WeBWorK Main Forum

Letting TA act as student

Letting TA act as student

by John Sylvester -
Number of replies: 2
From the url http://webwork.maa.org/wiki/Permissions#.XcxfdVdKguV,

I see that the "become_ student" property in the "%permissions hash" controls the ability to act as a student. We would like to allow the ta to do this, but don't know where ( in what file) to set the value for our specific course. We are running the course from the MAA server.

thanks
John

PS: As someone new to webwork, I never would have guessed how incredibly useful this property, combined with the other information that comes along with the "Email Instructor" button turned out to be.
In reply to John Sylvester

Re: Letting TA act as student

by Danny Glin -
Some of the permissions in that hash are available to be edited using the "Course Configuration" link in your course, including acting as a student. When logged in to your course, click on "Course Configuration" on the left, then click "Permissions" at the top.

If you want to change a permission that does not appear on that page, you would have to edit the course.conf file and add a line like:
$permissionLevels{become_student} = "ta";

Unfortunately by default editing the course.conf file using the web interface is restricted to users with permission level of "admin", so you likely won't be able to do this on the MAA server. You would do this through the File Manager. The course.conf file is found up one level from the templates directory where you are first dropped, so go up one level, then highlight course.conf and click "Edit". Most likely you will get a message saying that you do not have permission.

If you find that you need that level of customization of your course, you would likely have to contact the MAA and see if they will either elevate your permissions within the course to admin or make the changes for you.
In reply to Danny Glin

Re: Letting TA act as student

by Glenn Rice -
The value of $permissionLevels{become_student} can be set for each course from the Course Configuration -> Permissions page. It is called "Allowed to act as another user" on that page. You do not need to have admin access to do this.

Setting any of the options on the course configuration pages adds the variable values to the courses simple.conf file, which overrides anything in the server settings and in the course.conf file.