Distance Education – terms and conditions

Points 1 – 6 apply to both our Tutor-Supported and On-Demand course offerings:

1. Payment

Payment must be made in full prior to beginning the course.

For tutor-supported courses, this must be prior to the advertised start date. Places will not be held without payment.

Details on how to access the course will only be provided once payment is received.

Course places must be used and started within 12 months. After this time, unused course places will expire.

2. Payment via invoice (delayed payment)

If choosing to pay via invoice, please ensure billing details are correct as these will be used to raise the invoice.

Payment must be made in line with the terms on the invoice. Places will not be held without payment.

3. Right to cancel

Our course materials and assessments are delivered via our learning platform in digital format. Where immediate access details are provided to a course, by logging into the Brightspace platform and therefore accessing the course materials, your right to cancel will be relinquished. (For more information, please see this summary of your Consumer Rights).

A place on a course that has been assigned to a student is not transferable to another student unless the student has not accessed the course.

Any refunds of course fees other than those covered by statutory consumer rights will be given at the discretion of International Cat Care.

4. Technical support

The Distance Education team at International Cat Care can provide limited support for technical or ICT issues via email but is not able to provide general IT support to learners.

You must use the System Check available here – https://icatcare.brightspace.com/d2l/systemcheck to ensure the computer or device you will be using to study, meets the basic technical requirements need to access the course materials.

Any support requests should be directed to [email protected]. Distance Education Department office hours are Mon – Fri, 9 am – 5 pm GMT. We aim to respond to your enquiry within 48 hours.

5. Data collected in Brightspace

Brightspace is the learning platform used to deliver our distance education courses. The learning platform collects data about your assignment submissions, assignment feedback, discussion posts, information about your visits to the course and grade information. This data will be used to:

– provide and facilitate course activities
– support and administer your learning and progress through the course
– analyse for reporting purposes to evaluate course design and improve its quality

We will hold a record of your enrolment and final grade on completion of the course.

6. Accessibility

Brightspace is the learning platform used to deliver our distance education courses. Brightspace has been designed to be fully accessible. As web-based software, it complies with accessibility standards in that it is compliant with International web-access standards (VPAT and WCAC 2.0AA) and works with assistive technologies. If you have any issues using any parts of the course content, please get in touch as we’d be happy to discuss and make any arrangements or improvements to the course as necessary.

Points 7 – 10 apply to Tutor-Supported Courses only:

7. Assessment and deadlines

Any deadlines provided for assessment at the start of the course must be adhered to in order to receive feedback and a grade from our external markers. If you have any queries or issues with the course schedule provided at the start of the course (detailing module release dates, assignment deadlines and grade release dates), you must notify the Learning Team as soon as possible and within the first 30 days of your course access so this can be discussed. If you miss an assignment deadline or fail to achieve the specified pass mark for a module you will have the opportunity to resit (a maximum total of 2 resits will be permissible per course).

8. Extensions

Extensions for a module deadline or to the course end date due to extenuating circumstances will be assessed on application. It is impossible to list all circumstances that would NOT be accepted as extenuating circumstances but some more obvious examples are personal disruptions or events which could have been anticipated; such as holidays, weddings, moving house, changing address or employment, religious holidays or festivals which are usually known in advance. Where possible, Extenuating Circumstance Requests should be submitted before a module deadline. If you have missed a deadline, you have 5 working days to apply for an extension.

In extenuating circumstances, we may consider deferral to the next cohort. Places on the course can only be deferred for one year and on one occasion only.

9. Transferring or delaying

Transfers between courses, or intakes of a course, will be granted at the discretion of International Cat Care.

10. Qualifications and accreditation

ISFM and iCatCare courses are not reviewed, recognised and monitored by regulatory or professional bodies required to allow for official or professional accreditation.

Qualifications and accreditation of Feline Behaviour Courses

ISFM or iCatCare Feline Behaviour courses alone, do not provide the depth of training needed to allow students to refer to themselves as a cat or feline behaviourist. Our courses are however designed to complement other qualifications designed to teach someone to become a clinical animal behaviourist. In undertaking an ISFM or iCatCare Feline Behaviour course, the learner accepts that the course is designed to enhance feline-specific behavioural knowledge and/or provides a solid foundation in feline behaviour to continue studying to become a qualified clinical animal behaviourist. The Feline Behaviour courses in no way accredit the learner to practice as a feline behaviourist.

International Cat Care reserve the right to contact any learners found to be advertising their services as a feline behaviourist as a direct result of completing the course. In these cases, International Cat Care reserve the right to ask for the removal of statements that make this direct link between the completion of the course and statements to practice as a feline behaviourist.

 

Updated: 8 February 2023