Who can initiate this process

Any UW-Madison employee with a university business need may request the Staff role for themselves or for another person in a particular WisconsinX course or course run. 

Approval decisions will be made by the Course Manager for the requested course or course run. Course Managers are identified for all course runs at https://go.wisc.edu/edxcourselist.

Additional Details About Staff Access 

edX Account Required

For users who need to create an edX account, edX user accounts are free and immediately available at https://authn.edx.org/register. 

• See How to Create an edX Account for step-by-step instructions for creating an edX account.

• If you are unsure if you have an edX account, please contact the WisconsinX Service Team.

Staff Access End Date

Noncredit courses: on or near this date the Staff person will be removed as Staff but may continue to have access to that particular course shell as a learner. UW-Madison does not control learner access to noncredit WisconsinX courses.

For credit courses: the Staff person will be completely removed from all course access on or near the access end date.

Access to Prior Course Runs

Access to past course runs will not automatically be granted to Staff authorized for current and future course runs. Explicit Staff access requests for past course runs may be specified in the request.

• Note: Generally, anyone assigned as Staff to build new course runs should not need access to preceding runs since new course runs automatically start with the previous run's content.

Recommended Minimum of Staff Assigned

We recommend to Course Managers to have at least two Staff assigned during the instructional phase of all course runs who are capable of providing on-demand support related to course content, such as fixing technical issues with course content. This might often be an instructional designer who was also involved in the course build phase.

Actions For Each Request

1. Each Staff request must be submitted in writing using the WisconsinX Staff Access Request Form.

   1. Reminder: Any UW-Madison employee with a university business need may request the Staff role for themselves or for another person in a particular WisconsinX course or course run. 

2. Prior to receiving Staff access, each user must submit the following form acknowledging their data handling obligations: Acknowledgement of Obligations and Responsibilities for Sensitive and Restricted Institutional Data Authorization. 

   1. Previous submissions by this user for other WisconsinX roles are acceptable. If a user needs confirmation as to whether this has already been completed contact the WisconsinX Service Team.

   2. Reminder: The data Staff can access in the edX platform has been classified by campus data stewards as Restricted (for credit courses) or Sensitive (for noncredit courses). See the "Staff" tab in the edX Data Catalog for details.

How to Request Temporary Emergency Access as Staff

1. Same request procedure as above, but a short-term expiration date may be specified. To expedite handling of the request, have the Course Manager submit the request so no further approval steps are needed.

   1. Course Managers are identified for all courses at https://go.wisc.edu/edxcourselist.

2. The Course Manager may request extensions by contacting the WisconsinX Service Team and providing a new expiration date for this user's Staff authorization.

Ongoing Obligations of Staff

1. Transmit, store, and process all copies of WisconsinX course rosters or other identifiable learner records in environments appropriate for handling Restricted data (in credit courses) or Sensitive data (in noncredit courses). Note that handling this data outside of the edX environment should generally be avoided.

2. Do not retain any copies of identifiable learner records beyond what is needed for immediate use.

3. Notify the WisconsinX Service Manager of any changes in your affiliation with the relevant WisconsinX courses. Examples: you have been reassigned to work on different projects, or have taken a different UW-Madison position, or have started taking the course as a Verified or credit learner.