User Management: Permissions (Enterprise) – Schoology Support

As the System Administrator of your school, you can adjust the permissions settings for any role in your school. From the Permissions area, you can enable or disable any feature on Schoology based on Roles. Each of the default roles come with default permissions.

The Permissions page displays four roles at a time, which is determined by the order in which you listed roles in your Roles page. If you have more than four roles at your school, use the drop-down menu to select a new role, and then click Go to view the additional role(s).

Schoology Permissions are divided into several major areas:

Users
Courses
Groups
School
General
Administration Settings
Search
Schoology Apps
External Tools

The permissions listed under each area pertaining to that specific area.

Note: Remember to click the Save Permissions button at the bottom of the page to enable the new settings.

Planning Ahead

Remember that you can adjust permissions on an on-going basis. To help keep your Schoology system healthy all year long, you should consider re-evaluating your roles and permissions during these times:

Summer break or prolonged vacations
Addition of a new school to your district
Addition of a new role to your school
Students' departure from the school
Students' transition to another building (Middle School to High School, for example)
The prolonged departure of a Schoology System Administrator

If you are a System Administrator, and you'd like help adjusting the permissions settings at your school, use your dedicated support phone number to call a Schoology representative. This number is located in the Help Center area of your account.

Users

Profile

The permissions listed under Profile area determine which areas of the profile the role can adjust from their user accounts. We recommend that you examine each permission carefully to allow/prevent certain roles from changing their profile information. The following questions might provide guidance in setting appropriate permissions for your school:

Do I want non-faculty roles (typically parents and students) to build their own user profiles?
Should users be able to change their email address?
Should users be able to change their profile pictures?
Should users be able to choose to display their preferred name instead of or in addition to their given name?
Do I have a way to encourage users to build their profile information?
Do I have a way to manage potential misuse of profile information?

Updates

This area allows you to enable or disable users' ability to create updates in their own user profile, and their ability to comment on user profiles.

Note: Because user profiles are difficult to moderate for teachers or faculty members, the ability to create user updates is disabled for non-faculty roles. However, you can enable the ability for non-faculty roles to create updates in Courses and Groups (see below), where their activity will be monitored by a course or group admin.

Blog

This area allows you to enable or disable users' ability to create their own blog posts, and their ability to comment on blog posts.

Note: Because user blog posts are difficult to moderate, the ability to create user blog posts is disabled by default for non-faculty roles. If you enable this feature for students, you should also consider asking teachers to check student blog posts on a regular basis.

Portfolios

This area allows you to enable or disable users' ability to create and share Portfolios. Enabling the Allow sharing private link to portfolios allows users to share portfolio using a private link that will allow the recipient to view the portfolio even if the recipient is not logged into Schoology (or doesn't have a Schoology account). See our article on Portfolios for more information on this feature.

Messaging

This area allows you to customize the way a role interacts with Schoology messages. We usually recommend that you disable the permission to Send Private Messages to Non-faculty for student and parent roles.

Connections/Networking

By default, only faculty roles may connect with other users on Schoology. We recommend that you leave connection settings enabled for only faculty roles to allow educators to build connection networks. The ability to View Schoology Recommended Connections displays other educators in the Suggested area of the Home page (right column). The recommendations do not display any users associated with non-faculty roles.

User Settings

The user settings allow you to increase or limit the level of control users have over their account. These permissions only apply to a user's own user account(s) in the personal Account area.

The permission to Ensure user logs in using external authentication provider will appear if you have configured a custom login method for your organization, such as SSO or Remote Authentication.

Parent Access

View user parents/children: This permission allows the role to see other users' parent/children information from their Schoology user profiles.

Advisor Access

View user advisors: This permission allows the role to see other users' advisor/advisee information from their Schoology user profiles.

Liking

Allow Liking: This permission allows the role to "Like" posts and comments in Schoology.

Resources

These permissions allow the role to share personal resource collections with other faculty, and/or to share their resources by adding them to Public Resources.

Note: We recommend that only faculty roles have the permission to share their personal resource collections with other faculty and with Public Resources, while students can share content with each other under faculty supervision in courses and groups.

Word Filter

This permission allows the role to be exempt from the word filter.

Emails

This permission appears when your school has a custom subdomain in place. Enabling this permission for a role means that when users with that role receive email notifications, the notification link will direct to app.schoology.com instead of examplesubdomain.schoology.com. This is useful for parents, who do not usually access Schoology through the subdomain.

Courses

Creation

Create Courses

This permission enables users to create their own courses from the Courses area on the top menu of Schoology, or from their My Courses area. It also provides the ability to delete a course.

Note:

If the course contains multiple sections, you must first delete all the sections before deleting the course.
When this permission is disabled, users in the role will not see the option to Create a course or Delete a Course.

Link and Unlink Sections

With this permission, users who are also course admins can link together sections that are within the same course, or unlink currently linked sections. When you link sections, they all share the same set of materials and grade setup. Linked sections also have toggles enabling you to switch between each section instantly, so you can keep the sections separate but have a streamlined workflow. We highly recommend reading this article on Linking Sections to make sure you fully understand this feature before enabling it for your users.

Availability

View archived courses: This permission allows the role to see and access courses that are associated with grading periods that have passed. When the permission is disabled, the Archived tab will not appear for the role. Users with this role will encounter a Private Access Only message if they somehow find a link to the archived course.

Note: Current courses are always available to users.

View upcoming courses: This permission allows the role to see and access courses with grading periods that haven't yet started. The upcoming courses will appear in the same area as current courses. When the permission is disabled, the role will encounter a Private Access Only message if they somehow find a link to the archived or future course.

Note: Current courses are always available to users.

Assignment Submissions

This permission allows the course admin to enable the Submissions area of an assignment (it is enabled by default). Without this permission, all assignments created by the role do not have a Submissions area enabled for students.

Course Updates

This permission allows the role to create updates in a course and/or comment on updates and assignments in a course.

Note: When the permission to Create Course Updates is enabled at the system level, teachers can turn off this feature for individual courses from the Course Options Course Settings area on the left menu of their course.

Student Grades/Mastery/Attendance

These permissions allow the role to see the Grades/Attendance and Mastery area(s) in their Schoology account for the courses in which they're enrolled. When one of these permissions are disabled, the respective area in the course does not appear to students.

Discussion

This permission allows the role to post comments and responses in a course discussion.

Join Courses

This permission allows the role to use the Join a Course feature from the My Courses area. When this permission is disabled, the Join a Course feature does not appear and the role cannot use a course access code to join another course. If this permission is gray, check System Settings to make sure that course access codes are enabled at the school.

As a course admin this role can...

The permissions listed in this area apply to the Course Administrator or instructor in the course. Course Admins are identified by a yellow shield and are usually teachers or system administrators.

By default, all Course Admins can:

Create Grading Groups from the Members area of the course in order to differentiate learning for students.
View access codes for the course.
Download parent access codes for the course if this permission is enabled for the organization.
View the Members area of the course, including Inactive members.

If enabled, the following permissions provide additional course management features to Course Admins:

Manage course: Gives permission to access Course Options (left menu of a course) and Edit options (gear to the right of the section in My Courses). Selecting Manage Course also grants permission to add Course Calendar Events.
Manage materials: Gives permission to Add Materials, adjust materials, and Bulk Edit materials in the course. Also provides access to the Grade Setup area.
Manage submissions: Gives permission to view and comment on student submissions to graded materials in a course.
Manage roster: Enables the Course Admin to:

Add participants to the course using the Add Members button from the Members area.
Remove course participants using the Unenroll option in the gear icon to the right of the users' name in the Members area.
Designate other course members as Course Administrators from the gear icon next to their name.
Remove Course Admin designation from course members.

View attendance: Provides view-only access to a course's Attendance area, including the ability to navigate to different dates using the calendar tool and print attendance reports. When this permission is disabled, the Attendance area does not display for the course admin.

Note: View attendance alone does not enable a course admin to edit attendance information. To provide these permissions, you must also enable the Manage attendance permission.

Manage attendance: Can only be enabled in tandem with View attendance permission. When enabled, in addition to the permissions provided via View attendance, this permission enables course admins to make changes in the Attendance area of their courses.
Disabling Manage attendance and enabling View attendance restricts course admins to viewing and printing attendance information only, not making changes.
When both View attendance and Manage attendance permissions are disabled, the Attendance area does not appear to course admins.
View gradebook: Provides view-only access to a course's Gradebook, including the ability to print reports and export grades.

Note: View gradebook alone does not enable a course admin to edit grades or comments in the gradebook. To provide these permissions, you must also enable the Manage gradebook permission.

Manage gradebook: Can only be enabled in tandem with View gradebook permission. When enabled, in addition to the permissions provided via View gradebook, this permission enables course admins to make changes in the Gradebook area of their courses.
Disabling Manage gradebook and enabling View gradebook restricts course admins to viewing, exporting, and printing grade information only, not making changes.
When both View gradebook and Manage gradebook permissions are disabled, the Gradebook area does not appear to course admins.
Manage course grade setup: Gives permission to edit all areas of the Grade Setup page. For more detail on how this interacts with the other course admin permissions, see here.
Manage mastery: Gives permission to access the Mastery area of a course. When this permission is disabled, the Mastery area does not appear to the admin.
Manage badges: Gives permission to access the Badges area of a course. When the permission is disabled, the Badges area does not appear to the admin.
Set member passwords: Gives permission to Change Password for members in the Members area of the course.
Edit course info: Enables the Course Admin to make changes in the Edit Info area of the Course Options menu. If this permission is disabled, Course Admins cannot make any changes in Edit Info.

Note: This permission enables a Course Admin to edit the names of courses or sections that are created in Schoology, but not courses or sections that are created from an SIS sync or import. To enable Course Admins to edit courses imported from an SIS, you must enable both the Edit course info and the Customize imported course name permissions for the user role.

Customize imported course name–Enables Course Admins to re-name courses and sections that are created via SIS sync or imports. Admins can change the course or section name from the Edit Info area of the Course Options menu, and it will not be overwritten on subsequent re-syncs or re-imports.

Note: You must enable both the Edit course info and the Customize imported course name permissions in order to enable users to edit the section names of courses imported or synced from an SIS. If this permission is enabled, but Edit course info is not, Course Admins will not be able to edit SIS section information.

Copy sections: gives permission to make a copy of the section from the My Courses area
View workload planning: This enables Course Admins to view the Workload Planning area of a course.

Groups

Creation

This permission allows the role to create their own groups from the Groups area on the top menu of Schoology, or from the My Groups area. When this permission is disabled, the role will not see the option to Create a group.

Availability

This permission allows the role to see and access groups that have been archived. When this permission is disabled, the role will encounter a Private Access Only message if they somehow find a link to the archived group.

Group Updates

This permission allows the role to create updates in a group and/or comment on updates in a group.

Note: When the permission to Create Group Updates is enabled at the system level, group admins can turn off this feature for individual groups from the Group Options Group Settings area on the left menu of their group.

Discussion

This permission allows the role to post comments and responses in a group discussion.

Join Groups

The permission to Use group access codes allows the role to use the Join Group feature from the My Groups area. When this permission is disabled, the Join Group feature does not appear and the role cannot use a group access code to join another group. If this permission is gray, check System Settings to make sure that group access codes are enabled at the school.

The permission to Access public groups allows the role to join Schoology-provided groups, such as Schoology Educators. When this permission is disabled, only the user's groups and the School Groups are visible and/or accessible to the role.

As a group admin this role can...

The permissions listed in this area apply to the group admin of the group. Group admins are identified by a yellow shield. They are typically teachers or system administrators.

Manage group: Gives permission to access Group Options (left menu of a group) and Edit options (gear to the right of the section in My Groups).
Manage roster: Gives permission to add and remove members from the Members area of the group.

School

School Updates

These permissions allow the role to create updates and/or comment on updates at the school level. It can also allow the role to create an event for the school(s) they belong to. Users cannot delete school events created by other users.

Users can access the school profile by clicking on the downfacing arrow at the top right of their account, and by selecting their school from the list. Users can also access their school profile by clicking on a link to their school from anywhere the link is available in Schoology.

Discussion

This permission allows the role to post comments and responses in a school discussion.

General

Events

This permission allows the role to use the RSVP feature when creating events in a school, course, or group they administer.

Attachments

These permissions allow you to determine which items the role is able to attach to personal, course, group, and/or school updates.

Attach file to update: Gives permission to attach files and resources to updates.

Note: Ensure that your browser allows Schoology to use Flash for the file uploader, or use the basic uploader to upload files.

Attach link to update: Gives permission to attach links to updates.
Attach poll to update: Gives permission to attach polls to updates.
Attach recording: Gives permission to use the audio/video recording feature as attachments to updates and materials (assignments, discussions, and test/quizzes)

School Analytics

The permission to View school analytics allows the user to access the School Analytics area from the Tools menu at the top of Schoology. The user will only see the School Analytics of the school with which they are associated unless the user is a System Administrator of the main school/district building.

If you're exporting analytics captured after August 1, 2019 under the new School Analytics system, the export file will show data for all buildings. It is not possible to export per school building, regardless of the building associated with your account. Learn more here.

Learning Objectives

These permissions refer to the target icons that allow you to align course materials and resources to learning objectives, common core, and state standards.

Align learning objectives: Gives permission to use the Align Learning Objectives feature to add learning objectives, common core, or state standards to course material and resources.
Create custom learning objectives: Gives permission to create personal learning objectives in personal resources. Also gives permission to enable learning objectives in group resources of groups they administer.

Note: If the System Admin would like teachers to only use school-provided learning objectives, we recommend only enabling this feature for the System Admin role.

Administration Settings

Administration settings give users access to administer areas of Schoology from a school or system-wide level. We recommend limiting these permissions to System Admin and other key faculty at the school or organization.

User Administration

Administer users

Gives permission to access to the Manage Users area of User Management.

Note: If a user with this permission is associated with the school district/parent organization, the user will have access to manage all users, roles, and permissions in the school district or organization. If the user is associated with a school building or organization building, the user will only have access to the Manage Users area for that particular building. Additionally, users associated with a building may only manage and create users in their own building; they do not have access to adjust roles or permissions.

School Administration

View courses: Gives permission to view all courses in the school. While the user may not be enrolled in the courses, they'll have view-only access to all courses in the school(s) with which they are associated. Learn more about this permission here.
- Administer courses: Gives permission to administer all courses in the school. While the user may not be enrolled in the courses, they'll have access to all courses in the school and the ability to act as the course admin of those courses.

Note: If a user with this permission is associated with the school district/parent organization, the user will have full access to all courses in all school and organization buildings.

Administer groups: Gives permission to administer all groups in the school. While the user may not be enrolled in the groups, they'll have access to all groups in the school and the ability to act as the group admin of those groups.

Note: If a user with this permission is associated with the school district/parent organization, the user will have full access to all groups in all school and organization buildings.

Administer school: Gives permission to access System Settings, School Analytics, Import, and Export features, which can by clicking School Management from the Tools menu at the top of Schoology.

Note: If a user with this permission is associated with the school district/parent organization, the user will have full access to all of these areas. If the user is associated with a school building or organization building, the user will only have access to the School Analytics for that particular building. Additionally, if the user doesn't also have permission to administer courses and groups, they will not have the ability to import or export courses and groups.

Administer comments: Gives permission to edit or remove comments, which are responses, posted by any user in courses, groups, or school they administer.
Administer blog posts: Gives permission to edit, unpublish, or delete blog posts created by any user in the school they administer.
Administer applications: Gives permission to install apps that require configuration at the school level. Also gives permission to install apps to the school level, and to configure the apps at the school level.

Advisor Setting

Advisor Access: Gives access to the Advisees tab without having to be associated with advisees in the Parents/Advisors tab.

Note: If a user with this permission is associated with the school district/organization, the user can search for any user in the school district or organization. If the user is associated with specific school building(s) within the organization, the user can only search for users in their associated building(s).

Search

Search Results

Show in school directory: Displays the users associated with this role in the People area when searching for users with the magnifying glass at the top of Schoology.
View global search results: Allows the role to find search results of people, courses, groups outside of their school district or organization.
View course listing: Allows the role to see a list of courses in their school district from Courses> My Courses > Course Listing.
View group listing: Allows the role to see a list of groups in their school district from Groups> My Groups > School Groups.
View school directory: Allows the role to see the People area when searching for users with the magnifying glass at the top of Schoology.
- View other school directories: Allows the role to see members listed in school buildings other than their own (if their school has multiple buildings, for example, middle school and high school).

Schoology Apps

The permissions in this area pertain to the App Center. If you have apps installed at your school already, you may see additional permissions for specific apps in addition to the ones below.

The following permissions are only available for faculty roles:

Install applications: Gives permission to install apps from the App Center, as long as the app doesn't also require the "Administer applications" permission (see Administration permission above).
Develop apps: Gives permission to the role develop their own apps for the App Center. When this permission is enabled, the user will see a My Developer Apps area at the top of the App Center.
Access to app center: Gives permission to access the App Center. When this permission is disabled, the users who do not have any apps installed will not see the Apps icon in the header, but they can access specific app profiles directly by URL. If a user with this permission disabled has apps installed, they can see the Apps icon in the header, but cannot navigate to the App Center to browse for apps.

Individual app permissions may also appear here allowing you to customize which roles can access specific apps that are installed. For example, schools that have installed the YouTube app will see permission to allow or prevent user roles to Access app "YouTube" in this section of the permissions page.

Planning Ahead

Please keep in mind that permissions can be adjusted on an on-going basis. To help keep your Schoology system healthy all year long, you should consider re-evaluating your roles and permissions during these times:

Summer break or prolonged vacations
Addition of a new school to your district
Addition of a new role to your school
Students' departure from the school
Students' transition to another building (e.g. Middle School to High School)
The prolonged departure of a Schoology System Administrator