I am testing 1.8, so we could upgrade to 1.6 in fall, and it is so disappointing for me to see that roles are making some tools so less user friendly. And those tools are most heavily used in courses.
Few things that strike me:
- Forums: lost forum settings for easy decision whether to allow discussions/replies and who is allowed to grade or view grades for the posts
- Databases: Decision who can post and grade is also moved to the roles tab.
- Glossary: missing drop-down to select if students can add entries. For some reason, Glossary still has the option to select who can rate entries right on the main settings page, so I do not have to dig into the roles (thank you!).
Why those particular settings had been made so complicated? They are not advanced features at all. In fact, they provide the core functionality for the tools, thus it should be possible for the user to set them right away.
One of the solutions that I see - is to put those features back under the Update tab which appeared in 1.8, and “connect” those that are relevant to the appropriate roles settings in the Role tab.
E.g. if the instructor selects “Only facilitator can rate posts” on the Update tab, then “Rate posts” capability for students should automatically switch to Prevent.
The same should be true in different direction: if instructor decides to dig deeper and set this via the Roles tab, then settings on the Update page should be updated automatically.
I am not sure if it is too complicated to implement, though. Is it?