Roles

Overview

The Blackboard Learning System uses roles to assign privileges to content and tools. There are three types of roles that can be applied to each user:

· Portal Role

· Course Role

· Administrative User Role

Portal Roles

This role determines access to portal content. Different common areas and modules can be set to appear to specific roles to create a completely different portal environment for each of the different roles. For example, users with a Portal Role of Alumni could be given access to a common area with content dedicated to graduates. Users with a role of Student would not be able to see this tab or access the common area (until they graduated and their Portal Role was changed).

The following is a listing of Portal Roles:

· Student

· Faculty

· Staff

· Alumni

· Prospective Student

· Guest

· Other

· Observer

· Role 9, Role 10, . . ., Role 20

Roles 9 through 20 can be used by the Administrator to group users in unique ways. Because the Portal Role is not displayed to users when they access the portal, the name of the role is unimportant to users. It is only important that the Administrator keep track of the role definitions and which users should be assigned to which role.

Administrative User Roles

Administrative User Roles determine user access to the tools available on the System Control Panel. Administrative User roles should be strictly managed for security reasons.

The following table is a list of Administrative User Roles and the level of access each role has to the System Control Panel by default.

Administrative User Role	Default Permissions
Account Administrator	Access to all the features listed under Users on the System Control Panel. Can also use Batch Enroll Users feature.
Course Creator	List Courses (but cannot modify) Create Course Batch Create Courses Batch Enroll Users Remove Course Copy Course Import Course Export Course Archive Course Restore Course Course Role Rename
Course Support	List and modify Course Properties.
None	No access to the System Control Panel.
Observer	No access to the System Control Panel. This must be the Administrative User Role for any user assigned to observer another.
System Admin	Full access to System Control Panel.
System Support	Cannot modify Courses. Cannot modify user accounts with an Administrative User Role of System Admin. No access to the Manage Context Encryption Key feature.
Guest	This Administrative User Role has no access to the System Control Panel. This role is used to require those who view the system as a Guest to first login with a valid User Name and password.

Note: The System Administrator may change the privileges assigned to each Administrative User Role.

Course Roles

This role controls access to the content and tools within a course. Each user is assigned a role for each Course (or Organization) in which they participate. For example, a User with a role of Teaching Assistant in one Course can have a role of Student in another Course.

The Course Role is set when a User is enrolled. It can also be modified after enrollment from the Course Control Panel of the Course. The following is a table of Course Roles and associated privileges.

Course Role	Default Privileges
Course Builder	User is able to add content to the course through the Content Areas and the Course Tools on the Course Control Panel.
Grader	User is able to access all areas under Assessments.
Guest	Users are able to view areas of the course, but cannot participate in any way.
Instructor	User is able to control all aspects of the course through the Course Control Panel.
Student	User is able to access all available Course content and will be graded on Assessments.
Teacher’s Assistant	User is able to control most aspects of the course through the Course Control Panel.

Note: The System Administrator may modify the privileges and name associated with each Course Role.