Roles and Permissions

( View the tutorial .)
Every Attendee is assigned a role in an Adobe Connect meeting room. There are three different roles an Attendee can be assigned: Host, Presenter, and Participant. Each role has access to different menus and tools.

Understanding what Attendees are able to do in each of the different roles and assigning appropriate roles to Attendees in order to accomplish your goals is important to the success of your class or meeting. Each role is represented by a different icon in the Attendee List pod.

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Three Roles in a Meeting Room

Hosts, Presenters, and Participants all have access to different options and menus inside a meeting room as well as within the Adobe Connect Central Web Interface.

• The Host
  A Host has full control over the meeting room. Hosts can set up a meeting room, invite guests, manage attendees, add content, manage pods, and switch, add, or edit layouts.

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  Host View of a Meeting Room

  The Host view includes

  • five menus at the top of the screen,
  • the Talk button, Raise Hand button, layout selection bar, and the Presenter Preparation Area/Create Breakouts button at the bottom of the screen,
  • the Option menu icons in the lower right corner of each pod,
  • the “hide pod” and “maximize/minimize pod” icons in the upper right corner of each pod,
  • and the ability to rename pods by double-clicking the title bar and entering a new name

  A Host also has full control over the Presenter Preparation area and can move pods back and forth from the meeting room stage to the Preparation area and from the Preparation area to the meeting room stage.

• The Presenter

  A Presenter has moderate control over the meeting room. Presenters can broadcast live audio and video and share content from their computers.

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  Presenter View of a Meeting Room

  The Presenter view includes two menus at the top of the screen, but, unlike Hosts, Presenters only see the Raise Hand button and Talk button at the bottom of the screen. They cannot add pods to or delete pods from a layout, change an individual layout, or change from one layout to another.

  Although Presenters can see and interact with the Presenter Preparation area when displayed by a Host, they cannot move pods back and forth between the meeting room stage and the Presenter Preparation area like Hosts can.

  Presenters do have access to the option menu icons in the lower right corner of each pod placed on the meeting room stage or in the Presenter Preparation area except the Attendee List pod. Only Hosts have control of the Attendee List pod. On the meeting room stage, Presenters can access the maximize/minimize icon on the title bar but they are not able to rename, hide, or resize pods.

• The Participant
  In a meeting room, Participants are limited to what the Hosts allow them to do. Participants can view content and participate in interactive resources made available by Hosts, such as text chat and polls. Participants cannot broadcast audio or video, share content, or manage the meeting room in any way unless they are given permission to do so by a Host. A Participant cannot see the Presenter Preparation area and does not have access to any of the pod option menus.

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  Participant View of a Meeting Room

Note that within a meeting, promotions will last until the attendee quits her browser. This means that even if the Host demotes the attendee, the attendee can leave and re-enter the meeting with the highest permissions she was previously granted until she quits her browser.

Friends of Penn State accounts also have the same access to a meeting room as any other Host or Presenter. An Friend of Penn State account can be added to the Participant's List and promoted to be a Host or Presenter. Once added to the list, the Friend of Penn State account holder can enter the meeting room like any other Host or Presenter, upload content, change layouts, etc.

Setting Roles through the Adobe Connect Central Web Interface

Only the meeting room creator is able to edit the meeting room settings and Participant List by accessing them directly through the Adobe Connect Central Web interface.

Hosts are only able to access and edit the Participant List and other meeting room settings from within a meeting room by accessing the Web interface through the Manage Meeting Information option in the Meeting menu.

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Manage Meeting Information Option in the Meeting Menu

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Host View of the Connect Central Web Interface Accessed through the Meeting Menu

Note: Some users have problems accessing the Meeting Information page, usually when trying to access the list of recordings, even though they are designated as a Host in the meeting room via the Participant List. The cause of this problem is the browser or the browser in connection with Penn State's Web Access. For example, if you are running your meeting through Firefox but have a different browser set as your default browser, when you select "Manage Meeting Information" from the "Meeting" menu (from within a meeting room), the page will open in your default browser, not in Firefox. If you haven't logged in to another Penn State service using Web Access with your default browser, Connect will tell you that you aren't authorized to access the Meeting Information Web screen. Unfortunately, Connect doesn't know to ask you to log in. The solution is to make sure you are running your meeting from within your default browser.

See Editing Participants under Creating/Editing Meetings for more information about adding Attendees to the Participant List.

Adobe Connect Central Web Interface – Edit Participants Option (Hosts whose roles are assigned through the “Current Participants” List)

Only Attendees whose roles are set to Host through the Connect Central Web interface Participant List are able to access the “Manage Meeting Information” option in the Meeting menu from within a meeting room. Attendees who are promoted to Host using the “Set User Role” button in the Attendee List pod do not have access to the “Manage Meeting Information” option in the Meeting menu.

Adding Invitees to the Participant List in the Connect Central Web Interface without promoting them to Presenter or Host does not provide them with any additional access to menus or tools. An Invitee who is assigned the role of Presenter or Participant in the Participant List cannot modify the Participant List or any other meeting room settings.

To manage meeting participants from the Connect Central Web Interface accessed through the Meeting menu in the meeting room,

• Enter your meeting room and select “Manage Meeting Information” from the Meeting menu.
• If your list of meetings isn’t already displayed, click the “Meetings” tab in the upper-most menu bar.
• Click the name of the meeting room you want to edit.
• In the “Meeting Information” menu bar, click the “Edit Participants” link.
• To add a Participant to the Current Participants list, select the name
  from the list on the left and click the “Add” button.
• To remove a Participant from the Current Participants list, select the
  name from the list on the right and click the “Remove” button.
• To change the role of a Participant, select the name in Current Participants list and select the new role from the “Set User Role” menu at
  the bottom of the list.

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Edit Participants Link in the Host view of the Connect Central Web Interface

NOTE: If you are a meeting Host but don’t have a meeting creator license, DO NOT click the “Home” tab in the upper-most tool bar. Selecting this tab will take you to the Connect Central home screen from which you will NOT have access to the meeting room information.

Options for Setting Roles
There are two places where Attendee roles can be set: within the meeting room, and through the Adobe Connect Central Interface. Attendee roles that are set from within a meeting room are temporary and will be reset to their original level as soon as the Attendees leave the room and close their browsers. Roles that are assigned through the Meeting Manager Interface are permanent and not related to entering and leaving a meeting room.

• Within a Meeting Room
  In a meeting room, Hosts can change Attendees’ roles using options available through the Attendee List pod and by using the Auto Promote option available in the Meeting Menu. In addition, Hosts can change their own roles within a meeting room by using the choices in the "Present" menu. Hosts who demote themselves, either through the Attendee List or through the Present menu, can restore their Host status from the Present menu.

  Presenters are not able to change Attendee roles either from within the meeting room or through the Connect Central Web interface.

• Setting Roles through the Attendee List Pod
  There are three ways for Hosts to set user roles and grant permissions to various pods in the Attendee List Pod:
  • Using the “Set User Role” icon
  • Using “Change Enhanced Participant Rights” in the Option menu
  • Using the flyout menu associated with each Attendee’s name in the Attendee List pod.
• The “Set User Role” Icon in the Attendee List
  ( View the tutorial for using the Attendee List .)

  To change the user’s rights using the “Set User Roles” icon, select the name of the attendee whose role you would like to change. Click the “Set User Role” icon in the lower left corner and choose the role you want to assign to that user. Roles for groups of users can be set at once by selecting multiple names and then choosing the role from the “Set User Roles” list that you want to assign the group.

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  Set User Role Icon

  Please note: If a Host changes his/her own role using this menu, the Set User Role icon will disappear. Hosts can then reset their status from the "Present" menu on the top menu bar.

• Change Enhanced Participants Rights
  The “Change Enhanced Participants Rights…” option allows Hosts to set user rights on a pod by pod basis.

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  Options Icon in Attendee Pod

  • Select the name(s) of the desired attendee(s).
  • Click the Pod options and choose “Change Enhanced Participants Rights”
  • Check the box beside the name of the pod.
  • Click OK.

  By using this option, you are able to select the Attendees and the pods to which you want to assign Presenter permissions.

  Assigning Presenter rights using the “Change Enhanced Participants Rights…” option also gives the Host more control over who is able to see the Presenter Preparation area. Attendees who are promoted to Presenters using the “Set User Role” icon do have access to the Presenter Preparation area. Attendees who are given Presenter rights only to selected pods do not have access to the Presenter Preparation area.

  Note that there is a quirk with selected Presenter permissions. Even if attendees are granted Presenter permissions only for selected pod types, if they leave the meeting, don't quit their browser, and then re-enter the room, they will be given full Presenter permissions, not just Presenter permissions for the previously assigned pod(s).

• Attendee List Flyouts
  The flyout menu associated with each Attendee’s name in the Attendee List pod provides a quick, easy way to give each Attendee Presenter access to the Share pod and to the Talk button. To use this option, roll your cursor over the name of the Attendee to whom you want to give access, then select the icon representing the access you want to assign.
• Setting Roles Using Auto Promote
  ( View the tutorial .)
  Selecting the Auto-Promote Participants to Presenters option from the Meeting menu will do exactly what it says. All Attendees in the meeting room with the role of Participant will be promoted to Presenter roles. As additional Participants enter the room, they will also be promoted to Presenters automatically.
  • To turn on the Auto-Promote option, from the Meeting Menu, select “Auto-Promote Participants to Presenters” from the “Manage Access & Entry” flyout menu.
  • In the dialog box, click the “yes” button in response to the question.

  The Presenter icon and yellow pop-up box in the upper right corner of the screen provide a quick, visual cue that the Auto-Promote option is on as well as an alternate way of toggling it off.

  The Auto-Promote option is a toggle. Selecting it the first time turns it on. Selecting it again turns it off. Once promoted, Participants retain their Presenter status even though the Host may toggle off the option.

  To demote Presenters who were promoted with the Auto-Promote option, use the “Set User Role” icon in the lower left corner of the Attendee List pod.

• Setting Roles in the Present Menu
  The Make Me a Participant, Presenter or Host options in the Present menu allow Hosts to temporarily change their own roles during the meeting. The primary use of these options is to be able to view the meeting room from the perspectives of the different roles.

  For Attendees logged in as Hosts, the Present menu remains in the menu bar no matter which role has been selected, making it easy to toggle between roles.