Terms of Service

Last updated: 28 August 2026

dbcourse.app is the learning platform for COMS W4111 Introduction to Databases at Columbia University, operated by the course instructor, Oktie Hassanzadeh. Using it means accepting these terms. Questions: admin@dbcourse.app. Anything about your personal data goes to privacy@dbcourse.app instead — see the privacy policy.

These terms govern the platform. They do not replace the course syllabus, Columbia's academic policies, or the University's Code of Conduct — where this document and a course or University policy disagree, the course or University policy wins.

Who may use it

Students enrolled in the course, course staff, and accounts the instructor has specifically admitted. Sign-in is through your own Google account; do not share it or sign in as anyone else. Access ends when the term does, or when you withdraw from the course.

Academic integrity

The platform is a graded instrument, and the rules that matter here are the course's own:

• Do not share or seek exam or quiz content. Copying questions out of the platform, posting them anywhere, or receiving them from someone who sat earlier is a violation of academic integrity, not merely of these terms.
• Do not attempt to circumvent the assessment controls — the timer, the attempt limits, the sealing of results, or the per-student variation in questions.
• AI use follows the course policy, not this document. AI assistance is permitted with disclosure on the project and on in-app work, and prohibited on the in-class paper exams. The syllabus is authoritative on this and is more specific than anything written here.
• Do not submit another person's work as your own, and do not do someone else's work for them.

Suspected violations go through Columbia's academic-integrity process. The platform records signals — such as how often a window lost focus during a timed assessment — but a signal is something for a human to look into, never a verdict and never an automatic penalty.

Course materials and copyright

The lessons, questions, exams, datasets, and slides are the instructor's work or are licensed for use in this course. Some material quotes and cites a copyrighted textbook, which is permissible precisely because access is authenticated and limited to the class.

You may use all of it for your own study in this course. Do not redistribute it — do not post it publicly, upload it to a homework-answer site, share it outside the class, or scrape the platform in bulk. This is the one restriction here with consequences beyond the course, since republishing the textbook material would breach someone else's copyright as well as these terms.

Your work

Your submissions are yours. You keep ownership of everything you write — your queries, your schemas, your project, your essays.

By submitting, you allow the course to store, run, display, and grade that work for the purpose of teaching the course, and to retain it as described in the privacy policy so that grades can be computed, audited, and appealed. If the instructor ever wants to use your work as an example in a future term, they will ask first and anonymize it.

Grades

During the term, this platform is where your grades are computed, and no grade is stored — every number is derived on each page load from the underlying record of your work, so a regrade or a corrected grader shows up without anyone backfilling anything.

Columbia's CourseWorks remains the institutional record of your final grade. What you see here is authoritative during the term and is exported out at the end of it. If a number here looks wrong, raise it with the instructor or a TA — the grade appeal process is in the syllabus.

Availability

This is a course platform run by an instructor, not a commercial service with an uptime guarantee. It may be unavailable for maintenance, and it may change during the term as material is added.

Do not leave a graded submission to the last minute on the assumption that it will be up. If the platform is genuinely unavailable when something is due, that is what the course's extension policy is for — contact the instructor.

The platform is provided as-is, without warranties, and the instructor and the University are not liable for indirect or consequential loss arising from its use. Nothing in these terms limits any liability that cannot lawfully be limited, and nothing here affects your rights under Columbia's own academic policies or FERPA.

Suspension

Access can be suspended for a violation of these terms, of academic integrity, or of University policy. Suspension of a platform account is separate from — and does not substitute for — Columbia's own disciplinary process.

Changes

If these terms change materially, the date at the top changes and enrolled students are told in class or by email. The current version is always the one at https://dbcourse.app/terms.

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of New York.