User Roles and Access rights in Moodle

All active staff and students can access UNSW Moodle using their zID and zPass. Which courses they see once they login depends on what user roles they have been given via systems such as MyUNSW.

Award Course(s): Staff/student access is setup through the Learning Management tab in MyUNSW, and is typically managed by faculty/school TELT Administrators. Changes made in MyUNSW flow to Moodle overnight (24-48 hrs wait time to be expected).

NCAR Courses like eLISE: User access is setup by the Academic Admin department within MyUNSW, and flow to Moodle overnight (24-48 hrs wait time to be expected).

SCAR Courses like OH&S: User access is setup by the UNSW HR department within PIMS, and flow to Moodle overnight (24-48 hrs wait time to be expected).

Sandpit Courses: The staff member creating the sandpit course either assigns roles at creation, or organises the creation of a self-enrolment key for ongoing access.

For more information on any of these, please our Moodle Course Types page.

The TELT Administrator role is a powerful role which faculty/school staff are provided with to help manage the course life-cycle and/or provide staff support.

The TELT Administrator role functionality is quite extensive, which in Moodle consists of an equivalent or higher level of access an Instructor has at the course level, plus category (eg. faculty/school) level access that allows them to work across courses. TELT Administrators also work heavily in MyUNSW within the Learning Management tab, where they create courses and assign staff enrolments.

More information about course administration can be found in Moodle Course Administration page.

TELT Administrators can see courses in their faculty/ school even though they are not enrolled in those courses. They can see and access activities and resources, even though they are hidden from students. They can also use functions such as "Switch role" and "Login as".

Staff can request access to the TELT Administrator role via the UNSW TELT Administrator Role Request Form. Users with TELT Administrator access can access the TELT Administration Guide page for support.

Switch Role View

TELT Administrators can view courses within their category as a generic student/instructor would see them by using the 'switch role' functionality. This is particularly useful when helping Instructors to build a course to ensure it comes out as desired. Switch role is a very useful tool, but is not always a perfect representation of what students will see. Individual students may see something different due to their personal circumstances, and some tools (typically external tools) may not work well with switch role.

Click 'Get Started' to view the step-by-step guide.

Log In As View

TELT Administrators can view their own courses as a specific student/instructor would see it by using the 'log-in-as' functionality. This is particularly useful when helping a student or instructor with a query. Due to a security vulnerability identified in April 2019, the Log-In-As view is no longer as reliable as it once was. For additional information, please visit our Log-in-as Reliability page.

Click 'Get Started' to view the step-by-step guide.

Assign the Question Sharer role

TELT Administrators can assign the Question Sharer role to users. This role allows users to share questions on category level. Once they have Question Sharer role, staff members can access different categories when they go to the Question bank and click on Select a category dropdown.

Click 'Get Started' to view the step-by-step guide.

The instructor role is the primary role for building course and delivering activities for learning and teaching at UNSW. Instructors have access to most features and functions in a course, allowing them to perform design, development, teaching and maintenance tasks, including course backup and rollover. Instructors can also use "Switch role" and "Log In As" functionalities.

The instructor role is not permitted to:

• Create courses
• Enrol users (e.g. staff/students/guests) in a course. If they are academic staff they can, however, add staff to a course in myUNSW. Follow these instructions.
  • For permission (in both myUNSW and Moodle) apply to Academic Administration. Your Head of School or Associate Dean, Education, will have to sign off on your application.
• Change imported course data that comes from the Student/People Information Management Systems (SIMS/PIMS)
• Restore a copy of a course with all the staff/student enrolments.

The Teaching Assistant and Tutor roles are given to staff who assist Instructors with delivering a course, but do not need the full permissions to a course that Instructor(s) need. The roles are roughly intended for these purposes:

• Teaching Assistant - A high powered role, which shares most permissions of the Instructor and can grade students at the gradebook level.
• Grading Tutor - A role provided to staff who assist student learning and who grade students at the activity level.
• Non-Grading Tutor - A role provided to staff who assist student learning but does not grade students.

Teaching Assistant

Teaching Assistants have similar privileges to Instructors, but they cannot:

• control course availability
• perform course rollover tasks

They have full access to all functions within the course files area, including deletion of files. They also have access to the Moodle Gradebook.

Grading Tutor

Grading Tutors have permissions within Moodle as follows:

• No Turn editing on button displays to them, so they may not edit resources, activities etc.
• In the Gradebook, they can use the Separate Groups filter to view the grades for the entire class or for individual groups. That is, they are not restricted to viewing only the student records in the group they have been added to themselves, but can see all student records in all groups.
• They can access to all student submissions, not just those of their own group. They can filter the view by selecting a group from the Separate Groups drop-down list and see submissions by all students in that group.
• They can grade assignments for all groups. However, if you set up students in groups and make the assignments group assignments,  Grading Tutors can filter the list of submissions by their group and grade only the assignment submissions for their group.
• They cannot edit the Gradebook. Grading Tutors can only grade assignments using the View/grade all submissions link on the assignment grading page - they cannot perform any grade administration.
• They cannot log in as any another user.
• Can see the full list of students and staff in the Participants list.

Non-Grading Tutor

Non-Grading Tutors can access all content and use most tools in the same way as students.

However, they cannot edit course content and they have no grading capabilities. Non-Grading Tutors cannot see courses on Dashboard if they are hidden, nor access such courses.

Summary Table of Teaching Assistant and Tutor permissions

To grade an assignment, a Grading Tutor clicks the assignment's heading link in the Gradebook, or accesses the assignment’s Grading summary page using the assignment link on the course home page. 

Click 'Get Started' to view the step-by-step guide.

A Non-Grading Tutor can only access the assignment’s grades by going to the assignment page and clicking View all submissions. They cannot access Grades tab.

A Grading Tutor can override quiz grades in exactly the same way as Instructor or Teaching Assistant can - the only difference is that, because a Grading Tutor cannot edit the Gradebook, they cannot change the quiz grade just by changing the total in the gradebook. To re-grade a quiz, an Instructor, a Teaching Assistant or a Grading Tutor must click the quiz link from inside the Grader report. A Non-Grading tutor cannot view the Grader report, so they cannot re-grade a quiz.

Student role

Students have access to all the features and functions they need to complete their learning activities in a course. They will not see the course if the course is hidden by the instructor, also if they are not enrolled in that course. Students also cannot see activities in the course that are hidden from them, or restricted to different groups that they do not belong to. Students can only see their own grades, and only those that are not hidden by the instructor. Students can see the Participants list of the courses they are enrolled in. All student enrolment is done through MyUNSW.

Auditor role

An Auditor has access to Moodle content and most tools, but can only do so in read-only mode. Auditor typically does not gain access to plugin services, like UNSW Lecture Recordings⁺, Turnitin or theBox, they also cannot see assignment activities, nor access gradebook. This role is designed to give limited, "read-only" access to courses. 

For more information and comparison of Auditor and Guest access, please check the FAQ section.

Auditor (Student) role

This role typically allows postgraduate students access to courses that they are not enrolled in but that contain information their supervisors consider vital to their studies.

The student auditor role can be provisioned upon a staff member's request to the EdTech Hub. Written justification and approval from the Head of School (equivalent or higher) is required for student auditor requests to be processed.

Access is commonly approved in the following two scenarios:

• Where a higher degree by research student requires access to a course that is directly linked to their current research and such access has been approved by the student’s supervisor and the course convenor.
• Where a student requires access to a course they have already attempted in order to prepare for a supplementary exam. Such access would normally only be granted if the student originally attempted the course no longer than a year prior and failed to meet the minimum requirement due to illness or misadventure.

An auditor has access to content and most tools in Moodle but only in a read-only mode. Auditors typically do not have access to plugin services like Turnitin, Lecture Recordings +, Leganto, etc. They also cannot see Assignment activity, participate in forums (but can view them), attempt the quiz (only preview).

Guest Access

Providing Guest (Users outside of UNSW ) Access to Moodle.
A common request is to have external parties have access to Moodle courses for accreditation reasons. If you require such access: 

1) Apply for a zID using the following IT form. A zID is required to be able to access Moodle courses.

2) Setup a sandpit with self-enrolment keys.

3) Roll over the course you wish to make a copy of into your sandpit.