Community Guidelines for Blogging/Podcasting
This set of guidelines should be followed by all staff and students when creating either a blog or podcast using systems provided by the University.
You are part of the University of Leeds Community
Refer to yourself as being part of the University of Leeds community in your content as either a student or member of staff. Feel free to include more details of your role, and the work that you do with the University. You'll maintain creative control over your blog or podcast, so it's important to create a distinction between anything officially distributed by central Marketing and Communications teams.
Collaborate
Work with peers in other institutions, in other faculties, or in industry. Explore connections with technical and support staff.
Maintain accessibility standards
Designing with accessibility in mind ensures your content is in an available format that works for your entire audience. The Digital Accessibility website provides resources for producing accessible content for the web, including guidance on captioning audio.
Creative Commons (CC)
Blogging and podcasting's strengths as educational tools lie in remaining open and accessible. Your rights to ownership can still be protected by limiting to non-commercial use only, restricting editing, and requiring attribution. You can also require those using your work to use the same CC licence.
Be respectful and civil
Engage in respectful and constructive discussions when using blogging or podcasting tools. Any opinions expressed within your content are your own. The University’s Freedom of Expression protocol and Dignity and Mutual Respect policies are useful points of reference.
Respect copyright compliance
Ensure that your content respects intellectual property rights and meets academic integrity standards by citing any sources that you make reference to. Remember that this includes any images, music, videos or recorded discussion as well as written text. You can refer to the copyright resources from the University Library when you are unsure.
Maintain privacy protection
Data protection and privacy laws apply when including personal information for both internal and public facing content. Contact the Data Protection team if you're ever unsure, or refer to the University’s Information Protection Policy for more information.
Advertising and promotion should be non-commercial
CampusPress and podcasting platforms are provided for non-commercial use.
Monitor comments
Where comments have been enabled, these should be monitored by the blog creator/administrator. Acknowledge comments by adding a timely reply where appropriate.
Read the guidance on publishing content online
It is your responsibility to consider whether your content contains sensitive information and to take appropriate action to ensure the content is not released inappropriately. Please read the Guidance on publishing content online using digital education systems.
Familiarise yourself with the IT usage policy
And as always, you use of University of Leeds provided systems is subject to the IT Use of Computer Systems Policy.
Related Guides
Find getting started guides for podcasting and blogging tools via the links below: