How do I restrict Gradebook permissions for Teaching Assistants?

Anyone in the Teaching Assistant role can enter and edit grades for gradebook items that Instructors or Secondary Instructors have created.

Instructors may restrict permissions for specified teaching assistants to:

  • Hide the students' course grades from a teaching assistant.
  • Display grades to a teaching assistant, but not allow them to enter or edit grades.
  • Allow a teaching assistant to only view or enter grades for specific rosters or groups of students.
  • Allow a teaching assistant to only view or enter grades for items in specific gradebook categories (if items have been placed in categories).
  • Remove all permissions so teaching assistants cannot view or enter any grades.

Note: Those in the Teaching Assistant role cannot be given permission to create or edit gradebook items, edit gradebook Settings, import or export spreadsheets from the Gradebook, or export grades to SIS. You may grant permission to any teaching assistants who need to perform these tasks by changing their role to Secondary Instructor, as described in How do I change participant roles within a site?

Video Guide

Step-by-Step Instructions

Go to Gradebook.

Select the Gradebook tool from the Tool Menu of your site.

Select the Permissions tab.

Select a teaching assistant.

From the Select a grader menu, choose the teaching assistant whose permissions should be restricted.

Modify the grading rules as needed.

Grading rules can be applied for each individual in the Teaching Assistant role in a site.  Several permission rules can be set for the same teaching assistant.  For example, you can allow a teaching assistant to view all students' grades, but only enter grades for students in a specific roster or group.

Prevent a teaching assistant from viewing the course grade.

By default, the option Allow grader to see course grade for the selected section(s) below is enabled. Uncheck the box to hide the calculated course grade from the teaching assistant.

Allow a teaching assistant to view, but not enter grades.

To prevent a teaching assistant from entering grades, select the Grade menu and change the option to View.

Set permissions for specific categories (if gradebook items are in categories).

If your gradebook has been set up with Categories only or Categories & weighting, the default permissions for teaching assistants apply to All Categories.  You can restrict a teaching assistant's ability to view or enter grades in a specific category by selecting a category from the drop-down menu.

Note: If you restrict a teaching assistant's ability to view or grade items in specific categories, they may also be able to view Uncategorized items.  To be included in the course grade calculation, gradebook items should be added to a category when they are created or edited.  For more information, see How do I add an item to the Gradebook? or How do I edit or delete a gradebook item?

Only allow teaching assistants to view or edit grades for specific rosters or groups of students.

Default permissions for teaching assistants apply to All Sections/Groups (i.e., all students in the site).  You can restrict a teaching assistant's ability to view or enter grades for specific rosters or groups of students by selecting a roster or group from the drop-down menu.

Add more rules.
  1. Select Add Rule.
  2. Select the desired options for the new rule.

In the example pictured above, TA-A Assistant is being given the following permissions:

  • View All Categories in All Sections/Groups.
  • Grade All Categories in 19Sp Writing Section 1.

This means that TA-A will be able to view all the grades in the Gradebook, but only enter grades for students in her discussion section.  See below for an example of how these permissions affect the teaching assistant's view of the gradebook.

Manage existing permissions.

Remove permissions.

To remove a permissions rule, select Remove.

Tip: If you remove the last available permissions rule for a teaching assistant, they will not be able to view or enter any grades in the Gradebook.

Revert to default permissions.

To restore a teaching assistant's permissions to default to allow them to view and enter grades in all categories for all students, select Revert to Default.

Save changes.

When you have selected the desired permissions for the teaching assistant, select Save Changes to confirm.

Note: Save changes to a teaching assistant's permissions before selecting a different teaching assistant from the grader menu, or the changes will not be saved.

Changes are saved.

After saving changes, a message will display at the top of the screen indicating that the permissions were successfully updated.

Examples: Gradebook display for Teaching Assistants with permissions restrictions

Example 1: View all grades, but only grade students in a specific roster or group

Pictured above is TA-A Assistant's view of the Gradebook after she was given the following permissions:

  • View All Categories in All Sections/Groups.
  • Grade All Categories in 19Sp Writing Section 1.

She can view all students' grades. However, in each grade cell for students who are not in her discussion section, there is a lock icon, indicating that she has insufficient privileges to edit the score.  TA-A can enter grades for her students.

Example 2: Grade specific students in a specific category only

Pictured above is TA-B Assistant's view of the Gradebook after she was given the following permission: Grade Assignments in 19Sp Writing Section 2.

Although the gradebook contains three categories (Assignments, Quizzes, and Exams), TA-B can only view and enter grades in the Assignments category for the two students in her discussion section.  An Uncategorized item also exists, but TA-B cannot view or enter any grades in it.

Example 3: All permissions removed

All of TA-C Assistant's permissions have been removed, so when he accesses the Gradebook tool, he gets a message that he does not have permission to view it.