Policies - Creating and managing policies (Administrator)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Introduction
• 1 Prerequisites
• 2 Creating a policy
  • 2.1 Configuring policy settings
• 3 Core features and functions
• 4 Step-by-step workflows
  • 4.1 Assigning an existing policy to profiles
  • 4.2 Assigning an existing policy to individual users or groups
• 5 Removing a policy
  • 5.1 Removing a user from a policy
  • 5.2 Deleting a policy
• 6 Settings and customisation
  • 6.1 Policy scope by organisation
  • 6.2 How profiles and hierarchy affect policy access
  • 6.3 Policy inheritance and override behaviour
• 7 Technical information
• 8 Troubleshooting
  • 8.1 Cannot create a policy
  • 8.2 Policy does not override settings
  • 8.3 Policy settings are not visible
  • 8.4 A lower-level policy does not re-enable a disabled setting

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Introduction

A policy is a collection of profile settings that can be assigned to profiles or individual users within an organisation (such as a school or site). Policies override default profile or user settings, allowing administrators to apply specific rules without editing profiles. This provides flexibility for schools to manage their own rules independently from the rest of the site.

Important behaviour of policies

Policies are always assigned at profile or individual level, even if you assign them to an organisation via the hierarchy selector, or to a group of users via the course selector.

• If a user moves to another organisation or group, the policy stays with the user until it is removed or the policy is deleted.
• Adding a new student to a group does not automatically apply the policy; you must assign it manually.
• If a student changes schools within the same site, the policy stays with the student and is not automatically removed, even though it was assigned within their previous school.

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1 Prerequisites

Permissions:

• Policy management must be granted via profile or policy.
• This permission gives access to User and access rights and Policies.

System access:

• Access to the Administration menu in itslearning.

Dependencies:

• Profiles must exist before policies can override their settings.

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2 Creating a policy

1. Click Administration and select Policies.

   

2. Click Add policy.

   Note: For system administrators: on this page, you can filter policies by organisation. If you only want to see policies from one school on your site, open the Organisation dropdown and select the school or organisation you need.

   

3. Complete the fields:

   Field	What to enter
   Name	Policy name (appears in the policy list)
   Description	Brief explanation, e.g. Turns off messages for students
   Organisation	Select school or site
   Functionality	Choose functions to include

4. Tick Override for each setting you want to change.
5. Select Allowed or Not allowed for each overridden setting.
6. Click Save.

   

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2.1 Configuring policy settings

• You can combine multiple settings in one policy.
• You can also assign multiple policies to the same profile or user if needed.

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3 Core features and functions

• Create, assign, and delete policies
• Override default profile settings for flexibility
• Delegate policy management to school administrators
• Apply policies at organisation, profile, or individual level

Practical examples:

• Enable messages for students when disabled by default
• Disable messages temporarily for specific learners
• Set school dashboard as login start page
• Increase personal storage for advanced users

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4 Step-by-step workflows

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4.1 Assigning an existing policy to profiles

1. Go to Administration > Policies.
2. Find the policy and click No profiles.
3. Select the profiles to assign.
4. Click OK.

   

When you return to the policy overview, the policy shows the name of the profile it is activated for.

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4.2 Assigning an existing policy to individual users or groups

1. Go to Administration > Policies.
2. Click the + by Add users.

   

3. Search for users by name, course, hierarchy or profile.

   

4. Select the users and click OK.

   

5. Go back to the policy overview to see it updated with the user count (and the profile from earlier).

   

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5 Removing a policy

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5.1 Removing a user from a policy

1. Go to the policy overview page.
2. Click the number that shows how many users have the policy.
3. Tick the checkbox next to the user name.
4. Click Remove user(s).
5. The user is removed immediately. There is no confirmation dialog.

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5.2 Deleting a policy

1. Select the policy or policies to delete.
2. Click Delete policy.
3. Click Yes to confirm.

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6 Settings and customisation

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6.1 Policy scope by organisation

• Local administrators can only manage policies for their own organisation.
• Site-level policies created by system administrators override local policies.
• Separate policies must be created for each organisation on a site.

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6.2 How profiles and hierarchy affect policy access

Policy access is determined by two factors working together: the user's profile at a given hierarchy level, and their role in the organisational hierarchy. Both must align for a user to see, create, or change a policy.

A user who has been granted administrative rights through a role (e.g. a teacher with admin rights) does not gain the same policy access as a user with an Administrator profile at that level. The profile determines policy authority, not admin rights alone.

"You can override only those administration settings that have been enabled for your current profile."

This means:

• A user with the System Administrator profile at site level can create and manage policies for the entire site.
• A user with an Administrator profile at a specific hierarchy level can manage policies for that level and its child organisations.
• A user with a Teacher profile who has been granted admin rights at a lower hierarchy level can only create policies for the organisations where they are admin, but only for settings that are otherwise enabled for their profile type. That will usually be very limited.

Why this matters in practice

School administrators typically have an Administrator profile at their school level, but a Teacher profile (or similar) at the site level. This is intentional: assigning an Administrator profile at site level would grant access to the entire hierarchy.

As a result, a school administrator:

• Can create and manage policies for their school.
• Cannot see policies set at site level by the system administrator.
• Cannot override settings that have been disabled by a higher-level policy.

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6.3 Policy inheritance and override behaviour

Policies follow a top-down inheritance model through the hierarchy:

• A policy set at a higher level (e.g. site) takes precedence over policies at lower levels (e.g. school).
• If a higher-level policy disables a setting, a lower-level policy cannot re-enable it, even if the lower-level administrator creates a policy that attempts to do so.
• Lower-level administrators cannot see higher-level policies that affect their users.

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7 Technical information

• Changes apply immediately after saving.
• Policies can be combined; conflicts are resolved by highest security level.

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8 Troubleshooting

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8.1 Cannot create a policy

Symptoms: Option to add policy is missing.

Cause: Missing Policy management permission.

Solution: Ask a system administrator to grant permission via profile or policy.

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8.2 Policy does not override settings

Symptoms: Changes have no effect after saving the policy.

Cause: Override checkbox not selected.

Solution: Tick Override and select Allowed or Not allowed for each setting.

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8.3 Policy settings are not visible

Symptoms: An administrator cannot see certain policy settings, or an entire policy created at a higher level is not visible.

Cause: The user's profile at the relevant hierarchy level does not have sufficient access. This commonly occurs when a user has a Teacher profile at site level but an Administrator profile at school level. Policy visibility is determined by the profile at the level where the policy was created, not by admin rights granted through roles.

Solution:

1. Check the user's profile at the hierarchy level where the policy was created.
2. If the policy was created at site level, only users with an Administrator or System Administrator profile at site level can view and manage it.
3. If a school administrator needs to manage settings that are controlled by a site-level policy, contact the system administrator.

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8.4 A lower-level policy does not re-enable a disabled setting

Symptoms: An administrator creates a policy to allow a feature, but it remains disabled for users.

Cause: A higher-level policy (e.g. site-level) has already disabled the setting. Lower-level policies cannot override restrictions set at a higher level in the hierarchy.

Solution:

1. Contact the system administrator to check whether a site-level policy restricts the setting.
2. The setting can only be re-enabled by modifying or removing the higher-level policy.

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More Help Resources

Have more questions? Please start with asking your school administrator.

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