confusion about editor vs. author roles

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  nkuprofe · Member · Aug 23, 2011 at 5:35 pm

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  The blog is for a university class. Students will work in small groups (2-3) on a project that focuses on a topic we are studying in the class. The project will entail them incorporating text and also images, sound files, links to resources on the topic and I thought that each group could have a “page” where they would put up their project.

  I will soon be at the point of getting the students added to the blog as users, but I am not sure if they should be assigned the role of editors (so they can create the pages where the projects will go themselves AND each member of given group can contribute/post material to it) OR just authors. I think that just being authors would limit what they can do for a group project, but your warnings as to being careful as to who you assign the role of editor make me cautious. What can you tell me?
  Blog url: http://diversestories.wordpress.com/

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  staff-blorbo · Staff · Aug 23, 2011 at 10:18 pm

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  That is a tough decision.

  Editors can edit everything. For example, if a student doesn’t take a bad grade very well, don’t be surprised if you see every page defaced (fortunately we have a way to see who did that if it happens).

  Authors can only edit their own posts or pages, so the concept of one page per group would have to be thrown out.

  I recommend going with the Editor role just to see how it turns out, since it’s closer to what you want. Another alternative would be to go with the Author role for a team lead and a Subscriber role for the rest, then allow all page-building activities to unfold in the page’s comments section.

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  nkuprofe · Member · Aug 25, 2011 at 2:22 pm

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  Thanks for the response! Your ideas were very helpful. Right now I am going the route of having them all be authors, and then when they are working on the collaborative project later on in the semester, trying out the ‘team leaders’ idea, and having one person per group be assigned the role of editor. The next week or so will reveal how it works out having them on there as authors–and what they can and can’t do relative what I’d like them to do (which I am still figuring out myself, since this is all new to me!)