We have a very large course here that is split into multiple "lectures", each taught by a different TA. As currently constructed, each lecture has its own section number and all the TAs and admins have Professorial permissions.
The problem that we're experiencing is that, because the lectures are somewhat autonomous, everyone's getting feedback from everyone else's students. I'd like to arrange it that only particular instructors get email from particular sections; specifically, I'd like to have one permission level which receives all feedback emails, one permission level which receives only feedback emails from a given section, and ideally one permission level which receives feedback from multiple different sections according to some rubric. I know how to do the first, but I can't seem to figure out how to do the other two.
Thanks for your time
Robert Owen
owen@math.wisc.edu
Hi Rob,
The short answer is that this isn't (yet) possible. I believe it's been discussed as a possibility, but doesn't exist yet. The closest one can get is a client-side work-around: there's a setting in global.conf that sets the subject line for the feedback e-mail from WeBWorK. We have a similar situation here at Michigan as you do, and we have the header set to clearly specify the section from which the feedback e-mail arrives so that our graduate students and faculty can filter their e-mail by the subject line to only get those e-mails that are appropriate to them.
Gavin
The short answer is that this isn't (yet) possible. I believe it's been discussed as a possibility, but doesn't exist yet. The closest one can get is a client-side work-around: there's a setting in global.conf that sets the subject line for the feedback e-mail from WeBWorK. We have a similar situation here at Michigan as you do, and we have the header set to clearly specify the section from which the feedback e-mail arrives so that our graduate students and faculty can filter their e-mail by the subject line to only get those e-mails that are appropriate to them.
Gavin
I would second the request of making this a feature in a future Webwork release. We're running into the same problem for a different situation. We have a course where some professors are on the course list, though they aren't teaching it or being TAs, simply so they can see the problem sets being assigned and working on editing some of the problems that are used in the course. These professors would prefer not to get any emails from the students in the course. So having a way to differentiate between instructors who get email and those who don't would be wonderful.
In my mind, I'm thinking we could have levels like:
11 = instructor, but receives no emails
12 = instructor, but only receives emails from their section (which is already entered with their classlist information)
Thanks,
Tom
Hi Tom,
An easy workaround is to delete the professors' email addresses from the user list. I don't think this belongs in the permission level, since it's essentially a user preference. Instead, we should add these preferences to each user's User record.
An easy workaround is to delete the professors' email addresses from the user list. I don't think this belongs in the permission level, since it's essentially a user preference. Instead, we should add these preferences to each user's User record.
Such a simple solution ....
Thanks!
Tom
Deleting the professors' email addresses works for category 11 above, but AFAIK it doesn't for category 12 nor for a putative category 13 (receives emails from some, but not all, of the sections). Adding this capability to the User record, though, would be a fantastic idea.