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Editing Module Roles

Module by: Connexions. E-mail the author

Summary: This module explains the authoring roles which can be included with a module.

Note: You are viewing an old version of this document. The latest version is available here.

Editing Module Roles

As creator of a module, by default you hold all three roles: author, maintainer, and copyright holder.

  • Authors receive credit for writing the material. The author is the person who is responsible for the creation of the work, but may or may not be the person who actually enters the work into the Connexions. Any module work must have at least one person with an author role before it can be published in Connexions.
  • Maintainers are able to edit and publish successive versions of a module. Most authors will serve as maintainers for their materials, but some may choose not to. Authors may appoint additional maintainers to assist them in updating the materials.
  • Copyright Holders have the legal right to license the materials. In most cases, the copyright holder is the same person as the author, but this may not be the case in institutions where faculty and employees are required to sign over copyright to the institution. In this case the institution serves as copyright holder and the individual retains the author and/or maintainer roles.

Additionally, there are two other roles that Connexions offers for special content types. These roles are not granted permission to publish content.

  • Editors receive credit for editing a module or collection. Editing duties may include checking the material for accuracy, grammar, spelling, organization, and so on. Unlike authors, editors do not take credit for the ideas behind the content, but rather for its organization and presentation. Editors do not have rights to publish materials in Connexions, so editors who are also responsible for keeping modules or collections up-to-date must be assigned the maintainer role in order to publish new versions of the content. Editors are listed under the "More about this content" link that appears at the end of the module.
  • Translators have taken existing Connexions content and translated it from one language into another. Translators are listed next to the authors' names in the content headers. As with editors, translators do not have permission to publish or update modules, so translators with publication responsibilities should also be assigned as maintainers for the content.

You can grant one or more roles to other Connexions account holders who you want to collaborate with you on the module. The "Roles" tab has a search feature for locating these people. The current collaborators on the module are listed by role under the heading "Current Roles" on the "Roles" tab. You can change the roles assigned to these people by selecting or deselecting the check boxes in the "Authors", "Maintainers", "Copyright Holders", "Editors" and "Translators" columns under the heading "Change Roles". The following paragraphs describe how to grant or update roles.

Figure 1: Example "Roles" tab.
Figure 1 (/content/m19610/latest/module-roles.png)

When you grant or update roles for a collaborator in a module in a workgroup, these changes do not take affect until that person accepts the role change and you publish the module. The prospective collaborator must accept the role because Connexions provides its account holders with the ability to accept or reject a role in another person's module. If there are any pending roles (roles not yet accepted or rejected) for a module, Connexions will not let you publish that module. Once the collaborator accepts the role or updated role, you must publish the module for Connexions to recognize the collaborator. Connexions looks to the information in a published module to see who is an author, maintainer, copyright holder, editor, or translator for the module.

Note:

All pending role additions or changes must be accepted or rejected by the prospective authors, maintainers, and copyright holders before you can publish a module in Connexions. And you must publish a module with the new roles before Connexions will recognize the new roles.

Granting Roles to Someone Outside of Your Workgroup

To grant one or more roles in a module to a Connexions account holder outside of the current workgroup, use the following steps:

  1. Click the "Roles" tab to display it.
  2. Type the first or last name of the person you want to grant a role to in the text box next to Search.
  3. Click Search. The Connexions accounts are searched and any Connexions accounts that match the search string are displayed.
  4. Select the check boxes for the appropriate roles next to the name of the person you want to add and click Add People. The name of the new collaborator appears with the names of authors, maintainers, and copyright holders under the "Current Roles" heading and in the table under the "Change Roles" heading. In both places, the new collaborator is noted as a role change that is pending acceptance.
  5. Look at the table under the "Change Roles" heading and verify that the check boxes in the "Author", "Maintainer", "Copyright Holder", "Editor", and "Translator" columns are checked for the roles you want to grant to the new collaborator. If necessary, you can click the check boxes to change which roles will be granted.
  6. Click Submit Changes. The next time the new collaborator logs into Connexions, he or she will be notified of a pending role request. Connexions will not apply the roles to the new collaborator until he or she accepts the role request.

Granting Roles to a Member of Your Workgroup

To grant one or more roles in a module to a member of your current workgroup, use the following steps:

  1. Click the "Roles" tab to display it.
  2. Click the "Select from members of your current workgroup" link. A table that lists all the members of the current workgroup appears under the link.
  3. Locate the name of the person or persons in the table that you want to grant roles to and click the check boxes in the Authors, Maintainers, and Copyright Holders columns to select the roles for that person.
  4. Click Add People. The name of the newly added collaborator appears with the names of authors, maintainers, copyright holders, editors, or translators under the "Current Roles" heading and in the table under the "Change Roles" heading. In both places, the new collaborator is noted as a role change that is pending acceptance.
A notification of a pending role request will display to the collaborator upon his or her next login to Connexions. Connexions will not apply the roles to the new collaborator until he or she accepts the role request.

Changing the Order of Appearance for Author Names

To change the order in which the authors' names will appear on the module, use the following steps:

  1. Click the "Roles" tab to display it.
  2. Verify that all users who should have an author role on the module are listed in the "Change Roles" table. Select or deselect the check boxes in the "Adjust Roles" columns to make any necessary additions or changes to the module roles.
  3. Click Submit Changes to save the role changes. The next step will erase any role changes that you have not saved with the Submit Changes button.
  4. Click the up or down arrows in the "Order" column to move an author up or down in the order of appearance in the module. The single arrows move the name up or down one place. The double arrows move the name to the top or bottom of the list.
To have an author's name appear first in the module, his or her name must be at the top of the "Change Roles" table. The second name from the top of the table will appear as the second name in the list of authors, and so on.

Changing Role Assignments

To change the roles in a module that were previously granted to a user, use the following steps:

  1. Click the "Roles" tab to display it.
  2. Locate the name of the person or persons in the "Change Roles" table of which you want to change roles.
  3. Click on a check box that contains a check mark to remove the check mark and to remove that role from the person. Click on an empty check box to make a check mark appear and to grant that role to the person.
  4. Click Submit Changes. The "Change Roles" table is updated to show the role changes and to note the role changes that are pending acceptance.
A notification of a pending role change request will display to the collaborator upon his or her next login to Connexions. Connexions will not apply the roles to the new collaborator until he or she accepts the role request.

Removing a Collaborator

To remove a collaborator from a module, use the following steps:

  1. Click the "Roles" tab to display it.
  2. Locate the name of the person or persons in the "Change Roles" table of which you want to remove.
  3. Click on the check box in the "Remove User" column for the collaborator you want to remove.
  4. Click Submit Changes. The "Change Roles" table is updated with the removed collaborator not appearing on the list of users with roles.
A notification of a pending role request will display to the collaborator upon his or her next login to Connexions. Connexions will not remove the collaborator until he or she accepts the role removal request.

Viewing and Processing Pending Role Requests

Connexions makes it easy to collaborate on educational materials. One way to do this is to share authorship or maintenance of a module or collection. If another author has granted you a role in their module or collection so that you can collaborate with them, the "Pending" sidebar will appear in the upper right corner of your Connexions pages.

Figure 2: "Pending" sidebar with role requests.
Figure 2 (/content/m19610/latest/portlet-pending-role-request.png)

Click the Role Request link to display the "Collaboration Requests" screen. From this screen you can view and act upon:

Figure 3: "Collaboration Requests" screen showing one request awaiting your approval and one awaiting another author's approval.
Figure 3 (/content/m19610/latest/role-requests.png)

Requests Awaiting Your Approval

If another Connexions author grants you a role on their module or collection as an author, maintainer, copyright holder, editor, and/or translator an entry appears under the 'Requests Awaiting Your Approval' section of the "Collaboration Requests" screen. To accept the request select the check box in the table for the request you wish to accept and click Accept.

To reject the request, select the check box in the table for the request you wish to reject, and click Reject.

Note:

If you have been requested to be added to a module or collection as a copyright holder, you must select the check box indicating that you agree to the license which has been selected for that module before you can accept the request. A link to the license is provided in the "License" column of the table.

Requests You Have Made

If you have requested that someone be added to one of your modules or collections as an author, maintainer, and/or copyright holder, an entry appears under the "Requests You Have Made" section of the "Collaboration Requests" screen until the other author acts on it. You can cancel pending requests from here.

Completed Requests

Any requests you have made that were accepted or rejected are listed in the "Requests You Have Made -- Completed" section of the "Collaboration Requests" screen. When you no longer need to keep the record, you can delete it.

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