Multiple Roles for Users

Simon.J.156

Hello,

I'm just looking at roles in Brightspace for the first time and I have a question about how roles work. Most users are set up using standard roles, however a number of users have slightly different requirements - they may need access to certain functionality not allowed by that role but also which might be a unique requirement across the organisation. In other applications we deal with this by allocating multiple roles to a user but in Brightspace I can only see the option to add a single role. As an example, what I dont want to do is to have e.g. 6 different designer roles, all slightly different, ideally I'd like to give people the single Designer role and then add additional roles as required to each individual. Is this possible?

Simon

Miguel.S.245

Hello Simon,

Thank you for your question about roles in Brightspace. In Brightspace, users can only be assigned a single role per course or org unit, which means it’s not possible to assign multiple roles to a user at the same time within the same course to add additional permissions.

However, there are a few ways to work around this limitation:

1. Custom Roles: You can create custom roles with specific permissions that meet the unique needs of certain users. While this would mean creating new roles (such as "Designer Plus" for users who need additional functionality), it allows you to tailor the permissions for specific users without needing to create multiple versions of the same role.
2. Special Access or Permissions: For specific cases where users need additional permissions temporarily (e.g., for certain activities or courses), you could create a role with higher privileges and manually assign it to the users for those specific scenarios.
3. Role Switching: Although users can only have one role at a time within a specific course, you can assign them different roles in different courses/org units. If someone needs broader permissions in one area but standard permissions elsewhere, you can assign different roles based on where they need additional access.

In short, while multiple roles can’t be combined, creating well-structured custom roles or adjusting permissions as needed can help you achieve the desired functionality