User levels, roles and statuses

Introduction

This article provides an overview of the different user levels, roles and statuses that can exist on the platform. 

• Specifically, in the context of user management, there are three possible levels for a user account: user, power user, or superadmin. Additionally, a user of any of these levels can be configured as a manager.
• In the context of a specific course, a user can be enrolled with the roles of learner, instructor, or tutor.
• Finally a user can be designated as an expert in a particular channel.

Independently of these levels or roles, users can also have different statuses pertaining to their user account (activated, deactivated, expired) or to a particular course enrollment (enrolled, in progress, completed, etc.).

User levels in the platform

There are three user levels available within your platform: Users, Power Users, and Superadmins. The user level is set for the first time when the user is created in the platform but can be changed over time from the User management area.

Users

The majority of people who access your platform will likely be users. A user is a level that has basic permissions. Users are able to attend courses and learning plans, and they can view training materials but cannot manage any platform app, feature, and setting, nor the Navigation menu. When users log into the platform, they can access the functionalities they have permission to see from the main menu associated with their user profile.

Superadmins

They are able to manage every aspect of the platform. They have visibility of all apps, features, and settings. There is no way to limit a Superadmin’s permissions within the system. They are able to access any area of the platform from Navigation menu. You likely will have only one or a handful of Superadmins.

Power Users

A third user level, Power User, is available in the platform. Power Users are users who need to perform specific management operations or oversee specific user groups or courses in the platform, and, for this reason, they are given a specific subset of the Superadmin’s permissions. Power Users can access the Navigation menu, but their menu will be limited based on their specific set of granted permissions.

For more information refer to the article on Power User permissions.

User roles in the platform

Users can assume one or more roles in the platform, independently from their user level. The roles in the platform are learner, tutor, instructor, manager, and expert.

Learners 

They represent the majority of your users since learners are the target audience of learning platforms. It is highly likely that all of the people you identify with the level users are learners, but Superadmins and Power Users can be learners too, since they may also be involved in the training program of your company.

The learner role is assigned when a user is enrolled in a course. Refer to the Learner guide for a comprehensive manual on how learners interact with the platform.

Tutors

They have the exact same permissions as learners within a course, but they are also able to moderate forums if the forum widget is activated in the course. 

The tutor role is assigned when a user is enrolled in a course.

Instructors

They actually lead the courses in your platform and can manage some course settings within the platform for e-learning, and ILT (instructor-led training) courses.

• Instructors can upload training materials for courses, manage the content and the layout of courses in the platform, view the course’s enrollments and reports, evaluate users of classroom courses, mark their attendance and add recordings to ILT webinar events.
• Instructors cannot enroll users in courses.

The instructor role is assigned when a user is enrolled in an e-learning course.
However for ILT courses, the instructor is assigned to the course separately, without necessarily being enrolled in it. Refer to the Instructor Guide for a comprehensive guide on what instructors can do in the platform.

Managers

They can monitor the activity of their team members directly by managing parts of their learning experience or contacting them to investigate certain situations. Depending on how the Superadmin configures the platform, managers may be able to build their own team. Managers can also enroll their team members in courses and learning plans.

A user is designated as a manager by setting the option This user manages a team when configuring the user in user management.

Experts

They are platform users considered more experienced than others in a certain field or topic, which means that they can help other learners better contribute to your platform’s knowledge repository by peer-reviewing the content that they’re sharing, answering questions, and more. Experts may be assigned to one or more channels. Channel experts can review content uploaded by the learners and, through the peer-review process, publish or reject it. They can also answer questions from learners about the channel that they manage or about specific assets. Refer to the Expert guide for more details on experts. The expert role is only available when the Discover, Coach & Share module is active in your platform. 

A user becomes an expert by being set as one of the experts in the configuration of a channel.

Comparison chart of enrollment levels

Statuses of user accounts

Irrespective of the user’s level or role, every user account on the platform can have one of three statuses, visible in the user management page:

Activated:  The user has access to the platform

Deactivated: The user does not have access to the platform

Expired: The user no longer has access to the platform because the specified date was reached

The accounts of Expired and Deactivated users continue to exist, and their data is not deleted.

➣ For more information about these statuses, and how they are set, see the article User account statuses. 

Tip: User accounts that are awaiting approval are not visible yet in the user management page. Instead, they are found in a separate Pending users page. Since these accounts have not yet been created, they do not have any platform status. For more information see the article Creating and managing users > Pending users.

Statuses in enrollments

Learners have a status in each course, session, or learning plan in which they are enrolled.
Examples of these statuses are: Enrolled, In progress, Completed, Suspended, Waiting users, or Enrollment to confirm.
For more information about these statuses, and how they are set, see the article Enrollment statuses.