People in your Canvas course: Roles and permissions

The Canvas role you have been assigned enables various features and permissions in Canvas.

On this page

• Roles and permissions
• Course roles
• System roles
• Attaining access to Canvas
• FAQs
• Support
• See also

It is possible to have more than one role in a course. One role does not supersede another; rather the permissions from each role are combined.

Course Access Coordinator

• Primary use: Course support role.
• Permissions: Can add and remove users (except students) and view a list of course users.
• Limitations: Can do nothing more than add or remove users.
• SET evaluation: Not included in SET evaluation.

Please note: Having the Course Access Coordinator role alone does not allow you to edit/add/delete content in the course. You need to assign yourself an additional role to do this.

Teacher

• Primary use: Teacher assigned to teach a class.
• Permissions: All course-level permissions, including the ability to add, edit, delete and publish course content, view and edit grades, publish the course and edit course settings.
• Limitations: Cannot assign or modify any course roles.
• Included in SET evaluation.*

* Only people with the Teacher role are included in the SET evaluation, therefore ALL teachers who are eligible for SET should be given the Teacher role. For example, course directors should be given the Teacher role as well as the Course Director role.

Course Director

• Primary use: A course director overseeing a course.*
• Permissions and limitations: The same as teacher role.
• Not included in SET evaluation.*

* There should only be ONE person with the Course Director role in any given course. Course directors who are eligible for SET evaluations should also have the Teacher role.

Teaching Support

• Primary use: Professional staff supporting a teacher in a course.
• Permissions and limitations: The same as Teacher role.
• Not included in SET evaluation.

Teaching Assistant

• Primary use: Teaching assistants (TAs) assigned to a specific course or class section. Suitable for tutors or markers.*
• Permissions: Can create and moderate discussions and collaborations, view course content, view and edit grades.
• Limitations: Cannot create or edit course content, manage assessment or course sections.
• Not included in SET evaluation.

* If a TA has been added to the course, then the TA and teachers have the same access for marking purposes. However, if the TA is added to a specific section of the course (e.g., a cross-listed course), then the TA will only have marking access to that section.

Observer

• Primary use: Individuals who need to monitor the course (read-only access).
• Permissions: Can view course content until the course end date. Can view published assignments and discussions,* regardless of whether you have set an ‘available from’ date for sometime in the future.
• Limitations: No permission to edit course content, participate in course activities, view or edit grades.
• Not included in SET evaluation.

* As an exception to the rule, observers cannot view Canvas discussions for courses within the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, due to the potentially sensitive nature of the conversation.

Warning: Students with Observer role

There are at least three scenarios that have lead students to be added as observers to a course:

1. Students who are notetakers for other students, but are not a student themselves in the course.
2. Students who are having problems with their course enrolment at the start of semester.
3. A student may have taken the course before and they want to (re)take the exam.

If students have problems enrolling at the start of semester, course directors may be tempted to ask their course access authoriser to grant them an Observer role, until their enrolment is sorted. However, this is not ideal so proceed with caution!

Important: Observer role MUST BE REMOVED once they have been assigned the Student role within your course because observers have access to published quizzes and assignments, pages and modules, regardless of whether you have set an ‘available from’ date or ‘lock until’ date for sometime in the future. Course coordinators can use a provided workaround to remove the observer role from a student in the course.

Important: Observer role MUST BE REMOVED once the course ‘census date’ has lapsed (i.e., the grace period for paying course fees and moving between courses has ended), regardless of whether their student role has been assigned or not. Otherwise you are essentially allowing them free access to a course that they may not be entitled to.

Finally, if courses include users with the Observer role, teachers are advised to avoid publishing assignments or date-specific course information in advance of its release date.

Students

Bulk upload process: Course access for students

Students are automatically enrolled via Student Services Online. Students cannot be added or removed from for-credit courses (timetabled course shells) by the teachers. The student needs to follow up with Academic Services.

• Permissions: Can view course content, engage in all course activities and submit assignments.
• Limitations: Cannot manipulate settings for a course.
• View and evaluate interactions between you and your students with a student interactions report (accessible from the People or Grades page).

Tip: Teachers can view a printable list of enrolled students with their University of Auckland ID photos via the Course Roster.

Course Designer

• Primary use: Content providers and other instructional support.
• Permissions: Can create and publish course content, discussions, announcements, assignments, quizzes and other content features. Can publish the course.
• Limitations: Cannot assign roles, edit grades, manage course sections or view the gradebook.
• Not included in SET evaluation.

Faculty administrator

• Primary use: Professional staff who manage Canvas course sites on behalf of teachers.
• Permissions: All account permissions, including the ability to view course statistics, course/grade change logs and notifications. Also has all course-level permissions to create/manage courses, course content, learning outcomes, course events, assignments, view/edit grades and view usage reports.
• Approval for this system level role must be given by an Associate Dean or Director of Faculty Operations (DFO). Each faculty may have up to five faculty admins (not including Associate Deans). Each school/department may have up to three faculty admins for their Canvas school/departmental subaccount.

Monitor

• Primary use: Staff in academic services and student support roles.
• Permissions: Can monitor course content and student progress across a number of courses. Has most account permissions, including the ability to view course statistics, course/grade change logs and notifications. Can view the list of users, course content, discussions and course analytics, question banks and send messages to entire classes/individual users.
• Limitations: Cannot access the Gradebook and does not have permission to create/manage course content, assignments, events, view/edit grades or to add/manage teachers, TAs or course designers. Cannot manage observers.

Reviewer

• Primary use: Staff in academic services and student support roles.
• Permissions: Can review and monitor course content and student progress across a number of courses. Has most account-level permissions, including viewing course statistics, course/grade change logs and notifications. Has access to the Gradebook and can view the list of users, grades, course content, discussions and course analytics, question banks and send messages to entire classes/individual users.
• Limitations: No permission to edit grades, create/manage course content, assignments, events or to add/manage teachers, TAs or course designers. Cannot manage observers.

Request access to a course

Access to Canvas courses is provided via three processes:

1. Bulk upload process
2. Submitting a Staff Service Centre request form
3. Through faculty admins (primarily course access coordinators)

For staff who haven’t been added to a course through the ‘bulk upload’ process, course access coordinators will add these staff members with the required role. Please submit: request Canvas course access. This automatically goes to your designated course access authoriser.

Request course access for a visitor

Occasionally, people who are not affiliated with our institution require access to a Canvas course, for example, a laboratory intern requiring access to training materials. In this case, see:

Check out our learning technology support page to find out what options are available for Canvas.