To add users (other than enrolled students) to your Canvas course please submit all requests via the form on the support portal.
Please include:
- Semester, course, and section(s)
- Full name of individual(s) to be added
- Puget Sound email address(es)
- Level of access (Refer to chart below. Most common is Course/lab assistant)
- Individual's employed role on campus
When adding people to your course, and any time you engage in any course-related activity that may expose student information, it is critical to be aware of FERPA guidelines. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) of 1974 protects the privacy of students’ education records. Generally, the guidelines mean that the University and its employees may not release or share a student’s educational records, or information from a student’s education records, unless it has the student’s written consent to do so. It is important that you understand when it is appropriate and allowable to release information from students’ education records to third parties, such as guest lecturers, course/lab assistants, writing advisors or subject tutors. Be sure anyone added to your course understands and complies with FERPA.
Who can be added to my Canvas course?
Users can only be added to Canvas if they are part of the campus community and employed by the university. Writing advisors/subject tutors and course/lab assistants must be employed with the CWL or the academic department to be given editing/viewing access to your course. Librarians and department assistants must also be employed by the university to be given access.
Co-teachers with University affiliation can be added to Canvas courses but should also be officially listed in the course as an instructor. The department or program chair can email the Office of the Registrar to request that a teacher be added to a course in their department or program. Once officially added to the course by the Registrar's Office, they will automatically get added to Canvas, usually within two hours. If you have an urgent need to add an additional instructor (for example, you are sick and you need someone else to access your course) please reach out to Educational Technology.
Students and auditors must be officially enrolled in a class to access a Canvas course. Enrollments are linked to the course roster. When a student adds or drops a course, their affiliation with the Canvas course will get updated automatically, usually within two hours. Auditors may take longer to get added to Canvas.
If you have a non-campus community member who needs access to your Canvas course, please contact the Academic Deans Office, to request information on adding them as an "academic partner." Only those with an active Puget Sound username may access Canvas.
Selecting Appropriate Access Level
When giving access to your course, it is important to select the appropriate level of access in order to protect students’ privacy rights. For course guests who do not have a clear educational purpose for having access to student data (names or grades), choose from the more restricted roles of guest teacher, librarian or observer.
Roles besides "student" will not appear in the Gradebook, though the "test student" will appear in most classes. Designers are not listed in the course People page. Please submit all requests to add a user (other than a student) to your course via the form on the support portal.
