The Professional Writing Academy Ltd uses this website to host and deliver our own range of online courses and services, as well as those that we host and deliver on behalf of our partners.

We, and our partners, are committed to making sure your privacy is protected. If we ask you to provide information by which you can be identified when using the online classroom(s), then we will only use it in accordance with this privacy statement.

Types of information

We may store your:

• Name
• Email address
• Phone number
• Postal address
• Personal information that you add to your profile, including images, bio, links to your website, social media channels, or other third party sites that you may have chosen to share.
• Details of the course(s) you are enrolled on.
• Details of your interaction with the online course materials, including which pages you have read, videos watched, podcasts listened to, quizzes and questionnaires completed, forums you have posted to, whether you have completed sessions, and so on.
• Anything you share within the online classroom, including:
  • Work that you upload to any classroom forums, in any format, including text or images pasted within a forum post, Word, .rtf, .PDF, .jpeg, .png, or other downloadable/portable files.
  • Forum discussions that you start.
  • Comments and replies you make on any forums.
  • Transcripts of live chats that you have taken part in.
  • Responses to quizzes, questionnaires and any online tests.
  • Private messages to other people in your course group.
  • Contributions to group Zoom sessions, if archived for group learning purposes.

What information can other people see?

Your course tutor, moderator and the team responsible for managing the virtual classroom can see any information that you share in the classroom, including everything listed above.

Online classroom guests, who may join the course to take part in a live chat discussion as part of your learning, will only see your name and profile image (if you've added one).

The other people in your course group can see your name, and any other information that you choose to add to your personal profile. They will also be able to see your forum posts and comments, contributions to live chat discussions and any private messages between you and them. This is so you can get to know each other and to facilitate the group learning.

The other people in your group cannot see your quiz, questionnaire or test responses, including any results. They cannot see or track your progress on your course (i.e. they will not know which pages you've read, which videos you've watched, and so on).

Your email address is not shared with anyone in your course group unless you change your profile settings to make it visible, or if you choose to share it with your group on a forum post, live chat discussion or in any other way. We recommend that you do not share your email with anyone other than a tutor or moderator and should use the forums and messaging services within the online classroom instead.

What we do with the information

We use the information you give us to deliver your online learning and course alumni experience, understand your needs and provide you with a better service. The information we store may be used for:

• Internal record keeping
• Improving our products and services
• Contacting you about
  • Further courses or services, from us or our partners, that we feel may be of interest to you based on the course(s) you have already taken.
  • Opportunities that may interest you, including discounts on other courses and services, competitions, events, news and invitations to submit writing to publications and anthologies.

If your employer or academic partner has paid for your course as part of your continuing professional development (CPD), training or education, they may ask us to tell them about your progress. This may include telling them whether or not you completed the course, including a summary of your activity (sessions and exercises completed, frequency of engagement with the online classroom, and so on). 

We will not share with them details of any private messages you've sent to other people on the course, your forum posts and comments, transcripts from live discussions you've taken part in, or any work or images that you've upload to the online classroom. If you have any questions or concerns about this please contact your tutor or moderator.

What we don't do with the information

We do not store credit card or payment details in the online classrooms. We will not sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties unless we have your permission or are required by law to do so.

Security

We're committed to keeping your information secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.

Links to other websites

The online classroom contains links to other websites. We do not have any control over those websites so this privacy statement does not cover them. This means that we cannot be responsible for the security and privacy of any information you provide while visiting those other websites. You should always check the privacy statement on the website you are visiting.

Managing your information

You are in control of what information you include in your personal profile and in your posts to the online forums, and you can update your profile settings at any time, including:

• Changing your password.
• Changing the email address we use to send you notifications from the online classroom, or stopping all email notifications.
• Changing your personal bio, including adding or removing an image.
• Adding, updating or deleting links to your website, social media channels, blog or other third party sites.

If you're not sure how to change your profile settings, please contact your course moderator or tutor.

If you would like to edit content in your posts to the forum from 30 minutes after you have posted, please contact your course moderator or tutor.

If you decide that you do not want to continue with a class, retain access to the online classroom's alumni area, or need to take a short break, then please tell your moderator or tutor. If you do this we will remove you from your course group(s) and suspend your online classroom account. We will not delete your profile immediately after you leave a course, so you'll still be able to log in and manage your personal profile.

If you believe that any information we hold on you is incorrect or incomplete, or if you have any questions, please email us at info@profwritingacademy.com or write to us at Professional Writing Academy Ltd

Henleaze Business Centre, Harbury Road, Bristol, BS9 4PN, UK