Moodle Roles
A role is a collection of permissions for a specific user in a specific context. The combination of roles and context define a specific user’s ability to do something on any page. The most common examples are the roles of student and teacher in the context of a course. What you can and cannot do is determined by your role. Specific examples of roles coming into play are explained below.
Why do Moodle roles matter?
Editing Privileges
These privileges are based on assigned roles and can impact someone’s ability to view or edit specific parts of Moodle. For example:
- The ability to add or change activities
- View, change, or update the gradebook
- View, change, or update student grades
- Delete content on the Moodle page
With the teacher role, you would be able to edit the course and assign any roles to participants with the exception of the student role.
Students are able to submit and interact with content, but do not have the ability to edit the course or change course materials.
Visibility of Courses and Items
When a course is set to hide, only teachers and admins can view the course. Any user with the role of student cannot see a hidden course.
Changing the visibility of the course requires a few simple steps. Each item and file within a course has individual visibility settings under its common module settings. Activities or resources that are hidden are visible only to teachers or admins, but not students.
For more questions, see the article on Course Visibility.
Community Teachers
In the case that a non-course related page is created - such as pages for training, department policies, information, or event purposes - we can assign users as community teachers. Community teachers only apply to Moodle pages that are not connected to SIS or the Registrar. They also have the permissions to add participants as users to the course.
The community teacher role is only available for Moodle community pages. This can't be used for a course in SIS.
If you would like to request a page and be assigned as a Community Teacher, submit a request to the Moodle team.
Moodle Roles - what do they do?
This Moodle Role matrix offers a breakdown of roles that can be assigned. If there are questions about access and permissions, reach out to the Moodle team and we can assist.
Moodle Roles Matrix
I need a non-St. Olaf user to have access to my page
As of Spring 2020, we are no longer allowed to give non-St. Olaf users access to Moodle pages. In order to have access, all users must be either staff, faculty, or a student.
Carleton students are allowed to have access to Moodle as they must register for the course.