This privacy statement applies to your use of QLearn and is part of the
acceptable use policy.
The Queensland Government Department of Education, including Queensland state schools (together referred to as department, we, our, us), is committed to protecting your privacy and to compliance with the
Information Privacy Act 2009, the
Education (General Provisions) Act 2006 and other legislation applicable to the department.
This privacy statement sets out how we handle your personal information and, in particular, any personal information that is collected, disclosed or otherwise handled in connection with the learning management system used to deliver educational courses and training programs known as QLearn.
We may vary this privacy statement from time to time and you should review it regularly. Changes will become effective when we publish the revised privacy statement on QLearn, we will not separately notify you of these changes.
What personal information do we collect?
We collect personal information about individuals including current, former and prospective students, parents and carers of students, school guests and visitors, staff of the department (e.g. teachers, administrators and corporate staff), staff of organisations providing services to or partnering with us and other users of QLearn.
Personal information is information or an opinion, whether true or not, and whether recorded in a material form or not, about an individual whose identity is apparent, or can reasonably be ascertained, from the information or opinion.
Information we may collect and use includes:
- contact information: includes your name and email address
- profile information: includes user identifiers and photos
- usage information: information about your use of QLearn, including status information like courses allocated and completed, and assessment
- technical information: includes verification username and passwords, location data
- content: any emails, assignments, communications, posts, videos and other content you create in, submit, access, send or receive via QLearn
- any other personal information about yourself or any other person that you provide to us either directly or indirectly by using QLearn.
If you do not provide your personal information, then we may not be able to verify your identity and you will not be able to access QLearn and the relevant records about you may not be kept up to date or will have to be kept up to date in another way.
Who is your personal information shared with?
Your personal information may be shared with other parties, including:
- other users of QLearn where appropriate, e.g. a parent may access personal information about their child and limited information about their child’s teachers
- our information and communication technology service providers (and their subcontractors), including service providers who directly or indirectly manage and operate QLearn
- our lawyers, accountants and professional advisors
- law enforcement authorities where we are required to do so by law or pursuant to a legal process
- as otherwise required or authorised by law.
Some personal information may be provided or accessible overseas, for example, where you or another user accesses the relevant account whilst overseas, or where a service provider who provides services to us has servers or authorised personnel located overseas (e.g. in USA, UK and EU).
How will your personal information be used?
We collect your personal information to provide and manage QLearn in connection with our functions under the
Education (General Provisions) Act 2006 (Qld) and other legislation applicable to the department.
The purposes of QLearn include:
- enhancing academic and professional learning by providing platforms for teachers and students that enable communication and collaboration, allow for the streamlining of workflow and provide access to the creation and sharing of content
- facilitating administration of the department and performance of our functions by providing tools for teachers and other staff to manage information and to communicate internally and externally.
In connection with this, personal information will be used to:
- support learning for students and professional development for staff, including undertaking student and staff assessments
- manage the academic curriculum, allocate resources and assess service quality
- deliver tuition to students, including teaching support and creating adjustments to reflect the assessed needs of students
- conduct research and compile statistics relating to education and facilitate reporting, e.g. to federal and state governments on education matters
- communicate students' progress to teachers, students, parents and support staff
- provide parents/carers access for engagement with the students’ learning
- maintain and update learning and staff records
- manage complaints and investigations
- fulfil our legal obligations and exercise our legal rights
- help with the administration, planning, management, resourcing, monitoring, evaluation and improvement of the department, its services and operations generally, including QLearn
- monitor compliance with the
conditions of use, department policies and applicable laws (including by scanning, accessing, copying and quarantining emails and other communications), and for security, technical and troubleshooting purposes.
Information will be treated as a public record and will be used, disclosed or otherwise dealt with as required or authorised by laws including the
Education (General Provisions) Act 2006 (Qld), Public Records Act 2002 (Qld) and the
Right to Information Act 2009 (Qld).
How do we protect your personal information?
We take care to protect your personal information from being accidently lost, or used, accessed, altered or disclosed in an unauthorised way, and have implemented a range of security measures to help with this protection. Those measures may include data access restrictions, confidentiality agreements, backups, firewalls and encryption.
Non-Queensland Government services
QLearn provides access to websites, applications, material and other services provided by our third party information and communication technology service providers. Where those parties are our contracted service providers, we take all reasonable steps to ensure that they have agreed to protect information including by keeping information transferred to, processed by or stored on their equipment secure; to use the information only to provide and improve their services and for security, technical and troubleshooting purposes; to comply with the Information Privacy Principles under the
Information Privacy Act 2009 (Qld) where applicable; and to ensure any subcontractors to whom they provide information do the same.
We also provide links or mechanics to interface with other third party websites, applications, materials and other services for your information or convenience, or offer additional services through separate websites or platforms linked to QLearn. Some of these websites and platforms operate independently from QLearn. We have not necessarily reviewed these third party services and are not responsible for any of their content or their privacy policies.
Third party providers are external to the department and the services may be hosted onshore in Australia or offshore outside of Australia. Data that is entered into offshore services may not be subject to Australian privacy laws.
By agreeing to the acceptable use policy and using QLearn, you consent to your information being provided to third party service providers as described in this privacy statement.
Your use of third party provider services is also subject to the privacy statements and other terms of those third parties. Links to privacy statements and other information about third party providers are available on the
third party privacy statements and other information page.
We encourage you (including parents and carers of students under 18) to read the information provided about each online service, including the terms of use and privacy policy, which outline how information and works will be used and under what circumstances they may be shared.
Call recording
Video and audio calls made using conferencing applications accessed through QLearn, such as Microsoft Teams or Collaborate Ultra, may be recorded. By participating in a video or audio call that is being recorded, you consent to that call being recorded. You will receive a notification when recording is enabled. If you do not consent to being recorded, you should leave the call.
How to access and correct your personal information, or make a complaint
If you would like to access or change your personal information, or become aware of any errors in your personal information, you should use the options available in QLearn to access and update your personal information.
If this is not possible, or if you have a question, concern or complaint about the way your personal information has been collected, used, stored or disclosed, you should contact your school or department business unit in the first instance, or alternatively contact us by emailing
privacy@qed.qld.gov.au.
We may require more information to action your request or complaint to the extent allowed by law. If we refuse a request to access or change your personal information, we will provide you with a reason for our decision. In the case of an amendment, we will place a note with your personal information indicating that you have disputed its accuracy.