Forum permissions
Please refer to these notes before editing this page.
Roles and capabilities in Moodle allows the possibility of specific students being given permission to moderate a forum.
Common overrides
Overrides give temporary (contextual) permissions in a forum. Here are some common ones.
No discussions, but replies are allowed
An override may be used to set up a forum in which only teachers are to be allowed to start new discussions.
- Access the Assign roles page via the Roles tab in editing forum page, then follow the "Override roles" link. (In Moodle 1.9 onwards, click the "Override permissions" tab in the editing forum page.)
- Select the Student role.
- Set the capability mod/forum:startdiscussion to prevent.
- Click the "Save changes" button.
Note: By default, only administrators are able to override permissions. Instructions on enabling teachers to override permissions can be found in Override permissions.
No discussions, no replies
An override may be used to close/archive a forum so that students may no longer start new discussions, nor add replies, but may still read all the discussions.
- Access the Assign roles page via the Roles tab in editing forum page, then follow the "Override roles" link. (In Moodle 1.9 onwards, click the "Override permissions" tab in the editing forum page.)
- Select the Student role.
- Set the capabilities mod/forum:startdiscussion and mod/forum:replypost to prevent.
- Click the "Save changes" button.
Note: By default, only administrators are able to override permissions. Instructions on enabling teachers to override permissions can be found in Override permissions.
Enabling students to rate posts
By default, only admins and teachers can rate posts. An override may be used to enable students to rate posts.
- In Moodle 1.9 onwards, click the "Override permissions" tab in the editing forum page. For early versions of Moodle access the Assign roles page via the Roles tab in editing forum page, then follow the "Override roles" link.
- Select the Student role.
- Set the capability Rate Posts (mod/forum:rate) to allow.
- Click the "Save changes" button.
Overview of Forum overrides
By default, only administrators are able to override permissions. Instructions on enabling teachers to override permissions can be found in Override permissions. We have show a screen shot for reference below.
Forum capabilities
Here are the specific field names that impact forum permissions.
- mod/forum:addnews
- mod/forum:createattachment
- mod/forum:deleteanypost
- mod/forum:deleteownpost
- mod/forum:editanypost
- mod/forum:managesubscriptions
- mod/forum:movediscussions
- mod/forum:rate
- mod/forum:replynews
- mod/forum:replypost
- mod/forum:splitdiscussions
- mod/forum:startdiscussion
- mod/forum:throttlingapplies
- mod/forum:viewanyrating
- mod/forum:viewdiscussion
- mod/forum:viewhiddentimedposts
- mod/forum:viewqandawithoutposting
- mod/forum:viewrating
- mod/forum:viewsubscribers
- mod/forum:initialsubscriptions
Guests and posting in a forum
There are certain things, such as posting in a forum, that guests are never allowed to do, despite the permissions interface suggesting otherwise.
The guest role has some special functionality, for example when a guest user attempts to post in a forum, they obtain the message "Sorry, guests are not allowed to post. Would you like to log in now with a full user account?"
If you wish guests to be able to post in a forum, you can create a similar role, say "visitor" with very few permissions allowed, then create an account and assign it the role of visitor. Guests can then share this visitor account.
See also
- Forum moderator role
- Peer Assessment using a Moodle Forum blog post with screencast
Using Moodle forum discussions: