List Privacy

Introduction

There may be a number of reasons you may wish to make lists in your tenancy Private, here are a few that we have encountered:

• To identify unique users in Learning Analytics data. By forcing login in order to see the private lists and therefore via a unique identifier the user can be identified as new or returning
• To protect sensitive or controversial information on the reading lists
• To satisfy individuals or departments who are concerned with their lists being available in the public domain

Making a list Private means that only someone from your institution with authenticated access can see the list. 

Likewise, you may have some lists you wish to remain Public for various reasons here are a few we have encountered:

• To link through to module guidance for prospective students as indicative lists
• To raise awareness of general topics of interest, current affairs or key dates times in the year
• To be accessible to short courses or distance learning where the full university authentication may not be in place for those students

This article will guide you through how you can make some or all of your lists Private, with the flexibility of making some lists Public and vice versa. 

We have developed 3 methods to handle list privacy, to give complete flexibility

1. Setting the Institution default to be Public or Private
2. Setting multiple lists to be Public or Private via bulk actions
3. Setting an individual list to be Public or Private via the edit function

1. Setting the institutional default to be Public or Private

The default privacy setting for Talis Aspire Reading Lists is Public, but you can now request that your institution defaults to Private lists. To make this change so that all current and new lists created are Private, raise a support request and we can make that change for you. Note you can still switch some lists to Public using methods 2 or 3.

2. Setting multiple lists to be Public or Private via bulk actions

Using the 'All lists' report you can switch lists to Private or Public in bulk.

• Filter the lists using the report filters to get a subset of lists
• Select all or some within that subset using the checkboxes
• Click the Actions button and select to set the Access to Public, Private or Institution default
• You can see this bulk action progress in the Review jobs screen
• An email notification will also be sent on completion of the bulk action

Note: Institution default will return the list/lists to the setting selected as described in method 1.

3. Setting an individual list to be Public or Private via the edit function

1. Navigate to the list,
2. Click the 'Edit' drop-down,
3. Select 'Edit list details',
4. Under 'Who can view list list' choose either 'Everyone' or 'Only logged in users'.

If you do not see this option under the 'Edit' drop-down, please contact your system administrator and they will be able to assist you. Need to know more? Please see What is a role and what is a permission.