This document outlines the differences between Canvas Roles that can be assigned to a user.
CCS uses three different roles:
- Observers
- TAs
- Teachers
Observers
Observers can
- View and read announcements
- View assignments index page
- View the calendar
- Join conferences, if invited
- Join collaborations, if invited
- View personal inbox
- Send conversation messages to instructor and student they are observing
- View the dashboard
- View and read discussions
- View files unless they are locked
- View grades, view assignment due dates and comments, and print grades
- View modules and see due dates and point values
- View pages and contribute if the instructor enables the Anyone can edit it setting
- View profile pictures, if available
- View syllabus
- View outcomes
- View quizzes index page
Observers cannot
- Comment on announcements or discussions
- Submit assignments or quizzes
- View course rosters
- Send conversation messages to students in the course they are not observing
- View locked files or folders
- Join groups
- View unpublished courses
- Access the Chat tool
- Reserve appointment slots in the Scheduler
- View grade audit trail
Observer Limitations
- Observers can view the same content as the student they are observing unless the content is unpublished or restricted by locked dates.
- Observers can view module content locked by prerequisites or requirements, as module progression is not measured for observers.
- Observers can view assignments even if the student they are observing has not completed them unless the assignments are locked.
- Each instructor can customize the links in the Course Navigation and limit the number of features that students and observers can see. Observers may or may not see links to certain features.
TAs
Teacher Assistant Access in Canvas
An institution may modify some Teacher assistant course-level permissions. Teacher assistants have access to Canvas courses as outlined in the Canvas Instructor guide.
Teacher Assistants can:
- Add and delete external applications (LTI) for a course
- Create conferences and student collaborations
- Create and edit rubrics
- Customize Course Navigation links
- Delete and lock discussions and edit others’ discussion posts
- Generate observer pairing codes for students
- Manage assignments, quizzes, course files and pages, and all other course content
- Manage items in a course calendar, including Scheduler appointments
- Manually add students to a course
- Send messages to other course users and to all members of a course
- View a list of users in a course
- View all student group pages for a course
- View and comment on student submissions
- View and edit grades
- View and link to question banks
- View course analytics
- View course announcements and discussions
- View usage reports for a course
Teacher Assistants cannot:
- Add, edit, and delete learning outcomes associated with course content
- Create, edit, and delete course sections
- Create, edit, and delete student groups
- Publish, conclude, and delete courses
- Read SIS data
- View grade audit trail
Teacher Assistant Limitations
- Teacher assistants can only view content for a course in which they are enrolled.
- Teacher assistants cannot submit work on behalf of students, nor can they submit final grades for students.
Teachers
Teacher Role Use
Teachers may create course materials, view course data, and access and manage all areas of a Canvas course. For example, an instructor may be added to a course with the Teacher role to lead a course.
The main uses of the Teacher role are to allow a user to:
- Create and modify course content
- Moderate and submit grades
- Manually invite others to the course
- Communicate with course participants
- Access course analytics and student data
- Monitor and moderate the participation and interactions of all enrolled users in a course
When a user manually creates a course, Canvas automatically enrolls that user as a Teacher in the course. A teacher may also be enrolled in a course manually by an administrator or automatically by SIS import.
Teacher Access in Canvas
By default, instructors with the Teacher role may access all areas of a Canvas course. However, these permissions may vary among institutions. To learn more about Teacher participation in Canvas, visit the Canvas Instructor Guide.
A Teacher can:
- Add and delete external applications (LTI) for a course
- Add, edit, and delete assignments, quizzes, course files and pages, and all other course content
- Add, edit, and delete items in a course calendar, including Scheduler appointments
- Add, edit, and delete learning outcomes associated with course content
- Create, view, and post to course announcements and discussions
- Create and edit rubrics
- Create conferences and student collaborations
- Create, edit, and delete course sections and student groups
- Delete and lock discussions and edit others’ discussion posts
- Generate observer pairing codes for students
- Publish, conclude, and delete courses
- Read SIS data
- Send messages to other course users and to all members of a course
- View all student group pages for a course
- View and comment on student submissions
- View and link to question banks
- View and manage course enrollments, including the enrollment of other teachers, course designers, teacher assistants, and students
- View course analytics
- View grade audit trail
- View, moderate, and edit all grades
- View usage reports for a course
A Teacher cannot:
- Create a Blueprint course
- Change the associated course term
- Masquerade as another user in a course
- Set up third party authentication for a course
- Unconclude a course
- Upload student enrollments via SIS imports
- View course change logs
Teacher Role Limitations
- Teachers cannot modify availability of any of the above permissions. Only administrators can modify access to these functions.
- Teachers can only create, modify, and moderate content for a course in which they are enrolled.
- Only users with administrative permissions may import SIS data. Teachers cannot import SIS data.