Tripod User Terms

Last Modified: May 05, 2025

Welcome to the Tripod (“Tripod”) website located at [app.tripoded.com] (the “Site”). If you have been invited to use our Services (defined below) by a School, District or Teacher (each as defined below), which may include participating in a student survey related to our provision of Services to a School or District and using any software or survey tools associated with those Services, please read these User Terms (“User Terms”) carefully because they govern your use of our Site and our Tripod Student Surveys coordination platform and related tools and services accessible via our Site. To make these User Terms easier to read, the site, our survey coordination platform and related tools and services are collectively called the “Services” and the terms “Company”, “we” and “us” means a) Education Elements, Inc., a wholly owned Subsidiary of XanEdu Publishing, Inc. (DBA Education Elements), or b) XanEdu Publishing, Inc., Please also read the Education Elements General Privacy Policies [https://www.edelements.com /privacy-policy] (“Education Elements Privacy Policies”), for information on how we collect, use and disclose information from our users.

IMPORTANT NOTICE REGARDING ARBITRATION FOR U.S. USERS: WHEN YOU AGREE TO THESE USER TERMS YOU ARE AGREEING (WITH LIMITED EXCEPTION) TO RESOLVE ANY DISPUTE BETWEEN YOU AND COMPANY THROUGH BINDING, INDIVIDUAL ARBITRATION RATHER THAN IN COURT. PLEASE REVIEW CAREFULLY SECTION 16 “DISPUTE RESOLUTION” BELOW FOR DETAILS REGARDING ARBITRATION.

1.    Agreement to Terms. By using our Services, you agree to be bound by these User Terms. If you don’t agree to be bound by these User Terms, do not use the Services. As used herein, “You” and “Your” means the user of the Services.
2.    User Terms. You have been invited to use and access our Services by an organization or other third party with a subscription or other master agreement for the provision of our Services (the “Customer”), for example, Your employer, a school (each, a “School”) that is our Customer, a teacher at a School (each, a “Teacher”) or by a school district or state (each, a “District”) which is our Customer. Through the Services, Company administers Tripod Student Surveys (each, a “Tripod Survey”) to access and analyze student perception of teachers and teaching-environment effectiveness.
3.    Access by Minors.If You provide a minor with access to use the Services, You hereby agree to the User Terms on behalf of Yourself and such minor, and You understand and agree that You will be responsible for all uses of the Services by that minor whether or not You authorized such uses.
4.    Changes to the User Terms. Except with respect to Section 16 (Dispute Resolution), Company reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to from time to time change, add to or delete any terms and conditions of the User Terms at any time. If we do, we will let you know by posting the updated User Terms on the Tripod website, through an in-service notice, and/or we may also send other communications. It is important that You review the User Terms whenever we update them or You use the Services. If any future changes to the User Terms are unacceptable to You or cause You to no longer be in compliance with the User Terms, You must immediately stop using the Services. If you don’t agree to be bound by the changes, you may not use the Services anymore. Continued use of the Services following any revision to the User Terms constitutes Your acceptance of any and all such changes.
5.    Access to the Services.

5.1    Access and Use. Subject to Your acceptance of and compliance with the User Terms, Company grants to You a non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable limited right to access and use the Services for Your personal, non-commercial administration of one or more Tripod Surveys, to Your students or Your participation in such Tripod Surveys. You agree not to use the Services for any commercial purposes, or to download, save, copy, transmit or distribute the Content (as defined below) of the Services, except in the proper administration of or participation in the Tripod Survey, as contemplated by the User Terms.

5.2    Accounts. [While some aspects of the Services are provided to all users, for other aspects, such as administering a Tripod Survey, You must create an account (“Account”) and You must be at least 13 years of age]. It’s important that You provide Company with accurate, complete and current account information and keep this information up to date. If You don’t, we might have to suspend or terminate your Account. To protect your Account, keep the account details and password confidential, and notify Company right away of any unauthorized use. You are responsible for all activities that occur under your Account. [If you are a student and under the age of 13, you must have your parent or legal guardian create an Account for you before you can access and use the Services.]

5.3    Access Codes. In order to access certain features of the Services, you may need to receive an access code, QR code or other private link or URL (“Access Codes”). Company will have no responsibility to You or any other third party for your inability to access or use the Service related to such Access Codes and disclaims any liability related thereto.

5.4    Passwords. You are responsible for all actions on the Services by You or under Your Service password or Account and for taking all reasonable steps to ensure that no unauthorized person shall have access to Your Service password or Account. Without limiting the foregoing: (a) You are responsible for all actions taken by individuals that You register or allow to access the Services; and (b) it is Your sole responsibility to (i) control the dissemination and use of any login code and password; (ii) authorize, monitor, and control access to and use of Your Account and password; (iii) promptly inform Company of any need to deactivate a password. You grant Company and all other persons or entities involved in the operation of the Services the right to transmit, monitor, retrieve, store, and use any information recorded and/or stored in Your Account in connection with the operation of the Services.

5.5    Limits on Access. Company may change, suspend, or discontinue any aspect of the Services, impose limits on certain features, or restrict or prohibit Your access to parts or all of the Services at any time, all without notice or liability. You agree to be bound by any application-, tool- or content-specific rules published within the Services.

5.6    Limited Rights. You expressly agree that the content of the Services may be viewed and accessed only by You, Your students (if applicable and as needed to participate in the Tripod Survey), Your School, and Your District.

5.7    Suspension or Termination. Company may suspend or terminate Your access to and use of the Services, including suspending access to or terminating Your Account, at our sole discretion, at any time and without notice to You. You, or Your parent or legal guardian who has agreed to the User Terms on your behalf if you are under 13 years old, may cancel Your Account at any time by sending us an email at help@tripoded.com. Once your membership terminates for any reason, you will not be permitted to use the Services. Upon any termination, discontinuation or cancellation of the Services or Your Account, the following Sections will survive: Section 6 (Ownership of Intellectual Property), Section 7 (Usage Rules), Section 8.2 (Confidentiality), Section 10 (Disclaimers; Limitations; Waiver of Liability), Section 11 (Release), Section 12 (Indemnification), Section 15 (Governing Law), Section 16 (Dispute Resolution), Section 17 (Waiver/Severability), Section 18 (Miscellaneous). 

6.1    Retention of Rights. Company and its licensors exclusively own all right, title and interest in and to the Services and all materials that are part of the Services, including all visual content, text (including exam and survey questions), the arrangement, sequence, structure, and organization of the survey items and questions used in providing the Services, and all associated intellectual property rights in the foregoing (collectively, the “Content”). You acknowledge that the Services are protected by copyright, trademark, and other laws of the United States and foreign countries. You agree not to remove, alter or obscure any copyright, trademark, service mark or other proprietary rights notices incorporated in or accompanying the Services. The terms “Tripod,” “Tripod Project,” “7Cs” and the Tripod logo are trademarks and service marks of Company and may not be used without the express written permission of Company.

6.2    No Other Rights Granted. You do not acquire any ownership rights to Content or Company’s other intellectual property rights by using the Services, or by downloading material from or uploading material to the Services other than those limited rights expressly granted herein.

6.3    Feedback. All comments, feedback, suggestions, ideas, and other submissions disclosed, submitted, or offered by You in connection with Your use of the Services, including by email to Company (collectively, "Submissions") will be freely usable by Company; and in confirmation thereof You agree that, unless otherwise prohibited by law, Company may use, sell, exploit, disclose, revise, and delete the Submissions in any manner, without restriction, without compensation to You, and without identifying You as the creator. You represent and warrant that any Submissions are Your original creations and/or may be offered by You for free and unrestricted use by Company and that Company’s use of the Submissions will not infringe or violate the rights of any party, including any intellectual property rights or rights or privacy or publicity.

(a)    copy, modify, adapt or create derivative works of the Services, or any of the software in whole or in part;

(b)    attempt to reverse engineer, decompile, reverse assemble, or discover any of the software (source code or object code) used to provide the Services, including software that creates or generates web pages, surveys or any software or other products or processes accessible through the Services;

(c)    attempt to access or search the Services or Content, or download content from the Services using any automated system, including, any engine, software, tool, agent, device, mechanism, spider, robot (or "bot"), crawlers, data mining tools, cheat utility, scraper or offline reader other than the software and/or search agents provided by Company;

(d)    interfere with, or attempt to interfere with, the access of any user, host or network, including distributing any virus, time bomb, trap door, or other harmful or disruptive computer code, mechanism or program, or overloading, flooding, spamming, or mail-bombing the Services;

(e)    cover or obscure any notice, banner, legend or warning contained on the Services;

(f)    interfere with, avoid, bypass, remove, deactivate, impair, descramble or otherwise circumvent any security feature of the Services or any feature that restricts or enforces limitations on use of or access to the Services;

(g)    use, display, mirror or frame the Services or any individual element within the Services, Company’s name, any Company trademark, logo or other proprietary information, or the layout and design of any page or form contained on a page, without Company’s express written consent, or sell the Services or any part thereof including user Accounts and access to them in exchange for anything of value or for any commercial purpose or for the benefit of any third party or in any manner not permitted by the User Terms;

(h)    access, tamper with, or use non-public areas of the Services, Company’s computer systems, or the technical delivery systems of Company’s providers;

(i)    attempt to probe, scan or test the vulnerability of any Company system or network or breach any security or authentication measures;

(j)    violate any applicable law, including without limitation any applicable export laws;

(k)    harvest or otherwise collect or store information about others, including email addresses or any other personally identifiable information from the Services;

(l)    infringe or violate the rights of any other party, including any intellectual property rights or rights of privacy or publicity;

(m)    deliberately mislead anyone as to Your identity or impersonate any person or entity;

(n)    allow another person or entity to use Your identity in order to access the Services;

(o)    inquire as to any person’s survey responses or otherwise solicit information in an attempt to ascertain a person’s survey response; and You will maintain the anonymity of student survey responses and avoid actions that suggest that You may learn student responses, except to the extent that You are a District whose agreement with Company otherwise contemplates (for legitimate research and evaluative purposes, all in compliance with applicable law);

(p)    engage in any conduct deemed by Company to be in conflict with the spirit or intent of the Services, including without limitation, by restricting another authorized user from using or enjoying the Services or exposing Company or another to any liability or detriment of any kind;

(q)    violate the terms set forth in the “Administrative Guidelines” and the “Understanding Your Report” documents provided by Company;

(r)    send any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, email, junk mail, spam, chain letters or other form of solicitation; or

(s)    encourage or enable any other individual to do any of the foregoing.

Company is not obligated to monitor access to or use of the Services or to review or edit any content. However, we have the right to do so for the purpose of operating the Services, to ensure compliance with these User Terms and to comply with applicable law or other legal requirements. We have the right to investigate violations of these User Terms or conduct that affects the Services. We may also consult and cooperate with law enforcement authorities to prosecute users who violate the law.

8.1    Privacy Policies. Company respects the privacy of visitors to, and users of, the Services. Information collected from You, and from any individual to whom You provide access to the Services, is subject to the Company’s Tripod Privacy Policies. Please see Company’s Tripod Privacy Policies at app.tripoded.com for more information on the collection and use of Your information. You acknowledge and agree that the Company’s Tripod Privacy Policies, including, but not limited to, the manner in which Company collects, uses and discloses Your personally identifiable information and non-personally identifiable information, is incorporated and made part of the User Terms. By accepting the User Terms, You agree to all of the terms of the Privacy Policies. If You are a School or District (or a representative thereof) or a Teacher that provides a user with access to use the Services, You agree to hold all user information You may receive from Company in confidence and in compliance with all applicable laws.

8.2    Confidentiality. You will hold in confidence all proprietary and confidential information Company discloses to you (including in written or online instructions or documentation) regarding the Company’s Tripod methodology, intellectual property and pricing (the “Confidential Information”) and will not disclose this Confidential Information to anyone.

10.1    WARRANTY DISCLAIMERS. YOU EXPRESSLY AGREE THAT USE OF THE SERVICES IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK AND IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, WARRANTIES OF TITLE OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY, QUIET ENJOYMENT OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE (EXCEPT TO THE EXTENT REQUIRED BY LAW). WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, NEITHER COMPANY NOR ITS AFFILIATES OR SUBSIDIARIES, OR ANY OF THEIR DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, ATTORNEYS, THIRD-PARTY CONTENT PROVIDERS, DISTRIBUTORS, LICENSEES OR LICENSORS, NOR ANYONE WHO HAS BEEN INVOLVED IN THE CREATION, PRODUCTION, OR DELIVERY OF THE SERVICES (COLLECTIVELY, "COMPANY PARTIES") WARRANT THAT THE SERVICES, INCLUDING THE INFORMATION MADE AVAILABLE THROUGH THE SERVICES, WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, UNCORRUPTED, ACCURATE, RELIABLE, COMPLETE, CURRENT, TIMELY, OR ERROR-FREE; THAT DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED; OR THAT THE PAGES OR THE SERVER THAT MAKES THE SERVICES AVAILABLE ARE FREE FROM VIRUSES, WORMS OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS.

10.2    EXCLUSION OF DAMAGES. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, NEITHER THE COMPANY PARTIES NOR THEIR RESPECTIVE SERVICE PROVIDERS INVOLVED IN CREATING, PRODUCING, OR DELIVERING THE SERVICES WILL BE LIABLE FOR ANY INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, OR DAMAGES FOR LOST PROFITS, LOST REVENUES, LOST SAVINGS, LOST BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY, LOSS OF DATA OR GOODWILL, SERVICE INTERRUPTION, COMPUTER DAMAGE OR SYSTEM FAILURE OR THE COST OF SUBSTITUTE SERVICES OF ANY KIND, OR PERSONAL INJURY/WRONGFUL DEATH ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USER TERMS OR FROM THE USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE SERVICES, WHETHER BASED ON WARRANTY, CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), PRODUCT LIABILITY OR ANY OTHER LEGAL THEORY, AND WHETHER OR NOT THE COMPANY PARTIES OR THEIR RESPECTIVE SERVICE PROVIDERS HAVE BEEN INFORMED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE, EVEN IF A LIMITED REMEDY SET FORTH HEREIN IS FOUND TO HAVE FAILED OF ITS ESSENTIAL PURPOSE.

10.3    LIMITATION OF LIABILITY. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL COMPANY PARTIES’ TOTAL LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USER TERMS OR FROM THE USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE SERVICES EXCEED ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS ($100).

Copyright Policy: It is Company policy to respond promptly to claims of copyright infringement, and to remove, or disable access to, infringing material. If you believe that any of the content or materials appearing on this Service contain infringements, please send a notice to the individual and address stated below. Your notice should contain the following: a physical or electronic signature of a person (i.e., claimant) authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner; identification of the copyrighted work claimed to be infringed; identification of the content or material claimed to be infringing; a reference or link to the infringing material or activity, or the subject of the infringing activity, including information to enable us to locate that material or reference; the address, telephone number or email address of the claimant; a statement that the claimant has a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and a statement that the information in the notice is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, that the claimant is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed. Company will also terminate a user’s Account if a subscriber is deemed to be a repeat infringer, namely, one who has been notified of bona fide infringing activity more than twice. Our designated agent, to whom you should email your infringement claim (or other complaints), is:

Education Elements, Inc.
Attention: Bizops
4750 Venture Drive Suite 400 PMB#20 Ann Arbor, MI 48108-9505
888-212-3121
support@edelements.com 

15.1    Mandatory Arbitration of Disputes. We each agree that any dispute, claim or controversy arising out of or relating to the User Terms or the breach, termination, enforcement, interpretation or validity thereof or the use of the Services (collectively, “Disputes”) will be resolved solely by binding, individual arbitration and not in a class, representative or consolidated action or proceeding. You and Company agree that the U.S. Federal Arbitration Act governs the interpretation and enforcement of these User Terms, and that you and Company are each waiving the right to a trial by jury or to participate in a class action. This arbitration provision shall survive termination of these User Terms.

15.2    Exceptions. As limited exceptions to Section 15.1 above: (a) we both may seek to resolve a Dispute in small claims court if it qualifies; and (b) we each retain the right to seek injunctive or other equitable relief from a court to prevent (or enjoin) the infringement or misappropriation of our intellectual property rights.

15.3    Conducting Arbitration and Arbitration Rules. The arbitration will be commenced and conducted under the Streamlined Arbitration Rules and Procedures (the “Rules”) of JAMS, which is available at the JAMS website www.jamsadr.com. The determination of whether a Dispute is subject to arbitration will be governed by the Federal Arbitration Act and determined by a court rather than an arbitrator. Your arbitration fees and Your share of arbitrator compensation will be governed by the Rules. The arbitration may be conducted in person, through the submission of documents, by phone or online. The arbitrator will make a decision in writing but need not provide a statement of reasons unless requested by a party. The arbitrator must follow applicable law, and any award may be challenged if the arbitrator fails to do so.

15.4    Injunctive and Declaratory Relief. Except as provided in Section 16.2 above, the arbitrator shall determine all issues of liability on the merits of any claim asserted by either party and may award declaratory or injunctive relief only in favor of the individual party seeking relief and only to the extent necessary to provide relief warranted by that party’s individual claim. To the extent that you or we prevail on a claim and seek public injunctive relief (that is, injunctive relief that has the primary purpose and effect of prohibiting unlawful acts that threaten future injury to the public), the entitlement to and extent of such relief must be litigated in a civil court of competent jurisdiction and not in arbitration. The parties agree that litigation of any issues of public injunctive relief shall be stayed pending the outcome of the merits of any individual claims in arbitration.

15.5    Class Action Waiver. YOU AND COMPANY AGREE THAT EACH MAY BRING CLAIMS AGAINST THE OTHER ONLY IN YOUR OR ITS INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY, AND NOT AS A PLAINTIFF OR CLASS MEMBER IN ANY PURPORTED CLASS OR REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDING. Further, if the parties’ Dispute is resolved through arbitration, the arbitrator may not consolidate another person’s claims with your claims, and may not otherwise preside over any form of a representative or class proceeding. If this specific provision is found to be unenforceable, then the entirety of this Dispute Resolution section shall be null and void.

15.6   With the exception of any of the provisions in Section 15.5 of these User Terms (“Class Action Waiver”), if an arbitrator or court of competent jurisdiction decides that any part of these User Terms is invalid or unenforceable, the other parts of these User Terms will still apply.

16.1    Waiver. The failure of Company to require or enforce strict performance by You of any provision of the User Terms or to exercise any right under them will not be construed as a waiver or relinquishment of Company’s right to assert or rely upon any such provision or right in that or any other instance.

16.2    Severability. You and Company agree that if any portion of the User Terms is found illegal or unenforceable, in whole or in part by an arbitrator or any court of competent jurisdiction, such provision will, as to such jurisdiction, be ineffective to the extent of such determination of invalidity or unenforceability without affecting the validity or enforceability thereof in any other manner or jurisdiction and without affecting the remaining provisions of the User Terms, which will continue to be in full force and effect.