UWL – Learning Management System Roles and Procedures
An internal audit of the permissions and “Roles” individuals can assume in D2L found that the University is out
of compliance with both FERPA guidelines and the Best Practices employed by other campuses in the UWSystem. In addition, the process of granting “Instructor” level access to a course has revealed the lack of
protection of sole ownership of content of lecture materials. To deal with these two issues, ITS in conjunction
with the Academic Technology Committee (ATC) has formulated two new sets of “roles” – one for catalog
based courses, the other for non-catalog based courses (course development, safety committees, IRB, etc.).
Catalog Based Courses:
Role
Purpose
Instructor
Instructor of Record as defined by UW-L SIS or WINGS
Secondary Instructor
Instructor who can’t copy course or release final grades
Mentor
View content, discussions, chats, etc. for mentoring or retention
Assistant Instructor – Grading
Grading Assistant
Assistant Instructor – Non-grading
Tutor or like
Student
Student
Main changes to current practices:
1) Assignment of a non-student role to a course will require contacting the LMS administrator in ITS
 All non-student roles allow access to student information. Therefore, people assuming these roles
must have a signed UW-L Confidentiality Form, which meets FERPA requirements, on file
beforehand.
 ATC unanimously approved the motion: “In order to be added to a UW-L course in any nonstudent role, you must be using a UW-System email address and identity.” Prior to this,
anyone could be added to a course as an instructor, granting access to student information and
grades.
 ITS and HR are working on a process to ensure new requests for non-student access comply with
FERPA requirements.
2) Assignment to an Instructor role will require that the Instructor of Record designate approval of sharing
course materials.
 Instructors are the copyright holders for any original content they develop for their courses and are
thus the only ones who can allow copying of their materials.
 ITS is developing a process that will allow instructors to designate someone else as instructor in
their course and provide them with one of the Creative Commons rights for copying their materials.
 This does not stop Instructors from exporting their courses and providing the exported files to
another instructor.
3) Limited the number of roles available. Additional roles can be created by ITS in consultation with the
ATC in the future if there is sufficient need.
Non-catalog Based Courses:
Role
Purpose
Main changes to current practices:
Lead
Instructor like permissions
1) Separate from Catalog based courses. These are
Member
Secondary Instructor like
typically “on-going” courses listed in D2L. Separation of
Student
View but not edit materials.
roles to clarify intent of “course”.
2) Require “Lead” to give copyright clearance to anyone who is added as a new “Lead” (anyone who can
copy the course materials).
ATC unanimously approved the motion: “ATC moves to approve a campus wide pilot of the updated D2L
roles for the Academic year 2015-2016 beginning with 2015 Summer 1.”
ITS will be reporting back to ATC on the shift to the new roles during the fall semester.
ITS and the ATC expect that the details to the roles will need to evolve over time
and are committed to working together on any updates.