Roles and Rights
Introduction
With the switch from Blackboard to Brightspace, there has been chosen to makes use of the existing standard roles in Brightspace as much as possible. The goal is to translate existing Blackboard roles efficiently and clearly to Brightspace-roles, with minimal edits and a clear structure.
In this document the different roles are described with their corresponding rights and limits, as they are used within the UU.
Overview Roles
1. Course roles
- Instructor
- Instructor Sandbox
- Instructor Guest
- Impersonate – Instructor
- Teaching Assistant
- Learner
- Learner Guest
- Impersonate – Learner
- Educational support
- Brightspace Support
- Course Builder
- Observer
2. Faculty roles
- Faculty Instructor
- Brightspace Support Faculty
3. Administrator roles
- Super Administrator
- Faculty Administrator
1. Course roles
1.1 Instructor
The standard Brightspace-role Instructor Default is the basic role that is used by professors and teachers at Utrecht University (UU).
Standard rights:
– Creating and editing course content
– See, edit, and assign grades
Extra added rights (specifically for the UU):
– Add and remove users from the course
– Edit user roles in a course
1.2 Instructor Sandbox
This role is a copy of the Brightspace Instructor Default-role. The role is specifically used within sandbox courses and has the extra function to add the Instructor Sandbox role.
Specific limits compared to the Instructor role:
– Can’t add/remove users, except Instructor Sandbox
– Can’t edit user roles
1.3 Instructor Guest
This role is a copy of the UU Instructor role and possesses the same rights. Professors/teachers can add colleagues to their courses as Instructor Guest. In the Classlist it remains visible which Instructors have been added via Osiris (Instructor) and which have been added by the professor/teachers themselves (Instructor Guest).
1.4 Impersonate Instructor
This role is a copy of the UU Instructor-role and is meant for faculty key-users. With this role, they can impersonate specially structured testing accounts per faculty for testing and supporting purposes.
1.5 Teaching Assistant (Student-assistent)
This role is also a copy of the standard Instructor-role, but without added rights for user management.
Specific limits:
– Can’t add or remove users
– Can’t edit user roles
1.6 Learner (Student)
This is the standard Brightspace role for students, directly linked to Osiris (or via the LSE). This role has not been edited in comparison with the standard Brightspace role.
1.7 Learner Guest
This role is a copy of the UU Learner-role and has the same rights. Professors/teachers can use this role to add students to their course as Learner Guest. It remains visible in the Classlist which users have been manually added by the professor/teacher (Learner Guest) and which users have been added via Osiris (Learner).
Specific limits:
– TBD
1.8 Impersonate Learner
This role is a copy of the UU Learner-role and is meant for faculty key-users. With this role they can access specially structured testing accounts per faculty for testing and support purposes.
1.9 Educational Support
The standard Brightspace role Instructor Default forms the basis for this role. This is a role that is given to supporting members of staff in the faculties that help structure courses. In Blackboard this role was given the name Education Office.
Specific rights and limits:
– Can see Grades but not edit them.
– Can temporarily add Learners to course (pilot phase)
When the definitive Osiris-integration is active, the right to user management expires.
1.10 Brightspace Support
This is a copy of the role Teaching Assistant. This role is given to supporters within the project from the CAT, who help instructors with managing their course.
1.11 Observer
This is a copy of the Read-only Brightspace role. This role is able to be used by the examination board.
1.12 Course Builder
This is a copy of the role Teaching assistant. This role has a couple of restrictions compared to the TA:
- Can’t see the Classlist, can’t manage users.
- Can’t see or edit Groups
- Can’t see or edit Grades
- Can’t see or edit Assignments
2. Facultaire rollen
Brightspace makes a distinction between roles based on Cascading and Non-Cascading rights, this differs from Blackboard.
Cascading roles: rights automatically given to underlying levels
2.1 Faculty Instructor (Facultaire keyusers)
This is a copy of the UU Instructor-role that has been made cascading, this way key-users get admin rights within their complete faculty. This role is used to give faculty key-users the option to manage all courses and users within their faculty.
The Faculty Instructor-role replaces the following Blackboard-roles:
Domain Instructor – reading and writing rights within the complete faculty
Mini Admin – restricted version of the Domain Instructor, specifically meant for the CAT
Domain Observer – read-only rights within the complete faculty
2.2 Brightspace Support Faculty
This role is a copy of the Brightspace Support role and has been made cascading, so that access is possible to all courses within a faculty.
The role is used to give broad course access to supporting staff of the migration team within a faculty. They support the organisation and structuring of coursecontant and can migrate courses from Blackboard to Brightspace.
3. Administrator Roles
3.1 Super Administrator
The Super Administrator-role has complete admin rights in Brightspace. This includes the reading, editing, and removing all content, managing users and courses, and access to all administrative functions and system settings.
3.2 Faculty Administrator
This role is a non-cascading copy of the Faculty Instructor-role and is used to give access to the Users Tool within the Admin Panel. Other functionalities within the Admin Panel are not accessible with this role. This is the default role for Faculty key-users on the UT Org Unit and the Faculty Instructor on their own faculty.
Specific functionality: Access to the User Management Tool for faculty key-users.
Role matrix
| Role | Managing course content | Managing Grades | Managing Users | Cascading |
| Instructor | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ❌ |
| Instructor Sandbox | ✔️ | ✔️ | ❌(restricted) | ❌ |
| Instructor Guest | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ❌ |
| Impersonate Instructor | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ❌ |
| Teaching Assistant | ✔️ | ✔️ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Learner | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Learner Guest | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Impersonate Learner | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Onderwijsondersteuner | ✔️ | Read-only | ✔️ (temporary) | ❌ |
| Brightspace Support | ✔️ | ✔️ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Course Builder | ✔️ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Faculty Instructor | ✔️ (faculty) | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Brightspace Support Faculty | ✔️ | ✔️ | ❌ | ✔️ |
| Super Administrator | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Faculty Administrator | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ❌ |
| Brightspace Support Faculty | ✔️ | ✔️ | ❌ | ✔️ |