[ARCHIVED] Which roles can export course content?

[Nancy_Webb_CCSF]

I can't find any permission that controls who can export course content from the course's Settings page.  We are concerned with intellectual property rights, and I was dismayed to find that a TA can export all course content, when they have no editing rights on content so can't add or delete anything. 

Is this just a granularity problem with permissions? Except I can't find any permission regarding export (or reset course content for that matter.) Our TA's are allowed to edit the gradebook so that gives them access to exporting grades, but that's not the same as the entire course.

It seems there are certain built in rights for the basic roles on which all others are built, but they are not clearly explained. I would like to know about course reset too,  Is there any documentation? Maybe I am just not finding it. Thanks!

[Chris_Hofer]

Hello there,  @Nancy_Webb_CCSF ...

Happy New Year!  I am sorry to see that your question has been sitting out here in the Community since August 23, 2019 without a response.  While I'm not sure that I really have an answer for you, I wanted to check in with you to see if you've been able to come up with any solutions on your own since you posted your question more than four months ago.  If so, would you be willing to share your findings with us here in this topic?  Or, if you are still looking for some help with this question, please let us know that as well.  Either way, we'd like to hear back from you.  For the time being, I am going to mark your question as "Assumed Answered"...not because we've been able to find a solution for you, but more because there hasn't been any new activity in this topic for quite some time.  (Please review the link I've included in this response.)  However, that won't prevent you or others from posting additional questions and/or comments below that are related to this topic.  I hope that's okay with you, Nancy.  Looking forward to hearing back from you soon.

[Nancy_Webb_CCSF · Accepted solution]

Happy new year to you too,  @Chris_Hofer ‌!

I wasn't answered here, but I did learn that any role based on the teacher role will be able to export course content.  If I can mark this answer as correct I will.

[jmagee1]

I'm concerned about this too! There should definitely be a way to keep TAs from being able to export an entire course. How is the ability to control who has access to the course settings not even listed in Permissions?

[MahbubaHammad]

Hello Nancy, were you able to find a solution to this issue since 2020? I've the same question. 

[Nancy_Webb_CCSF]

The solution is there is no way to prevent most course roles from being able to export course content.  Only Students and Observers cannot.  There is an idea [Permissions] Granular Course Import/Export Permis... - Instructure Community - 402803 (canvaslms.co... that is now part of a Theme with 30 ideas Provide More Granularity for Permissions Configura... - Instructure Community - 551414 (canvaslms.co....  We can't leave any comments on either.   If hey go forward with voting, there's a chance that admins will be someday able to remove the export course content permission from chosen course roles.

There are so many themes and ideas!  We can only hope they will chose this theme to consider someday and that enough people will vote it up.  I am truly horrified that currently, any student TA can export a teacher's course.  We cannot prevent it.

[MahbubaHammad]

Thank you for sharing this, Nancy! It is indeed appalling. I saw other threads on this community forum that dated back to 2019 on a similar note. Five years later, there is still no solution and it looks like there won't be one any time soon. I will be researching some alternatives to Canvas. 

[rdigiondomenico]

+1

[Nancy_Webb_CCSF]

@jmagee1  and @rdigiondomenico, you might vote on this idea Granular Course Import/Export Permissions - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com).  If there is a permission we can set to prevent exporting, the issue is resolved.  This doesn't have many votes so please vote it up.

I am really surprised that more people aren't worried about this export capability being available to everyone except students, observers and those based on those 2 roles.