Roles and Permissions

Every person in your company has a role. The role determines what that person can see and do in online:academy — from pure learning all the way to full company administration. This page explains which roles matter in practice, who is allowed to do what, and how you give someone a role.

Where this happens

You change roles in the Admin Portal on the respective user. New people, on the other hand, are invited on the learning platform under Administration → Invitations, where you assign the role right away (see Managing users).

What a role controls

Among other things, the role determines:

• Whether someone only learns or also creates courses and supervises them
• Whether someone may create learning paths, templates, or reports
• Whether someone may invite other users, assign roles, and manage the company

The higher the role, the more is possible — and the more carefully you should assign it.

The 4 most common roles

For day-to-day work in your company, these four roles are the important ones:

Role	Allowed to do
ROLE_USER — Learner	Take courses, work through lessons, collect certificates, see their own progress. The basic role for most employees.
ROLE_INSTRUCTOR — Trainer / Instructor	Everything a learner can, plus: create and supervise their own courses, enroll participants and track their progress.
ROLE_CONTENT_MANAGER — Content Manager	Everything a trainer can, plus: create and delete learning paths, maintain document templates, use reports across multiple courses, and offer their own courses on the marketplace. Purchasing on the marketplace remains with the Company Admin.
ROLE_COMPANY_ADMIN — Company Admin	Full company administration: invite and manage users, assign roles, maintain branding and settings, edit document templates.

All roles with their description in the system

In the role selector, the description from the system appears after each name. This list shows them in full, from the highest role to the lowest:

Role	Description in the system
ROLE_COMPANY_ADMIN	Company administrator — full company access
ROLE_CONTENT_MANAGER	Content Manager — full course and media management
ROLE_INSTRUCTOR	Instructor — can create and manage courses
ROLE_MEDIA_MANAGER	Media Manager — manages the media library
ROLE_TEACHER	Teacher — can teach courses
ROLE_USER	Basic user — can view and take courses

The most important rule: only assign lower roles

You can only ever assign roles that are lower than your own — with one exception: as a Company Admin you may also appoint further Company Admins, e.g. a deputy. You assign Learner, Trainer/Instructor, and Content Manager yourself anyway.

Company Admins are equals and can take the role away from each other, archive or delete each other — so think carefully whom you make a Company Admin. One exception protects your company: the last active Company Admin cannot lose the role and can be neither archived nor deleted. Appoint another Company Admin first.

You cannot change the password or e-mail address of another Company Admin.

Why this rule?

This way no one can give themselves or others more permissions than intended. A deputy can act in an emergency, and your company is never left without a Company Admin.

Giving or changing someone's role

You assign a role either directly when inviting someone or later on an existing user:

When inviting (a new person):

1. On the learning platform, go to Administration → Invitations → Create.
2. Enter the email address and select the roles.
3. Save — the roles are applied automatically upon registration.

(Described in detail under Managing users.)

For an existing person (changing the role):

1. In the Admin Portal, go to Users.
2. Find and open the person.
3. In the Roles & Permissions tab, select the new role (roles below your own; as a Company Admin, also Company Admin).
4. Save.

A role change takes effect after signing in again

After a role change, the person should sign out and back in once so the new permissions take full effect everywhere.

Frequently asked questions

Which role do I give "regular" employees? ROLE_USER. That's enough for everyone who should take courses and earn certificates.

Someone should be allowed to create courses — which role? ROLE_INSTRUCTOR. Anyone who additionally needs learning paths, document templates, and cross-course reports gets ROLE_CONTENT_MANAGER.

Related page: Managing users