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Roles and Privileges

Use roles and privileges to set what your users can and can't do.

Use the roles to group privileges into sets that can be assigned to user accounts. Every user associated with a role has all of the privileges included in the role. When a user account is assigned multiple roles, the user receives all of the privileges included in all of the roles.

Example: Jonathon is a student in Course A. He is also a teaching assistant in Course B. Even though as a student he should not have grading access in Course A, he needs grading access in Course B. Adjusting privileges allows him to have grading access in Course B only.

Default roles

When Blackboard LMS is installed, several standard roles are created. Administrators can edit these default roles.

  • System Roles: Control the administrative privileges assigned to a user. System roles enable administrators to share administrative privileges and functions with other users in Blackboard LMS.

  • Course and Organization Roles: Control access to the content and tools within a course or organization. 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. Instructors can use these roles to delegate some of the responsibility for maintaining the course.

  • Institution Roles: Control what users see when they log in. Institution roles also grant or deny access to Content Collection files and folders.

There are several default course and institution roles with the same name, such as Student and Guest. A Student institution role is not the same thing as a Student course role.

Privileges

Blackboard LMS includes numerous privileges that can be applied to different roles depending on your institution's needs. For your convenience, Blackboard has developed a comprehensive Administrator Privilege Descriptions workbook that organizes these privileges and provides descriptions for them. The workbook includes a readme sheet that offers guidance to the list of privileges. System roles and Course roles are organized in separate sheets.

Download the Privileges Descriptions (available in English only).

The Privileges Descriptions workbook illustrates what settings are enabled or disabled by default for each privilege. Some privileges are grouped together and must be assigned to a role as a single unit.

This spreadsheet can be a useful reference when you are designing your roles. For example, if you are copying a default system/course role to use as a basis for creating a custom role, this spreadsheet can help you see what settings are turned on and off by default and understand the purpose of each privilege. Refer to this spreadsheet when you create and copy system roles and manage privileges for course roles.

Note

Privileges from Outcomes Assessments aren't included.

The spreadsheet outlines the default settings for these system roles:

  • Community Administrator

  • Course Administrator

  • Facilitator

  • Goal Performance Viewer

  • Goals Manager

  • Guest

  • Learning Environment Administrator

  • None

  • Observer

  • Assessment Admin

  • Assessment Manager

  • Rubric Manager

  • Support

  • Survey Author

  • System Administrator

  • System Support

  • User Administrator

The spreadsheet outlines the default settings for these course roles:

  • Course Builder

  • Facilitator

  • Grader

  • Guest

  • Instructor

  • Student

  • Teaching Assistant

You can see below how to change a privilege for a specific Instructor role named Support. The Support instructor is logged in and can not see the contents of the Username column on the Grade Book:

  • On the left menu, select the Admin icon.

  • On the Administrator Tools page, select System roles.

  • Right click on the Support instructor role to open the Privileges page.

  • Search for the Show username privilege.

  • Check the box in front of it and Permit Privileges.

  • When your Support instructor user opens the Grade Book again, it will show the Username information.

Get started with custom roles

Blackboard LMS includes a number of default roles at the system, institution, and course level. Your institution’s needs might require you to customize these roles or the privileges they contain. Use the following getting started guide to help define requirements, develop the role, and implement it at your institution.

Gather requirements

The method you use to create a new role is influenced by the requirements. For example, if you need to create a new role that’s very similar to the existing Grader role but with slight modifications, you could easily copy that role and make slight adjustments as needed. Alternatively, if you need to grant users access to specific parts of Blackboard LMS, you might find it easier to remove all of the privileges and build a role by adding privileges back one by one.

You might find it useful to ask these questions as you plan a new user role:

  1. What is the purpose of this new role?

  2. Is there an existing role that might apply to this situation?

  3. Which role is most closely related to the new one?

  4. What parts of the application should this role be able to see?

  5. What parts of the application should this role be able to interact with or change?

  6. Will this role require system-level access (such as the Administrator Panel) or strictly access to courses?

  7. Does this role need access to student data? Should these users be able to see or manipulate information such as grades, contact information, or enrollment?

Tip

If you use Institutional Hierarchy in Blackboard LMS, you might find it useful to create a custom system role for users to access that area of the Administrator Panel only.

Configure the role

Ready to get started? After you gather requirements, determine your path forward.

Copy the role that most closely resembles what you want to achieve with the new role. You can also create a brand new institution or system role without any privileges. Learn more about Course, System and Institution roles.

Test the role

Create user accounts that you can use to test new roles. For example, create a test user account for each institution, system, or course role and log in as the test user to see what users with that role will see when they access Blackboard LMS.

Important

Blackboard recommends you create a test user with the institution role of Guest to preview what unauthenticated users will be able to see. Changes to the Guest institution role can have serious consequences as this role controls what users can see in Blackboard LMS without logging in.

Guest role can't be enrolled in courses

An account with the assigned Guest role can't be enrolled in courses. The Guest role is intended for assigned users to browse the Blackboard LMS course catalogue to learn about courses they may like to enroll in. Allowing this account to be enrolled means possible data exposure to unauthenticated users as multiple un-authenticated users could be associated with the account.