Cross-roles
Is it possible to cross roles in LMS?
Unlike other tools, LMS does allow the crossing of roles in a user. This means that the same user can have more than one role at the same time, and therefore obtain the features (permissions) that those roles involve. This is a great advantage for team members who perform more than one job (administrator, trainer...), since it allows them to perform all their duties without having to use different users. But sometimes it can be a bit confusing to know what this user can and cannot do under the new roles. What parts of the LMS he will have access to or what processes he will be able to perform.
How does the role crossing work?
There are two simple tools to find out what permissions a user will have when crossing roles. The first is the rule or principle that always applies to crossovers:
When crossing several roles with different permissions, the most permissive one prevails.
That is, when those roles have different permissions for an LMS function, if one gives access but the other does not, the role with permission prevails over the rest and the user will have access. For example, when crossing an Author with the Trainer role, are we giving him access to Trainings? Yes, because although authors do not have access, trainers do. And will he still have access to Contents? Yes, because although his role as trainer does not have permission, his other role as author does.
However, the permissions of the roles are a bit more complex than that. For example, the Author cannot access all the contents, only those he has created and those in his catalogs. On the other hand, the Trainer does not have access to all the trainings, only to those to which he has been assigned. So, with the crossing of roles, what specific accesses will the user have? There is a second tool to find out, the permissions table:
LMS roles and permissions
Checking this table you can see what permissions each of the roles has, and applying the principle “the most permissive prevails” you know how far that user can go. For example, in the previous case, by crossing the roles of Author and Trainer, you get a user who can publish his contents and those belonging to his catalog, and also mark the attendance or answer the messages of the trainings to which he has been assigned.
Case study: crossing the group administrator role
One of the most common cases, that usually creates more doubts, is crossing the group administrator role. As you know, the group administrator, unlike the general administrator, has limited management festures because, as the name suggests, he only has the capacity to manage a group of users assigned to him. In other words, he will only be able to see the trainings in which the groups that he manages or the users that belong to them are enrolled directly. This is important when it comes to knowing what permissions a user will have if you cross him with the role of group administrator.
For example, as said before, an Author only has access to his courses and those in his catalogs. But if you cross him with the Group Administrator role, he will also be able to view (not edit) the courses associated with the trainings he administers, even if he has not created them and they are not in any of his catalogs. This access will not be directly through the Contents section, since the group administrator cannot access it, but through the page of the training, using the View course button. Same applies to the content of the events. However, he will not be able to edit, publish or unpublish those contents, since he cannot do it as a group administrator or as an author (not of his own and not belong to his catalog).
Another example, we also mentioned that a Trainer only has access to the trainings to which he was assigned. So, if you cross him with the role of group administrator, which trainings will he have access to? To all those allowed by each role, that is:
- those to which he is assigned as a trainer
- and also to those to which the users or groups that he manages are summoned
The key point is, what he can do within these trainings? What he can as trainer or group administrator in each case. That is:
- he will be able to see trainings that he does not manage, without users or groups that he administers, but in which he is assigned as a trainer
- he will be able to register users in the training, as a group administrator can, but only the users that he administers
Keep in mind that in no case the crossing of roles will limit or remove a permission to another role that already has it, as said before, the most permissive always prevails.
More information about roles in LMS: