Roles in LEARN

Roles Overview

The following descriptions outline the characteristics of the roles that can appear in a class list in Waterloo LEARN. The order of the list of roles is roughly indicative of a decreasing set of permissions. For reference, the two main roles are Instructor and Student. All other roles are described by their notable exceptions to those two “baseline” roles.

Student, Guest Student, Past Student, and Test Student roles will appear in the gradebook.

Group Manager, Instructor, TA - Level 1 through 4 and Observer will not appear in the gradebook.

Group Manager

The Group Manager role can perform all course management activities in a course and in addition, can manage enrollments.

Notable Permissions

This role can:

  • Impersonate Test Student

  • Change enrollment

  • Perform unenroll

  • View user enrollments

  • Enroll Instructor, Staff/Librarian, all TA levels, Student, Observer

This role can NOT:

  • Take Quizzes,

  • See and Submit file to Dropbox,

  • Be Evaluated

  • Enroll other roles

Role properties

 

Self-enroll in groups
Access past courses
Access future courses
Groups: Access all course groups

** Instructor **

The Instructor role can perform all course management activities in a course.

Notable Permissions

This role can:

  • Impersonate Test Student

  • Enroll and Unenroll TAs

  • Change Enrollments

This role can NOT:

  • Take Quizzes,

  • See and Submit file to Dropbox,

  • Be Evaluated

Role properties

 

Self-enroll in groups
Access past courses
Access future courses
Groups: Access all course groups

Staff/Librarian

The permissions and properties for this role are identical to Instructor, only the title is different and this role is present only within a course offering.

Notable Permissions (vs Instructor)

This role can NOT:

  • Enroll or Unenroll TAs

  • Change Enrollment

  • Change preferred Number and Date Formatting

  • See External email address for Past Student and Guest Students

Role Properties

 

Self-enroll in groups
Access past courses
Access future courses
Groups: Access all course groups

TA – Level 4

Typically manages the course for the instructor. The permissions and properties for this role are identical to Instructor, only the title is different and this role is present only within a course offering.

Notable Permissions (vs Instructor)

This role can NOT:

  • Self Register for a Course

  • Enroll TA – Level 1-4

  • Change Enrollment

  • Self register for a Course

  • Role switch ‘TA – Level 4’

Role properties

Self-enroll in groups
Access past courses
Access future courses
Groups: Access all course groups

TA – Level 3

Same as "TA - Level 2" below, except the "TA - Level 3" can manage the grade book.

Notable Permissions (vs Student)

 

Users

  • Impersonate Test Student

Quizzes:

  • Manage quizzes

  • Manage Quiz reports

  • Export to CSV

  • View quiz statistics

  • Export to Grades

  • Grade quiz attempts

  • View Quiz Attempts

  • Preview Quizzes

  • Associate a quiz with a grade item

  • See Conditionally release quizzes

  • Allows inactive quizzes to be viewed in the User Quiz List

Surveys:

  • See conditionally released surveys

  • Allows inactive and out of date surveys to be viewed in the User Survey List

Grades:

  • Edit Grade Ranges

  • Create / edit grade items

  • Manage Grades

  • Export grades only

  • Import and export grades

  • Edit final grades

  • Modify grades

Dropboxes:

  • Delete Feedback

  • Give feedback

  • View submitted files

  • See and Manage dropbox

Discussions:

  • Access hidden forums and Topics

  • Grade discussions

Content:

  • View content that is not released News

News:

  • See Past and post dated news

This role can NOT:

  • Self register for a Course

  • Take Quizzes

  • See and Submit file to Dropbox

  • Be Evaluated

Role properties

Self-enroll in groups
Access future courses
Groups: Access all course groups

TA – Level 2

Similar to “TA - Level 1.5” below, except this role can manage aspects of the quizzes, grades and dropboxes.

Notable Permissions (vs Student)

 

Quizzes:

  • Manage quizzes

  • View quiz statistics

  • Grade quiz attempts

  • View Quiz Attempts

  • Preview Quizzes

  • Impersonate Test Student

  • See Conditionally release quizzes

  • Allows inactive quizzes to be viewed in the User Quiz List

Grades:

  • Manage grades

  • Edit Final grades

  • Modify grades

Dropboxes:

  • Delete Feedback

  • Give Feedback

  • View submitted files

  • See and manage dropbox

Content:

  • View content that is not released

News:

  • See Past and post dated news

This role can NOT:

  • Self Register for a Course

  • Take Quizzes

  • See and Submit file to Dropbox

  • Be Evaluated

  • Access inactive, or past courses

  • Be auto enrolled into groups or access all course groups

 

Role properties

Self-enroll in groups
Access future courses
Groups: Access all course groups

TA – Level 1.5

Similar to “TA - Level 2” above, except while the role can mark dropbox submissions, discussion posts and quiz questions, it can not enter or alter grades in the gradebook.

Notable Permissions (vs Student)

 

Quizzes:

  • Manage quizzes

  • View quiz statistics

  • Grade quiz attempts

  • View Quiz Attempts

  • Preview Quizzes

  • Impersonate Test Student

  • See Conditionally release quizzes

  • Allows inactive quizzes to be viewed in the User Quiz List

Dropboxes:

  • Delete Feedback

  • Grade Dropboxes

  • Give Feedback

  • View submitted files

  • See and manage dropbox

Discussions:

  • Grade Discussions

Content:

  • View content that is not released

News:

  • See Past and post dated news

This role can NOT:

  • Enter or alter gradebook marks

  • Self Register for a Course

  • Take Quizzes

  • See and Submit file to Dropbox

  • Be Evaluated

  • Access inactive, or past courses

  • Be auto enrolled into groups or access all course groups

Role properties

Self-enroll in groups
Access future courses
Groups: Access all course groups

TA – Level 1

This is similar to the Student role, but cannot perform course activities that impact evaluation or grading.

Notable Permissions (vs Student)

This role can NOT:

  • Self Register for a Course

  • Take Quizzes

  • See and Submit files to Dropbox

  • Be Evaluated

  • Impersonate Test student

  • See User Details

  • See User Progress

Role properties

Self-enroll in groups
Access future courses
Groups: None of the above

Guest

This role is based on the Observer role.

Notable Permissions (vs Observer)

There are a significant number of differences between the Observer and Guest roles.

Role properties

This role can:

Participate in discussions
Send e-mail
Participate in blogs
Use the pager tool

** Student **

The Student role exists at the Org level and at the Course Offering level and can perform course activities that impact evaluation or grading.

Notable Permissions

 

None

 

 

Role properties

 

Appear on Attendance Registers
Can have content statistics
Can be graded in Grades
Can self-enroll in Groups
Can appear in Online Rooms
Can register for a course
Can have User Progress
Can be assessed in Discussions
Can appear in Discussion statistics
Can be auto-enrolled into groups

 

Guest Student

An identical copy of the Student role. This role is intended to be used where student rights are required, but the Guest Students are manually added (not added by automated class list population). E.g., Deferred exams. Note: Not for use with Auditing students.

Notable Permissions (vs Student)

This role can NOT:

  • Self Register for a Course

Role properties

 

Appear on Attendance Registers
Can have content statistics
Can be graded in Grades
Can self-enroll in Groups
Can Appear in Online Rooms
Can register for a course
Can have User Progress
Can be assessed in Discussions
Can appear in Discussion statistics
Can be auto-enrolled into groups

Past Student

An identical copy of the Student role except Past Student can access past courses. The intention for this role is for use when we need to allow an extension within a past course offering.

Notable Permissions (vs Student)

This role can:

Can access past courses

This role can NOT:

Self Register for a Course

Role properties

 

Appear on Attendance Registers Can have content statistics
Can be graded in Grades
Can have User Progress
Can be assessed in Discussions
Can appear in Discussion statistics
Can Access past courses
Groups: None

Future Student

An identical copy of the Student role except Future Student can access a course not yet released to the general class roster. The intention for this role is for use when we require a student to have access a course prior to its release date (usually prior to the official start of term).

Notable Permissions (vs Student)

This role can:

Can access future courses

This role can NOT:

Self Register for a Course

Role properties

 

Appear on Attendance Registers
Can have content statistics

Can be graded in Grades
Can have User Progress
Can be assessed in Discussions
Can appear in Discussion statistics
Can Access future courses
Groups: None

Test Student

An identical copy of the Student role, except Test Student can be impersonated, and can access future courses.

Notable Permissions (vs Student)

This role can:

Can access future courses

Role properties

Appear on Attendance Registers
Can have content statistics
Can be graded in Grades
Can self-enroll in Groups
Can Appear in Online Rooms
Can register for a course
Can have User Progress
Can be assessed in Discussions
Can appear in Discussion statistics
Can Access future courses
Can be auto-enrolled into groups

Observer

This role can NOT affect a course in any way. This is a read-only role that can be used to allow guests to view the released content in a course. This role has far fewer permissions than all of the other roles.

Notable Permissions (vs Student)

There are a significant number of differences between the Student and Observer roles.

Role properties

This role can NOT:

Self-Enroll in Groups