lilyPD
Terms of Use

Effective Date: March 24, 2026

William & Mary — Strategic Cultural Partnerships

Welcome to lilyPD. These Terms of Use (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of the lilyPD website and its educational resources, owned and operated by William & Mary (“William & Mary”), a public university in the Commonwealth of Virginia, through its division of Strategic Cultural Partnerships. By registering for an account and using the lilyPD platform, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the platform or register for an account.

lilyPD is an educational platform designed to support K–12 educators through microcourses containing video content and original teacher-developer materials, alongside a library of downloadable lesson plans, curriculum resources, and worksheets, created by our team and in partnership with contributing institutions and teacher contributors. Some microcourses carry accreditation from the William & Mary School of Education, equating to a specified number of professional development hours as indicated on the relevant course page.

1. Eligibility and Account Registration

lilyPD is intended for use by educators, school administrators, curriculum developers, and other education professionals supporting K–12 learning. To access downloadable resources and the full platform, you must create a free account.

By registering, you confirm that:

You are at least 18 years of age or a legally emancipated minor;
You will provide accurate, current, and complete information during registration;
You will maintain the security of your password and accept responsibility for all activity that occurs under your account;
You will promptly notify William & Mary of any unauthorized use of your account.

William & Mary reserves the right to suspend or terminate accounts that provide false information or violate these Terms.

2. Description of Services

The lilyPD platform provides registered users with access to:

Microcourses — structured online courses for teacher-learners, comprising video lessons, original content developed by our teacher content developers, downloadable resources, quizzes and assessments, discussion boards, and submitted assignments;
A resource library of standalone lesson plans, curriculum materials, and downloadable documents (PDFs and worksheets) for classroom use, available free of charge to all registered users;
Content contributed by partner institutions and teacher contributors.

Some microcourses are available free of charge to registered users. Others require payment of an enrollment or subscription fee as specified on the relevant course page. Access to free resources in the resource library does not require course enrollment.

The availability of courses and resources may change over time. William & Mary does not guarantee continuous or uninterrupted access to any specific course or resource.

3. Microcourse Enrollment and Access

3a. Enrollment

To access a microcourse, you must enroll through the platform. Free microcourses are available upon enrollment at no charge. Paid microcourses require payment of the applicable enrollment fee before access is granted.

Enrollment is personal and non-transferable. You may not share your enrollment, login credentials, or access to a microcourse with any other person.

3b. Payment and Refunds

All courses will be free during the beta period. [To be updated post beta]

3c. Course Access Period

Unless otherwise stated on the course page, enrolled users will have access to a microcourse from the date of enrollment for a period of 12 months or through the duration of the subscription agreement. William & Mary will give reasonable notice where a course is to be withdrawn or access is to expire.

3d. Course Changes and Withdrawal

William & Mary reserves the right to update, modify, or withdraw microcourses at any time. Where a paid microcourse is withdrawn before a user has had a reasonable opportunity to complete it, William & Mary will offer a pro-rata refund or equivalent credit at its discretion.

3e. Completion and Certificates

Where a microcourse offers a certificate of completion, this will be issued upon satisfactory completion of all required course components, including any assessments or assignments. Certificates are issued for personal professional development purposes only.

Where a microcourse carries accreditation from the William & Mary School of Education, this will be clearly indicated on the relevant course page prior to enrollment, along with the number of professional development hours the course equates to. Accredited status is awarded upon satisfactory completion of all required course components, including any Narrative Assessment where applicable, and is conferred by the William & Mary School of Education. The number of professional development hours awarded will vary by course and is specified on the relevant course page.

3f. AI-Based Narrative Assessment

Some microcourses on the lilyPD platform include a Narrative Assessment — an AI-powered tool that evaluates your submitted work and determines whether you meet the requirements for accreditation by the William & Mary School of Education and the award of the associated professional development hours. By enrolling in a microcourse that includes a Narrative Assessment, you acknowledge and agree that:

Your submitted work will be processed by an AI-based assessment tool for the purposes of determining your accreditation outcome;
Accreditation outcomes — and the award of professional development hours — are determined solely by the Narrative Assessment tool, without routine human review of individual submissions;
Your submitted work and assessment outcome will be retained as part of your course record.

If you believe your accreditation outcome does not accurately reflect your submitted work, you have the right to request a human review. Please see our Privacy Policy for full details of how the Narrative Assessment tool works and how to exercise your right to request human review.

4. Permitted Uses of lilyPD Materials

Subject to these Terms, William & Mary grants registered users a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to access and use materials for the following purposes:

4a. Personal Professional Use

You may access, view, and download resources for your own personal professional development and classroom planning.

4b. Classroom and Instructional Use

You may reproduce and distribute resources to your students for educational, non-commercial classroom use, provided that:

No fee is charged to students or others for access to or use of the resource;
Attribution to lilyPD (and the contributing institution or teacher contributor, where stated) is maintained on all copies.

4c. Adapting and Sharing Resources

Standalone resources available through the lilyPD resource library — including teaching guides, student activities, anchor charts, lesson plans, and curriculum materials — are made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license. This means you are free to:

Download and share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format;
Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material to fit your classroom context;

Under the following terms:

Attribution — you must give appropriate credit to lilyPD and any named contributors, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made;
NonCommercial — you may not use the material for commercial purposes;
ShareAlike — if you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license as the original.

For full details of this license, please visit: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/.

4d. Microcourse Content

Access to microcourse content — including videos, course materials, and teacher-developer content — is granted solely for your personal, non-commercial professional learning. Microcourse content may not be altered, adapted, or modified in any way without prior written permission from William & Mary.

You may:

Stream and view video content within the platform for the duration of your enrollment access period;
Download course materials and resources that William & Mary expressly makes available for download within a course.

You may not:

Record, screenshot, screen-capture, or otherwise reproduce video content or course materials beyond what is expressly permitted;
Alter, adapt, edit, or create derivative works from any microcourse content without prior written permission from William & Mary;
Share, redistribute, or re-upload any microcourse content to any other platform, website, or learning management system;
Use microcourse content for commercial training, resale, or institutional delivery without a separate written agreement with William & Mary.

5. Interactive Course Elements

5a. Quizzes and Assessments

Quizzes and assessments within microcourses are for your personal learning and course completion purposes. You agree to complete assessments independently and honestly.

5b. Discussion Boards

Where discussion boards are provided, you agree to engage respectfully and professionally. You must not post content that is offensive, defamatory, discriminatory, or unrelated to the educational purpose of the course. William & Mary reserves the right to remove posts and restrict access to discussion features for users who violate these standards.

You should also be mindful of your obligations under applicable privacy and data protection law, including FERPA, when participating in discussion boards. You must not post personally identifiable information relating to any student — including names, descriptions, or other details that could identify an individual student — without appropriate authorization. Where you wish to discuss student learning or classroom experiences, please ensure any examples are sufficiently anonymized.

By posting to a discussion board, you grant William & Mary a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to display and reproduce your post within the platform for the benefit of other learners.

5c. Submitted Assignments

Where a microcourse requires submission of assignments, you confirm that all submitted work is your own and does not infringe the intellectual property rights of others. William & Mary will not publish, share, or distribute individual submissions without your express consent. Submitted assignments may be used by William & Mary solely for the purposes of assessing your course completion and improving the quality of its courses.

5d. Use of Artificial Intelligence

William & Mary recognizes that artificial intelligence tools can serve a legitimate role in supporting professional learning and reflection. You are welcome to use AI tools as a thinking aid — for example, to explore ideas, organize your thoughts, or reflect on course material.

However, by submitting any assignment or assessment, you confirm that the final submitted work is your own, represents your own understanding and professional judgment, and has not been substantially generated by an AI tool on your behalf. You remain responsible for the accuracy, integrity, and originality of all work you submit.

Work submitted in violation of this policy may be disqualified, and William & Mary reserves the right to suspend or terminate access for users found to have breached this provision.

6. Prohibited Uses

The following uses of lilyPD content and the platform are strictly prohibited:

Reproducing, distributing, selling, or licensing any resource or course content for commercial purposes;
Creating derivative works from any course content without express written permission;
Recording, screen-capturing, or otherwise reproducing video content or course materials beyond what is expressly permitted;
Uploading or redistributing any content to any other website, LMS, or digital platform without prior written consent;
Sharing enrollment access, login credentials, or course content with individuals who are not enrolled in the relevant course;
Removing or obscuring any copyright notices, attribution statements, or branding from resources or course materials;
Using the platform in any way that violates applicable law or regulation;
Using automated tools, bots, or scrapers to access, download, or index platform content;
Engaging in any conduct on discussion boards or in submitted assignments that is dishonest, offensive, or harmful to other users or contributors.

7. Intellectual Property and Ownership

All content on lilyPD — including activity/lesson plans, curriculum documents, worksheets, text, graphics, logos, and downloadable files — is the property of William & Mary or its contributing partners and teacher contributors, and is protected by applicable copyright and intellectual property laws.

Partner institutions and teacher contributors retain ownership of materials they contribute to lilyPD. By contributing materials, contributors grant William & Mary a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, display, and distribute their materials to registered users in accordance with these Terms.

Nothing in these Terms transfers any ownership rights in lilyPD content to users.

8. Attribution Requirements

When using or sharing lilyPD resources, users must retain all attribution information as presented on the original resource, including:

The lilyPD name and/or logo, where present;
The name of any contributing institution or teacher contributor, where credited;
Any copyright or licensing notices included with the resource.

9. User Conduct

By using the lilyPD platform, you agree to:

Use the platform only for its intended educational purposes;
Respect the intellectual property rights of William & Mary and all contributing partners and teachers;
Interact with the platform in a professional and respectful manner;
Comply with all applicable laws and regulations.

William & Mary reserves the right to remove access for any user who violates these Terms.

10. Privacy and Data

Your use of lilyPD is also governed by our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into these Terms by reference. By using the platform, you consent to the collection and use of your information as described in the Privacy Policy. We encourage you to read it carefully before registering.

11. Disclaimer of Warranties

William & Mary provides the lilyPD platform and all resources “as is” and “as available” without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement.

William & Mary makes no representations or warranties regarding:

The accuracy, completeness, or suitability of any content or resources available on the platform for any particular educational purpose;
The uninterrupted or error-free availability of the platform or any specific course or resource;
The security of data transmitted to or from the platform, beyond the reasonable technical measures William & Mary has in place;
Any third-party websites or services linked to or referenced from the platform. Such links are provided for convenience only and do not constitute an endorsement by William & Mary.

Users access and use the platform and its resources at their own risk.

12. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, William & Mary and its officers, directors, employees, partners, and contributors shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages arising from your use of the lilyPD platform or its resources.

13. Copyright Takedown Notices

William & Mary respects the intellectual property rights of others and expects all users and contributors to do the same. If you believe that any content available on the lilyPD platform infringes your copyright, or the copyright of a third party you are authorized to represent, please notify us promptly so that we can investigate and take appropriate action.

13a. Reporting Infringement

To report a copyright infringement concern, please submit a written notice to William & Mary containing the following information:

Your name and contact details, including email address;
Identification of the copyrighted work you believe has been infringed;
Identification of the material on the lilyPD platform that you believe is infringing, with sufficient detail for us to locate it;
A statement that you have a good faith belief that the use of the material is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or applicable law;
A statement that the information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or are authorized to act on their behalf.

Notices should be submitted to:

lilyPD — William & Mary, Strategic Cultural Partnerships, P.O. Box 8795, Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795

Email: lilypd@wm.edu

13b. Our Response

Upon receipt of a valid notice, William & Mary will investigate the claim and reserves the right to remove or disable access to the material in question while the matter is under review. We will make reasonable efforts to notify the user who posted the material that a complaint has been received.

13c. Repeat Infringers

William & Mary reserves the right to terminate the accounts of users who are found to be repeat infringers of third-party intellectual property rights.

14. Changes to These Terms

William & Mary reserves the right to modify these Terms at any time. Revised Terms will be posted with an updated effective date. Continued use of the platform constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms. For material changes, William & Mary will make reasonable efforts to notify registered users by email.

15. Contact Us

For questions about these Terms, to request permissions, or to report a potential violation, please contact William & Mary: