[Course Settings] Allow Admin to Experience Course with a Student Role

[TamaraPiqueras]

Problem statement:

We can find users who are administrators of the platform at different levels and who are also students. When this happens, when the user accesses the course where they are a student and completes an activity, they do not have the option to complete the activity, only to edit it.

Roles are in conflict, and the role of administrator is sometimes stronger. This is a problem because administrator users cannot study on the platform and consequently in our institution.

Proposed solution:

All users should be able to study on the platform on equal terms with other users who do not manage the platform, so when a user has an account administrator role and is enrolled as a student in a course when the user accesses the course, the user should act as a student and not with administrator permissions.

While realising that the behaviour is understandable as the administrator has all the permissions, when a person joins a course as a student, this should be the permission that takes first priority.

User role(s):

admin,instructor,student,ta,designer,observer

[chriscas]

Hi @TamaraPiqueras,

I would say in the situation you describe, giving the user two distinct accounts may be a better solution. Give them one login/account for their admin self, and a different login/account for their student self. As an admin myself, I know I can be in courses as a student and do many things, but the dual role can cause issues and confusion, especially when 3rd party app integrations come into play.

With that suggestion said, as extra protection and for increased integrity, we generally don't allow people who are enrolled as students in courses be an admin for the account those courses are housed in. An admin being a student in something like an admin or faculty training course would be fine, but in a for-credit scenario, there are all kinds of ways things could go sideways if the student has admin access.

-Chris

[TamaraPiqueras]

Thanks in advanced,

We appreciate what you say but it is not viable for us to duplicate the users, as it is a university and the workers have the user to work already linked to the campus, therefore directly to the platform. Giving a second user would be very complicated to manage, for many reasons.

Anyway, thank you very much for your contribution, it can be helpful for other people.

🙂