CU Boulder Roles and Permissions

Correct Answers to Survey Questions

Summary of Roles and Permissions at CU Boulder, UCCS, and CU Denver

Top-Level IT Personnel
This role includes those in administrative positions within the IT department. Those in this position have access to all features and all information on the system, including student submissions, comments, and grades. Additionally, IT administrators are able to view which course materials students have downloaded, whether or not they are currently online, and how many times they have logged into the system in a given amount of time. Being the sole overseers of campus IT departments, these personnel are required to strictly adhere to FERPA, as well as their own guidelines in dealing with sensitive information. When authorizing people (such as lower-level IT/technicians) to troubleshoot any issues with the LMS, it is the job of these higher-ranked administrators to determine who needs to see the information, as well as how to give them as little access as possible, while still ensuring that they are able to do their job. Administrators keep tabs on all of the individuals who have permission to access certain features in canvas. Access is cut off as soon as a job is completed.

IT Software Developer
IT software developers are in charge of coding and programming Canvas systems in order to troubleshoot any errors, as well as keep the system up to date. They are able to view some information on Canvas regarding students and courses, such as rosters and calendars, but unless given access by an administrator, are unable to view sensitive information, such as submissions, grades, comments, discussions, etc. They are not able to track user activity in seeing which materials have been accessed/downloaded, nor are they able to see a user’s login history.

IT Help-Desk Personnel
This role includes IT technicians and helpdesk servicepeople. Help desk personnel have extremely limited access to Canvas/LMS features, and are given the bare-minimum level of access in order to carry out their duties. They are provided access to certain features of Canvas if an issue needs troubleshooting, but are never given access to sensitive information such as student submissions and grades. Any issues dealing with those features are given to top-level IT administrators.. Their access to any of the information on Canvas also requires departmental consent, along with adherence to both the provisions set in FERPA, as well as IT security policy.

Instructor
Instructors have high levels of access to Canvas. They are able to design courses, modify them, and upload materials, as well as add other users to the course. They are also able to view all course material of enrolled students, grade assignments, offer feedback, and administer final grades for the class. Additionally, instructors have access to some very basic activity tracking services offered by Canvas, including the number of times a student has submitted an assignment, the timestamp for which that assignment was posted, the amount of time a student spends on a quiz, as well as which course materials students have accessed.

Course Designer
The Course Designer role came to CU Boulder pre-shipped with the Canvas package, and is not used extensively at the university. It is similar to the instructor role in that it allows the user to modify course content. However, the designer role is much more limited, as a user acting as a designer would not be able to create/publish courses, view/grade any student content, or interact with students in any way, aside from being able to look at the roster and course calendar.

TA
Regular TAs have access to all course-management tools. They share all of the same characteristics as instructors except that they are not able to add or change student enrollments, publish or unpublish a course, or do moderated grading.

Grading TA/Grader
Graders can see student submissions to Canvas, as well as administer grades. Essentially, they have the same permissions as regular TAs, aside from that they are not able to modify course content.

No-Grade Access TA
These TAs have access to all course-management tools, with the exception of grading. This role shares all of the characteristics of the teaching role, aside from that those acting as no-grade access TAs cannot add or change enrollments, cannot publish or unpublish a course, and cannot view or grade student submissions.

Student
Students are able to access and participate in courses that they are enrolled in. They have access to all of their basic course information on Canvas.

Auditor
Auditors are able to access and participate in a course, just like students. Their role/permissions are essentially interchangeable, aside from the fact that auditors do not take courses for credit.

Observer
Observers are allowed to view course content, but cannot participate in a course, or see student grades, unless they have been specially linked to a student in order to see their work or their grades. CU Boulder does not use this role, as it was more specifically designed for K-12 institutions, and parents who might want to oversee the schoolwork of their children.