Observer role

The Observer role can be given to someone such as an external inspector, auditor or moderator who needs access to all courses and grades but without the ability to alter any content. The following steps were provided by Moodler Howard Miller and should be checked for suitability for your own organisation. Note that an alternative possiblity is to duplicate the Manager role and remove all capabilities you don't want to allow.)

Creating the new role

1. Go to Site administration > Users > Permissions > Define roles.
2. Click the "Add a new role" button.
3. If desired, from the Use role preset section, upload the Observer role preset available from the Moodle Forum Is there an easy way to add an administrator with no power?
4. Alternatively,select Teacher (non-editing) as the Role archetype, click Continue and give the role a short and long name e.g. 'Observer' or 'Inspector'. Optionally, add a description and then tick the 'System', 'Category' and 'Course' context.

5. Depending on your organisational needs, set the following capabilities to Allow:

• moodle/tag:manage
• moodle/category:viewhiddencategories
• enrol/manual:unenrolself
• mod/lti:requesttooladd
• moodle/course:view
• moodle/course:viewhiddensections
• mod/assign:reviewgrades
• mod/bigbluebuttonbn:managerecordings
• moodle/site:accessallgroups

Depending on your organisational needs, set the following capabilities to Prevent:

• mod/feedback:receivemail
• mod/forum:managesubscriptions

6. Review any other capabilities you might need to Allow or Prevent for your particular organisational needs.

7. Create the role.