They can't - is the short answer, although they should be able to. I don't really understand the ins and outs of the permissions and capablities and the tracker entries that go with this - http://docs.moodle.org/en/Capabilities/enrol/cohort:config but I got it to work on the category level by making a new role "cohort enroller". A teacher with this role can enrol cohorts from their category only into their course. I would appreciate feedback as to whether it works -and if I have missed anything out or got anything wrong. It seemed to be something people often ask about. Documentation here: Cohort enroller
Hi,
the problem is that if you allow teachers to access all cohorts in course contexts somebody immediately files a security issue that teachers should be allowed to use only cohorts they are supposed to see.
I was thinking about this recently and maybe we could introduce another capability 'moodle/cohort:viewabove' which would be evaluated at the course context and would give access to all cohorts defined above the given course.
The current 'moodle/cohort:view' capability gives you capability to see cohorts at current and lower contexts - for example if you are given this capability via system level role assignment you can see cohorts in all categories, if you have it in one category you can see cohorts from that category and its subcategories.
I have already proposed elsewhere a new context level for cohorts which would allow us to give management/view rights for one specific cohort only.
Petr
the problem is that if you allow teachers to access all cohorts in course contexts somebody immediately files a security issue that teachers should be allowed to use only cohorts they are supposed to see.
I was thinking about this recently and maybe we could introduce another capability 'moodle/cohort:viewabove' which would be evaluated at the course context and would give access to all cohorts defined above the given course.
The current 'moodle/cohort:view' capability gives you capability to see cohorts at current and lower contexts - for example if you are given this capability via system level role assignment you can see cohorts in all categories, if you have it in one category you can see cohorts from that category and its subcategories.
I have already proposed elsewhere a new context level for cohorts which would allow us to give management/view rights for one specific cohort only.
Petr
the problem is that if you allow teachers to access all cohorts in course contexts somebody immediately files a security issue that teachers should be allowed to use only cohorts they are supposed to see.
Yes I understand that - but then surely teachers can enrol users from the whole system already if manual enrolment is allowed - so that makes a mockery of the security issue of only being allowed to use cohorts they are supposed to see?
Having said that, I like the idea of the new capability/context level.
I have to agree with Mary on this - editing teachers can already see the entire list of students so this isn't a valid security argument if we want the system to be usable. If they can add groups of students as cohorts not only does it make the process faster and simpler - it also reduces the risk of assigning the wrong students by mistake. And don't forget that those teachers are covered by their institutional policies on acceptable use and data protection.
When I first started testing with cohorts I was put off adding them at category level as it meant that as site admin I could no longer see the cohorts easily - and would have to visit about 12 separate category areas as our site is structured by school and year - completely unworkable for any central support - see http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-34189.
They can enrol anybody BUT they do not know who is in which cohort. For example you may have cohort for people with disabilities or cohort for users abused by other students - do you want everybody with default teacher permissions to see them? People requested this resticted functionality even before the cohorts were implemented. Also there are many requests to prevent access to list of all users when enrolling users manually. This could be implemented via cohort restriction in manual enrolment instance. You could also prevent manual enrolments and allow only cohort enrolments, that way teacher would not have access to all user accounts.
I'm not convinced of your logic here Petr, or the process.
"People requested this resticted functionality even before the cohorts were implemented" How many people? In the organisations I work with, the number of users who work with disability and abused students is small. Less than 1%. We had a Gay support group to organise at one stage, so I do understand. But to say we need to use cohorts . . and because of this, no teacher roles can? The decision has been made that this relatively small group's needs will reduce the basic functionality of ALL teacher roles in a Moodle site.
This shows how complex even relatively minor decisions can be.
-Derek
People are never going to be happy no matter how I implemented the cohorts support, the important point is that I proposed a solution that could address more different use cases. Is it going to solve it for you? Please stop wasting your time trying to persuading me that the way you want it to work is the only correct way for everybody.
The only thing that prevents me from implementing this new capability in 2.4 is that I do not have a good name for this new capability. Any better ideas than the proposed "viewabove"?
The only thing that prevents me from implementing this new capability in 2.4 is that I do not have a good name for this new capability. Any better ideas than the proposed "viewabove"?
Petr, cohort:viewabove suits me, and I think is the best option so far.
Alternatives: viewhigher, viewlevel(s)above, accessabove, accesslevelsabove, useabove
PS, random time waster following alert, "Above" is a (sort of) famous street artist http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Above_%28artist%29 who does some cool work.
Viewabove (unless anything brilliant springs to mind)
@derek -off topic -didn't know about Above - a rival to our own Banksy? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banksy
You can watch progress in http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-36014 , thanks everybody!
Hi
Are there any future plans to progress with this feature? We would like our teaching staff to enrol system cohorts with a selection of courses.
Cheers
How about grouping courses and allowing course groups to be enrollable via a cohort? For example, an entire year level of students in a cohort, is enrolled in the English, Maths, and Science subject grouping. This way a group of teachers can develop single courses for a cohort. Standardise everything then.
Hi,
Any chance of some progress on this feature please? Not being able to delegate teachers to be able to enrol system-level categories is really hurting us - and a large number of other institutions in the area.
Thanks!
Moby
Steve/Moby.
Have you seen the tracker item?
-Derek