Redesigning the override roles page
It is widely reported that people don't understand the override permissions page. Here is a mock-up of and alternative interface. The idea would be to have this as a basic version of the interface, with a 'Show advanced' button to take you to the current interface. Also, not that I am using the proposed new name 'Adjust permissions'. Remember that we now have 'Safe overrides' which means that teachers can change the permissions for some, but not all, capabilities.
What follows is a the mock-up of how this page could look, specifically what a teacher would see when overriding the Student role.
- / Manage participants \ / Adjust permissions \ / Check permissions \
Adjust permissions for role 'Student' in Course: Roles 101
By default, a 'Student' has permission to perform certain capabilities in this context, and does not have permission to do certain others. This page lets you change some of those defaults.
By default, a Student may
- [ Save changes ] [ Cancel ] [ Show advanced ]
Search [______] [ Clear ]
| Capability | Change permission | Risks |
|---|---|---|
| Reply to forum posts | [ ] Prevent | [Risk icons] |
| Start a discussion | [ ] Prevent | |
| Attempt a quiz | [ ] Prevent | |
| ... |
- [ Save changes ] [ Cancel ] [ Show advanced ]
and a Student may not
Search [______] [ Clear ]
| Capability | Change permission | Risks |
|---|---|---|
| Access all groups | [ ] Allow | |
| Delete forum posts | [ ] Allow | |
| Split discussions | [ ] Allow | |
| ... |
- [ Save changes ] [ Cancel ] [ Show advanced ]
Note that there are some other things that a Student cannot do here that you are not allowed to change: [Click to display...]
You should be aware that this page only lets you make simple adjustments to permissions and it relies on some assumptions to determine what a typical Student can and cannot do. If you have a more complicated configuration of roles and and role assignments, you many need to use the Check permissions tab above to see what a particular student can or cannot do, and you many need to switch this page to advanced mode.
- Adjust permissions for another role [ Choose ... |v]
- Back to the list of all roles
That is the end of the mock-up.
Further notes
In case it is not obvious: / Manage participants \ is a tab, [______] is a text box, [ Clear ] is a button, [ ] is a check-box.
The submit buttons actually submit the whole page, not just one section. They are repeated so there are always some near by to minimise scrolling.
Note, that as part of this change, I am proposing that people who only have permission to make 'Safe overrides' are allowed to set an override of Prevent for any capability.
In order to show what a Student can and cannot do, we will make the same assumption that the Switch role option makes to show Teaches what a typical Student will see. That is, that a typically student has the 'Authenticated user' role assigned in the system context, and the 'Student' role assigned in the course context.
The [Click to display...] link would by a JavaScript thing, not a page reload. With JavaScript off, the list of capabilities here would always be visible.
See also
- Roles administration improvements for Moodle 2.0
- MDL-8524 Meta bug tracking a lot of roles improvements.
- Roles and Capabilities forum
