Complaint Assistance Unit of the Division of Consumer Services of the California Department of Consumer Affairs may be contacted in writing at 1625 N. Market Blvd., Suite S-202, Sacramento, California 95834, or by telephone at (800) 952-5210.

Acceptable Use Policy

ALiEMU’s mission is to reinvent how health professions education can be efficiently and effectively delivered to lifelong learners worldwide. We believe in preserving free speech and expression for our learners as well as academic freedom for our partner institutions and instructors. We also want to make sure that all of our learners and instructors feel safe and comfortable while using our Services. We have drafted these guidelines to ensure that people understand and follow the rules when participating in our online community and otherwise using our Services.

Although we do not routinely screen or monitor content provided by users, we may remove or edit inappropriate content or activity reported to us or suspend, disable, or terminate a user’s access to all or part of the Services.

You are prohibited from using our Services to share content that:

  • Contains illegal content or promotes illegal activities with the intent to commit such activities. Please keep in mind that learners who are as young as 13 years old use ALiEMU, and we do not allow content that is inappropriate for these younger learners.
  • Contains credible threats or organizes acts of real-world violence. We do not allow content that creates a genuine risk of physical injury or property damage, credibly threatens people or public safety, or organizes or encourages harm.
  • Harasses others. We encourage constructive commentary about people and matters of public interest, but abusive or otherwise inappropriate content directed at private individuals is not allowed.
  • Violates intellectual property, privacy, or other rights. Do not share content that you do not have the right to share, claim content that you did not create as your own, or otherwise infringe or misappropriate someone else’s intellectual property or other rights. Always attribute materials used or quoted by you to the original copyright owner.
  • Spams others. Do not share irrelevant or inappropriate advertising, promotional, or solicitation content.
  • Otherwise violates the ALiEMU Terms of Use. Please note that specific courses may have additional rules and requirements.

You also are NOT allowed to:

  • Do anything that violates local, state, national or international law or breaches any of your contractual obligations or fiduciary duties.
  • Share your password, let anyone access your account, or do anything that might put your account at risk.
  • Attempt to access any other user’s account.
  • Reproduce, transfer, sell, resell, or otherwise misuse any content from our Services, unless specifically authorized to do so.
  • Access, tamper with, or use non-public areas of our systems, unless specifically authorized to do so.
  • Break or circumvent our authentication or security measures or otherwise test the vulnerability of our systems or networks, unless specifically authorized to do so.
  • Try to reverse engineer any portion of our Services.
  • Try to interfere with any user, host, or network, for example by sending a virus, overloading, spamming, or mail-bombing.
  • Use our Services to distribute malware.
  • Impersonate or misrepresent your affiliation with any person or entity.
  • Encourage or help anyone do any of the things on this list.

Copyright and Trademark Policy

ALiEMU respects the intellectual property rights of our partner institutions, instructors, and other third parties and expects our users to do the same when using the Services. We reserve the right to to suspend, disable, or terminate the accounts of users who repeatedly infringe or are repeatedly charged with infringing the copyrights, trademarks, or other intellectual property rights of others.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (the “DMCA”) provides recourse for copyright owners who believe that material appearing on the Internet infringes their rights under U.S. copyright law. If you would like to read the DMCA, please visit the U.S. Copyright Office website at http://www.copyright.gov/legislation/dmca.pdf.

If you believe in good faith that materials on the Services infringe your copyright, the DCMA provides that you (or your agent) may send us a notice requesting that the material be removed or access to it blocked.

The notice must include the following information:

  1. The physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed;
  2. Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed (or, if multiple copyrighted works located on the Services are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works);
  3. Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or the subject of infringing activity, and information reasonably sufficient to allow ALiEMU to locate the material on the Services;
  4. The name, address, telephone number, and email address (if available) of the complaining party;
  5. A statement that the complaining party has a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and
  6. A statement that the information in the notification is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

Notices must meet the then-current statutory requirements imposed by the DMCA. Notices and counter-notices with respect to the Services should be sent to us on our feedback page. We suggest that you consult your legal advisor before filing a notice. Also, be aware that there can be penalties for false claims under the DMCA.

ALiEMU also respects the trademark rights of others. Accounts with any other content that misleads others or violates another’s trademark may be updated, suspended, disabled, or terminated by ALiEMU in its sole discretion. If you are concerned that someone may be using your trademark in an infringing way on our Services, please contact us, and we will review your complaint. If we deem appropriate, we may remove the offending content, warn the individual who posted the content, and/or temporarily or permanently suspend or disable the individual’s account.

Honor Code

All users must agree to abide by the following code of conduct:

  1. My answers to homework, quizzes, exams, projects, and other assignments will be my own work (except for assignments that explicitly permit collaboration).
  2. I will not make solutions to homework, quizzes, exams, projects, and other assignments available to anyone else (except to the extent an assignment explicitly permits sharing solutions). This includes both solutions written by me, as well as any solutions provided by the course staff or others.
  3. I will not engage in any other activities that will dishonestly improve my results or dishonestly improve or hurt the results of others.

Effective July 13, 2015; updated July 20, 2020

ALIEMU Terms of Use language was derived from Coursera website as a template.