Student account locks

Locks let you restrict students from accessing certain parts of Populi while the lock is in effect. For example, you could add a Registration Lock to undergraduate students with GPAs below 2.0, thus excluding them from accessing online registration on their own. Here's how locks work:

1. Locks have three elements:
   • Type: The name of the lock (e.g. Registration, Courses, etc.)
   • Area: The parts of Populi the lock restricts a student from accessing.
   • Permissions: Which user roles can add/edit the lock and which roles can read the lock reason.
2. Populi has a number of built-in locks (described below). Your school can use the built-ins or request that we add or modify the locks to better suit your purposes.
3. Locks can be added, managed, and removed on student profiles as well as by using the Data Slicer.
4. You can find locked students by searching for Lock Type in the Data Slicer.

Lock areas

Each lock area affects a distinct aspect of Populi. Lock types can combine any or all (or none!) of these areas:

• Registration: Self-service, online registration during online enrollment periods
• Grades: In-progress assignment grades and final course grades
• Transcript: The ability for students to export their own unofficial transcripts
• Charge to account: Charging Bookstore purchases to student accounts
• Courses: Access to courses, content, assignments, lessons, discussions, and so on

Built-in lock types

Here are the built-in lock types, the areas that they restrict, and the user roles with read/write permissions to each:

• All locks: Staff, Faculty, the student's Advisors, and Academic Auditors can see that any lock type has been applied by looking at a student's profile. Students can always see their own locks.
• Registration: Locks the Registration area.
  • Add/edit: Academic Admin, Registrar, the student's Advisor
  • Read-only: See All Locks, above.
• Grades/Transcript: Locks the Grades and Transcript areas.
  • Add/edit: Academic Admin, Registrar
  • Read-only: The student's advisor
  • A student can also receive a lock on a grade for an individual course if he fails to submit a course evaluation.
• Financial Lock: Locks the Registration, Grades, Transcript and Charge to Account areas.
  • Add/edit: Financial Admin, Student Billing
  • Read-only: The student's advisor. Additionally, Bookstore Admins and Staff can see if Charge to Account has been locked for a student in Bookstore POS.
• Course: Locks the Courses area.
  • Add/edit: Academic Admin, Registrar, Financial Admin, Student Billing
  • Read-only: The student's Advisor

Requesting changes for your school's locks

All of the built-in locks are customizable. You can also request to have us add new lock types for your school (or disable the built-ins). Here's what you need to keep in mind:

• Additions or modifications to lock types may be requested via support request by someone at your school with the appropriate permissions. For example, if someone requests a lock that affects academic access, that person should have the Academic Admin role.
• You can request any combination of any of these aspects of a lock:
  • Lock type: You can add as many lock types as your school needs. Lock types can duplicate each other in all other details—but for the sake of usability and your sanity, you should at least give each Lock Type a different name!
  • Lock area: Each lock type can affect any combination of the areas described above. For example, you could request a lock that restricts student access to their courses, transcript, and registration (but doesn't restrict access to transcripts or Bookstore charge-to-account). You can even request a lock that doesn't restrict any areas at all.
  • Permissions: You can specify add/edit or read-only permissions for any of Populi's user roles or the student's advisor.
• Remember that add/edit permissions let users view and change the lock, the lock reason, and the internal note. Read permissions let users view the lock and lock reason.

Here are a few examples of what you could request:

• The "Bookstore" lock type, which lets Bookstore Admins restrict students from charging items to their accounts and gives Financial Admins read-only access.
• Three, separate Course locks—one for use by Academic Admins, another for Financial Admins, and yet another for Admissions Admins. The first two are meant for academic or financial malfeasance, while the last one is for use by Admissions Admins on incoming freshmen who need to nail down some more entrance requirements.
• A modified Grades/Transcript lock that also lets the student's Advisor add and edit the lock.

Now that you've wrapped your mind around Locks, have a look at this article to learn how to apply them to student accounts.