In Moodle, the most typical course roles to which we assign users are the Faculty and Student roles, and their meanings are obvious. The “Faculty” member has full control over the course, which often involves adding content, grading activities, etc. The “Student” can view all course content and can participate in activities (contribute to forums, upload assignments, take quizzes, etc.). We have also defined a series of additional roles that faculty members can assign to colleagues and/or to students, based on the rights and abilities desired for those added users:
- Teaching Assistant: A Teaching Assistant has the ability to add activities or resources to a Moodle course. S/he can access the Gradebook to grade student work and can also provide feedback on individual activities.
- Course Grader: The Course Grade can grade activities and can also enter grades into the Gradebook. S/he cannot add activities or resources to a Moodle course.
- Activity Grader: An Activity Grader can grade student work via the activity interface but cannot enter grades directly into the Gradebook spreadsheet interface. Like the Course Grader, the Activity Grader cannot add activities or content to the course.
- Embedded Technologist and Librarian: These are two separate roles, but they have the same rights within a course. The Embedded Technologist and the Librarian can add resources and activities to a Moodle course, but they cannot grade students in the course.
- Course Builder: A Course Builder has similar rights to an Embedded Technologist and a Librarian. S/he can add activities and resources to a course but cannot grade students. Generally, the Course Builder role makes most sense for students who are participating in a course or organization under some kind of supervisory or assistant status, but who should not have access to student grades.
Please contact ITEC if you have any questions about these roles or about how to assign others to those roles in your Moodle course.