Feedback: Implementation error for students

The issue is that the primary function of the the tool (which is to allow students to get in touch with Instructors without having to go via a central Service Desk or support team) is unavailable due to an unnecessary and inconsistent restriction.

The idea behind the tool is that, as a student, you can access a drop-down list of Instructors and you select one of them and can then send them a message. This is for pointing out errors or asking a specific question about the course etc. – at Oxford we got fed up of getting help tickets asking questions about the course or pointing out spelling mistakes or broken links that we developed the tool.

If you’re a TA or Instructor then you see this drop-down list but if you’re a student then the Java code checks whether you have permission to view the Roster, if you don’t (and students don’t by default) then you can’t see the Instructors, so you just see the "site contact” (assuming there’s an associated email address ).

In the screenshot below, “Sakai Team” is the name of the Site Contact and there’s an associated email address.

The Roster permission presumably exists for privacy reasons so students cannot see photos of all the other students on the course (in the Roster) unless the permission is specifically changed. This sounds sensible.

However, the student CAN see the Instructors on the site (and for that matter the names of the all the students in the site) in Email Sender. (Visit the tool and click on the ‘Roles’ button.)

Moreover, students can send a message to one or more Instructors via email sender so can do what they cannot do in Feedback just by using a different tool.

This means there is one rule for Feedback and another for Email Sender. I think things should be consistent.

I think it’s wrong to check the Roster permission. If this was omitted then “siteUpdaters” (the list of instructors, see below) should just be set and will then appear in the drop down (as it does for the other roles).  Then the tool would work as it was designed to. (I remember that when we contributed it, somebody insisted on this permission check (I wasn’t at the meeting) but, on reflection, I think they were wrong.)

From memory, I’m pretty sure the email that is sent has advice to the Instructors about how to hide oneself in a site as there may be people with this role who do not want to be bothered by students.

For the record, I think it’s this bit (below)and the fix is very simple - just remove the check.