Overview

This setting works together with two other settings – “Allow Lecturers to upload Student profile files” and “Teacher Types Allowed to Upload Student Profile Files” – to control what Teachers can do with files attached to a Student’s profile. While those two settings decide whether a Teacher can upload files at all, and which kind of Teacher relationship is allowed to do so, this setting narrows down which file categories a Teacher is allowed to see and use once that access is granted. It belongs to the Teachers Portal Rights settings group and is a company-wide setting, meaning it applies to the whole institution rather than per Academic Period, per Role, or per individual user.

 

What This Setting Does

This is a multiple-choice (multi-select) setting. Its list of choices is automatically built from the file categories that have already been created for Students in the system – for example categories such as “Homework”, “Medical Documents”, or “Correspondence”.

By default, no category is selected, which means no restriction applies: every Teacher who has access to upload or view files on a Student’s profile sees the complete list of Student file categories.

Once an administrator selects one or more categories in this setting, Teachers only see and can only choose from that reduced list when working with files on a Student’s profile. Any category that is not selected is hidden from Teachers entirely – it simply does not appear in the category selector.

This restriction applies only to Teachers. Administrators, Secretaries, and other back-office staff are never affected by this setting; they always see and can use the complete list of Student file categories, regardless of what is selected here.

 

Where It Is Used

This setting applies inside the Teacher’s own portal, on the Student Statistics page – the page a Teacher opens to review one specific Student’s academic progress (marks, attendance, remarks, and similar information). On that page there is a Files tab, where files can be uploaded or reviewed for that Student.

Specifically, this setting controls the list of categories a Teacher can pick from in the “Category” field when adding a new file to a Student’s profile, and it also limits which categories a Teacher can use to browse or filter the files already on that profile.

Note: This setting affects only how Teachers see and use file categories on a Student’s profile. It does not affect Administrators, Secretaries, or other back-office staff managing Student files from the Administration Portal, and it does not affect how file categories themselves are created, edited, or managed – that is a separate administrative task, unaffected by this setting.

 

Business Logic / Behavior

The following business rules govern this setting’s behavior:

– This is a multi-select list, not a simple on/off switch, and its available choices are always drawn from the file categories that already exist for Students.

– If nothing is selected, the setting has no effect at all – all Student file categories remain fully visible and usable by Teachers.

– If one or more categories are selected, only those specific categories are shown to Teachers; every other Student file category is hidden from them.

– The restriction applies only to the Teacher role. Administrators, Secretaries, and Owners are always able to see and use every Student file category, no matter what is selected in this setting.

– This setting only matters once a Teacher is already allowed to work with a Student’s files in general. If Teachers are not allowed to upload files at all (see the master switch in the Notes section), or if the specific Teacher does not qualify under the allowed teacher relationship types, this setting has no practical effect for that Teacher, because they cannot reach the file upload area in the first place.

– For this setting to be useful, at least one file category for Students must already exist in the system; otherwise there is nothing to select and the list simply stays empty.

 

Example(s)

Example 1 – Hiding sensitive categories from teaching staff

Riverside Academy has created several file categories for Students, including “Homework Submissions”, “Assignments”, “Medical Records”, and “Disciplinary Reports”. The school wants Teachers to be able to attach and browse academic files only, without seeing sensitive administrative categories when working on a Student’s profile. An administrator opens this setting and selects only “Homework Submissions” and “Assignments”. From that point on, when Mr. James Carter, a Teacher, opens a Student’s profile and adds a new file, the Category field only offers “Homework Submissions” and “Assignments”. The categories “Medical Records” and “Disciplinary Reports” no longer appear to him, although the school’s front-office administrator, Ms. Laura Bennett, still sees and can use all four categories without any restriction.

Example 2 – Leaving the list unrestricted (Higher Education)

Northfield University, which runs in Higher Education mode, has never configured this setting, leaving it empty. When Dr. Michael Turner, a Lecturer, opens a student’s profile and uploads a supporting document, he sees the complete list of file categories configured for students, exactly as an administrator would. Because the setting is empty, no filtering takes place, regardless of the institution operating in Higher Education mode.

 

When to Use

When to Enable

– Enable this setting (by selecting one or more categories) when the institution wants to hide sensitive or administrative file categories – such as medical, disciplinary, or financial records – from Teachers.

– Enable it when the institution wants to keep the Teacher’s category list short and focused only on categories relevant to teaching, such as homework, assignments, or progress notes.

– Enable it when the institution has many file categories configured for Students and wants to reduce clutter or confusion for Teachers who only need a handful of them.

When to Disable

– Leave this setting empty when every Teacher who is allowed to work with Student files should see the full, unrestricted list of Student file categories.

– Leave it empty when the institution has few file categories and there is no practical need to separate sensitive from non-sensitive ones.

– Leave it empty when the institution prefers to control file visibility through other means – for example, by not granting Teachers upload rights at all (see the master switch in the Notes section) – rather than by filtering specific categories.

 

Notes

Prerequisites

– The master switch “Allow Lecturers to upload Student profile files” (Configuration > Main Settings > General Settings > Teachers Portal Rights – Allow Teachers to Upload Student Profile Files) must be active, and the relevant Teacher must qualify under “Teacher Types Allowed to Upload Student Profile Files” (Configuration > Main Settings > General Settings > Teachers Portal Rights – Teacher Types Allowed to Upload Student Profile Files) otherwise the Teacher cannot reach the file upload area where this setting would apply.

– At least one file category for Students should already be created before this setting has any meaningful options to select from. File categories are managed in a separate administrative screen used to define and organize the categories available across the system.

– The Files tab itself must be visible to Teachers in the first place, which depends on the “Show My Files Section” (Configuration > Main Settings > General Settings > Basic Customization – Show_Personal_Files) setting including Teachers among the users allowed to see this section.

Related Settings

– “Allow Lecturers to upload Student profile files” (Configuration > Main Settings > General Settings > Teachers Portal Rights – Allow Teachers to Upload Student Profile Files) – the master on/off switch that controls whether Teachers can upload files to a Student’s profile at all.

– “Teacher Types Allowed to Upload Student Profile Files” (Configuration > Main Settings > General Settings > Teachers Portal Rights – Teacher Types Allowed to Upload Student Profile Files) – controls which kind of Teacher relationship to the Student (ordinary Teacher, Mentor, or Supervisor) is allowed to upload files, before this setting’s category restriction comes into play.

– “Show My Files Section” (Configuration > Main Settings > General Settings > Basic Customization – Show_Personal_Files) – controls whether Teachers can see the Files tab at all; this setting only matters once that visibility is granted.

K-12 versus Higher Education Mode

This setting behaves the same way whether or not the institution runs in Higher Education mode (controlled by the “Enable Configuration for Higher Education” setting). The list of file categories, and the rule that restricts Teachers to only the selected ones, work identically in both modes. The only difference end users may notice is wording: in Higher Education mode, on-screen labels usually follow the institution’s chosen Higher Education terminology (for example, Teacher may be displayed as Lecturer, and Student may be displayed under the institution’s preferred term), while standard (K-12) mode uses the default terminology. The rule that determines which file categories a Teacher can use does not change between the two modes.