Fun with GIS 311: Customizing Roles
ArcGIS Online Organizations are the heart of the ArcGIS School Bundle. The Organization's admins are the electrical current in the heart … the ones that make the heart work.
Every Org has some default roles, like User and Publisher. Dutiful admins will assign each Org member one of these default roles. But strategic and inspired admins will use their capacity for customizing roles to give their Org members more finely tuned powers and more protections.
The default roles in an Org are not ideal for either K12 teachers or their students. But it takes less than 15 minutes to build a set of much more appropriate roles, for both minors and adults. The "ArcGIS Online Organizations for Schools & Clubs" document spells out why customization is needed, and how to differentiate students and teachers, and starters from stars. For typical school Orgs, the doc recommends three roles for students and two for teachers, but even more may be appropriate as an Org gets more users with more diverse interests and skill sets.
Generating these roles may seem superfluous at first, but they will help students and teachers avoid careless or ill-informed choices, such as sharing with an entire Org (clutter!) or even the public (clutter AND security risk), or burning large numbers of credits because of mistakes. On the flip side, custom roles can ensure users have access to the right software permissions and licenses. (I've heard of Org admins so fearful of users making mistakes that the Org is more akin to impenetrable digital cubicles than a walled garden.)
A short video walks admins through how to generate Custom Roles, showing the creation of "Student-2" role in a school Org. Best part: Even if a school Org has been around for years, and even if there are already custom roles, it's easy to look at the privilege sets referenced and make some tweaks. Esri is anxious for schools and clubs to use their admin power to help keep minors safe, but also to ensure they can do appropriate work.
See the Orgs for Schools document, and the Customizing Roles video. Then look at your own Org. Have the admins been "dutiful" or "strategic and inspired"?