Parent Role

Template:Roles and capabilities The Parent Role is created and used as a way of bringing a student's parents into a closer and more constant reviewing position over the academic progress of their child.

:Note: In this page, the terms "Permissions" and "Capabilities" are used as interchangable terms. Please bear in mind that they are in fact a pair. A capability is an editable behaviour and a permission is the value given that capability.

Using a Custom Role

In the page Create Custom Roles, a generic Role was created and given the name of Parent. In this part, the Role is going to be linked to a Student Role, which is why the role was called "Parent". (By now there should be two additional Users in the User Accounts, say, "Perant Test" and "Stedunt Test".) Return to the Role list and see if the Role has been properly created, then click on it to start reviewing capabilities.

Returning to the Parent Role

Changing Capabilities

 TIP: Take a note of all changes made and keep a record. This role may need to be re-created from time to time.

Next the capabilities of this Role need to be determined. What is different in this Role that required the Role be created in the first place? As the Role has already had a Context selected for it, User, it is that area of the Capabilities that need existing permissions altered. Turn editing on and scroll down to the section named "User", look for the fields listed below and reset the values on these capabilities:

Viewing the structure of the Parent Role and turning editing on

 moodle/user:readuserblogs
 moodle/user:viewdetails
 moodle/user:readuserposts
 moodle/user:viewuseractivitiesreport
 moodle/user:editprofile

Some permissions may already be set to "Allow", or the permissions granted here may not be the ones required for that Role. This set of Permissions mean that this Role allows anyone assigned to a Parent Role, then linked to the Student Role, to edit the profile or read the blogs of that Student - not everyone's profile or blogs.

Assigning permissions to the Parent Role

Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on "Save changes"

Saving Changes to the Parent Role

When saved, Moodle automatically return to the List of all Roles page.

This changes the capabilities of the Parent Role in Moodle 2, but the Role now has to be directly linked to a Student Role to allow it to be used as it was designed to be.

Linking the Parent Role

To link one Role to another, in this case a Parent Role to a Student Role, open the Student's profile. Go to the Users in Users > Accounts > Browse list of users and open the records of the student who's Role is going to be linked.

Selecting the Student's Role

When there, the left column should display a block called "Settings" and the first line should read "Profile for [this student]". Under that it will read Edit profile and under that it should read "Roles". There should be a right arrow sign so when you click on"Roles" it should open with another menu structure that should have as a second option "Assign roles relative to this user".

File:CustomRole09.png

Setting an assignment to that Student's Role

Click that and it should take you to a page that is entitled as "Assign roles in User: [student name]" and under that it has the line "Please chose a role to assign"

Setting an assignment to that Student's Role

Below that is a table with a list of roles, and one of them should be "Parent". Click on that line and it should take you to the "Assign a Role" page. This should already be familiar so just select the parent you want to assign to that student and click the "Add" button.

At this point you can return to the "Assign roles in user:" page and you should see that the parent name is now in the "Users with Role" column.

Setting an assignment to that Student's Role

Make sure everything is saved where it needs to be and then return to the Front Page.

Adding the Mentee Block

When at the Front Page, turn editing on.

Turn editing on to access the Add Blocks block.

Got to the Add Blocks block and select the Mentee block and when it appears, click on the Configuration icon.

Configuring the Mentee block

Edit the configuration settings to suit the needs of the site. When complete, save the changes and return to the Front Page.

Setting the configuration values

NOTE:Consider carefully what options really need be set. There may be a requirement to have more than one Mentee block, so giving each block an unambiguous title becomes important.

Once saved the block should be titled Parent and if you have made the assignments properly, it will work.

Testing the Role

At this point you need to test the efficacy of what you have done - so log out and then log back in as Perant Test. You should then be able to navigate to the student's profile via the Parent's block.

File:CustomRole15a.png

Setting the configuration values

You may get the error message that reads "You do not have access to this User profile". If so, then check the permissions, you may have a conflict somewhere else and have to reset a few to fine tune access.

See Also

• Parent role Video from Moodle Fairy
• Create Custom Roles
• Development:Role archetypes for more information about the development of roles
• Front Page Roles, Capabilities/Permissions