Question permissions

Roles and capabilities in Moodle 1.7 onwards enable possibilities such as students being given permission to edit questions. The following capabilities are related to questions:

• moodle/question:config
• moodle/question:export
• moodle/question:import
• moodle/question:manage
• question:managecategory

Template:Moodle 1.9From Moodle 1.9 onwards :

• the following capabilities replace moodle/question:manage :
  • moodle/question:add
  • moodle/question:editall
  • moodle/question:editmine
  • moodle/question:moveall
  • moodle/question:movemine
  • moodle/question:useall
  • moodle/question:usemine
  • moodle/question:viewall
  • moodle/question:viewmine
• Also from Moodle 1.9 we got rid of capabilities :
  • moodle/question:export
  • moodle/question:import
• From Moodle 1.9 we test for capabilities :
  • moodle/question:add to see if a user has permission to import questions.
  • And we test for permission moodle/question:viewall or moodle/question:viewmine to see if a user has permission to export.

Question Contexts

Info in this section is included in several places, the original page itself is here.

Main page ► Managing a Moodle course ► Questions ► Question permissions

Questions

• Managing questions
• Calculated
• Simple Calculated
• Calculated Multichoice
• Description
• Essay
• Matching
• Embedded Answers (Cloze)
• Multiple Choice
• Short-Answer
• Numerical
• Random Short-Answer Matching
• True/False
• Questions FAQ

We can share questions in different contexts. Context may be an unfamiliar word. Think of a context as an area within your Moodle site. Each different context has a separate question category hierarchy. So, now you can choose the 'context' within which your questions will be shared. And also an administrator can give their users different permissions within different context areas.

See the diagram illustrating the relationship of the different contexts below. Different colours denote different context types (though there are two hues of green, both denote the same type). Notice how question contexts contain each other. Notice also that Course category contexts can be nested. In this example we have two contexts nested within each other 'Humanities' and 'Languages'. We could have a third course category 'English' and fourth and so on. Course categories can be nested infinitely and so you can set up a very flexible system of question contexts for sharing questions and assigning question sharing permissions.

As described at Question categories, questions are stored in a hierarchical structure similar to folders at the filesystem. You can imagine question context as a place where the tree of question categories is actually placed. By default, every teacher can create new questions in the course context (the blue one in the diagram) and the activity module context (the white one). We will discuss how to allow a teacher to create questions in higher contexts bellow.

Example diagram of question contexts: question categories can be stored in several nested areas

Question contexts are just as a subset of the Roles and Permissions contexts. A context contained by another context inherits the permissions of the containing context. You can access question categories in any containing context if you have permission to do so. Remember, you can access the question bank in two ways: from within an activity (now only the quiz activity), or from the link in the Course admin menu to 'Questions'. When you access the question bank from the :

• Activity. If you have permissions you can access question categories in :
  • that activity's context and containing contexts.
  • the course in which the activity module is contained.
  • the course categories in which the course that contains the activity module is contained.
  • the core system context.
• Course. If you have permissions you can access question categories in :
  • that course.
  • the course categories in which the course is contained.
  • the core system context.

So questions contexts are accessible as follows :

• Activity context : questions only available to one activity module.
• Course context : questions available to all activity modules in a course and within the course from the 'Questions' link in the course administration block.
• Course category contexts : questions available to all activity modules and courses in the course category (remember one course category can contain other course categories, you can share your questions in any parent course category).
• Core System context : questions available in all courses and activities on your site.

All Question capabilities are tested in the relevant context. So, for example, to add a question to a category you must have the add capability for that context. See roles and capability help for more info. If you don't have permission to do anything in a context, then the categories in that context will not be visible to you.

See also

• How to let teachers share questions between courses
• Question permissions explained with diagrams

*all or * mine

Template:Moodle 1.9Notice that apart from the add capability other capabilities to manage questions are *all or * mine.

• *all means all questions and if you have the *all capability *mine is not tested.
• *mine means that you have the capability for your questions but not for questions created by others.

If you have the view capability for a question you can view a question created by another and 'Save as New Question' that creates a new question that is one you created and which you can then do anything you have *mine capability to do with.

See also

• Question Engine Changes in Moodle 1.9
• Using Moodle capability for editing new questions and examining present capabilities for questions forum discussions