SAS Learning Communities Moderator Guidelines
As Moderator, you play a central role in the SAS Learning Communities. Moderators are expected to:
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Contribute comments of your own to enhance the discussions and education across Pennsylvania.
Suggest content that is appropriate and useful for SAS users.
Moderate comments and discussions posted by users.
The role of the Moderator is also to share your own expertise. The community can benefit from comments
that occur to you as you work with educators and organizations around the Commonwealth. You can
answer questions from other users, improve the experience of users by suggesting ways to best utilize the
portal, and share your reflections, suggestions, and recommend resources that are particularly useful to
your Community.
As Moderator, you are the host of your SAS Learning Community. Here are some best practices to keep in
mind:
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Be committed: Community participation ideally means community commitment. Check
comments as often as you can. Review and resolve comments; respond when appropriate.
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Forward comments and information: As you gather feedback and collect questions and issues
from the community at large, share key ideas with the appropriate persons at PDE and the SAS
Portal Development Team.
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Be a good role model for the Community: Be authentic and truthful; honesty and transparency
are hallmarks of good community interaction. Since the SAS Learning Communities are available
online and have wide distribution, be careful with what you write, and think about how others
will perceive it.
As a moderator, you are an expert representative. Information on how to better utilize the SAS
Portal’s functions and features as well as the services of PDE can be especially valuable to the
members of your Learning Community.
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Be mindful of copyright laws: Do not use, post, or copy third-party materials protected by
copyright laws. If you believe that fair-use rights allow for such use, posting, or copying, it is your
responsibility to be sure before making such use. Do not use third-party trademarks, logos, and
slogans.
Please review the following SAS Learning Communities Guidelines. All users who wish to participate in
the SAS Learning Communities must agree to these terms:
Rev 6.23.2010
SAS Learning Communities Guidelines
The following guidelines on SAS Learning Communities are provided to promote a safe, collaborative
environment that is intended to extend and enhance the discussion of important issues, challenges, and
ideas that will promote success in the Pennsylvania educational community. The SAS Learning
Communities are intended for all Pennsylvania educators.
Please review the following guidelines and agree to these terms before participating in the SAS Learning
Communities.
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Before you start a topic, perform a search to see if the question or topic you wish to create has
been made before. If it has, post in the topic that already exists. Duplicate topics will be removed.
Please make the topic title you are creating descriptive, clearly reflecting the topic you are
addressing.
If you have an issue with a member or moderation decision, please contact the Moderator or the
SAS Portal Help Desk at helpdesk@pdesas.org. Do not air your grievances publicly in the original
topic or otherwise.
Do not post someone else's personal information without the proper consent. This includes
personal photos, names, addresses, phone numbers, E-mail, instant messenger handles,
conversation logs, etc.
While debating and discussion is fine, insulting posts, personal attacks or purposeless
inflammatory posts are not permitted.
Please refrain from posting meaningless threads, one word (or short) non-sense posts.
Advertising is not allowed. This includes using the forum, email, visitor messages, blog comments,
picture comments and private message systems to spam other members. The SAS Learning
Communities should not be used to promote or advertise any product or service of any kind.
Posts or links to sites that are inappropriate in nature are not allowed. The Moderator and PDE
staff shall be the sole arbitrators of what does and what does not violate community standards.
Discussion of illegal activities such as software and music piracy and other intellectual property
violations are not allowed.
PDE and the SAS Learning Community Moderators reserve the right to remove offensive posts
without notice.
The administrators and Moderators of the SAS Learning Communities will attempt to keep all
objectionable messages off this community, however, if you notice a posting or message that you
find questionable, please alert us to this issue. You can do this by checking the box within the
Communities that reads: “This is an inappropriate posting.”
By agreeing to these guidelines, you warrant that you will not post any messages that are inappropriate,
threatening, or otherwise violate any laws.
If you have any questions or concerns, please send an email to Contact Us on the SAS Portal.
It is your responsibility as a SAS Learning Community Moderator to identify and remove any questionable
or inappropriate postings or information. Please review your Learning Community at least three times a
week.
Rev 6.23.2010