Glossary of common terms

In Moodle, the term "context" may have a specific meaning.

A Moodle context is a place where permissions are assigned to a user (usually through a role).  In Moodle, contexts are layered in a hierachry.  Some examples: a site is the overall context; each course category is a context in the site; each course is a context in it's course category; each topic/section is a context and the resources and activities in a topic/section are contexts.   Blocks, filters and special pages are contexts that are at minimum part of the  site context.    Permissions are passed down automatically. For example, a user who has a teacher role in a course will be assigned that role when a Forum context is created.   Roles for individuals or groups can be changed in a context. This makes it possible for one user to be a teacher in one context and  a student in another. 

A permission is a part of a role which allows or denies a someone to use a feature or function of Moodle.  There are over 450 different permissions settings in any Moodle role.   Each permission has 1 of 4 states that can be assigned to it: "not set", "allow", "prevent", and "prohibit.  Editing or creating new roles on the site level can be complicated. In part because of the hierarchical nature of contexts.  In many contexts, roles or permissions can be overridden, and the permitted user will see a shortened list of permissions appropriate to the context.

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