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Add Django admin and Course Creator permission docs (#1511)
* docs: First pass course creator perms docs * docs: Add Django Admin concept doc --------- Co-authored-by: Claude
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‎source/educators/how-tos/request_course_creation_access.rst‎

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.. _Request Access to Create Courses:
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Request Access to Create Courses in Studio
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##########################################
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.. tags:: educator, how-to
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On many Open edX sites, the ability to create courses is not granted to every
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user automatically. Instead, new authors request course creation access, and a
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site administrator reviews and grants that access. If you sign in to Studio and
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do not see an option to create a new course, you most likely need to request
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course creation access first.
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This how-to describes how to request that access as an author. The steps that a
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site administrator takes to grant your request are described in
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:ref:`Grant Course Creation Access in Studio`.
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.. note::
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These steps apply to sites that have the course creator group enabled (the
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``ENABLE_CREATOR_GROUP`` setting). If your site does not use this feature, any
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signed-in user can create courses and you do not need to request access. If
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you are not sure how your site is configured, contact your administrator.
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Request Course Creation Access
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******************************
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#. Sign in to Studio at the URL provided by your administrator.
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#. Open the Studio home page (your **Courses** dashboard).
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If you already have course creation access, you will see the option to create
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a new course, and no request is necessary.
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If you do not yet have access, Studio displays a message explaining that you
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do not have permission to create courses, along with an option to request it.
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#. Select the option to request course creation rights.
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Simply visiting the Studio home page registers your account with the site. To
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submit a request for review, you must select the request option so that your
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status changes to **pending** and your site administrator is notified.
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After You Request Access
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************************
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After you submit your request, a site administrator with staff or superuser
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permissions reviews it and either grants or denies course creation access. When
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your administrator changes your status, the platform sends you an email
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notification.
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* If your request is **granted**, return to the Studio home page. You will now
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see the option to create a new course. See :ref:`Create a New Course` to get
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started.
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* If your request is **denied**, or if you do not receive a response, contact
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your site administrator directly. They can explain the decision or, for
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example, tell you which organizations you are allowed to create courses under.
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.. note::
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A site administrator can grant course creation access for **all
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organizations** on the site, or for one or more **specific organizations**. If
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you are granted access to specific organizations only, you will be able to
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create courses under those organizations but not others.
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.. seealso::
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:ref:`Grant Course Creation Access in Studio` (how-to, for administrators)
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:ref:`Create a New Course` (how-to)
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:ref:`Re-Run a Course <Re Run a Course>` (how-to)
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**Maintenance chart**
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+--------------+-------------------------------+----------------+--------------------------------+
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| Review Date | Working Group Reviewer | Release |Test situation |
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+--------------+-------------------------------+----------------+--------------------------------+
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| 2026-08-14 | Ty Hob | Verawood | Pass |
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+--------------+-------------------------------+----------------+--------------------------------+

‎source/educators/navigation/creating_course.rst‎

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:glob:
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../references/course_development/basic_course_details.rst
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../how-tos/request_course_creation_access.rst
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../how-tos/set_up_course/create_new_course.rst
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../how-tos/set_up_course/edit_course_details.rst
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../references/course_development/about_page.rst

‎source/site_ops/concepts/django_admin.rst‎

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.. _About the Django Admin:
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The LMS and Studio Django Admin Interfaces
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##########################################
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.. tags:: site operator, concept
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Both major Open edX services — the LMS and Studio (CMS) — are built on the
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`Django web framework <https://www.djangoproject.com/>`_. Django provides a
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built-in, automatically generated administrative interface, commonly called the
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**Django admin**, that lets authorized users view and edit application data
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directly. Because the LMS and Studio are separate Django applications, each one
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exposes its own, independent Django admin:
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* The **LMS Django admin**, served from your LMS domain at ``/admin/``.
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* The **Studio (CMS) Django admin**, served from your Studio domain at
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``/admin/``.
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Each admin only exposes the applications installed in that service, so the set of
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available tools differs between the two. An app that appears in one admin is not
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necessarily present in the other. For example, the **Course Creators** app used
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to grant course creation access exists only in the Studio admin, not the LMS
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admin. When following a how-to that references the Django admin, be sure to use
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the correct service's admin.
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What the Django Admin Is For
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****************************
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The Django admin is intended for administrative tasks that require elevated
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privileges and are not exposed through the normal LMS or Studio user interfaces.
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Site operators and other trusted administrators use it to inspect and adjust
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platform data and configuration — for example, managing feature toggles and
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waffle flags, reviewing or editing user records, and changing settings that are
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deliberately kept out of the day-to-day authoring and learning experiences.
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Access to the Django admin is restricted to users with **staff**
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(``is_staff``) or **superuser** permissions. Because these interfaces can read
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and modify sensitive data across the platform, admin accounts should be granted
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sparingly and treated as high-security credentials.
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Security Considerations
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***********************
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The Django admin is a powerful, high-privilege interface. To reduce risk, when
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possible you should protect the LMS and Studio admin interfaces from open access
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over the public internet — for example, by restricting them to trusted networks
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or a VPN, placing them behind additional authentication, or otherwise limiting
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who can reach them. Combined with granting admin privileges only to the users
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who genuinely need them, this helps limit the impact of compromised credentials.
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For more detail on how the admin works and how it can be configured and secured,
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see the official Django documentation:
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* `The Django admin site <https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/stable/ref/contrib/admin/>`_
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* `Django admin tutorial <https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/stable/intro/tutorial07/>`_
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.. seealso::
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:ref:`Grant Course Creation Access in Studio` (how-to)
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**Maintenance chart**
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+--------------+-------------------------------+----------------+--------------------------------+
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| Review Date | Working Group Reviewer | Release |Test situation |
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+--------------+-------------------------------+----------------+--------------------------------+
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| 2026-08-14 | Ty Hob | Verawood | Pass |
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+--------------+-------------------------------+----------------+--------------------------------+

‎source/site_ops/how-tos/grant_course_creation_access.rst‎

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.. _Grant Course Creation Access in Studio:
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Grant Course Creation Access in Studio
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######################################
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.. tags:: site operator, how-to
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.. contents::
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:local:
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:depth: 1
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When the course creator group is enabled on your site, new authors cannot create
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courses in Studio until an administrator grants them access. This how-to
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describes how to review a request and grant (or deny) course creation access
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using the Studio Django admin.
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The most common point of confusion is *where* this is done: course creation
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access is managed in the **Studio (CMS)** Django admin, not the LMS Django admin.
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The **Course Creators** admin app does not exist in the LMS, so looking for it
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there is a dead end.
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The author-facing side of this process is described in
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:ref:`Request Access to Create Courses`.
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Prerequisite
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************
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Course creation access is only requested and granted when the course creator
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group is enabled with the ``ENABLE_CREATOR_GROUP`` setting (enabled by default
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in Studio). When this setting is disabled, any signed-in user can create
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courses, and there is nothing to grant.
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You must sign in with an account that has **staff** (``is_staff``) or
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**superuser** permissions to change records in the Course Creators admin app.
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.. note::
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Users who are marked as global staff (``is_staff``) always have course
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creation access and are not added to the Course Creators table. You only need
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to grant access to non-staff authors.
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Open the Course Creators Admin App
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**********************************
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#. Confirm that the author has requested access. When an author requests course
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creation rights from the Studio home page, their status changes to
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**pending** and, if email is configured, an email notification is sent to the
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address in the ``STUDIO_REQUEST_EMAIL`` setting.
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#. Sign in to Studio with your staff or superuser account.
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#. Go to the Studio Django admin **Course Creators** app. This is served by
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Studio (CMS), so use your Studio domain:
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.. code-block:: text
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https://<your-studio-domain>/admin/course_creators/coursecreator/
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.. important::
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This app lives in the **Studio** Django admin. It is not available in the
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LMS Django admin. If you browse the LMS admin (for example,
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``https://<your-lms-domain>/admin/``) you will not find a Course Creators
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app.
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#. The list page shows each author's username, email, current state, and whether
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they have access to all organizations. Select the user whose request you want
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to review.
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Grant or Deny Access
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********************
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On the author's record, you control access with the **State** field and the
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organization fields.
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#. Set the **State** field:
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* **granted** - the author can create courses.
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* **denied** - the author is not allowed to create courses.
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* **pending** - the request is awaiting review (this is the state set when
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the author requests access).
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* **unrequested** - the author has not requested access.
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#. When you set the state to **granted**, choose the scope of access:
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* To allow the author to create courses under **any** organization, leave
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**All organizations** selected and do not select any specific
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organizations.
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* To limit the author to **specific** organizations, clear the **All
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organizations** checkbox and select one or more organizations from the
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list.
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.. note::
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You must choose exactly one of these options. Selecting **All
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organizations** *and* specific organizations at the same time, or clearing
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**All organizations** without selecting any specific organization, produces
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a validation error when you save.
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#. (Optional) Use the **Note** field to record context about the decision, such
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as why access was denied.
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#. Select **Save**.
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When you save, the platform updates the author's roles accordingly and, if email
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is configured, notifies the author that their course creation access has changed.
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Verify the Change
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*****************
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Ask the author to return to the Studio home page and reload it. If access was
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granted, they will now see the option to create a new course. If you granted
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access to specific organizations only, they will be able to create courses under
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those organizations but not others.
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.. seealso::
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:ref:`Request Access to Create Courses` (how-to, for authors)
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**Maintenance chart**
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+--------------+-------------------------------+----------------+--------------------------------+
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| Review Date | Working Group Reviewer | Release |Test situation |
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+--------------+-------------------------------+----------------+--------------------------------+
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| 2026-08-14 | Ty Hob | Verawood | Pass |
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+--------------+-------------------------------+----------------+--------------------------------+

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