Full policy

As you participate in the exchange, we ask that you do so in the spirit of learning and also of caring.

We want everyone to have a positive experience communicating on the IVEProject. Remember, a big goal of this project is for you to have meaningful ‘conversations’ with international peers. We need your help to do this. 

Things to do:

• Be kind and open minded. Respect the opinions of other people.
• Before starting a discussion, search other posts. If someone has already started a discussion about the same theme, reply to that discussion. For example, in the "Open Forum", if someone has already started a "Food" topic, please reply to that one and not start a new one.
• When starting a new discussion, give the discussion a title that clearly indicates what the discussion is about.
• In the discussions, focus on learning about other cultures and sharing yours. That means asking questions.
• Try to reply to students who don't have a reply first.
• Read and check your post for errors before you submit it to a forum.
• Access the forums as much as you can. Aim to access them at least 3 times a week.
• When replying, show that you have read the person's post. Answer their questions, make comments, and ask questions about what they wrote.
• Include multimedia to your posts when applicable. Adding a photo or video can help communicate your message.
• Use your own language. You would not like to interact with a robot so please don't just use AI or other online tools to interact with others. AI may be useful to improve your posts/replies, but make sure you attempt to use your own language first. This helps you improve your foreign language learning and skills too.

Things NOT to do:

• Do not post any information unless you are comfortable sharing it with other students.
• Do not share your personal home address or telephone number.
• Do not write really long posts. Try to keep posts under 100 words each.
• Do not copy / paste from the internet or use AI to create your posts / replies. The message you post should be your own.
• Try not to use translation software. The IVEProject is an opportunity for you to practice your English.
• Do not share any information from the site with anyone outside the site.
• Do not post any words/sentences or media with inappropriate content (e.g. using swear words, making jokes that can offend the others, posting a photo that may cause a cultural clash, and so on).