Permissions

Permissions

Just as roles relate to the user (and their function), permission relates to each content object. In other words, limits or grants access to a user based on the following permissions.

You can see each member's access type in the Members Page <i class="icon fa-users> of that content (Courses, Groups & Workspace). That's the small orange button visible at the top of the content icon.

Note: In some cases, a student can have more elevated permissions (e.g. edit) than a teacher (e.g. read). A common example is a student assignment or test. A teacher should not be allowed to change student input (but to comment on it).

As a general rule, content will inherit the access permissions of its parent (e.g. a document will inherit the access of its parent course). Please visit the inheritance section below for more information (this is an important topic, so please don't skip it).

Read

Read access simply means you can access a Course or Group. You can't edit or change anything, just view. Please make sure to read about inheritance and groups in the next sections as these tools make it so much easier to teach your courses.

Edit

Editors can add and alter content. But they cannot destroy (only Admins can do that). This design choice means you can have students as editors, as you know they won't be able delete what you created (only what they have created).

A common use of edit permissions is for tutors or sub teachers. The main classroom teacher may wish to retain control while he or she is not around.

Admin

An Admin has full access to the resource, which means they can add / remove users, change their roles, destroy content. They can also remove the resource (Course and Group) in question. So please be careful with this kind of elevated permissions.

Inheritance

Central to the concept of access is the access to content resources. The rule is simple, content elements inherit the access of their parents, unless they have access rules of their own.

Here are three examples that cover the cases to consider:

• A Document (or other content) will inherit the access of its parent (Course or Group)
• A Group will have its own access settings (hence their usefulness to segregate teaching groups) -- but of course, if you don't have access to its parent Course (or Group) you won't even be able to get to it.
• A Document (or other content) that is shared via linking (see the next section for this): you can only edit / delete it if you had such access to the original document.

Linking

Linking comes with some slightly different access permission rules.

Let's say you link a Document or Resource in Course A into Course B. The link is nothing more than just that, a link to the original content. The system automatically identifies that Course B members needs read access to the resource. Once the link is deleted, access of Course B members is revoked automatically.

More elevated access right (i.e. edit and admin) are inherited from the original parent, which is Course A in this case.

Of course, deleting the link will not affect the original resource. In our example, to delete the link in Course B you must have admin rights in that course.