Multiple Course Roles for the same user...

[samson_chung]

Hey all,

I am trying to wrap my head around the course role permission settings on the LE.

If I have user John enrolled into course 12345... in Role A and Role B.

Role A says 'users have edit ability in content'

Role B says 'users does not have edit ability in content'

How will the permissions be like for User John? 

My default assumption is that John would only get the common denominated version of Roles A n B, but it seems to not function that way.... 

Would the order in which John is enrolled into 12345 matter? ie, A before B vs B before A?

Thanks,

Sc.

[Allie_Dilts]

Hi  @samson_chung 

Thanks so much for posting your question! If the user is added to a course with multiple user roles, their permissions default to the most liberal permissions. In your scenario, John, enrolled in course 12345 with role A and role B, John will be able to "edit course content" even though he's technically also barred from editing course content. 

If you add John to the course with role A and then edit John's enrollment to role B, then the new role assignment will override his role A permissions. (see the blue section of How do I edit user roles in a course?  where it reads "If a user was added to the course with multiple roles, selecting a new role overwrites all the user's current enrollments with the new edited role. If a user is enrolled in multiple sections, the edited role applies to all sections.") 

Hopefully this helps answer your question! Please let us know if you have any further questions. 

Thanks, 

Allie 

[samson_chung]

Hi  @Allie_Dilts 

So, the system allows for multiple roles but does not fully support it.... is that what I should be interpreting from that documentation page?

[VicKovacs]

@Allie_Dilts How about roles that that are not by-class such as admin.  If there is a "Vic the admin" and "Vic the student", how would one user be both?  The Admin is Admin everywhere, but the student should not have full permissions in a class he is taking.  We also have teachers taking classes at different times and in different departments.

[nwilson7]

@VicKovacs Admin is a unique role that overrides everything in a course.  If someone is an "Admin" in an account, then none of the roles that they have in any course matter, the Admin trumps all.  We actually have a case where one of our support people that is an Admin is now going back for another degree so we had to remove her Admin role so that the roles she has within courses can be respected.  

All the course roles are per course so those do not have any issues.  Every single one of our faculty is a student in at least one course and that does not cause any issues.  In the course(s) that they are "teachers" in, they can do teacher things and then the ones that they are students in, they can only do student things.  As @Allie_Dilts pointed out, the issues come into play when you have multiple roles within the same course/section.  In this case the highest (most liberal as Allie stated) take precedent.  

Hope this helps!

-Nick

[VicKovacs]

Got it.  Stripping an admin of elevated permissions is not an option, so if we want an admin to be restricted to a student's role, but able to be an admin as well, then we need two accounts and the person will have to switch accounts.  Thanks for your help.

[Draykov]

I have elevated rights to certain subaccounts, but I have never been able to add a user to a course within those subaccounts with more than a single course role.  Would this be due to my limited privileges?  I understand that there is a distinction between account/subaccount roles and course roles, but seeing this, I am a bit confused as to how this is supposed to work.  My first encounter with a "teacher/student" user in a course has me puzzled.  

[sfintland]

Hi all, I have a similar issue and was wondering if anyone has found a workaround.  We have cases where we need someone to have the teacher role as well as the student role within the same course.  The reason would be that they may have editing rights to a non-instructional course (department shell for example), but also need to upload deliverables (department forms, etc.).  Sometimes it works and sometimes it does not.  Meaning when they go to the assignment screen, sometimes they will see the start assignment button to submit a document, sometimes they don't.  Sometimes, they will see the start assignment button, but no longer see the edit button.  Sometimes they will see both, but then after they upload the document, they will get a submission failure message (even though the document still did get uploaded).  So it is not always consistent.  We are not sure if the order of how the roles are listed in people also makes a difference, but we have not figured out how to switch the order so that one is primary and one is secondary.  Any thoughts or similar experiences? 

Thanks!