Roles & Permissions

Roles represent a predetermined set of permissions assigned at the domain and course levels. Staff require a domain role for their rights within the domain, and to have access to the Admin or Teacher apps. Domain roles are never assigned to students nor observers. Users enrolled in a course must have a course role to give permissions within the scope of that course enrollment. All roles created in a domain are automatically inherited by subdomains. 

Observers do not have a role or enrollment directly in a domain; rather, they are associated with the users they observe.  

There are standard roles that Pearson provides. The permissions for these roles are defined at the domain root and cannot be edited.  

Domain Level Role Descriptions: 

• Customer Administrator: A domain role that gives a user the most available permissions within all levels (Domains, Users, Courses, Enrollments, and Objectives). 
• Domain Registrars work with users and enrollments, have access to the Admin app, but do not have all the permissions associated with an Administrator role. 
• Domain Teacher-Authors have course edit and create capabilities. They can customize courses, assign specific due dates, create groups, change passing thresholds, and assign personalized learning. 
• Domain Teachers do not have course create or edit rights, as they work with student enrollment and Gradebook-related tasks.  

Course Level Role Descriptions: 

• Course Teacher-Authors have course edit and create capabilities. They can customize courses, assign specific due dates, create groups, change passing thresholds and assign personalized learning. 
• Teachers do not have course create or edit rights, as they work with student enrollment and Gradebook-related tasks.  
• Personalized Learning Teacher is only assigned at the course level. Hybrid role of Teacher and Teacher-Author.  Users with this role have no access to the course editor but they have full access to Clipboard tools to add activities.  They can also add/edit Course Landing Page information. 
• Students can read course content and participate in course activities. 

Granting domain and course permissions 

You can assign roles and permissions in various places. 

• Domain Roles – Domain roles are attached to the user and apply throughout the domain, regardless of the user's specific enrollments. It is recommended to keep the domain role and enrollment role alike to ensure a consistent user experience. 

1. From the admin app, select the Users menu.
2. Select the user’s ID to enter the User Profile.
3. Select the Domain Permissions.
4. Select the New plus icon to add the domain role. 
5. From the permissions view, select the Role dropdown list, then select the right domain role for this user.  Note: only the roles with the domain type will be in the list.

• Course Roles- Apply only to that enrollment in the specified course. 

1. From the admin app, select the Users menu. 
2. Select the user’s ID to enter the User Profile.
3. Select the Enrollment.
4. Select  the New plus icon to add an enrollment. 

5. From the New Enrollment window, select one or more courses, then select the Role dropdown list to select the appropriate role for the user. 

Creating New Roles 

The available permissions fall under five different categories. These categories represent the component for which the permission grants privilege. The five categories are: 

• Domains 
• Users 
• Courses 
• Enrollments 
• Objectives 

Creating additional roles requires granting a combination of these permissions; you can edit these permissions sets after creation, but be aware that doing so changes permissions for all users assigned that role. 

To create a new role in the admin app: 

1. As an administrator, select Roles tab from the domain menu. 
2. Select the New plus symbol icon. 

3. In the New role window, create a unique name for the role. 
4. Define if the role will be at the domain or course level. 
5. Add the permissions desired at each level. See the chart below for the rights each setting allows the end user to do. If a user will be enrolled in a course and is staff, it is recommended to create a domain and course role if their permissions at each level are outside the default roles.