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Assigning Section Override Roles (Enterprise Instructors)

Use section override roles to assign section-specific permissions that may differ from the global permissions on an organization-level role.


Section override roles are an optional feature. System administrators can enable this ability by contacting PowerSchool Support.


There are six default categories that cover many likely role scenarios:

Role Name

Potential User Roles

Edit Grades / Edit Materials

  • Co-Teacher
  • Special Education Co-administrator
  • Substitute Teacher (Long Term)

Edit Grades / View Materials

  • Teaching Assistant

View Grades / Edit Materials

  • Teacher Advisor
  • Grade-Level Lead

View Grades / View Materials

  • Principal
  • Mentor teacher
  • Student Teacher

No Grades / Edit Materials

  • Curriculum team
  • Office Managers

No Grades / View Materials

  • Paraprofessionals
  • Substitute Teacher (Short-term)
  • Tutor or Advisor
  • Visiting Teacher

It’s important to remember that section override roles can both enable and disable permissions for users in specific sections.

If a role has organization-level permissions that allows them to manage materials for a section, but they are also enrolled in a section with section override role permissions that do not, they will lose the permission to edit materials within that section.

Likewise, if a role has organization-level permissions that do not allow them to manage materials, and is enrolled in a section with section override role permissions that do, then they will gain permission to edit materials within that section.

If you aren't sure which permissions are available to a user based on their organization-level role, reach out to your organization's Support Contact.

Assigning Roles Within a Course

To assign an override role to a member in a section you administer:

  1. Navigate to the Members page of the section.
  2. Click the gear icon.
  3. Select Make Admin from the drop-down menu.
  4. At this point, the user is a course admin with organization-level permissions controlling what they can do in Schoology and this course section.
  5. After the user is an admin, click the gear icon again.
  6. You’ll see a new option, Set Section-level Role.
  7. Click on this to see the section override role options.
  8. A pop-up appears showing the options to either keep the user’s organization-level role or to assign a section-level role.
  9. Click Save to apply any changes.

    GIF of Assigning Roles within a Course.

Icons

In Schoology, the shield icon is used to indicate admin status in a course or group. However, if your Enterprise organization has enabled the Section Override Roles feature, you may see different icons:

  • The shield-with-star icon indicates a course admin with organization-level permissions applied within the section..
    The shield-with-star icon, indicating that a user is a
    course admin and their organization-level role permissions apply within that section. This icon also applies to group admins.
  • The blank shield icon indicates a course admin with section override roles.
    The blank shield icon, indicating that a user is a
    course admin with a section override role assigned in that section.

For example, in the screenshot, the user is a course admin with an organization-level role and permissions in Math 5: Section 2. In Math 5: Section 3, a blank shield icon indicates that a section override role is in place that overrides the user's organization-level role and permissions.

Image of course sections with different shield icons.

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