We have created an extremely advanced system for managing user permissions, which can be used to get fine-grained control over forum moderation. The permissions are defined using groups, which can be granted or denied certain permissions. Upon starting the server, permission groups are created for admins, moderators and users, all with sensible defaults. However, the permission management page can be used to modify the permissions of these groups, excluding the admin group which will always be granted every permission. If required, unneeded groups can be deleted, and new groups can be created.
If even more fine-grained control over permissions is required, we also allow for permissions to be overridden for individual users. By navigating to the users section and selecting a user, you can see that they have permissions that they inherit from their group. If required, an administrator can uncheck the inherited option for a permission and then manually override those permissions for that user.
We imagine that our default settings will be perfect for most course administrators, but that taking advantage of the deep control our system gives over permissions will be very simple to do if required. For example, if a student is posting content that is inappropriate for a course forum, their permission to create posts can be disabled without preventing them from accessing the forum and viewing other content.
Note that when describing permissions in other sections, we consider moderators to be a specialisation of users, and administrators to be a specialisation of moderators. As such, unless specified otherwise, if we say “users can do x”, this means that moderators and administrators can also do x; and if we say “moderators can do y”, that means that administrators can also do y. When we describe these permissions, we are also assuming that the permission settings have been left in a default configuration. It is entirely possible to grant access to any of the features listed to other permission groups.