User Overview

Paideia LMS has a comprehensive user management system with two distinct role systems: system-wide roles and course-specific enrollment roles. This dual role system allows for flexible permissions across the platform.

System-Wide Roles

There are six system-wide user roles defined in the users collection:

1. admin - Full platform access, can manage all users and system settings
2. content-manager - Can create courses and manage content
3. analytics-viewer - View-only access to reports and analytics
4. instructor - Can create courses and activity modules
5. student - Default role for new users
6. guest - (coming soon) Limited access for unauthenticated users

These roles control platform-level permissions. For example:

• Only admin and content-manager can create courses
• admin, instructor, and content-manager can create activity modules
• admin users have override permissions across all courses regardless of enrollment

Course Enrollment Roles

Within courses, users have separate enrollment-specific roles:

1. student - Enrolled learner in a course
2. teacher - Course instructor with full course management
3. ta - Teaching assistant with limited instructor permissions
4. manager - Course manager role
5. guest - (coming soon) Limited course access for unauthenticated users

These enrollment roles determine what users can do within specific courses:

• teacher and manager roles can see course settings and participants
• All enrolled users can view course content
• System-wide admin users have override permissions regardless of enrollment

User Entity

The User entity is stored in the users collection with fields including:

• Basic profile: firstName, lastName, bio, email
• System role: role (one of the six system-wide roles)
• Authentication: password, sessions
• Preferences: theme, avatar

Flexible Permissions

The dual role system allows flexible permissions: a user might be a system-wide instructor (able to create courses) while being enrolled as a student in specific courses. This design allows users to have different roles in different contexts, providing maximum flexibility for educational institutions.