TIM Tools 7.5 Administration Guide

Defining Member Roles (for Ministries of Education, Regional Service Agencies, Consultants, Foundations, Associations, Vendors, Grantors, Teacher Preparation Programs, and Others)

 

NOTE: This page describes the use of the Define Member Roles panel by ministries of education, regional service agencies, consultants, foundations, associations, vendors, grantors, teacher preparation programs, and others. We have separate pages describing the use of this panel by school districts and by individual school licensees. If you do not need to define any additional roles, then skip ahead to the next topic, Participation Overview.

 

Each new instance of TIM Tools includes eight predefined roles: Super Administrator, District Leader, Zone Leader, School Leader, District Observer, Zone Observer, School Observer, and Teacher. These default roles were created to support a typical school district client in the United States and seem to work well in other countries with similar school system structures such as Canada. With a bit of tweaking, however, the member roles can be redefined to work in just about any situation. Simply keep in mind that there are three levels of roles within TIM Tools.

“District” Level. The district level is the top level. It is the controlling agency whether that be a national education system, a regional service agency, a consultant, a grantor, an association, or any other agency that licenses TIM Tools.

“Zone” Level. The zone level is the middle level between the controlling agency and individual schools. The zone level is simply any grouping of schools.

• A national education system might call this level “academic regions,” “areas,” or “district offices.”

• A religious education system might call this level “dioceses,” “circuits,” or “episcopal areas.”

• A regional services agency would call this level “school districts.”

• A school association would call this level “member schools” or “school systems.”

• A grantor would call this level “grantees.”

• A consultant would call this level “clients.”

• A teacher prep program might call this area “districts,” “majors,” “supervisory assignments,” or however else they wish to organize the schools where their interns are placed.

“School” Level. This will always be the immediate unit to which the teachers belong. Typically, this level represents a physical building. In some situations, however, a “school” may represent multiple locations as when a school district groups control and treatment classrooms together across several school sites. Or perhaps, a client will want to split classrooms at a single physical location into several “schools” to group them by program, department, or cluster. And, of course, in virtual education, “school” may have no connection to a physical location.

The role of Super Administrator has has the highest permission level, of course. Permissions cannot be removed from the Super Administrator because there would be no one to reinstate them. The other seven predefined roles can be duplicated and modified.

 

The Define Member Roles Panel

The Define Member Roles panel gives great detail about the default permissions each of the eight initial roles, but the following summary may be a useful starting point.

Teacher. Members assigned the Teacher role can complete a TUPS, create a reflection, and record an action research project provided that the TUPS, TIM-R, and ARTI are set as active applications by the Super Administrator.

School Observer. Members assigned the role of School Observer have all the permissions of a Teacher and in addition may create TIM Observation and Lesson Plan Review records for their assigned school.

Zone Observer. Members assigned the role of Zone Observer have the all permissions of a School Observer and in addition may create TIM Observation and Lesson Plan Review records for any school within their assigned zone.

District Observer. Members assigned the role of District Observer have all the permissions of a Zone Observer and in addition may create TIM Observation and Lesson Plan Review records for any school within the entire district.

School Leader. Members assigned the role of School Leader have all the permissions of a School Observer, but also can create internal surveys, view the admin dashboard for their school, edit member information at the school level, access school email lists, and view and download school data from ARTI, TIM-LP, TIM-O, TIM-R, and the TUPS.

Zone Leader. Members assigned the role of Zone Leader have all the permissions of a Zone Observer, but also can create internal surveys, view the admin dashboard for their zone, edit member information at the zone level, access zone email lists, and view and download zone data from ARTI, TIM-LP, TIM-O, TIM-R, and the TUPS.

District Leader. Members assigned the role of District Leader have all the permissions of a District Observer, but also can create internal surveys, view the admin dashboard for the entire district, edit member information at the district level, access district email lists, and view and download district data from ARTI, TIM-LP, TIM-O, TIM-R, and the TUPS.

Super Admin. Members assigned the role of Super Administrator can do anything in the system including redefining roles and making wide-ranging changes to the system databases.

Figure 1. The default Define Member Roles panel as seen by the Super Administrator.

 

Duplicating and Renaming Roles

Any default role can be duplicated and renamed to match your organizational structure. At the top of the Roles panel you’ll see a section called “Add Role.” Just select the role that you would like to duplicate from the dropdown menu and type the new name in the text field. Then click the “GO” button. Let’s look at a few examples.

A National Education System. A national system might duplicate and rename roles as follows:
• District Leader role is duplicated and named Ministry Official.
• District Observer role is duplicated and named National Observer.
• Zone Leader role is duplicated and named Regional Director.
• Zone Observer role is duplicated and named Regional Observer.

A Regional Services Agency (RSA). A regional services agency, district cooperative, or any other association of school systems might duplicate and rename roles as follows:
• District Leader role is duplicated and named RSA Leader.
• District Observer role is duplicated and named RSA Observer. (If you plan to have observers from the RSA in the field. If the schools and districts provide their own observers, this wouldn’t be needed.)
• Zone Leader role is duplicated and named District Director.
• Zone Observer role is duplicated and named Districtwide Observer. (Not to duplicate the default role called “District Observer.)

A Grantor. A foundation or other granting agency might duplicate and rename roles as follows:
• District Leader role is duplicated and named Foundation Director.
• District Observer role is duplicated and named Foundation Observer. (If you plan to have observers from the foundation in the field. If the schools and districts provide their own observers, this wouldn’t be needed.)
• Zone Leader role is duplicated and named Grantee Director.
• Zone Observer role is duplicated and named Grantee Observer.

Figure 2. Creating new roles aligned to a national school system.

Roles that you create can be deleted by clicking the red “Remove” button above the role. When you remove a role from the system, any members in that role will automatically revert back to the inherited role used when it was created.

 

Modifying Role Permissions

Removing or reinstating a permission for a particular role is simply a matter of clicking a button to toggle the permission off or back on. A black plus (+) sign indicates that the permission is active. A red minus (-) sign indicates that the permission has been turned off. Permission changes take effect immediately. Blue plus (+) signs indicate a permission that cannot be turned off.

Figure 3. The TUPS app has been turned off for District, Zone, and School Leaders.

 

Creating an Entirely New Role

You can combine the ability to duplicate roles and the ability to modify permissions to create entirely new roles. Perhaps you have a national Research Minister who needs to have access to all of the TIM-O, TIM-LP, TIM-R, and TUPS data nation-wide, but does not need permission to manage members. To create this role, the Super Administrator would:

1. Use the “Add Role” section to create a role called “Research Minister” and have that role inherit the permissions of a “District Leader.”

2. Modify the permissions of the Research Minister by deselecting the “Manage Member” permissions.

The resulting role would have access to all data, but not have other administrative permissions.

The basic strategy for creating entirely new roles is to first look for an existing role that has slightly more permissions than what you want for the new role. Duplicate that role giving it your new role name. Then deselect the permissions that you do not want the role to have.

TIP: When creating a new role, give it a name that will be clear to any administrator using the system. For example, if you wanted more experienced teachers to be “Peer Observers” and use the TIM-O with new teachers, you could clone the School Observer role and deselect the TIM-LP permission to create a new role with the desired permission levels. However, it might not be clear to other users of the system that those in this role are actually teachers. If you named the new role something like “Teacher-Observer” instead, it would be more obvious to someone, for example, who was creating an internal survey and wanted to include all the roles that were actually teachers.

 

Permissions Menu

The following list describes each of the available permissions in the “Define Member Roles” panel. For most TIM Tools clients, the default roles will be sufficient and there is no reason to wade through the following details. If you do wish to modify or create roles, you’ll find the information you need below. When creating new roles, you may want to check them by using a different browser to log in as a test member assigned the new role and ensure that the members assigned to the new role will have the permissions you intended.

No Privileges

If no privileges are assigned to a role, members will only be able to view reports, take surveys, and update their personal profile.

TUPS: Take the Survey

TUPS is added to sidebar menu. Members will be able to answer and submit the TUPS survey. Members will be able to save any survey in progress to complete later. If the TUPS setting in the Admin Center is set to “Closed,” members will see a message that “The Technology Uses and Perception Survey is not being offered at the present time.”

TIM-R: Create Personal Reflections

TMI-R is added to sidebar menu. Members will be able to create new reflections. Members will be able to edit, delete, or change the publication status of any of their previous reflections. Members can download a spreadsheet of all their previous reflections.

TIM-O: Conduct Observations at Own School

TIM-O is added to sidebar menu. Members will be able to create new observations at their home school only. Members will be able to edit, delete, or change the publication status of any of their previous observations. Members can download a spreadsheet of their previous observations.

TIM-O: Conduct Observations within Own Zone

TIM-O is added to sidebar menu. Members will be able to create new observations at schools within their home zone only. Members will be able to edit, delete, or change the publication status of any of their previous observations. Members can download a spreadsheet of their previous observations.

TIM-O: Conduct Observations across District

TIM-O is added to sidebar menu. Members will be able to create new observations at any school in the district. Members will be able to edit, delete, or change the publication status of any of their previous observations. Members can download a spreadsheet of their previous observations.

TIM-LP: Review Lesson Plans at Own School

TIM-LP is added to sidebar menu. Members will be able to create new lesson plan reviews at their home school only. Members will be able to edit, delete, or change the publication status of any of their previous reviews. Members can download a spreadsheet of all their previous reviews.

TIM-LP: Review Lesson Plans within Own Zone

TIM-LP is added to sidebar menu. Members will be able to create new lesson plan reviews at schools within their home zone only. Members will be able to edit, delete, or change the publication status of any of their previous reviews. Members can download a spreadsheet of all their previous reviews.

TIM-LP: Review Lesson Plans across District

TIM-LP is added to sidebar menu. Members will be able to create new lesson plan reviews at any school in the district. Members will be able to edit, delete, or change the publication status of any of their previous reviews. Members can download a spreadsheet of all their previous reviews.

ARTI: Create Action Research Projects

ARTI is added to sidebar menu. Members will be able to create new projects. Members will be able to edit, delete, change the publication status, or create a PDF of any of their previous AR projects.

Reports: Build Reports for Own School

The Build a Report option will be added under the Report Tool tab in the sidebar menu. Members will be able to create new reports with data from their home school. They will also be able to create reports that include just their own personal data. Available report types include: TUPS, TIM-O, TIM-LP, and TIM-R.

Reports: Build Reports for Own Zone

The Build a Report option will be added under the Report Tool tab in the sidebar menu. Members will be able to create new reports with data from their home school or their entire home zone. For zone reports, they will be able to select whether to de-aggregate the data by school. They will also be able to create reports that include just their own personal data. Available report types include: TUPS, TIM-O, TIM-LP, and TIM-R.

Reports: Build Reports for District

The Build a Report option will be added under the Report Tool tab in the sidebar menu. Members will be able to create new reports with data from the entire district, from any zone within the district, or from their home school. For zone and district reports, they will be able to select whether to de-aggregate the data by school. They will also be able to create reports that include just their own personal data. Available report types include: TUPS, TIM-O, TIM-LP, and TIM-R.

Surveys: Create Internal Surveys

Internal Survey Maker is added to the sidebar menu under Report Tool. Members will be able to create new internal surveys or clone surveys from the Survey Library. Members will be able to edit, delete, or toggle the “Live Survey” status of any internal survey they previously have created. Member will not be able to create public surveys.

*Surveys: Also Create Public Surveys

Survey Maker is added to the sidebar menu under Report Tool. User will be able to edit, delete, or toggle the “Live Survey” status of any public survey in the entire system whether authored by the member or someone else. The user will also be able to create new public surveys or clone surveys from the Survey Library. This setting also gives the user the option of creating and publishing an internal survey. The user will also be able to convert an existing public survey to an internal survey.

Dashboard: View Summary Data

Adds the Dashboard to the Admin Center sidebar menu. Members who have school-level administrative rights will see the data just for their school. Those with zone-level rights will see the data for their zone. District administrators will see a summary of data for the entire district. Zone and district leaders will be able to expand summaries to see individual school data.

Manage Members: View and Edit Alphabetical List of Members

Adds Members > Alphabetical List to the Admin Center sidebar menu. User will be able to view an alphabetical list of members, their usernames, IDs, and school. District Leaders will see all members. Zone Leaders will see only members from their own zone. School leaders will see only members from their own school. Member will also be able to edit properties, reset passwords, and toggle the active/inactive status of members appearing in their list.

Manage Members: Search Members. View and Edit Results

Adds Members > Search Members to the Admin Center sidebar menu. User will be able to search for a particular member, all members at a particular school, all members of a particular role, or all members of either active/inactive status. By leaving the fields blank, the user will be able to view an alphabetical list of all members, their usernames, IDs, and school. District Leaders will be able to edit properties, reset passwords, and toggle the active/inactive status of all members. Zone and School Leaders will be able to do the same, but only for members from their respective zone or school.

Manage Members: Add New Members Individually

Adds Members > Add Members Individually to the Admin Center sidebar menu. User will be able add one member at a time to the membership database. School Leaders can add members only to their home school. Zone Leaders can add members to any school in their home zone. District Leaders will be able to add members to any school in the district. School Leaders will be able to assign any school-level role to the new member. Zone Leaders will be able to assign any school- or zone-level role. District will be able to assign any school-, zone-, or district-level role.

Manage Members: Download Email List

Adds Members > Download Email List to Admin Center sidebar menu. User will be able to download an email list of either all members or just all active members. School Leaders will be able to download email list of home school members only. Zone Leaders will be able to download list of home zone members only. District Leaders will be able to download all members of the district.

Manage Members: Add and Edit Members by Spreadsheet

Adds Members > Members by Spreadsheet to the Admin Center sidebar menu. User will be able to download a spreadsheet of members (either active or all members), edit the spreadsheet, and upload it back into TIM Tools. The ability to make large-scale modifications to the TIM Tools members database is a very powerful and convenient feature. Used incorrectly, however, it can cause widespread damage to your database. Therefore this permission is restricted to the Super Administrator and any cloned roles based on the Super Admin.

Manage Members: Define Member Roles

Adds Members > Set Member Roles to the Admin Center sidebar menu. User will be able to edit existing role permissions and create new roles. This permission is restricted to the Super Administrator and any cloned roles based on the Super Admin.

ARTI: View and Download Data

Adds ARTI to the Admin Center sidebar menu. School Leaders will be able to view individual projects or download ARTI data from the user’s home school only. Zone Leaders will be able to view individual projects or download ARTI data from any school in the user’s home zone or from the user’s entire home zone. District Leaders will be able to view individual projects or download ARTI data from a single school or from the entire district.

TIM-LP: View and Download Data

Adds TIM-LP to the Admin Center sidebar menu. School Leaders will be able to download TIM-LP data from the user’s home school only. Zone Leaders will be able to download TIM-LP data from a single school in the user’s home zone or from the user’s entire home zone. District Leaders will be able to download TIM-LP data from a single school or from the entire district.

TIM-O: View and Download Data

Adds TIM-O to the Admin Center sidebar menu. School Leaders will be able to download TIM-O data from the user’s home school only. Zone Leaderswill be able to download TIM-O data from a single school in the user’s home zone or from the user’s entire home zone. District Leaders will be able to download TIM-O data from a single school or from the entire district.

TIM-R: View and Download Data

Adds TIM-R to the Admin Center sidebar menu. School Leaders will be able to download TIM-R data from the user’s home school only. Zone Leaders will be able to download TIM-R data from any school in the user’s home zone or the user’s entire zone. District Leaders will be able tor download TIM-R data from a single school or from the entire district.

TUPS: View and Download Data

Adds TUPS tab to the Admin Center sidebar menu. School Leaders will be able to download TUPS data from their home school only. Zone Leaders will be able to download TUPS data from their home zone or any school within that zone. District Leaders will be able to download TUPS data for the entire district or any individual school.

Manage Zones: Add and Edit Zones

Adds Zone tab to the Admin Center sidebar menu. Member can create, rename, or delete zones. This permission is restricted to the Super Administrator and roles that inherit Super Admin permissions.

Manage Schools: Add and Edit Schools

Adds Schools tab to the Admin Center sidebar menu. User can access the Alphabetical List, Schools by Spreadsheet, and Add Schools Individually panels. User will be able to add, edit, or delete any school. This permission is restricted to the Super Administrator and roles that inherit Super Admin permissions.

Customization: Customize TIM Tools Applicaton

Adds the Customization tab to the Admin Center sidebar menu. User will be able to toggle the visibility of any TIM Tools application, edit the TIM Tools homepage, and change the site banner. This permission is restricted to the Super Administrator and roles that inherit Super Admin permissions.

Permissions Levels

Permission levels (school, zone, or district) are pre-set for each of the default roles. Newly-created roles inherit the permission level of the role they were modeled from. The permission level sets limits for administrative functions. In general, School leaders will be able to manage members and download data related to their home school only. Zone leaders will be able to manage members and download data related to their home zone only. District leaders will be able to manage members and download data related to the entire district.