Permissions and roles in Canvas
In Canvas at Indiana University, permissions allow users to access certain features and perform certain functions. Roles are essentially collections of permissions set at the system, campus, school, and department levels; instructors cannot modify the permissions associated with a given role.
A user's permissions are determined by the role(s) the user is assigned. Roles and their permissions are cumulative. Consequently, if you add someone to your course site multiple times, assigning that person a different role each time, he or she will have the combined permissions of each role you assigned.
Following are the course roles currently available in Canvas at IU:
| Role | Description |
|---|---|
| Teacher | For instructors and assistants who need full access to the Canvas features for instruction |
| Co-Instructor | For individuals who are not listed as faculty of record in SIS, but share teaching responsibilities with the faculty of record and have a legitimate need for permissions equivalent to those of the Teacher role
This role has the same permissions as the Teacher role. Users in this role will not be automatically removed from the course via SIS enrollment updates if their faculty of record status changes in SIS. |
| Librarian | For librarians responsible for instruction. This role has the same permissions as the Teacher role. |
| TA | For assistant instructors and teaching assistants |
| Grader | For individuals who will be grading items in Canvas. The Grader role is based on the TA role, but has more limited permissions enabled. Graders can view all course content including assignments, quizzes, and discussions; however, unlike users in the TA role, Graders cannot edit course content. |
| Designer | For instructional designers (and staff with similar responsibilities) who write and manage course content, but do not actually teach courses or grade student work |
| Peer Tutor | For supplemental instruction leaders or peer tutors to assist instructors. The Peer Tutor role is based on the Designer role but has more limited permissions. Peer tutors may create announcements, message students, and add or edit course files. |
| Student | For students officially enrolled in the course only. If you need to add students who are not officially enrolled and want to grant them Student-like permissions, use the Instructor-Added Student role instead. |
| Instructor-Added Student | For students who are not officially enrolled in the course, but have a legitimate need to attend and participate; for example, on some campuses, students who received a prior incomplete grade need to be added as they make up the work and/or complete the course. This role has the same permissions as the Student role. |
| Observer | For users who have no official role in the course, but have been given permission to view course content and discussion forums; for more, see What is the Observer role? in the Canvas Observer Guide. |
For a list of permissions assigned to each role at the system level, see Canvas Roles and Permissions (restricted to Indiana University users only). For a detailed description of each course role permission, see Course Role Permissions (PDF).
See also the Canvas Guides for the People tool in the Canvas Instructor Guide.
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Last modified on 2022-11-19 00:02:01.