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Sakai Help Document
Permissions
and Roles
Includes
Description
Roles
Changing a user's role
Changing permissions for a particular tool
Description
When you create a
course or project website, you choose which tools or functions (e.g.,
discussion, schedule, resources, etc.) you want the site to have. For
each of these functions, you can set permissions that allow or prevent
users from seeing or performing certain tasks depending on a user's
"role" The roles are described below.
In Sakai, the various roles are given
default permissions. You can add or remove permissions as needed using
the permissions page in each of the various tools. For example,
if a
participant is not allowed to read announcements, you can add that
permission so he or she can.
For folders in the Resources area, default permissions cannot be
removed. For example if you have permissions for the Resources
tool set so that students can make new files, that same permission will
apply to all subfolders and cannot be changed for the subfolders.
"Permissions" is not a button in the
menubar
-- it is accessed via a button that appears when you open a tool in a
project or course site.
To view the default settings for each
tool, click on the Permissions button from the top menu bar in the
tool's first page.
Roles
Here are the roles that are
available in Sakai:
- Affiliate
--
This role is for an administrative or support person who may access the
site to help with configuring it or setting it up or loading resources.
- Assistant --
Assistants have permissions much like Instructors, but they cannot
delete assignments, discussions, archived emails, or create a site
email alias. Assistants can modify the site and see the site when it is
unpublished. A GSI might be given the Assistant role.
- Candidate -- This
role is used in a special version of Sakai called Grad Tools, which
keeps track of progress on dissertations. A doctoral candidate gets
this role in his or her Grad Tools site.
- Instructor --
The
instructor role is for those other than the site owner who might help
conduct the class or project. The Instructor role can create, delete,
and read anything in the site. Instructors have the same permissions as
the Maintain role (see below) except they cannot delete the site.
- Member -- This
is a user who has more privileges than a student typically does. For
example, a member might be able to upload a resource, while a student
may not be able to. This is a role used to provide peer-to-peer
membership in a project site. Members can create resources,
announcements, schedule events, discussion categories and topics, and
they can email the site. Members cannot modify the site, and they do
not see unpublished sites.
- Observer --
This is a role for a participant who should not be adding content or
participating actively in the site, but who needs access to materials
in the site. An observer can only see the site, but cannot make any
changes, additions, or posts. An Observer does not see the unpublished
site.
- Student -- Students
are autmoatically granted student permissions in course sites when they
register for a course. The student role allows posting of discussion
replies and chat messages, and managing or uploading files in a
student's dropbox.
Elsewhere in the site, a student can read content but they cannot
create Resources, Discussion Categories, Announcements, or Schedule
items.
- access -- This role is similar to the student role. It is
included for legacy reasons.
- maintain --This
role has full permissions throughout the site. The maintain role is
automatically given to the site creator. A user with the maintain role
can delete the site. Otherwise, this role has the same permissions the
Instructor role.
Changing a user's role
Changing permissions for a
particular tool
Note that at this
time it is not possible to set permissions for one particular item that
was created using a tool. For example, you cannot set permissions for
each announcement individually, but you can for all announcements by
setting permissions for the Announcement Tool.
In Resources, you can set permissions for
all
resources, and you can also set permissions for folders of resources.
See Resources, for more information about this.
As mentioned above, the various roles are
given default permissions. You can add permissions to the default
permissions, but you cannot remove any default permissions. For
example, if a participant is not allowed to read announcements, you can
add that permission so he or she can. However, if a participant's
default permissions say that he or she can read
announcements, you cannot turn off this permission.
1...You must first have created the course or project
site.
2...Open the site by clicking its tab.
3...Click on the tool in the menubar for which you
want to set permissions.
4...Click the Permissions... button along the top of the main window.
Important Note: You must completely close
out
of the permissions feature before you can set permissions in another
tool. You can close out of the permissions feature by clicking Save or Cancel.
5...Check or
uncheck the boxes depending on how you
would like to grant the permissions.
Note that if
you are not
using the Dissertation Tool, you will not have any users in the
Candidate Role.