About TAIF Lab and accepting these Terms
TAIF Learning Lab is an educational assessment platform. It allows instructors and learners to take part in individual and collaborative assessment activities, record attempts and scores, and receive immediate feedback.
TAIFLab: Operated by Stephen Coetzee and Astrid Schmulian in partnership. Contact: info@taiflab.org.
TAIF supports teaching and assessment; it does not guarantee a particular learning outcome.
TAIF is intended for university and other higher-education teaching. Educator accounts require the educator to be at least 18 and able to enter into these Terms. Higher-education learners, including a 17-year-old first-year student, may participate when their instructor has authority and the approvals, lawful processing arrangements and permissions required for that learner are already in place.
Before learner information is supplied or participation begins, including Open participation, the instructor must obtain any required institutional approval and parent or guardian permission. Where the learner cannot accept these Terms independently, any required parent or guardian acceptance must also be arranged outside TAIF before participation; permission to process information and acceptance of these Terms are separate requirements. Keep necessary evidence securely and provide it to TAIF when a legitimate review requires it. A learner or representative checkbox records a declaration; it does not establish parental permission or bind a university. TAIF is not offered for general school or children’s self-service use. An unusually young higher-education learner requires a case-specific review with TAIF and the institution before information is supplied or participation begins. If required arrangements cannot be established, use an alternative assessment route.
By creating an account, checking an acceptance box or using TAIF Lab, you agree to these Terms of Use. Please also read the Privacy Notice. TAIF records the applicable Terms and Privacy Notice versions and the time of an express acceptance.
An instructor may register directly in their personal professional capacity. An instructor's use of TAIF does not itself mean that their university has purchased, approved or endorsed the service, and the instructor remains responsible for obtaining any institutional approval that applies to their use.
Accounts and access
Educators register and sign in by verifying control of their email address with a short-lived, single-use code or confirmation link. Users must provide accurate information, access only accounts or classes they are authorised to use, keep authentication codes and private invitation links secure, not impersonate another person, and not intentionally permit unauthorised access.
TAIF Free includes one full class for the lifetime of your workspace, with up to 500 rostered students and unlimited activities in that class. Creating the first class consumes the entitlement. Archiving or deleting that class does not automatically create another Free class entitlement. TAIF may reset genuine mistakes or grant custom or unlimited product-usage allowances.
Rostered students are students currently on the class roster, added by an instructor or a roster import. Unmatched open participants do not count toward the 500-student roster limit unless they are later added to the class roster.
Students currently join activities through class and team records rather than standalone student accounts. Activity codes and team codes must be used only by authorised participants.
For identified participation, a student must enter only their own institution-issued learner identifier and must not use another person's identifier or identity to join a team, confirm attendance or obtain a mark.
When one team representative enters identifiers for students present on a shared device, that representative must have those students' permission and must not enter anyone who is absent. The representative's acceptance is their own; it does not claim to be an acceptance on behalf of every teammate.
Privacy mode participation
Instructors may prepare team labels or individual aliases outside TAIF and upload only those labels. Keep learner identities, membership, attendance and the label-to-learner mapping in secure institution-approved records outside TAIF. Do not upload learner names, IDs or mapping files in this mode. Share each private entry code only with its intended participants.
TAIF records one result per label using one answering device. The instructor decides whether a result is graded, who receives any shared mark and how it is allocated locally. Label participation does not establish individual attendance or authorship. Privacy mode requires the same instructor authority and applicable learner permissions. It reduces disclosure and does not itself establish a lawful basis for processing.
Student and participant responsibilities
Students and participants must not:
- join a class or team, or access an assessment, without authorisation;
- manipulate scores, attempts or assessment states;
- interfere with another person’s or team’s assessment;
- circumvent assessment controls or deliberately exploit a bug or vulnerability;
- attempt unauthorised access to data or administrative functions; or
- use TAIF for academic misconduct or other unlawful conduct.
If a technical problem or accidental action occurs, report it to the relevant instructor or TAIF support instead of trying to manipulate the system.
Instructor responsibilities
Instructors may adopt TAIF directly in their professional capacity, subject to their actual authority and institutional rules. Where institutional approval is required, obtain it before use. Creating an account or checking a box does not purchase TAIF for, bind, or imply endorsement by an institution. TAIF retains its own privacy responsibilities.
An instructor who creates or manages a class confirms that they are authorised to create and administer it, provide or process participant information through TAIF, create or upload assessment content, use the intellectual property in that content, and access results for the learners or teams under their authority.
Instructors remain responsible for assessment design, appropriate use of TAIF, official marks and academic consequences, academic disputes, and compliance with their institution’s rules and applicable law.
Instructors must use institution-issued learner identifiers only where authorised, keep roster and export files secure, and review Unmatched self-reported participants before treating their records as official results.
Assessment records and official results
TAIF records assessment activity and calculates results according to the assessment configuration. TAIF itself does not determine a learner’s official academic result. The relevant instructor or educational institution remains responsible for official academic decisions.
Technical failures, connectivity problems, roster or team errors, and assessment configuration mistakes may require an authorised instructor to review, reset or adjust an outcome under the institution’s rules.
TAIF's institution-linked student export is an explicit restricted action that restores full institution-issued learner identifiers alongside marks and records the export in TAIF's audit history. An identifier marked Unmatched is self-reported and requires institutional review. The authorised person who downloads that file must secure, share, retain and delete it under the institution's privacy, assessment and records-management requirements.
Appropriate use
TAIF may not be used unlawfully, to harm others, to gain unauthorised access, to disrupt the service, to introduce malware, to probe or exploit security weaknesses without permission, or to copy or reverse engineer protected parts of TAIF except where law expressly permits it.
Intellectual property
TAIF intellectual property
The TAIF software, original interface, branding, design elements and other TAIF-created material remain owned by the relevant TAIF rights holder.
Instructor and institutional content
Instructors or institutions retain ownership of assessment questions and other material they upload, to the extent that they own those rights. They give TAIF only the limited permission necessary to store, process, display, deliver, back up and otherwise technically handle that content to operate the service. TAIF does not claim ownership merely because content is uploaded.
Availability, changes and suspension
TAIF aims to provide a reliable service, but uninterrupted availability is not guaranteed. Maintenance, connectivity issues or technical failures may occur, and features may change as the service develops.
TAIF may restrict or suspend access where reasonably necessary because of a security risk, misuse, unlawful conduct, a material breach of these Terms, or an attempt to compromise assessment integrity. Where practicable, action should be proportionate to the problem.
TAIF may update these Terms as the service or applicable requirements change. Material changes may require users to accept the updated Terms before continuing.
Limitation of liability, governing law and contact
To the extent permitted by applicable law, TAIF is not responsible for indirect or consequential loss arising from use or temporary unavailability of the service. Nothing in these Terms excludes liability that cannot lawfully be excluded.
Institutions and instructors remain responsible for official assessment and academic decisions.
These Terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa, unless applicable law requires otherwise.
Legal or support enquiries: info@taiflab.org
Material updates to these Terms will be reflected on this page together with the current effective date.