Information about accessing and participating in the course

Accessing the course

Image of the site menu

When you have registered on the course and received your username and password, you should click the ‘Login’ option on the menu bar, as shown above, to login to the course and access the learning materials.

After you have logged on, click the ‘Go to course’ option to be taken to the course menu.

Before accessing the learning materials, you must click the yellow ‘Start Now’ button on the course page, shown circled in red in the image below.

Re-setting your password

If you have forgotten your site username or password there is no option to reset these automatically through the site.

If you have forgotten your username or password, please email strongercommunities@dmu.ac.uk. You must include your Name, Username (only if you have it) and your Email address (this must be the email address that was used to register you on the website). The site administrators will reset your password and email it to you; they will include your username if you have forgotten it.

NOTE: Site administrators are only available Monday – Friday during normal business hours (GMT). Password reset requests received during a weekend will not be actioned until the following Monday.

Accessing the Discussion Forums

Once you are within the course, the forums can be accessed via links on some of the pages, for example, the Introduction to Week 1.

Alternatively, the the forum can be accessed by following the steps below:

From any of the course pages, you can click ‘Building Stronger Communities’ in the green bar at the top of the screen (outlined in red in the above image).

This will return you to the course start page. On this page you should then click ‘Course discussion’ on the menu bar (outlined in red below).

Forum Rules and Guidelines

As part of the course you are invited to participate in the course forums.
The following guidelines have been established so that everyone can get the most out of the forums within the course.

By registering on the course you are agreeing to abide by these guidelines.

All contributions should be professional and relevant to the thematic focus of the site. Building Stronger Communities is committed to providing an atmosphere in which professional dialogue takes place. This means that postings should not be indecent, disruptive, disorderly, threatening or offensive. Equally they must not be fraudulent, deceitful or dishonest.

  • Post in relevant topic areas. Messages posted in the wrong topic area will not be moved into the correct forum topic area, and may be deleted by the administrators.
  • Off topic conversations: The forums must not be used for general, off-topic, non-course related conversations. Such content will be deleted and those using the forums in this way may be removed from the forums.
  • Unlawful, harassing, defamatory, abusive, threatening, harmful, obscene, profane, sexually-oriented, racist, or otherwise objectionable material is not acceptable. Such behaviour may lead to removal from the forums and/or the course. Unlawful content will be forwarded to the appropriate authority.
  • Privacy: Never reveal personal information about yourself (for example: your telephone number, home address or email address).
  • Copyright: You agree to post only those materials to which you have the copyright or other permission to distribute electronically. Do not violate, plagiarise, or infringe on the rights of third parties including copyright, trademark, trade secret, privacy, personal, publicity, or proprietary rights.
  • Posting a comment or message with the intention of committing an illegal act is strictly prohibited. It is our policy to respond to clear notices of alleged copyright infringement. If you feel that your copyright has been infringed please contact strongercommunities@dmu.ac.uk immediately.
  • No spam. All automated messages, advertisements, and links to non-relevant websites/web content will be deleted immediately. Anyone posting such content will be removed from the forum.
  • Reporting and take-down: If you feel that a forum post has breached any of these guidelines you should report it to strongercommunities@dmu.ac.uk immediately. The site administrators will make a determination as to the most appropriate course of action. This can include: deletion of content, removal of individuals from participation in the forums, removal of individuals from participation on the course.

    The Building Stronger Communities team reserves the right to edit, delete, or move any and all forum comments. They also have the right to block access to any person(s) from commenting on forums or from accessing the course where there have been breaches of these guidelines.

IT Support

Any issues with the functionality of the site should be reported to strongercommunities@dmu.ac.uk. Such issues can only be addressed Monday – Friday during normal business hours (GMT). There is no available support outside of these times.