Being a teacher in a few courses, in one of them the student role is modified not to allow editing certain activity. One has to remember in which course the standard role was modified or one has to ask the admin to inspect the role overwrites. This can be problematic if a new teacher takes over an existing course and is not aware of the overwrites.
I wonder therefore whether it would not be a good idea to append an asterisk to a role modified in a given context or one of its sub-context to give a visual feedback that this is not a default role. This would serve as a reminder and as a warning.
Hi Robert,
I'm not sure I like your solution, but you raise an interesting issue.
Default Teacher can't see Student permissions. If Admin allows Teacher to override Student, then a huge step occurs: (a) Teacher can see Student permissions and (b) Teacher can override Student permissions. It seems to me that default Teacher should have (a) but not (b). This would solve the problem better than an asterisk, which only says "something is different here."
I'm not sure I like your solution, but you raise an interesting issue.
Default Teacher can't see Student permissions. If Admin allows Teacher to override Student, then a huge step occurs: (a) Teacher can see Student permissions and (b) Teacher can override Student permissions. It seems to me that default Teacher should have (a) but not (b). This would solve the problem better than an asterisk, which only says "something is different here."
What I meant was more prosaic. Let me illlustrate through an example.
I have Moodle 1.8.x standard installation. When I come to a course as a teacher, I can assign participant roles through "Assign Roles" item in the Admin block at the course level and through the roles tab at the activity level. I can't change the overrides nor see them.
Let's say that student role has an override in handling the database activity in this course. All students are assigned student role.
When I go to the "Assign Roles" panel at the course level, I would like to see an asterisk after the student role name to indicate that this is not quite the same role as in another course. I don't expect Moodle to tell me what it is.
If I go to a standard forum and switch to roles tab in its config, I should see no asterisk since there are no overrides there. However, if I go to the roles tab in the database, or whatever activity which has overrides, I would like to see an asterisk as an indication, a reminder of something non-standard about that role in that context. I can ask administrator what that is, if I don't know.
If you think that allowing teachers to see the permissions is a better solution, it is fine with me. However, an indication about something non-standard is still warranted IMHO. Otherwise, the teacher might forget or don't know about it and never look at permissions.
A nice touch would be to have a footnote to match the asterisk, telling explicitly that this role has non-standard permissions in this context.
I have Moodle 1.8.x standard installation. When I come to a course as a teacher, I can assign participant roles through "Assign Roles" item in the Admin block at the course level and through the roles tab at the activity level. I can't change the overrides nor see them.
Let's say that student role has an override in handling the database activity in this course. All students are assigned student role.
When I go to the "Assign Roles" panel at the course level, I would like to see an asterisk after the student role name to indicate that this is not quite the same role as in another course. I don't expect Moodle to tell me what it is.
If I go to a standard forum and switch to roles tab in its config, I should see no asterisk since there are no overrides there. However, if I go to the roles tab in the database, or whatever activity which has overrides, I would like to see an asterisk as an indication, a reminder of something non-standard about that role in that context. I can ask administrator what that is, if I don't know.
If you think that allowing teachers to see the permissions is a better solution, it is fine with me. However, an indication about something non-standard is still warranted IMHO. Otherwise, the teacher might forget or don't know about it and never look at permissions.
A nice touch would be to have a footnote to match the asterisk, telling explicitly that this role has non-standard permissions in this context.
Robert,
The explanation in your initial post was perfectly clear. I know you were asking for something simple. The asterisk is a good idea, and probably fairly simple to implement. All I'm saying is it's only a partial solution. Permitting teachers to see permissions is the real solution. IMO you have a right to see the permissions even if you can't change them.
The explanation in your initial post was perfectly clear. I know you were asking for something simple. The asterisk is a good idea, and probably fairly simple to implement. All I'm saying is it's only a partial solution. Permitting teachers to see permissions is the real solution. IMO you have a right to see the permissions even if you can't change them.
I agree that permitting teachers to see permissions should be an option, well, another permission. I am not sure, though, that it should be on by default. It could overwhelm many people. The permision assignment pages are not for faint in heart.