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    • Enrollments: Manually Add Users to a Course (Faculty)
    • People: Resend User Invitations (Faculty)
    • People: View Context Card for Users (Faculty)
    • People: View User Details (Faculty)
    • People: View User Profile within a Course (Faculty)
    • People: Set Last Attended Date for a Student (Faculty)
    • People: Only Allow Users to Interact with Others in their Section (Faculty)
    • People: Edit User's Section (Faculty)
    • Enrollments: Concluding Enrollments (Faculty)
    • People: View Student Interaction Summary (Faculty)
    • People: View Course Access Report for Individual Users (Faculty)
    • People: View Registered Services for all Course Users (Faculty)
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    6. People (Faculty)

    People

    Note: Some features may not be enabled in the VCU Canvas instance. 

    305 - People Overview from Instructure Canvas Community on Vimeo.

    View the script for this tutorial.

    • Course Role Permissions
    • People Overview

    Canvas provides five base course-level user roles that each include their own set of default permissions.

    Canvas Base Roles

     Primary UsagePermissionsLimitations
    Student Enrolled in a course site. View course content and engage in course activities, including the ability to submit assignments, participate in discussions, and view the course roster. Cannot view or modify settings for a course.
    Teacher Have full access to the Canvas features for instruction. All course-level permissions, including the ability to add, edit and delete all content in a course, edit course settings, and manually add individuals with active Canvas user accounts. None.
    TA For assistant instructors and teaching assistants. Permissions similar to the Teacher role. They have all course-level permissions, including the ability to add, edit and delete all content in a course, edit course settings, and manually add individuals with active Canvas user accounts. Cannot add other Teachers or TAs into the course, nor publish the course. Does not have access to SIS Data.
    Designer For instructional designers/technologists (and staff with similar responsibilities) who write and manage course content, but do not actually teach courses or grade student work. Create course content, discussions, announcements, assignments, quizzes, and other content features. Cannot view or modify grades. Designers cannot add Teachers or TAs to the course, but can add students.
    Observer For users who have no official role in the course, but have been given permission to view course content and discussion forums. Have access to view course content. This role can be linked to a student enrolled in a course in order to to monitor their progress. No permissions to edit or participate in course activities.

    VCU Canvas admins have created the following custom roles to fit the various needs of the university.

    Canvas Custom Roles

    1. Librarian - Based on TA Role does not have the ability to change course availability does not have access to grades.
    2. SI Leader - Based on Student role but does have the ability to send messages to the entire class through the Canvas Inbox feature.

    For more details on what permissions each roles has see the Course Roles Permission Comparison Chart below.

    Course Roles Permission Comparison Chart

    People shows all the users enrolled in your course, either added by your or your institution via SIS import.

    You can also view the number of current users in a course from the Course Settings page.

    In Course Navigation, click the People link.

    People Index Page

    View People

    The People page displays all information about the users in your course. The page is designed with global settings at the top of the page [1] followed by the generated user data [2].

    View People

    Search and Filter Users

    Global settings include searching and filtering by user data. To search for a specific user, type the user's name in the search field [1].

    To filter by role, select the Roles drop-down menu [2]. The filter will also display the number of users in each type of role (e.g. student).

    You can also add a user to the course [3].

    Search and Filter Users_People

    Manage Student Group

    The People page also organizes all your student groups, where you can manage student groups. You can create groups to put students together to complete projects or other activities. Students can set up their own groups, which will allow them to work collaboratively.

    Manage Student Groups_People

    Manage Users

    To manage course-level user options, click the global Options drop-down menu. You can view user groups [1]. User groups are the same as displayed in the global settings at the top of the page.

    You can view prior enrollments in the course [2]. Prior enrollments are students who were previously enrolled in the course and their enrollments have been concluded.  

    You can also view a summary of all student interactions in your course [3]. Interactions are recorded when you contact the student via Conversations or when you leave a comment on an assignment.

    You can view registered services for each user in the course [4]. If a person has registered a social media account in Canvas, you can see that service listed and communicate with that person through any social media site they have registered.

    Manage Users_People

    View Users

    The People page orders users alphabetically by last name. Search and filter results display the following data:

    • The user's name [1]
    • Login ID [2]
    • SIS ID [3]—this column requires permission to view SIS IDs
    • Section [4]—may be enrolled in more than one section
    • Role [5]—if the user was assigned a custom role, currently only the base role is displayed
    • Last Activity [6]—displays the date and time of a user's most recent interaction in the course. This time stamp updates when a user navigates through the course using the Course Navigation menu, replies to a discussion or submits an assignment or quiz, and when they access course files and pages. Please note that Last Activity does not include mobile interactions or group participation.
    • Total Activity [7]—allows you to see how long students interact within a course and counts page navigation only. Total activity time is displayed in hours:minutes:seconds. If a user has not yet reached an hour of activity, total activity time is displayed as minutes:seconds. Total Activity records any time spent viewing course content that exceeds two minutes. If the time between a new activity and the last completed activity is under ten minutes, all time between these two events will also be included. Total Activity does not include group activity or page views for videos that do not include intermediate page requests, such as a half-hour recorded lecture. To view specific page views for a student, view the student's course access report.

    Note: Viewing user details, including Login IDs and user email addresses, are course permissions. Depending on your permissions, you may not be able to view all available information in the People page.

    View Users_People

    View User Status

    You can also view the status for pending and inactive enrollments.

    Once a course is published, users receive an invitation to the course. Users who have not yet accepted the course invitation display a pending status [1]. To resend course invitations for pending users, click the Resend link [2] at the top of the page.

    Users who are inactive in the course display an inactive status [3]. The inactive status allows you to view a user's prior activity in the course but does not allow the student to access the course.

    View User Status_People

    View Context Card

    To view the context card for a student, click the student's name.

    View Context Card_People

    Manage Individual Users

    To manage a user in your course, click the Options icon. You can resend course invitations, edit the user's course sections, view user details, and view New Analytics.

     

    Manage Individual Users_People

    Manage Observers

    For Observer roles, you can also link an observer to a student.

    Link Observer to Student_People

     

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    • Updated: 10/06/2021
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