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Controlling course creation rights
This feature was added to the edX platform in July, 2013.
There are a couple of settings you can enable to allow control over who can create new courses.
You can completely disable the ability for any user who is not marked "is_staff" to create a new course. Users who have been added as staff to existing courses will be able to view and edit those courses, but the ability to create a new course will only be shown to users with the "is_staff" Django user setting.
In /edx-platform/cms/envs/common.py, or your extension of it, add 'DISABLE_COURSE_CREATION': True to MITX_FEATURES.
There is a Django admin command for marking an account as "is_staff": /manage.py lms set_staff emailaddress
If DISABLE_COURSE_CREATION is True, users not marked "is_staff" may see a message on the Studio dashboard prompting them to e-mail if they need a course to be created. This message will only be shown if an e-mail address has been set as the value of 'STUDIO_REQUEST_EMAIL' in MITX_FEATURES in /edx-platform/cms/envs/common.py (or your extension of it). You should also customize the language in this message so it does not refer to edX (/edx-platform/cms/templates/index.html)
You can grant and revoke course creation rights to individual users via a Django admin table. User accounts marked "is_staff" do not need to go through this process-- those users are always allowed to create courses, and there is not a way to revoke their access.
In /edx-platform/cms/envs/common.py, or your extension of it, set 'ENABLE_CREATOR_GROUP': True to MITX_FEATURES. Note that DISABLE_COURSE_CREATION (discussed above) takes precedence over ENABLE_CREATOR_GROUP, so make sure that DISABLE_COURSE_CREATION is not set to True.
If ENABLE_CREATOR_GROUP is set to True, this is the workflow for a new Studio user:
- User creates a new account. Their status in the admin table will be "unrequested".
- When the user goes to the Studio dashboard, they will see a message about becoming a course creator in Studio.
- The user can request the ability to create courses, which changes their status in the admin table to "pending".
- The user sees on the dashboard that they are in the "pending" state. When you grant the user access, they will receive an e-mail letting them know that they should log in again. At that point they will be able to create courses.
- If you deny the user access, they will also receive an e-mail message. When they go to the Studio dashboard, they will see a message saying that they have been denied access.
Caveats-- language in these messages is specific to edX and our xConsortium partners. We recommend that you modify this language for your instance of platform (/edx-platform/cms/templates/index.html).
Mention is_staff
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