Kenny Verbeke - KU Leuven

Date: October 29, 2024
Organization: Ku Leuven
Role in the organization: Main point of contact for MOOCs, involved in managing course runs, permissions, and team support
Organization Size: Medium to Large (80 courses total, split between Open edX and Edge platforms)

• Main Pain Points:

  • Redundant Role Assignment Across Platforms: He highlighted the challenge of reassigning permissions for the same staff members across Open edX and Edge platforms. Each team member’s email must be added individually on Open edX. This is particularly tedious, as they initially set up courses on Edge and later promoted them to Open edX when expanding course availability to a broader audience.

  • Lack of Restricted Viewing Permissions: Certain roles, like Staff, provide more permissions than necessary for tasks that only require viewing access. To manage this, he assigns staff access with the instruction to avoid editing or uses the beta tester role as a workaround, which risks accidental edits.

  • Frequent, Repetitive Actions for Role Assignments: With a large number of courses and course runs, his team frequently needs to assign the same permissions across multiple courses. 

  • Separated Interfaces for Role Management: Kenny finds it inefficient that discussion admin permissions are managed on the student side, separate from the main role management in Studio. This segmentation complicates the user experience and makes it difficult for teams to navigate permissions areas effectively.

  • Issue with Data Researcher Role: Kenny pointed out that the "data researcher" role, essential for downloading course reports, must be assigned manually for an admin.

• Feature Requests:

  • Bulk Role Assignment Tool: A tool that would allow him to assign multiple users to courses at once. This tool would reduce repetitive work and save significant time, particularly when adding users across numerous courses.

  • Ability to Copy Permissions Across Platforms: A function to import users' roles from Edge to Open edX, which would eliminate the need for redundant role assignments on both platforms.

  • Dedicated Viewer Role: A viewer-only role that allows users to access course content without editing permissions. This role would be ideal for external reviewers and partners who need to oversee content without making changes.

  • Cross-Linking Between Role Management Sections: To address the separation of permissions areas, Kenny proposed adding links between related role management sections (e.g., Studio and the student side for discussion admins). This would help users easily locate and navigate permissions settings.

  • Data Research Permissions for Admin: Kenny suggested a modification that would automatically assign the "data researcher" role to administrators, removing the need for manual setup.

• Ease of Use:

  • Interface for Role Assignments: He finds the interface for adding or removing users straightforward but resents that the lack of bulk assignment options makes the process tedious and repetitive.

  • Separated Role Management Areas: The current setup, where certain permissions are managed in different sections of the platform, creates confusion. Kenny suggested that cross-linking these sections would make navigation more intuitive.

• Support Needs:

  • Clear Documentation with Cross-Referencing: Kenny relies on documentation and often creates custom templates to explain the process to his team. He suggested that cross-referencing related sections within the documentation would improve usability and make it easier to find necessary information.