How do I add users to my Canvas course?

Instructors in our instance of Canvas are able to add other Universities of Wisconsin users to their Canvas courses using the People tool. The How do I add users to a Canvas course? guide explains how to do so step by step. You'll need the person's campus email address or the SIS ID associated with their Universities of Wisconsin institutional email.

Can I add students to my course?

You can add students to your Canvas courses using various support roles, such as TA Grader or Mentor. However, you cannot add anyone to timetable courses using the Student role; these student enrollments are managed automatically by E-Hive.

What course-level roles are available?

The People tool can be used to add assistants, instructional designers, visiting instructors, and colleagues to your courses in one of many course-level roles, each with their own set of abilities within the course. Please review the Canvas - Course Level Roles guide to decide which role is best for any given situation.

Before adding a user to your course, please consider some alternative options, such as demoing your course over a screen-share in a web meeting or sending your course design to another instructor as a course export file. Both of these options are simple ways to share your course with users outside of the Universities of Wisconsin, and both insulate your courses from any unintentional changes or FERPA violations.

Common Questions:

How do I add another user to my course as an instructor?

Use the Teacher role if you need to co-teach a course or quickly allow another user to teach your course in your absence. This role has the ability to edit the course, interact with students, and reset all course content, so please use this role with caution.

If you need to add someone to your course so they can support your instruction, please use roles besides Teacher that have limited course permissions, like TA, TA Grader, or Teacher Reviewer.

How do I add another user to my course for an official visitation?

Use the Teacher Reviewer role if you need to grant another instructor or departmental staff access to your course for purposes of a review. Teacher Reviewers have similar access to the Teacher role, but do not have permission to make changes to a course.

How do I add another user to my course so they can see all the course content but not interact with students?

Use the Interpreter or Interpreter Pre-Semester role. This role is intended for captioners, ASL interpreters and others that may need access to the materials in a course without any other interactions. Interpreters do not have the ability to create, edit, or delete course components. They are unable to see student submissions or grades. The “Pre-Semester” version of this role can access course materials before the configured course start date.

You could also use the "Teacher - Read Only - No Student Info" role.