I think maybe I'm reading more into how things work than I should be. I saw the role definition as something similar to groups. Where you place a user under a certain definition and this in turn creates some form of access control. From what you've said it's kind of what I'm looking for, but not quite in the way that I've been seeing it.
A perfect scenario would be:
1. 10 new users log on to the system.
2. As administrator I set up a "parent" role, allowing access to grades and forums.
3. I assign the role of parent to each new user.
4. The newly defined parents can now view their child's grades
5. Parents can also reply to forum posts by the school, but NOT students.
Number 5 is a big stumbling block for me at the moment. I'm not sure if I should be assigning Parent role to the course that contains the forums, in some attempt to restrict access to Parents only; or if I should be simply setting an enrolment key or group definition instead.
I'm trying to cut down on administration work and was hoping that the roles option would be just what I was looking for.
Thanks for everyone's patience, as I realise that people who get the roles thing are probably totally happy with it all and must see me as some kind of fool for not understanding it
(Edited by Helen Foster - discussion split from Down to earth explanation of Roles - original submission Monday, 30 April 2007, 02:25 PM)