Seminars on Science is an online, interactive series of courses operated by the American Museum of Natural History ("AMNH") in connection with its Website located at http://learn.amnh.org (the "AMNH Seminars on Science Website"), and is dedicated to education in the subject matter presented while fostering communication and community among learners in the course. Seminars on Science courses use imagery, video, interactive simulations, and online discussion boards to connect learners to the Museum's scientists, laboratories, expeditions, and specimens.
PLEASE READ these Seminars on Science Terms of Use ("TOU") carefully. By accessing the Seminars on Science website or by accessing or using the Seminars on Science content, you agree to be bound by these terms including without limitation the content license herein contained. Nothing contained in this TOU or otherwise shall be deemed to constitute a representation, guarantee, or promise that a particular result will be produced due to Seminars on Science training or your use of the Seminars on Science content. You may download and print a copy of this TOU from this page. AMNH may modify these terms and conditions from time to time, and such modifications will be effective upon notice posted to the AMNH Seminars on Science Website. If you breach any part of the TOU, your authorization to use this site and the Seminars on Science content automatically terminates.
Your right to use and receive the Seminars on Science course is personal to you and is not transferable.
The contents of Seminars on Science courses are protected by United States copyright and other intellectual property laws. You may view, print, display, and download any of the postings from the course for which you are registered for your own personal and non-commercial use. You agree to abide by any copyright notice or other restriction contained in any individual posting and to include any author attribution, copyright or trademark notice or restriction in any materials that you download or post.
Except as expressly provided in this Section, you may not modify, publish, copy, distribute, transmit (including but not limited to, by way of e-mail, facsimile, or other electronic means), frame, sublicense, assign, display, participate in the transfer or sale of, rent, lease, loan, create derivative works based on, or in any other way exploit any of the Seminars on Science content, course materials, learner submissions, and/or instructor submissions without the express prior written consent of Seminars on Science, which may be withheld for any reason.
Except as otherwise provided by law, you may not reverse engineer, disassemble, decompile, or translate the Seminars on Science content, or otherwise attempt to derive the source code of any Seminars on Science or other software which may be related to the Seminars on Science content.
In consideration of your participation in the Seminars on Science Course, you agree to provide true, accurate, current and complete information about yourself through whichever method you use to register. Deliberate misrepresentation of your information may result in your expulsion from the course without refund and the Museum may refuse to allow your registration in any future Seminars on Science courses.
In consideration of your participation in the Seminars on Science Course, you agree to provide true, accurate, current and complete information about yourself through the registration process (such information being the “Registration Data”). Deliberate misrepresentation of your information may result in your expulsion from the course without refund and the Museum may refuse to allow your registration in any future Seminars on Science courses.
Seminars on Science will make every effort to adhere to its published schedule. However, in the event of insufficient enrollments, we reserve the right to change the start date of each course and/or cancel a course anytime prior to the originally published start date. If such changes do not allow for your participation, the program will issue you a full refund or offer you the option of taking another course in that session, or a course in a future session.
At the end of each course, Seminars on Science receives a list of those learners who have opted to take our courses for credit from our graduate partner institutions. Each instance of a course can only be taken for credit from one accrediting institution. Multiple submissions for graduate credit are prohibited.
Seminars on Science does not permit course "auditing". Auditing is herein defined as gaining access to all course materials and discussions but not participating in the discussion.
Seminars on Science shall collect the following information: Registration Data (including payment information); instructor assessments; overall course grades; and all coursework and course-related communications, including discussion forum postings. This information is used solely to process enrollments, communicate with learners, maintain accurate records and for evaluation of Seminars on Science by the Museum. Names and email addresses of learners selecting graduate credit will be communicated to the appropriate higher education institution. Please also see the Museum Privacy Policy for more information about privacy and the AMNH website generally.
No personal information that could be associated with you will be shared with any third party, except the institution of higher education from which you are obtaining course credit and certain third-party service provider(s) engaged by AMNH to facilitate delivery of the courses, each of which are bound by similar commitments not to share your information or to use it for any purpose other than delivering the courses to you. The Museum is not responsible for the protection of information which you personally make available to the public or to other students enrolled in Seminars on Science in your forum posts or any other mechanism.
Record of your registrations and assessment of your performance may be kept by Seminars on Science for a minimum of seven years.
For retail registrations, payment is required to complete the registration process and confirm your actual course enrollment. If you enroll online, Seminars on Science will send two emails once your enrollment is complete:
The first notice is a confirmation that AMNH has received your request to register. The second is a notice stating that AMNH has confirmed payment. You are not considered fully registered until you receive the second email.
If you choose to register via fax/mail, Seminars on Science will send payment confirmation in a timely manner via email.
In either case, it is your responsibility to ensure that payment has been received by Seminars on Science, and that registration has been confirmed if you have not heard from AMNH within 14 days of the start of the selected course.
By registering for a Seminars on Science course you agree to receive related newsletter and marketing emails from the Museum. You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking on the “Unsubscribe” link at the bottom of any email you receive.
Learners are expected to observe the highest code of conduct. All work submitted must be original and created solely by you expressly for the course. Outside sources must be clearly identified.
Course access and discussion forum postings may only be made by a registered learner. Any misrepresentation of identity or plagiarism of submitted work is expressly prohibited.
Learners are expected to observe broad principles of mutual respect in postings. And although we encourage thoughtful criticism, you must refrain from transmitting any content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable, or which violates another party’s intellectual property rights.
Further, no solicitation is permitted within the communication forum of the course. You agree not to submit advertising or promotions for business products or services, or solicitations for political contributions or other campaign activities, for charitable contributions, or for any other purpose or event.
Such serious infractions of behavior as outlined in this Section may result in expulsion from the course without refund as well as refusal to allow your registration in any future Seminars on Science courses.
Where applicable, learners are expected to contribute to online discussions. The instructional team for the course will make a determination of the adequacy of participation on the basis of the assessment rubric viewable within the course. If your participation is judged to be inadequate and if several requests to increase your participation are met with minimal or no response, we reserve the right to remove you from the course. Seminars on Science instructors will consider making reasonable accommodations due to students’ religious observances, health-related reasons, personal commitments and special situations, if requests for such accommodations are discussed with the instructor contemporaneously with the situation for which the accommodation is desired.
Learners may be responsible for, as part of their course participation, submitting, posting or otherwise sending us a variety of information, content or materials including, but not limited to, comments, reviews, data, text, messages, files, images, photographs, videos, audiovisual works, postings, your and/or other persons' names, likenesses, voices, usernames, profiles, actions, appearances, performances and/or other biographical information or material, and any other materials, as well as links to any of the above (collectively, "Submissions"). Seminars on Science will protect the anonymity of your Submissions but reserves the right to present the Submissions in internal reports, published papers, conference presentations and other formats, and you hereby grant AMNH the non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, royalty-free right to reproduce, modify, edit, publish, sub-license, make derivative works from and distribute such material in any form or media now known or later developed, including posting such material on the AMNH Website, without attribution.
Through its online platform, Seminars on Science distributes learner postings automatically to all learners registered for the course. AMNH is not responsible for screening, monitoring or verifying the content of learner's Submissions. AMNH reserves the right, but does not have the obligation, to monitor, edit and delete any material posted within the course communication by learners.
Without limiting the foregoing, AMNH shall have the right to remove any content that violates this TOU or is otherwise objectionable, in its sole discretion. You agree that you must evaluate, and bear all risks associated with, the use of any content, including any reliance on the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of such content. In this regard, you acknowledge that you may not rely on any content created by Seminars on Science or submitted to Seminars on Science, including without limitation information in the course.
You acknowledge and agree that Seminars on Science may preserve content and may also disclose content if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such preservation or disclosure is reasonably necessary to: (a) comply with legal process; (b) enforce the TOU; (c) respond to claims that any content violates the rights of third-parties; or (d) protect the rights, property, or personal safety of AMNH, its users and the public.
You understand that the technical processing and transmission of the course, including your content, may involve (a) transmissions over various networks; and (b) changes to conform and adapt to technical requirements of connecting networks or devices.
NEITHER AMNH, THE LEARNER'S UNIVERSITY, NOR ANY OTHER PARTY INVOLVED IN OPERATION OF THE COURSE WARRANT THAT THE COURSE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR FREE, NOR DO THEY MAKE ANY WARRANTY AS TO THE RESULTS THAT MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE USE OF THE COURSE OR AS TO THE ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, SUITABILITY OR CONTENT OF THE COURSE.
IN NO EVENT SHALL AMNH, THE LEARNER'S UNIVERSITY, NOR ANY OTHER PARTY INVOLVED IN OPERATION OF THE COURSE BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE SEMINARS ON SCIENCE, WHETHER OR NOT THE PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless AMNH and the university issuing the course credit against all claims and expenses (including attorneys' fees) arising out of content you submit, post to or transmit through the course website, your use of the Seminars on Science website, your connection to Seminars on Science, your violation of the TOU, or your violation of any rights of another.
AMNH reserves the right to terminate your participation in Seminars on Science at any time in the event that it considers, in its sole discretion, any conduct by you to be in violation of the TOU or otherwise in violation of the spirit of Seminars on Science.
Grievances and complaints, either occurring during a class or beyond, including grade disputes, should normally be directed toward the one or more members of the instructional team. Grievances and complaints that are not resolved to the satisfaction of the participant in this manner, or which directly involve a member of the instructional team, should be directed to the AMNH Curriculum Manager. If the Curriculum Manager cannot resolve the situation, then the Director of Online Professional Development will attempt to do so.
If not so resolved through the grievance process above, then the following shall apply:
If a dispute arises out of or relates to this Agreement, or the breach thereof, the parties agree first to try in good faith to resolve the dispute through discussion and negotiation within 30 days after notice given by either party of a request for negotiation. If not so resolved, the parties agree to submit the dispute to mediation administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Commercial Financial Disputes Mediation Rules, before resorting to arbitration.
Thereafter, any unresolved controversy or claim arising out of or relating to this Agreement, or breach thereof, shall be resolved by arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association in New York, NY in accordance with its expedited Commercial Arbitration Rules, and judgment upon the award rendered by the arbitrator(s) may be entered in any court having jurisdiction thereof pursuant to applicable law.
Any and all such controversy or claims shall be kept confidential to the parties and their attorneys and advisors, without publicity, and except as may be required by law, neither a party, mediator, nor arbitrator may disclose the existence, content, or results of any mediation or arbitration hereunder without the mutual written consent of the parties.
This agreement constitutes the entire agreement of the parties with respect to such subject matter of this agreement. No waiver by either party of any breach or default hereunder shall be deemed to be a waiver of any preceding or subsequent breach or default. This agreement shall be construed in accordance with the laws of the State of New York, without regard to its conflict of laws rules. AMNH is an affirmative action/equal opportunity institution and does not discriminate on the basis of sex, gender, race, creed, color, religion, age, disability, marital status, partnership status, sexual orientation, citizenship status, status as a special disabled veteran or veteran of the Vietnam era, or national or ethnic origin in its programs and activities.