Our instance of Moodle has several custom roles to help facilitate appropriate course permissions when enrolling a user into your Moodle course.
In general, each user should only be assigned a single role. If multiple roles are assigned, Moodle will attempt to use the least restrictive permissions. However, there are some circumstances where a higher role will have more restrictions and prevent functionality. If you have any questions on which role you should be using or the exact permissions of a role, please reach out to the Academic Technology Center (ATC).
Key Roles are listed from most restrictive permissions to least
| Role | Permissions | Restrictions | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guest | Only allowed to read the course content. | Cannot post in forums, edit wiki pages, participate in chats, take quizzes, submit assignments, or add entries and comments. Cannot receive any grades. | Ideal for viewers with no interaction privileges. Using the guest role is different than enabling course wide guest access to the public (no authentication required). |
| Student (standard role) | Can participate in course activities, view resources, and see their own grades if the teacher permits. | Cannot alter course resources or view the class gradebook. | Standard role for regular students. |
| Student with Extended Access | Inherits all permissions from the standard student role, but can also see and access courses that are currently “Hidden” to other students. | Same as the standard student role. | Useful for allowing access to courses from completed terms. |
| Embedded Tutor | Allowed to review the course, preview quizzes, participate in forum activities, view the participants list, and access activities/items currently hidden from students. | Cannot see grades or the grade book. | Provides support without grade visibility. |
| Course Reviewer | Can review the course and see items currently hidden from students, such as hidden topics/weeks, assignments, and notes. | Cannot participate in activities like posting in forums or attempting quizzes. Cannot see individual grades or the grade book. | Used for auditing and course quality checks. |
| Course Reviewer & Import | Same as Course Reviewer, with the added ability to see and access courses that are currently "Hidden" to other students. | Same as Course Reviewer. | Additional privilege for course import tasks. |
| Non-editing Teacher (standard role) | Allowed to view and grade students' work. Can manage a specific group if necessary. | Cannot alter or delete any course activities or resources. | Suitable for supervising without editing capabilities. |
| Teacher (standard role) | Can manage nearly all aspects of the course, including adding or changing activities, grading students, and assigning roles such as Non-editing Teacher and Student to other users. | - | Full control over course content and student management. |
Additional Specialized Roles
Note that some roles are only assignable via Moodle Administrators.
| Role | Permissions | Restrictions | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Student w/o forum WRITE | Based on the standard student role but specifically used to block individual students from posting to specific forums within a course. | - | Typically used in cases of addressing student conduct. |
| Student w/o Quiz Time Limits | Students in this role do not have any time limits when taking quizzes that enforce time-limits for other students. | Deprecated; recommended to use individual or group overrides instead. | Designed for providing accommodations. |
| Student w/o Forum Subscriptions | Exempt from news and announcements forced subscriptions in META courses where traditional unsubscriptions are not possible. | Role is only assignable by Managers and above. | For managing limitations in large course enrollments. |
| Student HelpDesk - Basic | Based on the student role, but can see ALL hidden courses. This enables Student Help Desk (SHeD) workers to lookup and search for courses without the permission to enter or edit. | Cannot enter or edit courses. | Provides broad visibility for support purposes. |
| Testing Support | Based on a non-editing teacher role but with exclusive permissions to edit all quiz settings and user overrides. Can view all activities and resources within a course. | Assigned typically to a single individual responsible for Instructional Testing Services Support. | Specific to testing and assessment support. |
| Course Creator | Allows the creation of new courses within a specific assigned category. | - | For users with course development responsibilities. |
| Moodle Support | Very similar to the Teacher role in terms of course access and modification abilities, but typically does not participate in courses. | - | Support role for technical assistance and troubleshooting. |
| Manager (standard role) | Can access and modify courses, perform certain administrative level tasks related to courses, users, grade settings, etc. Does not appear in participant lists and most notifications are disabled. | Not intended to be active participants in courses. | Administrative role with broad capabilities. |
| Instructional Designer | Limited site-wide access, including creating courses, viewing conduit reports, some front page editing, and maintaining access during the site's maintenance mode. | - | Specialized role for instructional design and course setup. |
| Moodle Admin LITE | Can access all courses and modify them, has limited site-wide administrative privileges such as updating users and managing reports. Retains access during site's maintenance mode. | Participating in questionnaires (mod/questionnaire:submit) has been disabled to prevent showing up under "non-respondents". | Administrative role with limited privileges compared to full admins. |