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The UvA's digital learning environment supports education. In the digital learning environment, a teacher can incorporate all the subject matter for a course, create assignments and quizzes, and engage in discussions. The subject matter may include literature lists with links to scientific articles, audio clips, video footage, and messages. Anyone enrolled in the course can access this information.

The central hub in the UvA's digital learning environment is Canvas, along with various tools that can be used through Canvas. Canvas is flexibly designed and supports the UvA's educational ambition to achieve activating, research-intensive, student-centered, and collaborative teaching.

Canvas instructions

Within the digital learning environment, there is an English-language teacher course designed for novice teachers. Another important support tool within Canvas is the "support" button or question mark, which opens the support center with information related to the content.

Support

For technical and didactic support and advice, teachers can turn to the faculty ICTO officers and the faculty TLCs. For especially didactic support and advice, visit the TLC site.

Updates 

Changes in Canvas occur regularly. An up-to-date overview of changes can be found on

Login and access to your courses
  • For students

    You log in to Canvas with your UvAnetID and two-step verification. A few weeks before the start of a new block, you will automatically get access to the Canvas courses for which you are enrolled in GLASS. With questions or problems with access to (courses in) Canvas, please contact your education desk.   

    If you are a prospective student and need to participate in Matching in Canvas, you register for UvA Matching via your Enrolment Checklist. You will then automatically gain access to the Canvas matching course during the matching period.

  • For contract students (Open UvA)

    Prior to the start of the course, you will receive a guest UvAnetID. You log in to Canvas with your UvAnetID and two-step verification. You will automatically get access to the Canvas course belonging to the course you are enrolled for.

  • For lecturers

    Log in to Canvas using your UvAnetID and two-step verification. If you are an AUMC lecturer with only an AMC account, you log in with this account. Lecturers gain access to Canvas courses via their programme coordinator or department chair.

Terms of use and cooky policy
  • Terms of Use

    Last update: October 2022 

    The Digital Learning Environment UvA (DLE) is provided for free by the University of Amsterdam (also referred to as UvA, we/us/our). The DLE consists of the Learning Management System (LMS) “Canvas” and several applications and tools linked to Canvas or standalone.  

    The use of the DLE is subject to the following conditions and restrictions (Terms of Use). By using the DLE, the user agrees to the terms as set out below. 

    1.     Admission 
    Only UvA’s students, UvA’s staff and any other person with an official UvA account provided by UvA may enter the DLE. 

    2.     User obligations 
    User agrees to: 

    • Comply with all applicable laws, rules and regulations, including the Privacy Statement, UvA’s ICT code of conduct and these Terms of Use. 
    • Reasonably comply with all license terms or terms of use for any software, content, or website, when it uses or accesses the DLE; 
    • Cookie policies as available via the overview of cookie policies of the DLE suppliers; 

    3.     Availability 
    The UvA provides the DLE and its content to the user. It is possible that the DLE or parts of the DLE are temporarily not available or information is incorrect. When the DLE is unavailable the user should contact the UvA ICT servicedesk at: servicedesk-icts@uva.nl. 

    4.     Update Terms of Use 
    The Terms of Use may be updated and changed by the UvA at its sole discretion at any time. Therefore, please check this page regularly. 

    5.     Intellectual property rights 
    5.1     All data, details, information and any other documents or content that the user submits, sends or places in the DLE remains the responsibility and/or property of the user (User Content).  

    5.2     The user grants the UvA and suppliers during its use of the DLE, the right to use, distribute, reproduce, modify and adapt its User Content for the sole purpose of providing and operating the DLE. 

    6. Liability 
    The liability of the UvA due to access to and use of the DLE, is limited (excluding gross negligence and willful intent) to direct damage and up to the amount that the insurance company will pay out. This liability also applies to any damage resulting from the use of third-party websites or applications offered through the DLE. 

    7.     Notices 
    User communications regarding the DLE should be sent to: 

    University of Amsterdam 
    Attn: Servicedesk ICTS 
    e-mail: servicedesk-icts@uva.nl 

  • Cooky policy applications and tools within the DLE

    The overview of the applications and tools in the DLE indicates how the UvA processes your personal data that we obtain. Faculty applications that are not integrated may not be on this list. Please contact the ICTS Service Desk if you want information about tools in the DLE.

    Go to the overview

Privacy
  • 1. Who is responsible for processing my personal data? 

    When you use our DLE - via the website or Canvas apps - we will process various personal data of you.  

    The UvA is responsible for processing your personal data within the meaning of the General Data Protection Regulation (‘GDPR’). The UvA is located at Spui 21, 1012 WX Amsterdam. Our postal address is PO Box 19268, 1000 WX Amsterdam. 

    Any questions about this privacy statement or about data that are processed in the UvA DLE you might have, can be emailed to icts-servicedesk@uva.nl  

  • 2. What personal data do we process? 

    2.1. Your personal data is any data directly or indirectly attributable to you. The personal data we may collect from you when you register as an employee or student and use the DLE may include your name, e-mail address, login name and password, unique identification number (SIS-ID and the LMS user ID, which is only used in Canvas and not in any other system), IP address, browser details (type of browser and browser version, desktop or mobile app), logging information and any information included in your communication with the UvA or uploaded by you through the DLE (including but not limited to inquiries and input on the discussion forum and documents provided). 

    2.2 If you are a student: We may also process the following data: student number, details of the courses followed, uploaded files, feedback on submitted work and study results. 

    2.3 If you are a (guest) lecturer and teaching assistant: We may also process the following data: details of the courses given and feedback on submitted work. 

    2.4 A synopsis of personal data that is processed in the different DLE tooling can be found in this overview of DLE tooling. 

    2.5 We may also process personal data of you by using cookies. You can find more information on the cookies used in relation to the DLE in our Cookie Policy. 

  • 3. Personal data as available via your Canvas profile  

    Other users of the DLE (students, teachers, support staff) that are enrolled in courses you are enrolled to have access to some of your personal data. This concerns data from your Canvas personal profile:

    You cannot change your display name or your primary email address 

  • 4. For what purposes do we process personal data?

    The UvA will only process your personal data in the context of the use of the DLE, more specifically for the following purposes:

    • access control and safeguarding of your account;
    • to check if the student can be identified as the individual that participated in the DLE, for example to give the student access to the DLE and to identify the student when submitting assignments;
    • enabling you to use the features and services of the DLE;
    • for maintaining contact with you about your use of the DLE and - if you are a student - for your study programme at the UvA;
    • optimizing the DLE; and its usage to meet the needs of students, teachers and supporting roles
    • for executing, developing, measuring, improving and evaluating the educational processes in general.
    • for the handling of your requests, any complaints or disputes, and the investigation in this respect; and
    • performing of audits.
  • 4. Lawfulness of processing

    4.1. We process your personal data on the basis of 'Public Task ' (article 6.1 (e) GDPR). This means that processing your data is necessary for the performance of a task of the University of Amsterdam carried out in the public interest (article 6.1 e GDPR), i.e. providing and managing (online) education.

  • 5. Who has access to your personal data? 

    5.1. Your personal data may be accessed by our employees or other persons engaged on our behalf on a need-to-know basis only, such as lecturers, study counsellors,policymakers and administrative personnel. You may make certain additional information available within the DLE and for certain participants, for example by participating in group discussions. The UvA may also instruct trusted third parties to perform services in respect of processing your personal data on our behalf. With such service providers we have concluded data processing agreements to ensure that your personal data is processed carefully, securely and in accordance with GDPR. Our processing agreements also stipulates that the service provider (processor) and its subcontractors (sub‐processors) may never process the personal data for their own purposes and may only act in accordance with instructions of the UvA. 

    5.2. One of our data processors, Instructure Global Ltd (the LMS Canvas hosting provider) is located in de United Kingdom (UK). The UK is a ‘so-called’ secure third country, for which the European Commission has confirmed a suitable level of data protection on the basis of an adequacy decision.  Because Instructure may access your personal data via its affiliate Instructure Inc, located in Utah, United States of America (US), we have concluded the latest version of the Standard Contractual Clauses of the European Commission validated by the European Commission in 2021, to safeguard the transfer of your personal data to Instructure. In addition, we did for Instructure Global Ltd and Instructure Inc a Data Transfer Impact Assessment (DTIA) to assess the risk to the level of protection for international transfers. For the delivery of the LMS, Instructure may involve its affiliates or third-parties as sub-data processors under the same conditions as under the data processing agreement that has been concluded between UvA and Instructure. For more information about the privacy policy of Instructure and Canvas, please go to www.instructure.com/policies/privacy 

    5.3. When you use our external plug-ins or social media buttons within the DLE environment, your personal data may be shared with the respective provider of such plug-in. You can find an overview of possible plug-in providers via https://canvas.uva.nl/profile/settings under “webservices”. Please note that the plug-in providers may process your personal data for their own purposes and may therefore qualify as data controllers. Neither UvA nor Instructure is responsible for the data processing activities carried out by these parties when acting as a data controller. We advise you to check out their respective privacy policies. 

  • 6. How is the impact on your privacy interests minimized and how do we protect your personal data? 

    6.1. For each application that’s being added to the UvA UvA DLE, including any significant change of the current UvA DLE applications, the applicable privacy & security procedure has been executed. Within this procedure the privacy- and security risks and the needed measures are identified by different roles (like the privacy officer, security officer, representatives of the Works Council and the Students Council) and the technical and organizational measures to safeguard your personal data are implemented. 

    6.2. We have implemented technical and organizational measures to safeguard your personal data. These measures include, among others: 

    • measures to ensure that only authorized personnel have access to the personal data; (for example, access will be granted on a need to know bases only); 
    • measures to protect the personal data against unintentional or unlawful destruction, unintentional loss or revision and unauthorized or unlawful storage, processing, access or disclosure; (for example, access to and processing of the personal data is being monitored constantly); 
    • measures to identify weak links in the personal data processing systems. (for example, periodic audits will be executed by the appropriate officers and councils to identify any weaknesses on technical or organizational levels). 

    The risks and implemented measures will be evaluated periodically and will be supplemented and/or amended if needed. 
    For more information about UvA’s privacy & security procedure (IB&P and DPIA): 
    UvA students go to: https://student.uva.nl
    UvA Employees go to: https://medewerker.uva

     

  • 7. How long do we retain your personal data? 

    We will process your personal data for as long as necessary for the purposes as stated in this Privacy Statement. The personal data shall not be kept for longer than is necessary for the purposes as stated in this Privacy Statement, in accordance with the applicable data protection laws, unless you have submitted a reasonable and valid request to delete your personal data. 

  • 8. Questions and complaints 

    Please contact us via the contact details below, if you have questions about how we use cookies, process your personal data, or if you would like to inspect, correct or remove your personal data. 

    You may contact us at: 
    University of Amsterdam 
    Privacy team: avg@uva.nl  
    Legal department (Secretariaat Juridische Zaken): jz-secretariaat-bestuursstaf@uva.nl 

  • 9. How can I exercise my privacy rights?  

    On the basis of the current GDPR, you have the right ‐ subject to certain conditions ‐ to access the personal data that we process, to correct your personal data if it contains factual inaccuracies, to have your personal data deleted, to limit the processing of your personal data, and to object to the processing of your personal data.  

    If you wish to exercise any of these privacy rights, you can contact the Privacy team via: avg@uva.nl  
     
    To be able to deal with your request, you will be asked to provide proof of identity via e.g. your UvA e-mail address.