Those Hidden Permission... Again

[cms_hickss]

Recently we found at my institution another of those hidden permissions. This one is not documented, which is one of the main issues. We have an elevated support role (for our Tier 1Tech  Support) that has most of the teacher permissions and some admin permissions. 

But before I go too far... we don't allow our teachers to change a course's term, name, course code, subaccount, and a couple of other items on the Course Details tab as the information is feed from our SIS.

Now back to the issue... setting up Student Group Settings for Discussions. Now, as Admins, you are probably thinking, but wait there is a "Manage Groups" permission... and you would be correct. It is what you would think would control any "tool" (discussion and assignments now; and maybe in the future quizzes and announcments) that allowed for the use of student groups in the course... it's not? Nope, not really... it's only partially... So what does it allow? 

• Groups tab (on people page): Yes
• Assignments: Yes
• Discussions: No

The T1 Tech can create student groups, manage them, delete them, assign students, etc. They can setup student group assignments; even edit the group settings if needed. They cannot, however, setup student group discussions. If they edit the Discussion they can't even see the settings for the groups.

The resolution, for this Discussion Only issue, we were told, is to grant the T1 Tech "Courses - Manage/Update" (the permission is located under Mange Courses)... what? But why is this a problem? Wait, doesn't "Course - Manage"

• Allow access to the Permanently Delete Course button? Yep. 
• Edit Course name? Yep.
• Edit subaccount? Yep.
• Edit Course code? Yep.
• Term too? Yep.

My main reason for even bringing this up here is twofold really.

1. It is not documented in the "What it Does" or "Additional Considerations" areas systray for the Permission. It is also not documented in the Canvas Account Role Permissions page. IF this permission is what controls even seeing the Group Setting details for a Discussion Assignment, then it should be documented.

• Especially since it is clearly documented in Mange Groups (under "What it does / Group - add") that the permission: Allows user to add a group for a group assignment in a course.

2. Why are the Group Settings available for another tool (Assignments) without the elevated Account-level permission of Courses - Manage/Update?

If you have made this far in my permission/role ramble, thanks for reading. Also, should you encounter other permission-related issues, please let me know.

[JamesSekcienski]

@cms_hickss 

Thank you for sharing! That does seem odd that it doesn't work with Discussions.  Hopefully they will resolve the issue soon.

We also don't give out the "Course - Manage" permission to most admin roles since it has too much access to change settings that may negatively impact reporting, customizations, and/or integrations.